I dont' think there is a database property for katex, only inline IIRC. Even if there was a property, I'd be curious to see how it's served up in the api
- it would have to be up here
I've tried various builders using Notion as CMS like Super, Potion, Feather or Simple.ink, and they are able to display Notion equations
- even if it was it would probably come in looking like this
S_n = \sum_{k=0}^{n} k = 0 + 1 + 2 +\ldots+n = \dfrac{n(n+1)}{2} so you'd need a library to format it i'm guessing such thing exists
what do you mean by up here ?
those builders to my knowledge literally display what's in notion whereas webstudio is fetching data, not styles, from the api. plus we only can fetch database properties, not page content
I think they style notion data. They use Notion API and rebuild static pages.
we can only fetch properties. that was the "up here" comment
cant fetch page or blocks
ok I understand. But I can put the content in plain text inside a field of a database right ? If not, I don't understand what's the point of integrating Notion.
sure. properties are accessible via one api call so go for it. plain text works
do you think it would be possible to add KaTeX library to Webstudio ?
the answer is no, in fact we don't support content yet, only data
this would be if he just added the equation as a plain text value in the db
I'm not sure that plain text in notion database field would allow equation blocks though, so @Oleg Isonen may be right, but also @Oleg Isonen says "yet" so does it mean that we could display notion content at some point ?
properties do not allow equations. you asked if you can add plain text i said yeah
notion content, maybe in the future. takes three api calls so would be different then what we allow now
Notion is such a powerful tool to host content. It would be great to be able to correctly display it online. Especially for education, it's a massive revolution.
Notion public pages are nice but url are terrible and it is hard to integrate external widget or creating a user private space, etc. Super is a solution but expensive for a quite disappointing result
can you share all the problems you had with Super?
- It displays maths equation with symbols but not with KaTeX library so that it is not as beautiful as classic TeX as you can see on Notion. Potion or Simple.ink does not have this problem though. They display with KaTeX.
- Super has no editing mode, only preview mode. You need to edit your pages in Notion and see the result in Super. It makes sense for CMS but it does not make sense for marketing pages. This is not intuitive to edit marketing pages directly with Notion. Typedream is better on this side : they propose a proper editor, which is a Notion like editor but without the need to host content in Notion. So that you can create your marketing pages with Typedream and connect Notion for the CMS. But Typedream does not display maths equations at all.
- Super set a limit to the database size that can be displayed (300 records if I remember well).
- There is a loading time when the database is not small.
I have just read the article on Notion integration.
https://docs.webstudio.is/university/integrations/notion#use-notion-databases-instead-of-notion-pagest It is a bummer to read that integrating is so *expensive * for you. Unfortunately – for me – missing support for pages content rules out Notion as the cms for a Webstudio project. It's the beauty of all those page-builders for Notion that they deliver a WYSIWYG experience. Whatever you add to your Notion-page will show in your web-page.
I could
never ever write longform content (that comes with graphics and captions) inside a table. Realistically one would use another text editor and paste to a table property in Notion, then prepare images, upload these assets to a Notion "Files and Media" property. That is a web-developers workflow – not at all an
authoring workflow. What advantage should this have over directly uploading these assets to Webstudio?
Again, I understand the technical causes – yet I see a very narrow use-case for the current implementation. Maybe showing some data-fields? Notion is all about pages.
Of course, I sympatize with your preference for open source cms. Yet, one should note that Notion has a
super generous free tier – far larger than the cms I saw featured, so far.
tables are not meant for long-form content, obviously we only have tabular data integration working for now with notion, let men know where text needs to be fixed if this is not clear, we have been trying to make it clear 100 times
yet I see a very narrow use-case f
Yes, that's what it is today. We have not launched a full-blown notion template as communicated.
Notion's api is not great to say the least and we are solving problems hollistically, not specifically for each platform, so we still need to decide how we want to treat shitty apis like this one.
You explain clearly how you expect us to serve Notion-data. Yet, that article left the impression, as if serving in table-form came without drawbacks.
If the person who hooks up the connection doesn't know what Notion is and only wants to connect a data-silo to a frontend, they might indeed not see these limitations. I now see that you are aware of them.
Where do I write, it is not clear?
in that document we always are super clear. about notion database integration, not content blocks
10 mentions of that, yellow box on top with disclaimer
I don't know what else we can do, I guess nothing
You did not get my point.
I guess not, not getting it after rereading either
Of course, I sympatize with your preference for open source cms. Yet, one should note that Notion has a super generous free tier – far larger than the cms I saw featured, so far.
Also this has nothing to do with symathizing, I wanted to support notion as a first cms ever, but its API is a fucking shit
We are first and for all seeking best user experience, then also looking if there are any open source products that are great, not the other way around.
I did not intend to criticize.
This was user-perspective feedback: “The current implementation is extremely limited – just in case that this isn't known”. The article sounds as if the serving Notion data as tables would just be an alternative mode ("Use Notion Databases instead of Notion Pages").
You have to assume that I know nothing about your internal processes. Do you use Notion yourself? Does the developer, who hooked up the connection, know Notion? From a web-developer's standpoint, the data-connection is established – and one could be happy with the current state.
***
BTW, moving data into Notion sucks too – our dev needed to work around a 2000 character limitation in the API.
@Holger seems like you unintentionally critisized and not in a good way. All good, moving on.
TLDR We all know and use notion. But we are not going to create workarounds for it specifically, but rather create a solution for this class of API fuckery for anyone in the future, which makes it lower prio right now because we have other things to do.
Article and template released is what is working right now.
Hey, I see there's more friction around Notion.
It's not the first time I've heard that Notion has a very poorly done API. I'm not surprised. I also understand that this is not a priority.
But I believe that many no coders are waiting to be able to use Notion as a CMS. As I said, current builders such as Super, Simple.ink etc have limitations that are not up to the standards of someone who wants to build a high-performance site. But Notion is so powerful for managing content, particularly educational content. There's a revolution coming with Notion, and I think Webstudio has a card to play (without any urgency) to be able to properly display content hosted on Notion.
just strugglign between multiple investments
we have so much to improve in the core ux
I trust you ! stay strong
interesting. I still think Webstudio with Notion CMS would bring a lot in comparison.
