I am testing #nextcloud #cookbook on my hosting and have mixed feelings.
The webui is quite terrible. The mobile app (iPhone falvour) is outdated with regards to the server version but simple and clear.
There is nothing that would bring much grief, IT WORKS, however the design is really clunky. Mainly:
- webui -
The import from URL and overall status of whatever is happening in the background (like... import?) is not displayed anywhere;
- if you try to import a recipe from URL you almost always get an error saying "server responded with an error. check the error" or similar and no way of knowing or checking what happened. It led me to adding the recipe by hand only to discover upon clicking "save" that it already exists! Yes, despite the error message the import happens in the background with zero indication.
- iPhone client -
It is simple, it works, it lacks any hints or help but my use case is "display this while I cook" with editing happening in browser on the computer. I have zero complaints really, it has the "keep screen on" feature and timers. Lightweight, working. Some help and hints would be useful, mainly info that one needs to have NC Cookbook installed, configured and having 2FA enabled a separate app password. The latter can be inferred from the UI context, the former might confuse less tech savvy users.
- Recipe sharing -
NC being a cloud service designed for user groups - I was naturally interested how data can be shared between registered users. It's done in the most cumbersome way possible: one person shares a folder from their account (say, "/Recipes/"), others point their Cookbooks to it. Obviously, if that person folds their account everyone else looses the data. Natural thing here would be system wide recipe folder with intention declared during the installation (not very optimal) or with a switch in NC global options or something.
- General impression -
It is quite brilliant and schema.org recipe format is a thing. Importing isn't perfect due to every single person using slightly different format on their page but on most pages I tested only small corrections are needed. I am going to use it extensively from now on.
Developers done very good job despite all those things I listed (and fighting the urge to write the desktop client for this, with much more verbose error reporting and possible import step-by-step control and data verification).
If you have NC somewhere, go and give it a try. It is nice :)