Notely is a full-stack note-taking application built with React, Flask, Python, and PostgreSQL. Users can create and edit notes in a rich-text editor, organise their content, and use search to find saved information. Autosave is intended to reduce the need for manual saving, while JWT-based login supports authenticated access. The frontend handles the writing experience and communicates with the Flask API, which manages application logic and persistence in PostgreSQL. The project is centred on a simple idea: taking notes should feel immediate, and finding an old note should not become a separate task of its own.
The problem
Notes are only useful when people can trust that their work is saved and retrieve it later without digging through a cluttered collection. As notes accumulate, editing, organising, and searching them can become less convenient if the interface and backend are not designed around those everyday tasks.
The solution
I built Notely as a full-stack application with React on the frontend and Flask with Python on the backend, using PostgreSQL for persistent storage. The application brings note creation and editing together with rich-text content, autosave, tag-based organisation, search, and JWT-based login. I focused on keeping the writing flow simple while making sure notes could be stored and retrieved through the backend.
What it does
- Create, edit, and organise notes
- Rich-text editing for more flexible note content
- Autosave to reduce manual save actions
- Tag-based organisation and search
- JWT-based login
- React frontend connected to a Flask API
- Persistent note storage in PostgreSQL
- Responsive layout for different screen sizes
What was hard
A useful notes app needs to handle both writing and retrieval well. Autosave requires the frontend and backend to agree on when content has changed and when it has been persisted, while search needs a sensible query structure so the user can locate a note without manually scanning the collection. I focused on the relationship between the UI state, API requests, and stored data, rather than treating each part as an isolated feature.
Results
Notely combines writing, organising, and finding notes in one place. The project helped me work across the full request path, from the React interface to Flask endpoints and PostgreSQL queries, while thinking about how small usability details such as autosave affect the overall experience.
