Dynamic Notes with Perlite

How to set up Perlite for Obsidian

Perlite is a web interface for the note taking app Obsidian. It’s a selfhosted alternative for their cloud vault. I wanted to set it up to allow my classmates to see my notes, and also to check them on computers that aren’t my own.

Install the Dependancies

sudo apt install nginx php php-fpm php-yaml cron git zip python3-certbot-nginx certbot apache2-utils

Install Perlite

sudo mkdir /srv
wget https://github.com/secure-77/Perlite/releases/download/1.6/Perlite_1.6.zip #or your version of perlite
unzip Perlite_1.6.zip
mv perlite/* /srv/perlite/

Create your Nginx Config

This will be located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/docs.jaspertech.pro

The config file:

server {
        server_name docs.jaspertech.pro;

        root /srv/perlite/;
        index index.php index.html index.htm;

        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
               include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
               # make sure this path is for your correct php version
               fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock;
        }

        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }

        location ~* ^/(.*)/.obsidian/appearance.json$ {
                allow all;
        }

        location ~* ^/(.*)/.obsidian/(.*)/theme.css$ {
                allow all;
        }

        #added for this specific setup, thanks sec77!
        location ~* ^/.obsidian/(.*)/theme.css$ {
                allow all;
        }

        location ~ \.(git|github|obsidian|trash) {
                deny all;
        }

        location ~ \.(md|json)$ {
                deny all;
        }
}

Then you can activate the site by creating a symlink to /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/docs.jaspertech.pro /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Create a DNS Record to the Server

A Record: docs -> 11.22.33.44

Request a Certificate on the Server

sudo certbot --nginx -d docs.jaspertech.pro

Set up Nginx Authentication for Perlite

sudo mkdir -p /etc/nginx/auth/
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/auth/default.htpasswd nothing

Edit the Perlite Config

Located at /srv/perlite/settings.php

<?php
/*!
 * Perlite v1.6 (https://github.com/secure-77/Perlite)
 * Author: sec77 (https://secure77.de)
 * Licensed under MIT (https://github.com/secure-77/Perlite/blob/main/LICENSE)
 */

$rootDir = "Notes";

$hideFolders = "Private,Essays,Readings";
$hiddenFileAccess = false;
$relPathes = false;
$uriPath = "/";
$siteTitle = "Public Notes";
$siteType = "article";
$siteImage = "";
$siteURL = "https://docs.jaspertech.pro";
$siteLogo = "";  // empty for no logo/customSection
$siteDescription = "Notes about random stuff";
$siteName = "Public Notes";
$siteHomepage = "";  // empty for $siteURL
$siteGithub = "https://github.com/Soulsender";  // empty for no Github
$siteTwitter = "";
$tempPath = "";  // blanc so it gets it automatically
$lineBreaks = true;
$allowedFileLinkTypes = ['pdf', 'mp4'];
$disablePopHovers = "false";
$showTOC = "true";
$showLocalGraph = "true";
$index = "README";
$font_size = "15";
$htmlSafeMode = true;

?>

Your Notes

Your obsidian vault goes at the root of /srv/perlite/. I wanted it to automatically update so I created a cronjob to git pull every 5 minutes.

*/5 * * * * cd /srv/perlite/Notes && /usr/bin/git pull

Enable & Start Nginx

# stop apache to prevent conflicts
sudo systemctl disable apache2 --now 

# kill orphan instances if needed
sudo pkill -f nginx & wait $!

# start nginx
sudo systemctl enable nginx --now