Journal

An encrypted daily journal for flatpak.

Written in Java using Java-GI Gtk/Adw bindings and packaged as a flatpak. It uses the flatpak-maven-plugin to create flatpak artifacts. Have a look at this project's pom.xml configuration for details.

The code is compiled with Java 25 (the minimum for Java-GI) and is packaged in a flatpak container with runtimes org.gnome.Platform 50, org.gnome.Sdk 50, and org.freedesktop.Sdk.Extension.openjdk25 that includes the openjdk-25 JRE that runs the Journal application.

The encryption-by-password algorithm should provide privacy. The files used can be named anything and is just a plain text Java Properties file, e.g.:

#Wed Nov 05 15:24:00 EST 2025
2025-09-20=G6b9lzbW159Iz4ECDIv6PuJpLQQ2PnJMgQh5y7MCAfzetPZfqKOfb4c/1WLhyNhwsw\=\=
2025-09-24=JblFzDbfBE5DyGKjyBQ4PPCFOePILMaWYevYH2TF9o4+bxAATFdYgUnhAEpBfsCdCA\=\=

As you can see, the keys are the entry dates and the entries are encrypted text. Journal decrypts the contents for display when the entry date is clicked in its calendar. Entered entries are encrypted and saved to file with that date as key. Clearing the text of an entry and saving removes that date entry.

Prerequisites

You'll need flatpak installed to install and run the .flatpak file available on the Releases page.

Releases

You'll find a .flatpak file in each release in the Releases page. Downloading and double-clicking it should open it in the GNOME Software application allowing installation.

Building

If you want to build it yourself, you'll need Java JDK 25 installed. And maven and git, either installed in the eclipse IDE or as separate installs. The flatpak-maven-plugin requires org.flatpak.Builder be installed as well, via flatpak install org.flatpak.Builder. Then you can clone this git repository and build it locally.

flatpak-maven-plugin

The flatpak-maven-plugin hasn't been released yet but the snapshot can be used via a pluginRepositories block at the root of your pom.xml:

<pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
        <id>central-snapshots</id>
        <url>https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots/</url>
        <snapshots>
            <enabled>true</enabled>
        </snapshots>
    </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

Version 1.2.0 of the flatpak-maven-plugin builds the /target/app folder with three goals:

• prepare-build - Generate flatpak artifacts required for flatpak-builder.
• build-repo - Calls flatpak-builder to create a flatpak repository from the prepared artifacts.
• export-flatpak - Calls flatpak to build a .flatpak bundle from the repo.

Along the way you may get some errors about missing flatpak runtimes. These can be fixed by installing them via, e.g.:

flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Platform

If you're using eclipse, use the javagi.journal-BUILD.launch run configuration. Or run at the project root:

mvn clean package

This executes the three goals populating the /target/app folder with artifacts including a ca.footeware.javagi.journal.flatpak file.

This command took over two minutes on my laptop (🤔) with the last goal providing no progress or debug information but it did eventually return.

Debugging

Running Locally

When the .flatpak is installed, the gschema file is copied to /app/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ and glib-compile-schemas is run, making the schema available. If you want to run the Journal application before building a flatpak, there is an eclipse javagi.journal-RUN.launch configuration for that. But you need to copy the gschema to /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ and run glib-compile-schemas there, i.e. from /src/main/resources:

sudo cp ./ca.footeware.javagi.journal.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

Warehouse

Warehouse is a great program to manage flatpaks, including verifying installation, running and removal.

Source verification

The first goal, prepare-build, results in a /target/app/ folder. Its contents can be examined and this command run from there can provide some help:

flatpak run --command=flatpak-builder-lint org.flatpak.Builder appstream ca.footeware.javagi.journal.metainfo.xml

Container info

flatpak info ca.footeware.javagi.journal

Attach to Container

flatpak run --command=sh ca.footeware.javagi.journal. Once connected, cd /app to see your files. You can check the version of java installed in /app/jre.

Running the Flatpak

The build result is a 60MB /target/app/ca.footeware.javagi.journal.flatpak file. It can be copied elsewhere or double-clicked to open in GNOME Software for installation. Installed size is ~256MB. It installs a launcher and icon in the GNOME Overview application grid.

GUI

Removing

To remove this fine piece of work, use Warehouse or run:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data ca.footeware.javagi.journal

TODO

• Code tweaks.
• Release ca.footeware.javagi.journal.flatpak to Flathub for easy distribution and installation on clients.

---