From 444e10304774d5b7b3df59fc4a540ae92cc4d63b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Elian Doran <contact@eliandoran.me>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2025 22:36:45 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] docs(dev): document exporting functionality

---
 .../Exporting HTML for web publish.html       |  3 ++
 docs/Developer Guide/!!!meta.json             | 27 +++++++++++++++++
 .../Development and architecture/Share.md     | 30 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.md |  1 +
 4 files changed, 61 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 docs/Developer Guide/Developer Guide/Development and architecture/Share.md

diff --git a/apps/server/src/assets/doc_notes/en/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.html b/apps/server/src/assets/doc_notes/en/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.html
index ba74ada3c..2f3341063 100644
--- a/apps/server/src/assets/doc_notes/en/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.html	
+++ b/apps/server/src/assets/doc_notes/en/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.html	
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@
   data-list-item-id="e3995e60b9751ea177ac920a901635d4b">The <code>favicon.ico</code> is not handled automatically, it needs to be
     manually added on the server after the export is generated.</li>
     <li data-list-item-id="e72c2a986808ce27eb3bb5001fe4710cb">The “Last updated” for notes is not available.</li>
+    <li data-list-item-id="e53e8959701206c7a064ba811c0123bef">The search functionality works slightly different since the normal one
+      requires an active API to work. In the static export, search still works
+      but uses a different mechanism so results might be different.</li>
 </ul>
 <h2>Differences from normal .zip export</h2>
 <ul>
diff --git a/docs/Developer Guide/!!!meta.json b/docs/Developer Guide/!!!meta.json
index 1f821d9c0..93338db97 100644
--- a/docs/Developer Guide/!!!meta.json	
+++ b/docs/Developer Guide/!!!meta.json	
@@ -1717,6 +1717,33 @@
                             "format": "markdown",
                             "dataFileName": "Hidden notes.md",
                             "attachments": []
+                        },
+                        {
+                            "isClone": false,
+                            "noteId": "vphziLmQeQHY",
+                            "notePath": [
+                                "jdjRLhLV3TtI",
+                                "wbVIolLKDhe2",
+                                "vphziLmQeQHY"
+                            ],
+                            "title": "Share",
+                            "notePosition": 260,
+                            "prefix": null,
+                            "isExpanded": false,
+                            "type": "text",
+                            "mime": "text/html",
+                            "attributes": [
+                                {
+                                    "type": "label",
+                                    "name": "iconClass",
+                                    "value": "bx bx-share-alt",
+                                    "isInheritable": false,
+                                    "position": 10
+                                }
+                            ],
+                            "format": "markdown",
+                            "dataFileName": "Share.md",
+                            "attachments": []
                         }
                     ]
                 },
diff --git a/docs/Developer Guide/Developer Guide/Development and architecture/Share.md b/docs/Developer Guide/Developer Guide/Development and architecture/Share.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..22dc512f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/Developer Guide/Developer Guide/Development and architecture/Share.md	
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Share
+## Share theme
+
+The share theme represents the layout, styles and scripts behind the Share notes functionality. The current implementation is a heavy adaptation of [trilium.rocks](https://trilium.rocks/) which is a third-party share theme.
+
+*   The theme resides in `packages/share-theme`.
+*   The HTML is defined in `src/templates` using EJS templating.
+*   The `src/scripts` and `src/styles` subdirectories house the rest of the theme.
+
+## Building the share theme
+
+*   In `packages/share-theme`, run `pnpm build` to trigger a build. This will generate `dist` which will then be used by the server.
+*   Alternatively, use `pnpm dev` to watch for changes.
+
+## Integration with the server for the share functionality
+
+The server renders the templates using EJS templating from the share theme and hosts the assets.
+
+*   In dev mode, the templates and assets are served directly from `packages/share-theme/dist`.
+    *   Modifications to the assets (scripts or styles) will reflect without having to restart the server. However the share theme needs to be built first (see previous section).
+    *   Changes to the template will require a restart of the server, since they are cached. Simply press Enter in the console with `pnpm server:start` to quickly trigger a restart.
+*   In production mode, the share theme is automatically built by the server build script and copied to `dist/share-theme`.
+
+The server route handling this functionality is in `src/share/routes.ts`.
+
+## Exporting to static HTML files
+
+This functionality is also handled by the server, but in `src/services/export/zip/share_theme` instead. It works quite similar to the normal sharing functionality, but it uses `BNote` instead of `SNote` (and so on for other entity types), in order to work regardless of whether a note is shared or not.
+
+The same templates are used and rendered by the server, except that they are stored in a file instead of served to web clients.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.md b/docs/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.md
index fab4e35f0..38453563f 100644
--- a/docs/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.md	
+++ b/docs/User Guide/User Guide/Advanced Usage/Sharing/Exporting HTML for web publish.md	
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ Apart from normal <a class="reference-link" href="../Sharing.md">Sharing</a>, e
 *   The URL structure is different. Where in normal sharing it's something along the way of `example.com/share/noteid`, the notes follow an hierarchical structure, such as `docs.triliumnotes.org/user-guide/concepts/navigation/tree-concepts`.
 *   The `favicon.ico` is not handled automatically, it needs to be manually added on the server after the export is generated.
 *   The “Last updated” for notes is not available.
+*   The search functionality works slightly different since the normal one requires an active API to work. In the static export, search still works but uses a different mechanism so results might be different.
 
 ## Differences from normal .zip export