Add support for inline metadata (DataView)

[jeetsukumaran]

This fantastically useful plugin now supports referencing YAML frontmatter in variable replacements, {{yaml_value.foo.bar}}.

Would it be possible to add support for DataView style metadata as well? E.g.,

---
foo: bar
---

# Note Title

[baz:: faz]
[aaa:: bbb]

And being able to reference {{yaml_value.baz}} or {metadata.baz}}.

[Taitava]

Hi! Thank you for your suggestion! 🙂 It's a great idea!

I haven't thought about this before, but it sounds reasonable. I need to make some desing decisions: Will it be a feature of {{yaml_value}} or a new variable?

a) A new variable ⬅️ Edit 2024-07-21: I think this will be the way to go.

If it's a new variable, the name might be e.g. {{dataview_value}}. This clearly tells that the variable requires Dataview to be installed. (One idea in my head has been to create a variable that performs dataview queries, named e.g. {{dataview_query}}. I haven't written about this idea anywhere, but having the part _value in {{dataview_value}} could nicely distinct the variable from the other, future coming variable).

Edit 2024-07-21: Maybe the variable could disappear from autocomplete menu, if the Dataview plugin is not installed?

b) Part of {{yaml_value}}

Pros:

• If it's part of {{yaml_value}}, it would be seamless to use. You wouldn't need to think about which way your data is defined, a single variable could retrieve data.

Cons:

• Harder to tell why a value cannot be found. Let's say that you are querying for {{yaml_value:baz}} (like in your example). If Dataview is accidentally not installed in the vault, it can't be used as a data source. The {{yaml_value}} variable could detect that Dataview is not present - that's ok - and so the variable will not find baz, as it's not present in the native YAML frontmatter. It would give an error message saying: YAML property 'baz' is not found. But the situation is not actually that baz is missing, it's just that baz is present, but not accessible as the Dataview plugin is not installed/enabled in this scenario. Maybe the error message could be extended to something like: YAML property 'baz' is not found. (Note that Dataview plugin is not installed, so inline style metadata '[baz::]' could not be looked up for). But that addition might confuse users who do not use Dataview at all.
• The variable name {{yaml_value}} is not a 100 % perfect fit for this, as the syntax [baz:: faz] is not actually YAML. Maybe your other suggestion, {{metadata}} could suit better as a name. It could be some kind of "wrapper variable" that could look for values in both {{yaml_value}} and {{dataview_value}} (assuming I'd create that one). To streamline the naming, {{metadata}} could be {{metadata_value}}. So, three variables: {{yaml_value}}, {{dataview_value}}, and {{metadata_value}}. ⬅️ Edit 2024-07-21: I think this will be the way to go.

Conclusion: I'll continue thinking about this and will let you know when there's some progress 🙂. I can't promise any schedule, though.

Links for me regarding Dataview;

• https://blacksmithgu.github.io/obsidian-dataview/resources/develop-against-dataview/
• https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview/blob/master/src/index.ts
• https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview/blob/master/src/api/plugin-api.ts

[jeetsukumaran]

Thank you for looking into this!

And yes! It makes sense to separate out {{yaml_value}} and {{dataview_value}}, with a third option {{metadata_value}} as a higher level aggregator :)

[Qwerty-Space]

Hi! I'm wondering if there's any progress on this?

---

EDIT: It's possible to workaround this by doing something like this:

`= elink("obsidian://shell-commands/?vault=My%20Notes&execute=command_id&_custom_variable=" + this.thing, "Link name")`

[Taitava]

No progress yet.

Anyone wanting to contribute? 🙂

If someone is willing to use some time for this, a pull request is welcome.

• A new class could be created by copying the Variable_YAMLValue class. Set variable_name to dataview_value.
• Instantiate the class in loadVariables().
• Create a new helper function similar to getFileYAMLValue that reads a property from Dataview API and call that function from the variable class.
• The pull request can be a working draft - I'll do some finishing anyway.
• I'll write documentation.
• I'll create supporting variables {{event_dataview_value}}, {{metadata_value}}, and {{event_metadata_value}}.
• I can probably make the variable hidden in autocomplete menu if Dataview is not installed.