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Buttons Panel

KevinKevin1k downloads

Create customizable button panels for quick access to files, commands, links, and scripts.

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Buttons Panel screenshot
Buttons Panel screenshot
Buttons Panel screenshot
Buttons Panel screenshot
  • Overview
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  • Updates34

Buttons Panel

<p>[<a href="https://github.com/TracingOrigins/obsidian-buttons-panel-plugin/blob/master/README.zh.md">中文</a> | English | <a href="https://github.com/TracingOrigins/obsidian-buttons-panel-plugin/blob/master/README.ru.md">Русский</a>]</p>
<p><a href="https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/buttons-panel" target="_blank">Buttons Panel</a> is a modern Obsidian plugin that lets you create a customizable button panel for quick access to files, commands, links, and scripts.</p>

✨ Features

  • 🎯 Quick Access: Instantly open files, execute commands, visit links, or run scripts with a single click.

  • 🎨 Icon Options: Search and preview from the Lucide icon library, plus support for custom SVG icons.

  • 🏷️ Three View Modes: Switch between list, tabbed, and folder views.

  • 📁 Folder View: Android-style folder grid with drag-and-drop, auto-expand on hover, pin to keep open, click-to-close, and editable folder names.

  • 📁 Category Management: Organize buttons by category; reorder categories and buttons via long-press drag-and-drop.

  • ⚙️ Flexible Configuration: Fully customizable panel layout, button styles, and animation effects.

  • 📱 Cross-Platform: Works on all platforms supported by Obsidian (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android).

  • 🌙 Theme Adaptation: Seamlessly adapts to Obsidian’s light and dark themes.

  • 🔄 Live Updates: All changes take effect immediately—no restart required.

  • 🛡️ Form Validation: Required fields (button name, file path, command ID, URL, folder, script name) are highlighted in red if empty for intuitive feedback.

  • 🖱️ Interaction Mode: Three modes — Locked (view only), Sort (drag to reorder), Edit (create/edit/delete via context menu) — switchable from the top navigation bar.

  • 🧭 Top Navigation Bar: Dropdown menus to quickly switch panel view, button style, and interaction mode; plus search and settings access.

  • 🔍 Search Feature: The navigation bar includes a search function that filters categories and buttons in real-time for quick access.

  • 🔗 Action Sequences: Configure multiple actions for a single button and execute them in order with one click.

🚀 Installation

🏪 Install from Community Plugins (Recommended)

  1. Open Obsidian and go to Settings → Community Plugins.
  2. Click Browse and search for "Buttons Panel".
  3. Click Install, then Enable.

📦 Manual Installation

  1. Download the latest main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from Releases.
  2. Create a buttons-panel folder under your Obsidian plugins directory (e.g. YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/buttons-panel/) and place the three files inside.
  3. Enable the plugin in Obsidian under Settings → Community Plugins.

🔧 Install via BRAT (Recommended for Beta Users)

  1. Install the BRAT plugin.
  2. In BRAT settings, click "Add Beta plugin".
  3. Enter TracingOrigins/obsidian-buttons-panel-plugin.
  4. Enable the plugin.

📖 Usage

🎯 Button Panel

Use the command palette (Ctrl+P) and run "Open buttons panel", or click the ribbon icon to quickly open the panel.

  • View Mode: Switch between list, tabbed, or folder view from the top navigation bar dropdown.
  • Button Style: Switch between icon next to text or icon above text from the top navigation bar dropdown.
  • Interaction Mode: Switch between locked, sort, or edit mode from the top navigation bar dropdown.

⚙️ Button Panel Options

Click the settings button in the navigation bar, or go to Settings → Community Plugins → Buttons Panel.

  • Show Navigation Bar: Show or hide the top navigation bar.
  • Enable Button Animation: Enable or disable hover animation effects for buttons.

List View

  • Auto Collapse in List View: When enabled, all categories start collapsed each time you switch to list view.

Tabs View

  • Tabs Auto Wrap: When enabled, tabs wrap to the next line instead of horizontal scrolling.

Folder View

  • Folder Name Editable: Click the folder name to rename when expanded.
  • Show Button Count: Display the number of buttons on the folder tile.
  • Close on Blank Click: Click any empty area inside the expanded folder to close it.

Path

  • Template Folder Path: Set the folder for template files (e.g., templates/). The create file action uses templates from this path.
  • Script Folder Path: Set the folder for script files (e.g., scripts/). The run script action loads scripts from this path.
  • One-Click Creation: Click "Create Paths" to automatically create missing folders.

🔗 Buttons & Actions

Action Sequences

  • Action Sequences: Configure a button to perform multiple actions in sequence (e.g., create a file, then run a script). Clicking the button executes all actions in order.
    • How to configure: In the button editor, click "Add Action" to add multiple actions and drag to reorder them.
    • Typical use cases: One-click to create and open a template note, batch execute multiple commands, automate daily routines, and more.

Supported Action Types

  • Open File: Open any file in your vault.
  • Command: Execute any Obsidian command.
  • Open Link: Open an external web link.
  • Create File: Create a new file at a specified location. The file name supports date variables (e.g., {{DATE:YYYY-MM-DD}}), and content can use a fixed template.
  • Run Script: Run a custom JS script from your vault. Scripts must be placed in the folder specified in Path Config.

✅ Form Validation

  • When creating or editing a button, clicking "Save" will automatically validate all required fields.
  • If any required field is empty, the corresponding input will be highlighted in red.
  • The red highlight disappears automatically once the field is filled.

🧭 Top Navigation Bar

  • Search: Click the search icon to open a search box. Enter keywords to filter categories and button names in real-time. Clear or close the search box to reset.
  • Panel View Switch: Switch between tabbed and list views.
  • Button Style Switch: Instantly change button styles.
  • Interaction Mode: Dropdown to switch between Locked, Sort, and Edit modes.
  • Panel Settings: Quick access to the plugin settings page.
  • Tab Bar Scrolling (tabbed view, many tabs): Swipe left/right on mobile; hold Shift and scroll on desktop.

🖱️ Interaction Mode

Click the edit button in the navigation bar to open a dropdown with three modes:

Mode Icon Behavior
🔒 Locked lock View only — all interactions disabled (no drag, no context menu)
↕️ Sort arrow-up-down Long-press drag to reorder buttons and categories
✏️ Edit pencil Right-click / long-press menu to add, edit, copy, or delete
  • Switch modes from the navigation bar dropdown or in Panel Config settings.
  • Drag-and-drop is only available in Sort mode.
  • Editing controls are only available in Edit mode.

📁 Folder View

Switch to folder view from the navigation bar or settings. Categories appear as folder tiles in a responsive grid.

Feature Description
Open/Close Click a tile to expand; click outside, press ESC, or click blank space (configurable) to close
📌 Pin Click 📌 to lock — folder stays open until unpinned or you switch folders
Edit name Click folder name to rename (configurable in settings)
Reorder folders Long-press drag in sort mode
Cross-folder drag Drag button out → auto-close → hover 0.6s on another tile → auto-expand → continue sorting
Auto-scroll Drag near edges inside expanded folder to scroll

📦 Drag-and-Drop Reordering

When Sort mode is active and search is not active, long-press and drag to reorder (mouse long-press works on desktop too):

Target List view Tabbed view Folder view
Buttons Long-press a button, then drag to reorder within a category; drag over another category's tab/zone to move across categories Same; active tab's grid supports drag reorder Drag within expanded folder or between folders; hover 0.6s over a tile to auto-expand
Categories Long-press the category block (title or non-button area), then drag vertically to reorder Long-press a tab, hold ~0.4s over another tab to confirm drop target, then release to reorder Long-press a tile to reorder in grid
  • Order is saved automatically when you release.
  • Reordering is unavailable in Locked or Edit mode, or while search is active.

📱 Touch Gestures (Mobile)

  • Scroll the panel: Swipe up/down on the panel (list view) or left/right on the tab bar (tabbed view) without long-pressing.
  • Drag to reorder: Long-press (~0.5s) on a button or category/tab, then drag. While dragging, panel scrolling is locked so the item follows your finger.
  • If a quick swipe is detected before the long-press completes, the gesture is treated as scrolling and drag does not start.

Script Feature

  • In the button editor, select "Script" as the action type and choose or enter a script file name (.js only).

  • Script files must be placed in the folder specified in Path Config (e.g., scripts/).

  • Scripts must export an async function via module.exports:

      ```js
      // scripts/hello.js
      module.exports = async function (app, plugin, notice, obsidian) {
      const { FuzzySuggestModal } = obsidian;
      notice('Hello from script!');
    

    }; ```

Or define the function first:

```js
// scripts/hello.js
module.exports = hello;

async function hello(app, plugin, notice, obsidian) {
    const { Notice } = obsidian;
    notice('Hello from script!');
}
```
  • The following variables are injected into the script function:
    • app — The running obsidian.App instance for interacting with the vault, workspace, etc. Note: this is an instance, not obsidian.App (the class); do not use with new.
    • plugin — The current plugin instance, for accessing plugin settings.
    • notice — A convenience notification function, equivalent to new obsidian.Notice(msg).
    • obsidian — The Obsidian module namespace, for destructuring classes like App, FuzzySuggestModal, Notice, etc.
  • Script errors are automatically caught and shown as notifications.
  • Security Note: Do not run scripts from untrusted sources.

Example: Configure a button with "Run Command A → Run Command B → Open Link" actions, and they will execute in order with one click.

🛠️ Development

  • Clone this repository.
  • Make sure your NodeJS is at least v18 (node --version), LTS version recommended.
  • Run npm install to install dependencies.
  • Run npm run dev to start development mode with live compilation (automatically deploys to test vault).
  • Run npm run build to build the production version and deploy to test vault.
  • Run npm run lint to check code quality.
  • To deploy to a custom vault, create a .env file in the project root and add: VAULT_PATH=/path/to/your/vault.

🎨 Tech Stack

  • TypeScript: Type-safe JavaScript with strict mode.
  • React: Modern framework for building user interfaces.
  • Obsidian API: Official plugin API.
  • Lucide Icons: Modern icon library (6000+ icons).
  • CSS Grid & Flexbox: Responsive layout.
  • ESBuild: Fast build tool with TypeScript and React support.
  • @dnd-kit: Drag-and-drop for button and category reordering.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

🌟 Support & Help

If you find this plugin helpful, please consider:

  • ⭐ Starring the repository.
  • 🐛 Using the bug report template to submit bug reports.
  • 💡 Using the feature request template to submit feature suggestions.
  • ❓ Asking questions or sharing ideas in our Discussions.
  • 📝 Referring to the Contributing Guide to contribute code or documentation.
  • 💰 Providing sponsorship to the developer (if available).

🙏 Acknowledgements

This plugin uses icons from the open-source project Lucide, which is licensed under the ISC License.

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About
Create a customizable button panel for quick access to files, commands, links, and scripts with single-click execution. Organize buttons into categories or tabs, choose icons, reorder via drag-and-drop, search in real time, and chain multiple actions per button.
CommandsFilesLinks
Details
Current version
2.4.5
Last updated
4 days ago
Created
Last year
Updates
34 releases
Downloads
1k
Compatible with
Obsidian 1.13.4+
Platforms
Desktop, Mobile
License
MIT
Report bugRequest featureReport plugin
Sponsor
Support
Author
KevinKevintracingorigins
GitHubtracingorigins
  1. Community
  2. Plugins
  3. Commands
  4. Buttons Panel

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