Dataview (to) Properties

Dataview Properties allows you to automatically copy Dataview inline fields (and their values, even calculated ones!) into frontmatter properties and keep them synchronized.

✨ Features

The plugin offers the following features:

• Conversion of Dataview queries (DQL and DataviewJS) to frontmatter
• Support for both block and inline queries
• Automatic synchronization based on a configurable interval
• Dedicated command to manually trigger synchronization
• Evaluation of calculated values before insertion into frontmatter
• Automatic cleanup of the frontmatter when the Dataview field is removed (optional)
• Lowercase & ignore accents for values and fields recognition
• Granular options to convert to properties list.
• Exclude file with a frontmatter key or by path.

[!WARNING] The Dataview plugin must be installed and activated in your Obsidian vault.

⚙️ Configuration

[!TIP] Both options (frontmatter cleanup, ignore and text removing) supports insensitive and ignore accent recognition:

• Insensitive : The plugin will ignore the case of the field names when checking for matches. For example, if you have a field named "Name" and you set "name", both value will be recognized as the same.
• Ignore accent : The accented characters will be converted to their non-accented counterparts. For example, if you have a field named "école" and you set "ecole", both value will be recognized as the same.

• Excluded file : Exclude files by path, a regex (like /mypath.*/i) or using a frontmatter key (by default, it is dv_excluded: true). These settings are under the button "Excluded files".
• Prefix: The prefix to add to the frontmatter properties. This is useful to avoid conflicts with existing properties (and Dataview metadata). The default value is dv_. An empty prefix is not supported.
• Interval: The time interval (in milliseconds) at which the plugin will check for changes in the Dataview queries and update the frontmatter properties accordingly. The default value is 1000ms (1 second).
• Mark a field as a list: A textarea to define fields that must be converted to a list. Separate the fields with a comma or a new line. To use regex, encapsulate with / (ex: /^name$/i).
• Frontmatter cleanup : Automatically remove the frontmatter properties when the corresponding Dataview field is removed. Enabled by default.
• Ignored fields : A list (of string) of fields to ignore (aka that won't be copied). Separate the fields with a comma or a new line. To use regex, encapsulate with / (ex: /^name$/i).
• Text removing : Remove pattern or value from the field value when adding it to the frontmatter. Useful to remove some unwanted characters like %%. Like ignored fields, you can use regex by encapsulating the pattern with / (ex: /^name$/i).
• Dataview : Enable/disable the evaluation of each type of dataview query. Only inline queries are supported.
  • Dataview Query Language (DQL)
  • DataviewJS

[!CAUTION] Only string/numbers/date are supported in the frontmatter. When the evaluated queries returns a html, it will converted to markdown.

🛠️ Usage

[!TIP] The keys are copied into the frontmatter with a prefix (that you can configure) to avoid conflicts with existing properties (and Dataview metadata). The default prefix is dv_. An empty prefix is not supported.

Automatic synchronization

By default, the plugin automatically synchronizes the Dataview queries within the frontmatter (proprieties) when the metadata are changed. This synchronization is triggered based on the configured interval (default: 1000ms).

Manual command

You can also trigger the synchronization manually by using the command palette (Ctrl+P | Cmd + P) and searching for "Dataview Properties : Add the Dataview field to the frontmatter". This will force the plugin to check for changes in the Dataview queries and update the frontmatter properties accordingly.

[!TIP] For a file containing:

---
name: "name"
force: 12
agility: 5
---

# Hello world
Vitality:: `$= this.force + this.agility`

The plugin will update the file accordingly:

---
name: "name"
force: 12
agility: 5
dv_Vitality: 17
---

# Hello world
Vitality:: `$= this.force + this.agility`

The plugin also works with more complex queries, like links (and they will be converted to markdown links as [[mylinks]]), date or numbers.

[!CAUTION]

• Widget and function won't be added to the frontmatter.
• HTML will be converted to markdown.

📥 Installation

• From Obsidian's community plugins
• Using BRAT with https://github.com/Mara-Li/obsidian-dataview-properties
• From the release page:
  • Download the latest release
  • Unzip dataview-properties.zip in .obsidian/plugins/ path
  • In Obsidian settings, reload the plugin
  • Enable the plugin

🎼 Languages

• English
• French

To add a translation:

1. Fork the repository
2. Add the translation in the src/i18n/locales folder with the name of the language (ex: fr.json).
   • You can get your locale language from Obsidian using obsidian translation or using the commands (in templater for example) : <% tp.obsidian.moment.locale() %>
   • Copy the content of the en.json file in the new file
   • Translate the content
3. Edit i18n/i18next.ts :
   • Add import * as <lang> from "./locales/<lang>.json";
   • Edit the ressource part with adding : <lang> : {translation: <lang>}

Special thanks & credits

• Jesse Hines for wdio obsidian service that finally made me able to test the plugin in a real obsidian environment automatically. It mean a lot for a QA tester like me!
• Obsidian Dataview as a dependecies.
• Obsidian Digital Garden for the first version of the Dataview compiler/evaluator.