Obsidian Plugin Task+Date Format

Obsidian Plugin Task+Date Format.md

Obsidian Plugin Task+Date Format

The goal of this proposal is to enable compatibility between plugins that combine dates and tasks.

Currently, most plugins implement their own structured date format.

Kanban plugin: - [ ] task 1 @[[2021-11-01]] @@{8:35}
Tasks plugin: - [ ] task 1 📆2021-11-1
Reminders: - [ ] task 1 ([[2021-11-01]] 8:35)
Cardboard: - [ ] task 1 @due (2021-11-01)

The utility and user experience of these plugins could be enhanced by using a single format.

This forum thread discusses such a format, and below is a summary of what's been discussed so far.

Must haves

• Uses dataview inline metadata format
  • key:: value
  • While dataview is to be supported, we can't expect or rely on the plugin actually being activated
  • TODO: Could a dataview user articulate the how this would be used and what value it would bring?
• Uses daily note date format
  • Defaults to YYYY-MM-DD but can be set by user
• Supports time
  • This may require that this format be supported by a plugin, as there is no way to define a time format at the moment
• Supports links to daily notes
  • [[YYYY-MM-DD]]
• Simultaneously supports non-links
  • Eg. {YYYY-MM-DD}
  • Note: date formats are arbitrary and can contain spaces if modified by the user, so wrapping the date with special characters is advised
• Supports label to assign meaning to a date
  • For example: due, complete, etc…
  • The format itself should not define these labels, that should be left up to users and plugin developers, though suggestions can be made.
  • If the we did specify or suggest labels, they should be translated into all languages Obsidian supports and not be English-centric

Nice to haves

• An abbreviated format when a label isn’t necessary

Other considerations

• Is easy and performant to parse
  • Parsing will likely be done via regular expressions, so the format must be regular
    • Dates are not regular, as the daily note format can be changed by the user to literally anything
  • Parsing performance should be considered
• Reduces potential collisions with other plugins / data formats
  • Eg. the @ symbol used in pandoc/citeproc citation keys. This doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be used here, but that potential collisions should be accounted for
• Reduces false positives
  • A user might link to a daily note for reasons other than assigning a date to a task.
  • Eg. - [ ] Process left over TODOs from [[YYYY-MM-DD]] due:: [[YYYY-MM-DD]]
• Allows for easy autocompletion
  • Slash commands make this almost a non-issue, though not all plugins use obsidian's editor

Current proposals

• mgmeyers' proposal