How to publish your markdown-based knowledgebase / obsdian vault using Flowershow/DataHub cloud ...

[rufuspollock]

This is a quick braindump which should evolve to discussion thread 🙂 and then a post ...

[olayway]

Ok, so let's maybe start our discussion with the description of the current user journey - from having the local Obsidian vault to getting it published with DataHub Cloud.

Using GitHub Desktop

1. Create a GitHub Account
2. Create a new repository on GitHub website (name it e.g., obsidian-vault)
3. Install GitHub Desktop app
4. Sign In to GitHub Desktop app
5. Initialise a local repository in your obsidian vault using the GitHub Desktop app
6. Link your local repository (your Obsidian Vault) to the GitHub repository (remote, on GitHub) using GitHub Desktop app:
7. Commit and push your changes to your remote GitHub repository using GitHub Desktop app
8. Sign in to your DataHub Cloud account and create a site using your Obsidian vault repository.

Then, each change in Obsidian vault needs to be backed up (committed and pushed to the remote repo) manually, using GitHub Desktop.

(Same can be achieved using git and gh clis, but we can ignore them as these are only relevant for tech-savvy peope).

Pros

• We already have a tutorial somewhere explaining the steps

Cons

• Requires additional app, outside of Obsidian, to manage content syncing
• Can still be a bit overwhelming for someone who has never heard of commits/remotes/repositories/push/pull etc.
• Requires manual syncing (no automatic backups/syncs)

[olayway]

Now, one step towards simplifying the process of syncing the vault after it's initial backup to a GitHub repository is using the obsidian-git plugin https://github.com/denolehov/obsidian-git

Adding obsidian-git plugin for simpler syncing

Using obsidian-git plugin doesn't change the initial steps described in the first option above (in Using GitHub Desktop app), that need to be taken in order to push your vault to the remote repository. But it does help with keeping the user's DataHub Cloud site in sync with the Obsidian vault:

... (Steps 1-8 are the same)
9. In your Obsidian vault install community plugin called "git".

The plugin automatically picks up the settings from the local git repository, so no configuration is required. It's ready to be used to push your changes to the remote repository right from the start.

Pros

• Automatic vault backup (pull, commit, push) on a schedule
• Includes source control panel for staging, commiting and diffing individual files via the Source Control View
• Includes git log

= No need to switch between Obsidian and GitHub Desktop app. GitHub Desktop is only needed initially to create a local repo and link it to the remote one (or could be done with gh and git clis)

Cons

• Can still be a bit overwhelming for someone who has never heard of commits/remotes/repositories/push/pull etc.

[olayway]

What about our Obsidian plugin?

The current version of the plugin aims to work with Flowershow sites and sync their markdown content and not to backup/sync an entire Obsidian vault 1-to-1.

Specifically, it means that:

1. It doesn't sync/backup the Obsidian vault 1-to-1 to the remote repository. The remote repository in Flowershow is the whole Next.js app, not merely a container for the Markdown content. The whole repo is being used to build the Flowershow site on Vercel on each push.
2. There is no notion of or a need for a local repository as the plugin picks changed/new files and copies them to specific folders in the remote repo.
3. Version control of the Obsidian vault is not possible, as the only thing that's version controlled is the Flowershow app (yes, it does hold the changed files as well, e.g. markdown files can be found in /content folder, but it's not possible to revert your vault to the previous version). So, versioning the vault would require additional work on the user side.

[olayway]

And if we want to have our own plugin that would work with DataHub Cloud repositories, I think it would be better to use obsidian-git as a base and start from there, instead of refactoring the current one we have for Flowershow.

[rufuspollock]

The current version of the plugin aims to work with Flowershow sites and sync their markdown content and not to backup/sync an entire Obsidian vault 1-to-1. ...

I'm imagining on this option we'd ask them to set up the repo (as we do today but with a blank repo) and then just push to that - is there any issue with doing that?

The advantage over e.g. git plugin is a) clear Flowershow branding b) Flowershow UI is nicer than git push stuff ...

[rufuspollock]

Great summary @olayway.

Reading this about github deskop and your second item about git plugin i think we could publish a blog post and/or landing page today explaining these two options ... for how to use DataHub/Flowershow Cloud ... after all we already have something that works 🎉

@Daniellappv @ola overall in general given we have something that "works" already (e.g. option 1 or 2) i'm inclined to focus more on getting a landing page out there (that could just be flowershow.app) and telling obsidian community a bit (e.g. in flowershow channel) and seeing how that goes and then seeing where we are ... ie. avoid any tech work for now and do some marketing and see how it develops.

[Daniellappv]

@olayway thanks for the summary, very useful

@rufuspollock @olayway I agree - we should test with what we have as of today, and only if it doesn't work we will change it/improve it/simplify it.

Two things I would like to double-check @olayway - I just tried pushing only a folder within my Obsidian Vault and not the whole Vault but it still pushed everything. 1) Is that not possible? 2) Also, I just went through the flow, I pushed my Vault and it threw a 404 when I published it with DH Cloud 😢 https://datahub.io/@Daniellappv/Obsidian-Vault not sure if I am the problem or there is another problem

[olayway]

I think you've opened an issue for this. I'll take a look.

[olayway]

Reading this about github deskop and your second item about git plugin i think we could publish a blog post and/or landing page today explaining these two options

Ok, I'm on it!

[rufuspollock]

Can you add the issue you create for this 🙂

[rufuspollock]

Create issue for this #1225