Metadata features

[led]

Metadata

If Nota is to be a key tool in a document authoring workflow, there needs to be a roadmap for metadata usage. This is just a dump of some thoughts on the domain without focusing on specific syntax, implementation or functionality. This gives an opportunity to see where certain functionality might sit in relation to other features.

Perhaps there is an opportunity for some discussion here?

Document Frontmatter Metadata

Needed when generating documents, eg PDF metadata such as Author, Title, Date, version history.

• metadata in the head of the document
  • YAML Frontmatter
  • MultiMarkdown metadata
• perhaps have pragmas for pulling some of this data from other sources, eg git

Inline Metadata

Explicit metadata to allow for organisation, searching, filtering, navigation, composition, auto-completion and custom-processing of content.

• tags, eg #Metadata
  • flat vs hierarchical
• date/timestamps
  • stick to ISO, or include US and other date formats?
• todo items
  • As an aside, it would be nice to have a hook for custom scripts when toggling. Example would be to rewrite the todo when toggled done, adding the current datestamp and/or author to the end.
• pragmas eg include, toc, index, meta:title, meta:author etc

Structural Metadata

The structure of a document inherently provides useful metadata that can be used.

• headings (for indexes, link targets, folding)
• lists (folding at different levels)
• to-dos (toggle-able, sortable, author/timestamp metadata etc)

Version Control Metadata

If Nota is integrating git versioning then that is another valuable metadata source.

• document revision history
• git annotated tag data
  • author
  • revision date etc
• git notes
  • can store arbitrary metadata about the document, even in custom namespaces

[xplosionmind]

To expand a bit more concerning the nature and the kind of date/timestamps metadata which should be recognized and (ideally) automatically generated and updated by the app:

• date:, the date and time when the note has been created;
• updated:, the date and time when the note has been edited the last time (see https://github.com/beaussan/update-time-on-edit-obsidian)

[astoilkov]

Let me update you on some progress we've already done regarding this topic:

• We introduced Templates that allows you to put metadata in new notes. For example the current date.
• We have a save hook with which the updated date concept and other types of dynamic values can be implemented.
• We now support #tags. Something we didn't when this issue was first created.
• Preferences → Workspace → Auto-rename notes to title option now supports YAML front-matter. Putting a title key in YAML will work with auto-rename.
• We also have a private experiment that shows file metadata. Modified time, created time, Git information, and other metadata.