Hyper link for openning local file in Windows System

[llinfeng]

It struck me this morning that Vimwiki could be turned into a real knowledge base if it could conduct the action of opening files from local directory.

The ideal thing would be to enable opening of directory and files by a string of directory. For those without file extension, we open it up as a directory (i.e. opening a new folder); for those with certain file extension, we open it up using the default setting by the operating system. [["Directory"]] might be a reasonable syntax for this purpose.

I wish this would be doable.

All the best,

-Linfeng

[EinfachToll]

It struck me this morning that Vimwiki could be turned into a real knowledge base

That's the purpose ;)

I hope I can strike you with the information that this is already possible. Have a look at :h vimwiki-syntax-schemes. What you want is the local: or file: scheme.

[llinfeng]

Great to know that this had been already implemented. Thanks for pointing out the available source.

However, I did not find a way to let Vimwiki know that I am using a windows machine and therefore the format of absolute path would be different (i.e. not starting with ///). What should the syntax be if I want to open the following:

directory: "C:\Users\llinfeng\Dropbox\Wiki\Freemind"
file: "C:\Users\llinfeng\Dropbox\Wiki\FreemindMy Wiki.mm"

I tried [[local:C:\Users\llinfeng\Dropbox\Wiki\Freemind]], but it did not work. Neither would [[file:C:\Users\llinfeng\Dropbox\Wiki\FreemindMy Wiki.mm]] work on my Windows machine.

Lastly, are spaces permitted in the directory?

All the best,

• Linfeng

[EinfachToll]

I can't really test this issue, because I have only limited access to a windows machine, but I noticed that a backslash is apparently not allowed in links. Does [[file:C:/Users/...]] work, i.e. slashes instead of backslashes?

[lervag]

Great, thanks! This fixes the problem on my end.

[llinfeng]

Yes, the fix had been testified to work well.

Here is what I found that is handy to do the conversion: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Change_between_backslash_and_forward_slash

I used the version with the "ToggleSlash" function.

[llinfeng]

Reporting another issue:

While the file: handler works as expected, local: is not working well. It can only open directories that are children to the location in which the index file for the wiki is stored.

[EinfachToll]

@llinfeng: a link like [[local:../bla.txt]] works for me, also on Windows. What does the link you tried look like exactly?

[llinfeng]

@EinfachToll: thank you for pointing to the ../ operator. I can now go out of base folder of vimwiki and navigate the other directories. With local:, now I can go to literally any directory within the same disk. However, given the caveat to be discussed below, I cannot go to other "disks", i.e. other partition of the hard disk. (Maybe this is only for Windows OS).

The restriction: I cannot use local with absolute path, by which I mean:

[[local:"C:/Users/llinfeng/Dropbox"]]

Nor would the following work (without the double quotes)

[[local:C:/Users/llinfeng/Dropbox/]]

Is there a way to "call the absolute path" of a directory? I thinks this will improve the functionality of Vimwiki by a great extent. This is not a problem with the file: syntax, which is intended to open a file. Given this, would it be possible to tune local: to behave in similar way as file:.

(For file:, I've tested that it won't work unless the "address" is appended by a file extension.)

Thanks again.

[EinfachToll]

local: is for relative paths (i.e. relative to the directory containing the current file), file: is for absolute paths. Apart from that, they should behave the same.
So you want to go to arbitrary directories. But since Vim is a text editor, what should happen when you open a directory? Do you want Netrw to be called? (This is like typing :Explore)

[lervag]

I don't understand why one needs to have two labels for files. That is, it seems trivial to me to distinguish a relative and an absolute path, so why would you need a label to distinguish this?

[EinfachToll]

You're right. It wasn't my idea ;)

[lervag]

Haha, ok. :)

[linuxcaffe]

@einfach; thanks for that clarification of local: vs. file: and :Explore is
an interesting idea!

On 2 December 2014 at 03:41, Karl Yngve Lervåg notifications@github.com
wrote:

Haha, ok. :)

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#71 (comment).

[llinfeng]

@EinfachToll, thank you for clarifying the usage for local and file. What I was trying to ask is how to open a directory through the explorer, by pressing <cr> on a link stored in Vimwiki. As folders are stored in hierarchy, and the idea of maintaining a Wiki is to crush the hierarchy in knowledge space and free the mind thereby, I think being able to manage (or simply get access to) the directory in a wiki way would be helpful.

:Explore is a good built-in function to Vim, but it is a command line option and costs key strokes. Is it possible to create hyperlinks in Vimwiki that could invoke a directory through absolute path? By invoke, I mean either open the directory through the explorer, or initiate a "explore" view in Vim (same as `:Explore').

Thanks again,

[EinfachToll]

Since not everybody has the netrw plugin loaded (me, for example) and this is a rather special demand, I think we leave this functionality to an extra function which the users can write themselves (see :h VimwikiLinkHandler). Put this in your vimrc:

function! VimwikiLinkHandler(link)
    let link = a:link
    if link =~ '^local:.*/'
        let local_dir = matchstr(link, '^local:\zs.*')
        let abs_dir = expand('%:p:h').'/'.local_dir
        " open dolphin in the desired directory. Sorry, I don't know how to open Windows explorer
        call system("dolphin " . shellescape(abs_dir) . " &")
        return 1
    elseif link =~ '^file:.*/'
        let dir = matchstr(link, '^file:\zs.*')
        " open the directory with netrw
        exe "Texplore " . dir
        return 1
    else
        return 0
    endif
endfunction

[llinfeng]

The function does not work so well. Thank you though. Found:

1. file: will open NERDTree at the root, for some unknown reason.
2. local: is still not opening a new directory.

However, please ignore my request. The relative path worked greatly and I am absolutely satisfied.

I appreciate your time and great help.

[jon-yip]

Firstly I would like to thank you for this amazing plugin.
However, I've been trying to do something like [[~/playground/mycodes/]] to open a directory but instead of opening the directory vimwiki keeps asking me if I want to create a new directory under the current ~/vimwiki directory. Also I tried to use [[file:]] and [[local:]] to access other local files without success.
Have I missed something here?

P.S. I'm using OS X Yosemite.

[severoraz]

Here is a modified version of the script that works for me. The other suggestions didn't.
This script opens all files with explorer.exe, which results in

• for directories, opening them in explorer.exe
• for files, opening them with their assigned application (system default)

function! VimwikiLinkHandler(link)
    let link = a:link
    let islink = 0
    if link =~ '^local:.*'
        let islink = 1
        let local_dir = matchstr(link, '^local:\zs.*')
        let abs_dir = expand('%:p:h').'/'.local_dir
        " open dolphin in the desired directory. Sorry, I don't know how to open Windows explorer
        " call system("cmd " . shellescape(abs_dir) . " &")
        " exe "!explorer '" . substitute(abs_dir,"/","\\\\",'g') . "'"
        " return 1
    elseif link =~ '^file:.*'
        let islink = 1
        let abs_dir = matchstr(link, '^file:\zs.*')
        " open the directory with netrw
        " call system("cmd " . substitute(dir,"/","\\",'g'))
        " return 1
    endif
    if islink == 1
        exe "!explorer '" . substitute(abs_dir,"/","\\\\",'g') . "'"
        return 1
    else
        return 0
    endif
endfunction