Pressing enter to create a [[double bracket]]

[santiyounger]

Hey,

I'm new to github, apologies if this is not properly structure, if you need more info let me konw.
This is probably an easy solve but I am stuck trying to solve it. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
I'm on vimwiki Stable Version 2.5.
I recently moved my whole set up from ubuntu to manjaro kde plasma. Vimwiki is my post important vim plug-in and I absolutely love it.

I rebuilt my vimrc with all the plug-ins. vimwiki seems to work alright, the only problem I have is the ENTER fucnction.

When I press enter on some text to create a new vimwiki markdown file. I get this kind of situation.

[new note](new note)

I used to have this kind of result

[[new note]]

I really want to go back to the double bracket and I don't know why that changed since everything in my vimrc is the same.

I istanlled vim wiki with Plug like this:

Plug 'vimwiki/vimwiki'

Here I'll copy everything I have in my vimrc regarding vimwiki.

Vimrc

". .............................................................................
  Vim wiki
"............................................................................

"set nocompatible
filetype plugin on
syntax on

"".... vimwiki with markdown support
"let g:vimwiki_ext2syntax = {'.md': 'markdown', '.markdown': 'markdown', '.mdown': 'markdown'}
"".... helppage -> :h vimwiki-syntax

let g:vimwiki_list = [{'path': '~/vimwiki/',
                      \ 'syntax': 'markdown', 'ext': '.md'}]

[sharingtom]

Hi, I just want to chime in and say that I would also very much prefer the double brackets in Markdown files.

If Markdown style links are the default for the Markdown syntax, would you consider adding something like g:vimwiki_link_format, or an option to g:vimwiki_list?

[Nudin]

---

I really want to go back to the double bracket and I don't know why that changed since everything in my vimrc is the same.

We just released v2.5 a few days ago, so you likely have upgraded vimwiki without realizing when moving to the new setup.
I am however a bit confused, I tried with 2.3, 2.4.1 and 2.5 and in all three cased the markdown syntax [text](text) is used.

@ranebrown @tinmarino: Do you know if there was a change in 2.5 that affects this?

@sharingtom: Do you also have a regression (meaning previously double brackets in Markdown worked) or is this "just" a feature request?

@santiyounger: Can you try downgrading to 2.4 and check if it works then again?

Plug 'vimwiki/vimwiki', { 'tag': 'v2.4.1' }

and :PlugClean then :PlugInstall should do it.

[tinmarino]

Do you know if there was a change in 2.5 that affects this?

No. I've always got [text](text) to and from blame, it seems to me that all lines concerning ENTER key were there in 2017

The stack trace for someone wanting to create an PR for an option:
vimwiki#base#follow_link ->
vimwiki#base#normalize_link ->
vimwiki#vars#get_syntaxlocal ->
vimwiki#vars#populate_syntax_vars ->
let g:vimwiki_syntax_variables[a:syntax].rxWikiLink = g:vimwiki_global_vars.rx_wikilink_prefix.

Where you can see that the issue author would like a link format that the dev have called rxWikiLink or latter rxWikiLink0 (for markdown). And the one we (I like to) use is called WikiLink1Template2.

More:

• vars.vim is well commented and is the target.
• :h h vimwiki-syntax-links

[sharingtom]

It’s a feature request from my side.

A few days ago I found Obsidian, which has a lot of the functionality of Vimwiki – minus Vim – but uses Markdown and square bracket links. It would be great to be able to easily collaborate on wikis with non-Vim users. I absolutely love Vimwiki, but convincing most non-technical people to learn Vim for wiki collaboration is just not an option.

While square brackets can be added manually in Vimwiki to create the links, the Enter link formatting would be a quality of life improvement for me. I’m not at a skill level where I can make a PR to make it work. Not yet at least.

[santiyounger]

Hey @Nudin, thank you so much for your kind reply. I tried installing v2.4.1, unfortunately it is still showing this format text
I did it as instructed :
Plug 'vimwiki/vimwiki', { 'tag': 'v2.4.1' }
with :PlugClean then :PlugInstall

Since I completely wiped my ubuntu set up into my new manjaro KDE I have no way of finding what was the exact version I was on.
To me things were working perfect with the [[double braket]] in a previous version.
If anyone knows which version allows this, I'd be more than happy to downgrade to that version.

I fully agree with @sharingtom with this being a really essential function.

More thank anything I want to truly thank you for making such an amazing tool, and for using your valuable time to help those of us who use it everyday, you guys are amazing.

[santiyounger]

@tinmarino Thanks a lot for your reply, unfortunately my skill level didn't allow me to fully understand your suggestions. I can comfortably modify things in my .vimrc file. But things such as creating a PR I don't fully understand what that means.

If you can put it in simple terms that would be much appreciated, I'm happy with a workaround solution if needed.
Thanks a lot!

[sharingtom]

I know that the question wasn't directed at me, but PR is short for pull request.

If you modify the Vimwiki codebase (not just the .vimrc) to add the double square bracket functionality to the Markdown syntax, a pull request is basically how to ask the maintainers of Vimwiki here on GitHub to add the change to the main codebase and thus make it available to everyone.

I would also like to thank everyone who is a part of making Vimwiki. For all its simplicity (in use) it is wonderfully powerful.

[santiyounger]

@sharingtom Thanks, great explanation I appreciate it! I'll keep looking for solutions to this situation if I find one I'll post it here! Thanks guys

[tinmarino]

Read the commit message of the commit referencing this issue. (The last one: they often break tests and I commit amend in my repo)

Adding in vars.vim the function: normalize_syntax_settings(syntax)

Fixed: Workaround or better say ...

undocumented solution :

let g:vimwiki_syntax_variables.markdown.Link1 = vimwiki#vars#get_global('WikiLinkTemplate1')

This may change and get documented. Meanwhile, follow the changes in test/link_creation.vader or grep the issue number in the repo

Related: #894

[nelai1]

I observed the same change in behaviour.
Removing: 'syntax':'markdown' from the vimwiki_list variable in the .vimrc:

let g:vimwiki_list = [{'path': '~/vimwiki/',
                      \ 'syntax': 'markdown', 'ext': '.md'}]

changed the link creation back to [[...]]-syntax when pressing enter

[ericboehs]

Yeah that does fix it but now everything else is broke in regards to markdown formatting. 😄

[Thomascountz]

After installing the dev branch and updating the config, I'm receiving this error:

Error detected while processing /Users/thomascountz/.config/nvim/init.vim:
line  123:
E121: Undefined variable: g:vimwiki_syntax_list

This is the relevant line in my .vimrc (actually .config/nvim/init.vim)

let g:vimwiki_syntax_list['markdown']['Link1'] = vimwiki#vars#get_global('WikiLinkTemplate1')

I'm not super familiar with vimscript, so I may not be instantiating the dict correctly?

I modeled the configuration off of the tests here:

vimwiki/test/link_creation.vader

Lines 9 to 32 in a687801

	# And configuration
	# Issues: #892
	####################
	Execute (Log):
	Log 'Markdown change Link1 : Pressing enter to create a [[double bracket]] #892'
	Given vimwiki (abc def ghi jkl):
	abc def ghi jkl
	Execute (Set filename wiki_test.md):
	call SetSyntax('markdown')
	let save_link = g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars.markdown.Link1
	let g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars.markdown.Link1 = vimwiki#vars#get_global('WikiLinkTemplate1')
	Do (vee<CR>):
	vee\<CR>
	Expect (append md suffix):
	[[abc def]] ghi jkl
	Execute (restore):
	let g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars.markdown.Link1 = save_link

And in the new docs:

vimwiki/doc/vimwiki.txt

Lines 2850 to 2863 in a687801

	------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	12.4 Syntax Options *vimwiki-syntax-options*
	Syntax options are configured using the following pattern: >
	let g:vimwiki_syntax_list['markdown']['bullet_type'] = ['*', '-', '+']
	Where:
	- `markdown` is the syntax name. It can be (`default`, `markdown` or `media`)
	- `bullet_type` is the option_name (see below)
	- `['*', '-', '+']` is the option value
	------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you so much for your time and assistance!

[Thomascountz]

On the dev branch, when I open vimwiki <Leader>ww, I can enter the following command:

:let g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars['markdown']['Link1'] = g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars['default']['Link1']

Now when I have the following markdown file:

hello, world

and I press ee<CR>

I see this:

hello, [[world]]

[ericboehs]

I knew if I watched this thread long enough I'd find the answer. Thanks @Thomascountz!

I've added the relevant config changes to my dotfiles. Essentially you just need to defer setting the variable until after the vimwiki plugin has loaded. I've done this via autocmd VimEnter *. There may be a more efficient way to do this though.

[alexcardell]

@ericboehs that autocmd still throws an error for me because the dict is not initialised. Perhaps a custom vimwiki autocmd would be useful for this (though at that point is it just easier to configure it in vimwiki_list?)

[ericboehs]

@alexcardell I'm not sure I'm understanding your problem but I'm guessing you're on the master branch instead of dev. This feature is exclusive to the dev branch for now.

[alexcardell]

Ah no, my apologies, I was on dev but the issue was with my autocmds; Just the quirks of my setup, I should have tried it with a clean vim before commenting, it works now!

Edit: I did a little more tinkering and noticed that this solution doesn't work if you defer loading vimwiki using packadd.

Vimwiki does seem a likely candidate to defer until needed, and if you do that the autocmd throws an error on startup:

Error detected while processing VimEnter Autocommands for "*":
E15: Invalid expression: g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars['default']['Link1']
Press ENTER or type command to continue

Not too big of an issue since you can write a function to load vimwiki and do the setup, but just something to be aware of if this is going to be an official solution.

[ericboehs]

Yeah, my solution is definitely a hack. I think the official solution should be a vimwiki_list config var.

[omichaelo]

:let g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars['markdown']['Link1'] = g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars['default']['Link1']

This workaround works for me. However, :VimwikiBacklinks doesn't seem to recognize the double bracket links if the syntax is still set to markdown.

[lyndhurst]

First of all, thanks for all the tips shared here.

Adding an autocmd as suggested by @ericboehs works for me too on the dev branch, but I was wondering if anyone found a workaround for the :VimwikiBacklinks issue pointed by @omichaelo that I am experiencing as well with that configuration.
I also find that links pointing to a file renamed using :VimwikiRenameFile are not modified accordingly...

[Pepedou]

Any update on this? I'm also using Obsidian and it'd be great to be able to have markdown with [[wikilinks]].

[jls83]

Howdy folks, I put together a hacky workaround to get the backlinks working with double-square bracket link syntax. It also supports the "standard" Markdown syntax ([description](url)), as the diary links seem to use that syntax even with the g:vimwiki_syntaxlocal_vars override. The commit on my local branch is linked here: jls83@3726e49

[s-cassidy]

Any update on this? I'm also using Obsidian and it'd be great to be able to have markdown with [[wikilinks]].

Exactly, editing with vimwiki and reading in Obsidian would be a great workflow for me.