A quick way to narrow a search by successive AND searches of properties. I use Obsidian to manage my freelance business, and I’ve already started using Properties for client names and project names. I’d love to be able to quickly narrow a search to a particular note by first searching for all notes with a property matching a particular client, then a property for a particular project, and then see a selection of notes related to that project, from which I could pick the one I want.
Proposed solution
Something built into the Quick Switcher, or perhaps a tool that would be launched from the Command palette. It would be a properties palette. I’d type “Client” and the palette would show me a dropdown with a selection of client properties, from which I could select by either arrowing or typing.
Then once I’d selected a client, I’d start typing for Project, and the process repeats. I’d be able to either select from a list of Projects (choosing only from projects used with that particular client).
Or at any point I could go to a list of notes.
This would, of course, work with any property. Perhaps you have properties for animals—species, color, breed ,and so on.
Current workaround (optional)
Folders and search. I load the document names with keywords, including the name of the client, name of the project, and so on. It gets ugly.
Sounds useful. I believe, once it is released, Datacore will be a great solution for what you are looking for. There are some other plugins that you might also find useful in the meantime.
Depending on the complexity that you are looking for, I would recommend trying out nested tags. You may or may not want the top root (or rt level), but something like #rt/client/project/property might do the trick. So, for example, one might look like #rt/clientA/projectB/propertyC. The Tags pane will provide the interactive unfolding like you might like. And adding tags to a note give you autocomplete.
I’ve thought about using tags, but I’m trying to find a solution where hierarchy is optional. Use Boolean narrowing rather than climbing up and down a hierarchy.
I’ll give tags more thought, though.
Datacore does indeed look interesting.
Is it planned to include a GUI so a non-developer like me can use it? I find Dataview overwhelming.
And I don’t know whether either Datacore or Dataview would solve the problem I’m considering. I’m looking for a navigator, not something that will build a table or list into a note. Similar problems but different.
I’d like to be able to use Properties rather than tags for this purpose so that I can distinguish between different uses of a word.
For example, let’s say I have the Wonka Candy Company as a client. I would have a client property with the attribute Wonka. But I would also want to have property I can attach to articles and notes that are about the Wonka Candy Company, but might have nothing to do with my work for that company.
Or, to use a real example, I am working on an article about cloud native applications for a client. I would have a Project property called “cloud native.” But I might also have articles about cloud native applications unrelated to that project, and would want some way of aggregating those.
However, I don’t know whether this would be a problem in practice, or whether this problem might be solved by hierarchal tags or using some camelcase variations: #ClientWonka vs #Wonka
I took a look at TagFolder, but found it confusing. Based on your recommendation, I took another look …. And I still find it confusing but I think I’ll give it a try.
And I’ve been playing with the two Quick Switcher alternatives you linked to, and they are also confusing, but seem very helpful. I’m leaning toward Another Quick Switcher, in part because it’s one of the more popular plugins and therefore seems more likely to be long-lived. I’m concerned about becoming dependent on software that might become abandoneware in the future.