Currently the help page Bases syntax - Obsidian Help says “In the future, plugins will be able to add functions for use in formulas.”
This is an extension of the same idea, if i’m understanding that sentence correctly. My idea is for plugins to be able to supply (virtual) properties determined by examination of the files - which bases can then treat as they do file properties, note properties, or formulas.
Use case or problem
There seem to be many use cases for this facility.
I’ve linked one of the major ones below: property support for file types other than Markdown could be provided by plugins. A plugin could scan the structure of PDFs, audio files, or the like, and export useful information that bases could then sort and report.
Another - closer to my own use case - would be letting bases have information about the contents of Markdown notes that can be obtained programatically. For instance, a plugin with the right regular expressions could tell you which of your notes have Mermaid charts, or use other specific features.
Proposed solution
Create an API that plugin developers can write to, allowing them to define “properties” that the plugin can calculate, which when the plugin is installed become selectable by the user in bases just like built-in file and note properties.
Current workaround (optional)
Some use cases can be implemented with formulas, but not all.