Automatically update workspace when notes are moved

Use case or problem

For Manage Workspaces, if the referenced note names change, then the workspace opens with “No file is open”.

Proposed solution

Same behaviour as internal notes - when the note name changes, all linked mentions are updated to point to the new note name. For Workspaces, note name changes should also be automatically updated.

Current workaround (optional)

I have to reopen the renamed notes and save them as a new workspace, deleting the old one. In many cases, I may not remember the notes used in the workspace, in which case there is no workaround.

Related feature requests (optional)

I second the Ability to rename workspaces after creation

13 Likes

This is a nice suggestion I think.

But I want to add one more thing. The plugin also lacks the ability to track the notes which are moved to another folder. So please consider adding the feature to update each workspaces to track both of renamed notes and moved notes.

In my workflow, I often rename and move my notes to control note’s status.
For example, I made a note named “Git” which I didn’t know at that time. The note got so many concepts and commands while I was learning about git. So, I renamed the note “Git MOC”, refactored and split vast contents into many atomic notes. and I moved this notes to another folder like “Matured folder”.

Of course, I took many notes which are not related wit “git”, so I changed my mental mode and workspace to take a note about other things. Workspace plugin is really helpful to do that.
However, as i said, I often rename and move notes. So the feature of tracking and updating workspace would be greatly helpful for those who are fond of fluid structure in digital library like me.

2 Likes

This is great finding. Workspaces should treat notes by their id — however it is unclear if Obsidian even have the concept of note id separate from note name. Obsidian could implement new default property for note id. Contrary to other properties this note id property could be available as read‑only in Dynamic views etc and it shouldn’t appear in file properties view.