Sounds like a great case for a plug-in! There are ways of representing data in markdown already—see e.g., YAML frontmatter. Perhaps a plug-in could be developed to do things with certain kinds of data in YAML.
When Obsidian’s API is public, people will be able to build this kind of thing of their own accord.
Hi Ryan
You said it way better than I did, and I completely agree!
Something like YAML + Plugin fits really cleanly within the Obsidian way of doing things (text, simple, flexible) and would allow for a ton of export options.
Best
David
Hi Yalcin,
I put my Obsidian Vault in my google drive, and then click “Open in --> 1 Writer”.
That lets me view or even edit on my phone.
It’s one of the advantages of them using Markdown files - not a full editor but it actually means that it functions “ok” on every platform that exists!
Best
David
Same, but my vault is in my Nextcloud and I use Markor on my phone 
It’s not amazing, but it definitely works well enough that I can take notes on the go and sort them out when back on a computer.
db functionality for me: Let’s say I want to create a database for my projects and I want every project to have some attributes (date, client, e-mails exchanged, files attached, status etc). It would be useful for me if I could create this kind of a structure that I can relate to / retrieve / search this type of structure
Couldn’t you do the same with tags and a complex search in Obsidian as it is now?
not really: connection via tags is not truly a sustainable and long term solution. You can only search for the tags. With a proper relational database you actually store/view data in many more ways
I think most of the requests for DB functions you mention here could probably be done with careful handling of YAML (or similar) metadata added to the existing text files. We’ve already got some other discussions of ways to do that on this board (search for YAML or here for one thread.
Just a thought…
I understand what you mean. However “can be done” does not mean it is an effective way of doing something properly.
To me it really boils down to, do you want your information stored in a database or do you want your information stored in plain text? There are pros and cons to each type of storage. One of the reasons I chose Obsidian is for plain text storage and no database. I have experience and like working with text files using scripting languages. If you’re not into scripting or don’t like it, perhaps that isn’t a “proper” way to interface with information in your opinion, it’s still effective. Different strokes for different folks. That’s why there are different apps that use different technologies and have different users.
This is an interesting point @kbrede. I will think about it. Can you elaborate a bit further on what you mean/how you can interface with information in text?.. ie: can you categorize/relate to simple text in a way that a database can: Without duplication, establishing relationships, assigning attributes and retrieving the exact data when needed etc?
I think the YAML solution can give everything. Once you have a proper markup of attributes, it really can behave like a DB if desired. It’s probably even possible to tack-on views, SQL, etc if desired. Probably you could handle it something like how Google Sheets handles the Query function.
The key challenge is tagging things appropriately, and YAML is an elegant solution that doesn’t break the “everything is text and easily exported” paradigm.
The main thing is that there would need to be some convention that would allow you to tag a “thing” ( a book, a customer, etc.). Is this 1 consecutive block? And how do we know the “nature” (table name) of that thing? Does that become the first field?
@yalcin it would be helpful if you could share some specific examples of the kinds of things you’d like to be able to do that you believe storing notes in a relational db would enable
@randulfr for example: I own a consultancy company, have several clients from different industries, have several consultants that work for my company with different skillsets. In this context we work on one or more projects with every client and one (or more) of my consultants are responsible for every single project. Every project has a calendar of its own, has multiple steps complete/incomplete and eventually they are finalized with an outcome (a report, a presentation etc) and an invoice. I want to create a database where I can track my projects, consultants, outcome/files, tasks, status, next steps (for incomplete projects) and invoices (for completed projects), satisfaction surveys (for completed projects), consultant based notes/remarks for every project. Furthermore I want to quickly assess which consultant is suited for which project based on their skillsets, competency and experience.
I would hug you (sincerely) if you can tell me how to create this knowledge base within a text based only environment
I want to create a database where I can track my projects, consultants, outcome/files, tasks, status, next steps (for incomplete projects) and invoices (for completed projects), satisfaction surveys (for completed projects), consultant based notes/remarks for every project. Furthermore I want to quickly assess which consultant is suited for which project based on their skillsets, competency and experience.
Sounds like a combination of ClickUp and Obsidian might do the trick for you :). It will require some time to learn and set things up though. And, it’s not text-based only. (If I come up with a text-based only version, I will let you know. But for now, maybe this post will still be interesting for you)
ClickUp can handle all of these:
Use Obsidian to track
It’s a similar set up I am thinking of for my projects, as I learned about Obsidian recently, and have been using ClickUp for more than two years. Like Obsidian, I sticked to them because they are the most innovative team/project management app, full featured, and they keep improving and adding features add an incredible speed. You can customize ClickUp however you want. They also have a few tutorials and detailled use cases.
In regards to comparing tools, check out the Athens Research created comparison of networked note taking tools here: https://www.notion.so/Artificial-Brain-Networked-notebook-app-a131b468fc6f43218fb8105430304709
ClickUp is awesome
Can we rename this thread to be a pluging idea or start a fresh one with the actual plugin idea?
GoodNotes has spaced repetition built in now I believe. I use Obsidian and Neuracache together as well.
regarding database functionality, there is also option to integrate Obsidian vault with graph database which might be more flexible for constantly evolving content without fixed scheme and facilitates recursive queries, compared to relational database.
Initial step is done here: Semantic Markdown (v0.3.4): Visualize and Query your Obsidian vault in Neo4j!
Hello.
Also a longtime ClickUp user here (work coding projects).
But I store all coding related notes (specs, Agile reviews, …) in their homebrew “Docs”.
Could you give us more details on how you integrate Obsidian .md files within ClickUp?
Thx