Dataviewjs script for creating markdown table

derekvan · June 25, 2021, 12:24am

I’m wondering if it’s possible to create a Dataviewjs script that would be able to output a markdown table, so that the resulting markdown file could be run through Pandoc and styled easily in a word processor without a lot of CSS tweaking.

It looks like @Christian has a good approach in his script which puts a “copy” button at the top of a dataviewjs table which then copies the list of file names to the clipboard. It’s way beyond my scripting capabilities to customize the button part of that script to produce a markdown table (although I was able to script my own query to replace his example), but I wonder if it’s possible–this approach seems like it might be useful to others.

My use case here is creating a syllabus as a teacher. I have grouped my tables by “Weeks”, then sorted by “days” to end up with this:

Pretty good! But now the question is getting this into a form to share with students. I can export to PDF, but it’s not quite right and I’d rather tweak in a word processor than via CSS. I’m pretty familiar with using a docx reference file in Pandoc, so that’s my thinking right now, although I’d certainly be interested in other folks’ ideas along these lines.

tech_monk · June 25, 2021, 6:04pm

My non-scripting workaround for what you’re describing:

Install Typora and set it as the “Default App” in Obsidian
Open the note in Obsidian and then choose “Open in Default App” from the ‘three dot menu.’
Note opens in Typora
Export note from Typora in whatever format you need. If you have pandoc installed and on your path, the export options include .doc, .rtf, and several others.
Open in your word processor, tweak the doc, and publish.

This is a bit more effort than running a script, but only marginally so. And the results are consistently good because, well, pandoc.

derekvan · June 25, 2021, 6:56pm

But typora won’t understand the dataview table, right?

Christian · June 25, 2021, 9:31pm

Hey @derekvan. I took a look at it, and this is what I came up with.

I had to try to replicate your pages and table as much as possible. Maybe I did an OK job of it, but I am not sure.

I tried to make it at least kind of generic, such that others may benefit from it as well.

github.com

chhoumann/Templater_Templates/blob/master/dataview/make_markdown_table_from_dataview_table.md

```dataviewjs
const pages = dv.pages().where(f => f.theme && f.readings);

const uniqueWeeks = new Set();
pages.forEach(p => uniqueWeeks.add(p.week));

let pWeeks = {};
uniqueWeeks.forEach(week => {
    pages.forEach(page => {
        if (page.week === week) {
            if (!pWeeks[week]) pWeeks[week] = [];
            pWeeks[week] = [...pWeeks[week], page];
        }
    })
})

let markdownTable = "";

uniqueWeeks.forEach(week => {
    dv.header(3, week);

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derekvan · June 25, 2021, 11:21pm

This looks really great! I can’t wait to tinker with it tomorrow. Very generous of you.

derekvan · June 25, 2021, 11:41pm

Ok @Christian , I had a chance to tinker already and it works! Thanks. However, one question. How can I change the query to look in a particular folder instead? I’d like to have something like this, but it’s throwing an error:

const pages = dv.pages('"teaching/65011 - Reading & Interpreting"');
instead of
const pages = dv.pages().where(f => f.theme && f.readings);

Christian · June 25, 2021, 11:53pm

Good to hear. Sure thing.

Can you tell me which error is occurring?

Edit: const pages = dv.pages('"teaching/65011 - Teaching and Interpreting"').where(f => f.theme && f.readings); seems to work fine for me. Even without the where.

derekvan · June 26, 2021, 3:48am

Thanks so much for your help with this.

This line produces a table:

const pages = dv.pages('"teaching/65011 - Reading & Interpreting"').where(f => f.theme && f.readings)

But this line gives an error:

const pages = dv.pages('"teaching/65011 - Reading & Interpreting"')

Error:

`Evaluation Error:
map@[native code]

map@[native code]

forEach@[native code]
eval code
eval@[native code]

generatorResume@[native code]

Promise@[native code]
__awaiter

generatorResume@[native code]

Promise@[native code]
__awaiter
capacitor://localhost/app.js:1:757698
capacitor://localhost/app.js:1:758120

generatorResume@[native code]
fulfilled
promiseReactionJob@[native code]`

derekvan · June 26, 2021, 3:49am

Actually, this is probably my fault. There are files in that folder that don’t have proper YAML fields yet …

Christian · June 26, 2021, 10:54am

In the code, it’s assumed that every page in pages has a day, week, theme, and readings property. So if, like you mentioned, a page is incomplete in its properties, the code fails.

I used const pages = dv.pages('"teaching/65011 - Reading & Interpreting"').where(f => f.theme && f.readings) to make sure that every page found has both the theme and readings properties - and even that may fail in the case that those pages don’t have a day and week property.

This would be ‘more correct’.

const pages = dv.pages('"teaching/65011 - Reading & Interpreting"').where(f => f.theme && f.readings && f.day && f.week)

Hope this helps!

system · June 27, 2021, 10:54am

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