Deluxe On-This-Day Base for daily notes

Share & showcase
1

I wanted to share this deluxe On This Day Base, for daily notes.

Pasted image 20260323193231
Pasted image 202603231932311522×380 36.5 KB

I call it deluxe, because it does three things (via different Views):

  1. Shows notes from this day on preceding years.

  2. Shows all files created on this day (but not preceding years)

  3. Shows all files modified on this day (but not preceding years)

These last two items provide a fun heatmap of activity. I didn’t know if it would be useful, but I actually really like having the ability to see what I was doing on any given day in my vault.

(I posted this thread yesterday evening, but realized there was an error in the base code which I didn’t have time to fix last night, so I deleted the thread. I fixed it today and am reposting now).

Features:

  • 3 Different Views in one Base.

  • 100% Retroactive. Activate a template with this Base into any daily note ever, and all three Views will work for that day.

  • 100% native functionality. No plugins required.

  • Works with plugins such as Calendar plugin. Haven’t tested others.

Requirements:

  • Daily note date format needs to be: YYYY-MM-DD (Haven’t tried other formats)

How to use it:

IMPORTANT: Paste the Base code (below) into a template file, such as your daily note template (not a standalone base file). It can ONLY work correctly if activated by inserting via a native Obsidian template, or creating a daily note in the calendar plugin. (Templater not required, not tested, but should work.)

  1. TELL IT HOW TO FIND YOUR DAILY NOTES: I use #dailynote tag to on all my daily notes, so the Base uses this tag to include and exclude daily notes from Views.

    1. Make the following edits to the Base IN YOUR TEMPLATE FILE. (Don’t worry that this Base is currently showing nothing - it isn’t suppose to.)

    2. You need to change this in (2) separate views:

    3. On This Day > Filter > This View: Point it at your daily notes.

    4. Created This Day > Filter > This View: Point it at your daily notes so that it EXCLUDES them.

  2. Go into any daily note, and invoke the template. This will automatically fill in the correct dates in the Base.

  3. That’s it. It should automatically populate the base Views with the correct daily/other notes, if your date format is correct and you told it how to find your daily notes.

Troubleshooting:

  • No daily notes are showing up in the On This Day view!
    • On This Day only shows daily notes from years other than the present. Do you have a daily note from this exact date on a previous year?
  • No notes are showing up in the Created On This Day/Modified This Day!
    • Be sure you actually had notes created on modified on that day. A good way to test the basic functionality is to invoke the template into Today’s daily note, then go create and/or modify a note at the same time, to confirm it shows up. If no notes were created or modified on a date, nothing will show up.

Credit:

  • The basic On This Day functionality was pieced together from existing snippets folks have shared over the years.

  • The ‘Created This Day’ and ‘Modified This Day’ were created with Claude.

  • Theme: Retroma

  • No AI used on this post.

Pasted image 20260323193327
Pasted image 202603231933271572×447 42 KB

Pasted image 20260323193247
Pasted image 202603231932471544×322 30.2 KB

Pasted image 20260323193312
Pasted image 202603231933121553×520 65.1 KB

```base
formulas:
  on_this_day: |-
    if(date(file.name).month == date(this.file.name).month, if(date(file.name).day == date(this.file.name).day, if(date(file.name).year != date(this.file.name).year,
     "True", "False"), "False"), "False")
  modified: file.mtime.format("hh:mm A - MMMM DD, YYYY")
  created: file.ctime.format("hh:mm A - MMMM DD, YYYY")
properties:
  file.name:
    displayName: Day
  formula.modified:
    displayName: Last Edited
  formula.created:
    displayName: Created
views:
  - type: table
    name: On This Day
    filters:
      and:
        - file.hasTag("dailynote")
        - formula.on_this_day == "True"
    order:
      - file.name
      - formula.modified
    sort:
      - property: file.name
        direction: DESC
      - property: formula.on_this_day
        direction: DESC
  - type: table
    name: Created This Day
    filters:
      and:
        - file.ctime.date() == date(this.file.name).date()
        - '!file.hasTag("dailynote")'
    order:
      - file.name
      - formula.created
    sort:
      - property: file.name
        direction: ASC
  - type: table
    name: Modified This Day
    filters:
      and:
        - file.mtime.date() == date(this.file.name).date()
    order:
      - file.name
      - formula.modified
    sort:
      - property: file.name
        direction: ASC
```
4 Likes