JSON-defined properties cannot be edited in the new Properties display without being converted to YAML syntax

[shem.raz]

The new Properties docs state that properties can be defined using JSON, however, some inconsistencies in the display of JSON-defined properties (arrays being rendered with their enclosing brackets) and the conversion to YAML seems like an unintended bug of the new properties core plugin. Would be great if this could get fixed, as I’m sure others like myself use JSON syntax for data validation/compatibility or nested data structures.

Many thanks for the awesome app and community!

Steps to reproduce

1. Define file properties using JSON syntax in Source mode, e.g.

{
  "tags": "journal",
  "publish": false
}

2. Switch to Live Preview or Reading mode.

3. Edit the value of a property and save.

4. Switch back to Source mode.

Did you follow the troubleshooting guide?

Y

Expected result

The frontmatter should be updated with the modification, but remain in JSON syntax.

Actual result

The frontmatter is converted to YAML syntax.

[WhiteNoise]

API: processFrontMatter removes string quotes, comments, types, formatting

So we’ve had long debates about this, and it mostly comes down to a trade-off between allowing user to store arbitrary comments and formatting in the YAML, vs making it not painful for plugins to interact with YAML. I will say that it is rather unfortunate that YAML became the most popular way markdown documents store metadata. YAML is difficult to write by hand because it provides way too many options to write the same thing, and there’s a lot of “gotchas” such as reserved keywords, the many m…

[WhiteNoise]

This is not a bug. You can write JSON but it will be rewritten in YAML on edit.

[shem.raz]

Thanks for the reply and clarification! I’m assuming from the linked post that there aren’t any plans for added JSON support - oh well! May have to embrace the switch.