I couldn’t find a way to download/save multiple files at once, unfortunately. The alternative is that I could download the files without prompting to memory / a local db then zip them up into a single file and you get prompted on where to put that.
That adds the overhead of then having to unzip the file, also.
Another option might be to communicate with an external app to transfer the files, which would require the building of said app. There is potential to build this in Obsidian with the recently released plugin API, but I haven’t looked into it enough to know how/if this would work.
The way I have things configured right now, if you have the browser set to not always ask for a download directory, but you set the option in the extension to show the save as dialog, it should ask you where to download the markdown file to, and then it will save the images relative to that path (I think). But this requires you to have the browser setting set differently, and I understand that can be an unacceptable compromise.
(Your issue about it not remembering the last used directory is different and something I will look into a bit more).
Well, to me, caching the files and then zipping them for download doesn’t really seem to be worth the effort. You’d have to write and test the code. And the already mentioned added overhead of unpacking the thing afterwards adds another friction to the workflow.
A communication with a possible Obsidian plugin actually appears to make more sense to me. But don’t rush that. Let the API settle in first. Later maybe one could ponder over a dedicated Obsidian web clipper perhaps similar to the one coming with DevonThink. That would offer a total different range of possibilities.
So far, after having played with your web clipper and Obsidian for a while now, I will say, the workflow is pretty good. Having to acknowledge every single file for download creates less friction than initially expected. At this point again thank you for investing your time in this
I would say, if you find a way for your web clipper to remember the last used directory, that would be the cherry on top.
For anything else or more, I’d look into the possibilities the Obsidian plugin API will offer
Thanks for the feedback, it helps clear things up for me. You’re right that this extension should stay generic and could potentially form the basis of an eventual Obsidian-specific web clipper.
I will definitely look into seeing what I can do about keeping the same download folder, but at the moment don’t know what the limits are.
In the situation I’m describing, I have the browser set to always download to a specific folder and not ask me where it should download, which is an important caveat at this stage.
If you check the option to “Download images alongside markdown files” and set an image prefix that includes one or more forward slashes (/) like the following:
Then the images should download to the specified folder.
To run through an example, say your downloads folder was ~/downloads, and you’re clipping an article named “Writing in Markdown”. In the MarkDownload settings, say you specify your title template to be clippings/{title} and you have download images on and the filename prefix set to images/{title}/img_.
In this case, the markdown file should be downloaded to ~/downloads/clippings/Writing in Markdown.md and the images should all be downloaded to ~/downloads/clippings/images/Writing in Markdown/img_<filename>.<ext>
I see, so I can keep them separate nested in “download” folder (without selecting a path for every file every time) and I can just move them manually into my vault from time to time. That reduces a lot of friction, almost as good as accepting an absolute path to save the files. Cool!
I found a little problem tho, giving images/{title}/img_ is going to save it into ~/downloads//images/Writing in Markdown/img_<filename>.<ext> not ~/downloads/clippings/images/Writing in Markdown/img_<filename>.<ext>.
That is a bit of a problem because if I want to correct it by giving it clippings/images/{title}/img_ as the input, the relative path inside the markdown file would mess up and it doesn’t shows the Images (Because the image folder should be just beside the .md file I suppose).
My md file template is 00-Clippings/{title} and my Image template is 00-Clippings/images/{title}_img_ , just like you said. I think you should add the folder path automatically to image template. and also it should only allowed to be /image/imagename.jpg in md code, nothing longer.
Right now I have set the image code to be like this
Which works fine as I am opening the “clippings” folder with Obsidian as a vault. But if I choose the other two options I am going to have a problem.
I didn’t like having to manually move the downloaded files into my vault, so I created a very rudimentary Obsidian plugin to do it with one click. I scans your downloads folder for Markdown files, and copies them into a configurable location (such as an “Inbox” folder) in your vault. It even works. I’ll post the code later.
I’ve been looking into it and there are some limitations. So far I’ve been unable to get image downloads working in Safari, but apart from that it’s all working, I think.
Just need to a bit more testing and tidy up (hopefully soon ) and then go through the process of pushing it up through Apple.
Also, just so you’re aware, I will be charging for this on Safari (in an attempt to cover the Apple publishing costs, at least a little), but it will only be a one-off payment of a small amount, no subscriptions or anything.
WOW! Thank you so much for contributing this awesome extension. Before I found it I was manually doing what it does, and it was SUCH a pain. I just wanted to express my gratitude. You are truly made of awesomesauce! x)
I am only getting a guid like filename with oob extension options. Am using Windows, with newest flavor of chrome and edge exhibiting the same issue. What be I doing wrong?
I’ll post the code later.
) and then go through the process of pushing it up through Apple.