Need help with Templater script

Developers: Plugin & API
1

Hi, I need a little help with the Templater script, that I have found online. I am not a developer myself, but can read the code though :wink: What I am missing to debug it myself is the understanding of Obsidian objects and methods (could not find any documentation on that online).

So here is the script:
<%*
const randomEvergreenNotes = []

app.metadataCache.getCachedFiles().forEach(filename => { // get all filenames in the vault and iterate through all of them, calling a function for each of them
let { tags } = app.metadataCache.getCache(filename) // get the tags in the  file w/ the given name
tags = (tags || []).filter(t => t.tag && "#evergreen" === t.tag) // filter out all tags that are not "#evergreen"
    
if (tags.length > 0) { 
  randomEvergreenNotes.push(filename.slice(13, filename.length - 3)) // removes first 13 characters (03-evergreen/) then cuts off last three characters from filename (.md)
    }
})

// loop through and display 5 random notes
var i = 0
do {
    const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * randomEvergreenNotes.length)
    tR += `- [[${randomEvergreenNotes[randomIndex]}]]` + "\r\n"
    i++
} while (i<5)

%>

It is supposed to create a list of links to 5 random notes tagged with the #evergreen tag. Instead, it returns a list of 5 links to [[undefined]] page. I do have a few notes tagged with the #evergreen tag but it looks like it cannot find them.
Appreciate any input to help debug this problem.

Many thanks

2

I guess your tags was written in front-matter, I’m I right?

tags field of app.metadataCache.getCache()'s return only contain tags written in article.

Use frontmatter.tags instead if you write tags in front-matter. which means change the second line of code with let { tags } = app.metadataCache.getCache(filename).frontmatter

1 Like
3

Hi,

as I am going through the same script and I am using the tags in frontmatter as well, this makes total sense and I have changed it as you described. However, once I make this change I am getting an error message in the console regarding the next line of code, saying that

(tags || []).filter is not a function

The total code of that line is:

tags = (tags || []).filter(t => t.tag && "#evergreen" === t.tag)

I have tried various changes, but none of them worked. Any idea, what I am doing wrong here?

Thanks a lot!

4

Sorry my bad

app.metadataCache.getCache(filename).frontmatter

should be

app.metadataCache.getCache(filename).frontmatter.tags

5

Wow - thank you, that was very quick!
I am sure I am missing something here, but I am receiving now a new error message, which I do not understand. It says:

Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'tags')

However, I thought that the line before:

let { tags } = app.metadataCache.getCache(filename)

actually defines tags, as it refers to the metadata, which should include frontmatter, right?

6

Yes right.

You may should check return value of let { tags } = app.metadataCache.getCache(filename), if it returns null it’s mean your have something wrong with filename, your filename should have .md as its extend name.

1 Like