Properties: Support multi-level YAML (nested attributes)

Feature requests
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42

Cool! Thanks for the explanation :slight_smile: would the Properties editor basically indicate that YAML is nested simply by indentation, as in source?

43

+1 for nested properties!

44

+1 from me

45

The new features of the properties are nice to have, with easier selection, and the ability to organize the properties. However, the lack of support for nested attributes is a deal-breaker for me to use the new Properties features.

1 Like
46

With a little regex knowledge it would not be hard to mash together the parts (of the keys before colons) belonging together.
Lacking that, even a chat robot below 4.0 could still do it. Then in VSCode or Notepad++, make the replacements.

47

That doesn’t solve the request at all. Especially since workflows like Pandoc exports expect a certain yaml metadata structure.

1 Like
48

I’m not “against” the FR. More like “for” the people who try to find fault with Obsidian putting a cramp in their cozy workflows.

49

To rehash the old expression:

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I’ll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.

Yes, it’s certainly possible to utilize a “key_nestedKey_” structure and parse out the nesting into unique values…
But… It’s almost always the wrong tool, especially when something like nested YAML, lists of dicts, etc, exist.

Personally I’m more interested in discovering what the “correct” solution would be than I am in getting features added…
family_mother_name: isn’t it because it isn’t going to be supported by queries easily at all. It also isn’t expandable without a ton of work. (family_stepmother_name: for example)

This won’t work either, because you can’t attach data to the relationship.

family:
  - [[mothers_name]]
  - [[fathers_name]]

at least not without a lot of cross-file inference from things like both the mother and father’s pages having a “children” list and determining the relationships that way.

To my mind the ideal probably looks something like:

family:
  - relationship: mother
    record: [[mothers_name]]
  - relationship: father
    record: [[fathers_name]]

but that’s probably because I have years of building relational databases clogging up my brain and I want to force things into that structure.

Organizing metadata is clearly a topic that a lot of us are thinking about and doing in different ways. It would be very helpful to know what the Obsidian devs were thinking about this issue so that we could start aligning with what will be the expected way that development is marching towards. :slight_smile:

5 Likes
50

Thanks, Josh, you are right. There are many unknowns down the road of regex and it’s not fair or prudent to send people down that road. There is a fair degree of chance people merge multiple parts and end up removing others.
But you see, most people stop being pro-active and taking a personal interest when they see that somebody is “on it”.

I just think in metadata (that nobody sees other than ourselves) it is okay to be repetitive.
E.g.:

family_member:
  - mother
  - father
 family_member_name: 
  - "[[mothers_name]]"
  - "[[fathers_name]]"
  • Actually, it was laid out above. Of course there are other ways but programatically we want the best that suits everyone, including those on personal and commercial level.

I do agree though that we need to keep hitting the Properties and YAML irons while they are hot, otherwise the devs’ focus will shift to other topics.
It’s even possible some plugin makers will beat them to it.

But because there are some Database plans in the works and metadata plays a huge part in that, I suspect this YAML upgrade will have be addressed and the time is about right to make the transition. We don’t know what’s going on.
(And there is also DataCore; not sure where DataCore is at at the moment.)
So fingers crossed.