Pros and cons with a system of checklists vs. tag system in templates?

What are your thoughts on this:

I want to have a template for “places” which can include traveling destinations. Then I am wondering wether to use a checklist system or tag system for things like “outdoor/indoor” and " Activity/relax. for example the properties could include a checklist which I check or dont check for outdoor and the same for activity. or I use a system of tags where I use tags like outdoor or indoor and activity or relaxing. Sometimes its a yes or no thing, which would make a checklist system work well. Sometimes I can view certain things like a multi-question. like wherether its sutiable for “businesstrip” for “familytrip” or something like “friends trip” or a combination, the latter would suggest a tag system. However, it could also be done with a checklist system where you just check or dont check on " familytrip" and businesstrip and so one.

Later I want to be able to create lists of these destinations based on various searches using dataview and/or bookmarked searches.

What do you see the prod and cons with the various systems? Personallay I can see that if I use a checklist system then I dont need to remember all the tags. the questions are all there. However the list might get quite long.

Still curious about other people’s thoughts on this.

Do you use tags or properties to be able to use dataview to create various lists that you need? What are pros and cons with the different methods according to you?

I mostly use tags for optimisation in dataview. I might make a #place tag for example, which will quickly discard the mass of other notes when I’m just interested in locations.
Filtering out stuff in FROM before applying a WHERE makes a big difference to the speed.

Tags are also handy to avoid having to make strict decisions about data. Somewhere might be good for both a business trip or a family trip, and I wouldn’t want to have to choose, as you’ve noted.

On the other hand properties let you structure more complex data, for example this from my Casablanca note:

---
tags: media
media:
  type: film
  published: 1951-12-26
  genre: 
    - drama
    - romance
    - war
credit:
  - name: Michael Curtiz
    role: director
  - name: Humphrey Bogart
    character: Rick Blaine
    role: actor
  - name: Ingrid Bergman
    character: Ilsa Lund
    role: actor
...
---

either way, you can get at the data easily in dataview.

Thanks for the response

I am not an export on properties and frontmatter so some of my questions might be off. But I see that you use one tag which is “media”, and then the rest is just various properties ( dont know if that is the right name) which can have various values. for example “name” can have a value which is the name, for example Michael Curtiz or Ingrid Bergman and so on.

I am thinking this gives yet another option. I can define the overall property aspect where the value is either “outdoor” or indoor" for example I can call it “setting” or perhaps: “OutorIn” or something like that. In that case is there a way to create a reminder what I am supposed to fill in here. that the property setting wants to be filled out with either indoor or outdoor ( I should be able to remember of course but I also see that all my templates might have tons of these properties which might be a bit vague and could be confusing after a while when I have many of them)

What I was thinking before was to create various properties which I assign as true or false. For example Outdoor: true, Indoor: false. OR I can use a tag system.

You are right regarding some places being suitable for both business and family but perhaps then there should be the option to choose “both” in some way.

Also I was curious about the formatting of your metadata so I copied that into the frontmatter in a note, and I got weird results. How do you do subcategories like that within the properties of a note? Any recommendations on learning about frontmatter and properties

you wrote: Tags are also handy to avoid having to make strict decisions about data. Somewhere might be good for both a business trip or a family trip, and I wouldn’t want to have to choose, as you’ve noted." So do you mean that you might add both business and family as tags to a location to show that the place might work for both?

yep, you could have a #business tag and a #family tag that will give you the benefits of both without any interference.

One tip I would give is to make sure settings > editor > properties in document to source:

This makes it easier to work with nested yaml.

some handy threads that mention nested yaml:

Let me know if you get stuck with something

Thanks for the advice and links! It creates a great mixture between feeling slightly overwhelmed together with excited about the learning possibilities. That’s when I know it’s a good challange to tackle :slight_smile:
Just knowing that it’s called nested yaml helps.

Trying to look into database folder plugin. I get the feeling it can help here as well. Do you use that?

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I’ve not personally looked into it; so far I have gotten most of what I need from dataview and templater. Let me know if you discover something useful!

Sure, will do. Trying to learn 10 things at once here so I will see when knowledge is up to sharable levels…

Do you know if there is a way to only see properties in source mode IF there is nested YAML, because currently I do prefer the properties view. Which also has a nice header if I choose to hide it.

I don’t believe there is, unfortunately!
but I don’t see the yaml anymore, just blonde, brunette, redhead…

ofcourse! The matrix is a blessing.

Well I guess it would be good if there was a plugin that could toggle the view on and off because then it could be done with a key command. Might there be a plugin which can change settings like this? I dont know the plugin Commander well enough but as far as I know it cant do that.

one thing you can do is have the “properties in document” pane open on the side do you can see the nicely formatted properties at a glance

Hey that sounds nice. How do you get that? I am stucked with the “all properties” which is just a list of all the properties that excists in my whole vault dont know how to toggle and switch between these. Infact the right pane is a bit of a mystery to me. Cant find the setting for it, just know that I can drag things there like the local graph view but dont know hot to turn on or off things there properly. where do I find the settings for this pane?


in the command palette, “show file properties” should give you what you need

wow, that was a hidden secret for me. thanks

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