Hello! New Obsidian user here. Absolutely loving the flexibility of the app so far and I’m amazed every time I learn something new I can do with it.
Note: I want to say upfront that I am not a programmer. I’m an artist who wants to learn a few programming languages (but haven’t had the time yet).
I am decently good at following clear instructions and have been able to pick up various types of syntax pretty fast/tweak existing scripts when I’m using them for a project, but beyond that I lack solid background knowledge so I apologize if any of the following questions are silly or obvious.
I am currently building a sort of combined wiki/database of addons for a very old game, so I can have a personal reference on what each addon does, who made it, and what files are associated with it. Some necessary context:
The way addons are typically installed in this game is downloading a zip file, extracting it, and just manually moving the contents to the correct folders (Images, Sounds, Genetics, Bootstrap, Catalogue, My Agents, etc.).
Sometimes an addon zip may contain multiple different files that all need to go in different places (plus usually a readme.txt), and I’d like to be able to keep track of which individual files are associated with which addon package.
My plan involves 3 parts:
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Build the wiki (a note for each addon, also build a database from these with properties that allow me to easily filter by addon type, creator, etc.). Easy.
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Create a full master archive of all my addons by placing them all in a folder in Obsidian. Each addon will get their own subfolder that contains all the files related to that addon (basically, the folder that was created when I extracted the zip). On each addon’s wiki page, I’ll list the names of each associated file and link to the addon’s folder. So I can browse my collection via obsidian and then jump right to the correct files when I want to install one.
- Some questions about part 2:
- Obviously I can list the files manually, but (since there are over 1k files in between all these addons) can I somehow auto-list the contents of a folder even if the files aren’t formats Obsidian can open? I don’t need Obsidian to be able to read/run them, just grab the file names (with the extension included).
- I haven’t tested this yet–will clicking this link open the folder in Obsidian, or Finder (I’m on macOS for reference)? I would assume I want it to do the latter since I need to be able to see even the files Obsidian can’t work with, so I can copy them into my game folders when I want to install an addon.
- Related to the above, what exactly happens if I place files NOT compatible with/readable by Obsidian in my vault? Will it just not show them in the sidebar and not show previews of them anywhere? Or could I potentially break my vault by doing this?
- It would be neat to be able to open the readme files from within Obsidian (which are typically just txt files) but if necessary I can just keep the addon archive folders out of the vault.
- I’d still ideally like an easy way to click a link and have the folder open in Finder so I can go straight from the wiki page or addon database in obsidian, to the actual location of the files, if possible (are symlinks the way? If those folders never get moved?)
- This is the part I’m less confident about: I would love to also have a little indicator somewhere on each addon note, or in a column of the database table, that states whether or not I have that addon’s files installed.
- I assume I essentially need a script or something that indexes the external game folders, checks for the presence of the file in question, and returns a TRUE/FALSE value based on whether or not the file is present?
I’ve been searching the forums and community plugins page and haven’t yet found a plugin that does this. Is this even possible to do with Obsidian, or perhaps possible to do with an external app and then pass the info into Obsidian?
- I assume I essentially need a script or something that indexes the external game folders, checks for the presence of the file in question, and returns a TRUE/FALSE value based on whether or not the file is present?