Quickly create a Kanban board with many linked notes using Dataview and Templater

(originally posted in the Discord #plugins-advanced channel)

A cool trick :cool::tm:

Want to list a bunch of linked notes in a kanban board (courtesy of @mgmeyers)? If you’re like me, the thought of typing out a hundred linked pages will leave you out of breath and make your thumbs ache.

Well, good news for your lungs and thumbs: create giant linked lists of notes in seconds with the help of @blacksmithgu’s Dataview and SilentVoid’s Templater!

  1. Set up a Templater template using the “Paste clipboard into list of wikilinks” template found here: https://github.com/SilentVoid13/Templater/discussions/173

  2. Use the following Dataview query to generate a list of notes. Edit the WHERE line to search for whatever you want:

LIST
WHERE contains(file.name, "ᐤ△")
SORT file.name asc
  1. Switch to preview. Select the list, then copy it to your clipboard.

  2. Open the Kanban board as a markdown note:

    • Switch to your kanban board.
    • Click the board’s ⫶ menu.
    • Click “Open as Markdown” to get a markdown view of the kanban board.
  3. Under whatever heading you’d like, insert the template you created in (1).

The result will be a list of the notes you generated via the Dataview query above, formatted perfectly for your kanban list.

12 Likes

An even simpler option—you don’t actually need Dataview or Templater.

Obsidian’s core search includes a Copy Search Results button:
Screen Shot 2021-05-11 at 2.45.41 PM

Enter a query and tap that button, then use the appropriate link style and a - list prefix:

Copy the results, then follow step 4 above. Finally, paste the copied search results. :tada:

If you need help building complex search queries, try the Vantage plugin.

The dataview+templater workflow described above may still be handy if you need to search for something more complex than core search parameters can do.

7 Likes

thanks for the hacks, they are helpful.

do you know why Kanban can’t work with embedded dataview queries, and if this limitation will ever be overcome?

am I asking too much? :smiling_face_with_tear:

The functionality just hasn’t been built out. It is non-trivial, but there is a feature request (or several) for it in the Kanban GitHub repo.

e.g.,

1 Like