- This plugin could find and surface all YouTube links in the entire vault.
- Auto-generate a video note for that YouTube video.
- Automatically convert any markdown URL links to that same video, to a Obsidian wikilink pointing to the “video note”.
Defining Terms
- video note: a note in our vault about a YouTube video
- YouTube ID: A YouTube URL looks like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ySbzVXiwzQ&list=PLrAXtmErZgOdEfD2VtObCncE4psXYAcpq&index=1
. This section is the parameter for the id of the video:v=_ySbzVXiwzQ
which means that this video’s unique identifier is_ySbzVXiwzQ
.
Motivation
I often find a YouTube video that I would like to save somewhere in my vault. I might just want to link directly to the YouTube URL.
But later I might want to take deeper notes on that same video, so I create a new note in Obsidian.[1] Now, I can take great time-stamped notes, and link my note to any other relevant area in the vault!
But! If I’ve already added this YouTube URL in other places in my vault, then those idea connections already exist but it doesn’t surface to me automatically.
Using This Plugin
How could this plugin help? It would add these commands:
- Open or create video note from YouTube URL
- Place the cursor inside of a YouTube URL in your vault. Run the command. Then the plugin will:
- create a new video note in your vault. The video note (which follows your template) will include a
youtube_id
property pointing to the YouTube ID of the video. The plugin will fetch the metadata from the YouTube video, (title, publish date etc.) from YouTube, and then place it in the properties of the video note (according to your template). - convert your YouTube URL to a wikilink, so that
[video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ySbzVXiwzQ)
becomes[[Notes on a YouTube Video|video]]
. (Notice how the original textvideo
is preserved with custom display text. - If a video note with the same YouTube ID already exists, then the command will simply open that note.
- create a new video note in your vault. The video note (which follows your template) will include a
- Place the cursor inside of a YouTube URL in your vault. Run the command. Then the plugin will:
- Convert YouTube URL to wikilink
- Show YouTube backlinks: Inspired by the core Backlinks plugin. Running this command shows a view with Linked Mentions and Unlinked Mentions. A linked mention is any wikilink pointing to that video note. An unlinked mention is any YouTube URL that has the same YouTube ID as the current video note.
- Each unlinked mention has a Link button. Clicking this link will convert that unlinked mention into a linked mention.
A little off topic: I typically “capture” the YouTube video using the Obsidian Web Clipper browser extension. The template includes a
media_link
property which receives the YouTube URL. This is so that Media Notes plugin will automatically add in the YouTube player, and adds in super useful keyboard shortcuts for note-taking, video control, and adding time-stamped notes. ↩︎