What I’m trying to do
I am using Obsidian as a glider aircraft logbook, recording information about components, maintenance activity, mandatory airworthiness directives (AD’s) , manuals etc.
It is so much nicer than using the paper logbook or a spreadsheet! I can pull up a component and see a full history of work done, any relevant AD’s and if they’ve been complied with and even the manual if it has one. Or I can look at a system and see a list linking to all the components in that system and also to all AD’s relating to that system. Or I can pull up eg Wing and see all the components in the wing and all the AD’s etc.
Saves hours of hunting through 10, 20, or 50 years of paper logbook records to find out when something was last done! Look for it once, transfer the info to Obsidian and now it’s at my finger tips whenever I need it next.
There are folders for: Components, Reference material (manuals, AD’s) and one that holds Notes that amalgamate info using Dataview (eg I can select Electrics and every electrical component is listed, or I could pick Panel and all the instruments are shown, pneumatic or electric)
I have Notes for every component (eg. aileron, rudder, altimeter …). These notes have frontmatter for the system involved (flight controls, electronics, structure …) and the location (wing, fuselage, tail …).
The Reference folder mostly contains PDF’s. In order to link the PDF to the relevant component or system I create a ‘Sidecar’ file that holds key data about the PDF - which Component & System it relates to, if it’s an AD then has it been complied with & on what date, a link to the PDF, a link to the relevant component and a brief (one line) summary of the PDF topic.
Every year the aircraft have to undergo an inspection, all relevant AD’s have to be checked, various measurements recorded and any work documented. All this has to be recorded in the official Aircraft Logbook (paper).
I am trying to come up with a good system using Dataview to collate all records of actions across every Component into a single Note so I can print it at the end of the Annual Inspection and glue & staple it into the official logbook. Currently that works adequately but is quite dependent on users strictly adhering to the correct use of lists and tags.
I’m now trying to work out how to make this all work more easily for people not familiar with Obsidian.
Basically I’m trying to figure how to put some sort of “UI” into the system so there are buttons or commands visible to the user to do the common things - add a record of work done, create a sidecar file for a newly added PDF, create a new Component using the relevant template and so on.
Things I have tried
I am using the following Community Plugins:
Dataview - populates all the amalgamated data Notes, and more.
Templater - two main templates, one that helps to create the PDF ‘Sidecar’ file, one that inserts the Dataview code to generate the list of AD’s relating to a component.
QuickAdd - Runs the ‘Sidecar’ creating steps.
PDF++ - Used by QuickAdd to create a new Note linking to the currently displayed PDF
For collating work done during Annual Inspections I am currently relying on a slightly clunky method where the work has to be put in a List with a Tag on each list item marking it as Annual Inspection activity and which year, eg #AI_24
This is the only way I’ve found that lets Dataview grab the content as well as the metadata.
It seems a bit fragile though - the inspector only has to forget to either use a list item or to tag every item and it all falls over. I’d love to be able to tag an entire list, then have Dataview collect all the items in that list, but I don’t think that’s possible.
A button for “AI activity” that adds a list item and tags it would be useful for instance.
I’ve seen a few different ways to create buttons, but am hoping for some direction before spending time delving into any of them too much.