Show .md files in a timeline

RalfW · August 27, 2020, 1:44pm

Since for the time being Obsidian does not include a timeline view of all files I whipped up a small app myself: MarkdownFileTimeline (mft)

You can download a .NET Core 3.1 release here: https://github.com/Programming-with-Ease/MarkdownFileTimeline/releases/tag/1.0.0.0

Install .NET Core for all platforms from here
Download release zip and unpack in a folder, maybe close to your Obsidian notes
Run mft like this: dotnet exec <path to>/mft.dll <path to .md file directory root>

Hope this works for you like it does for me. I just checked it on my MacBook. Here’s an example of how it looks:

Enjoy!

Klaas · August 27, 2020, 4:15pm

@RalfW: nice initiative, Ralf. I am on macOS, and tried to run it, but this is what I get:

-bash: <path to>/mft.1.0.0.0/mft.dll: cannot execute binary file

I thought it was mft.dll was not authorised, so in the terminal I changed directory to the mft.1.0.0.0 folder, then did chmod +x mft.dll. I got the same feedback.

RalfW · August 29, 2020, 3:07pm

Have a look at the readme.md in the repo. There are installation instructions.

In any case you need to run the program by calling the runtime, eg dotnet exec mft.dll .

Both mft.dll and the root directory specified after it can be given a path, eg dotnet exec subdir/mft.dll /User/xyz/documents/notes

Hope this helps.

Klaas · August 29, 2020, 4:01pm

@RalfW: I don’t see a readme.md, neither in the repo nor in the folder I unzipped. I read your instructions in your OP, and followed them to the letter. I just tried again, now get a different message: The application to execute does not exist.

Strange, because dotnet is installed, I checked - see screenshot.
mft

den · August 30, 2020, 3:00am

You can / need to download a .NET Core 3.1 … ehmmm.

RalfW · August 31, 2020, 1:39pm

Here’s the readme.md. It’s the default file of the repo. But the installation instructions are the same

Please check the path you’re using in your example. It does not look right with mft.1.0.0.. There is a final 0 missing, I’d say. Why not copy it to a very simply named directory like xxx first?

Several people have installed it in the meantime and none had this kind of problem. Also, please download the latest release first.

RalfW · August 31, 2020, 1:40pm

Well, others require you to download heaps of JS packages But it’s a free world. No hurt feelings if you don’t like runtime downloads.

den · August 31, 2020, 2:57pm

I’m almost finished with Python script

Klaas · August 31, 2020, 3:04pm

mft.1.0.0. was an error, but if you look at the screenshot again you’ll see that I tried a 2nd run with mft.1.0.0.0.

RalfW · September 1, 2020, 7:45am

Try it with path names other than those with %20 in them.

Klaas · September 1, 2020, 8:45am

@RalfW: I should have put NO\ NAME instead. It works.
Couple of questions:

what is the meaning of the number of lines? Does it mean the number of lines amended in the file , or the total number of lines of text in the file?
in my list the script returns some file names as ._filename: what does that mean?

RalfW · September 2, 2020, 6:03am

Glad it works!

The number of lines is the number of lines in the file.

Sorry, I don’t understand what you mean by ._filename. Only files with their filenames ending in .md should be listed (with the extension removed). Maybe you can provide a screenshot? (We can continue the conversation with DMs, if you like.)

Klaas · September 2, 2020, 6:25am

@RalfW
Here’s a screenshot:

I can assure you those ._filename files do not occur in the folder.
We can continue this with DMs, but then in the Discord channel, because I find using DMs on the forum too long-winded and frustrating.

RalfW · September 4, 2020, 5:30am

We can try Discord. Ping me there: ralfw#2959. I’ll have an eye on it for a while. Usually I’m not using Discord.