maxedmands / vscode-markdown-notes

VSCode extension for Zettelkasten-style note taking

Zettelkasten Markdown Notes for VS Code

This package is a fork of the excellent vscode-markdown-notes package, made to be a bit more compatible for Zettelkasten workflows introduced by apps like Zettlr or The Archive.

Warning: Ideally I'd love to get these merged into the upstream, and if that happens, this package will be deprecated in favor of the original. Publishing it this way now because I'd like to make use of the changes I made!

Features:

• Use [[wiki-links]], backlinks, and #tags for fast-navigation of markdown notes.
• Automatically create notes from new inline [[wiki-links]].
• Autocomplete to any files in the directory when you start typing a [[link]]
• Add timestamp-based IDs before all new files that get generated
• Generate new IDs with a command

Bring some of the awesome features from apps like Notational Velocity, nvalt, Bear, FSNotes, Obsidian to VS Code, where you also have (1) Vim key bindings and (2) excellent extensibility.

Install from the VSCode Marketplace.

[[wiki-links]]

A popular feature in Roam Research and Bear is the ability to quickly reference other notes using "Cross-Note Links" in the [[wiki-link]] style.

Markdown Notes provides syntax highlighting, auto-complete, Go to Definition (editor.action.revealDefinition), and Peek Definition (editor.action.peekDefinition) support for wiki-links to notes in a workspace.

By default, the extension assumes each markdown file in a workspace has a unique name, so that note.md will resolve to the file with this name, regardless of whether or not this file exists in any subdirectory path. This tends to be a bit cleaner, but if you want support for multiple files with the same name, in settings.json set "vscodeMarkdownNotes.workspaceFilenameConvention": "relativePaths", and you'll get completions like note1/note.md and ../note2/note.md.

#tags

Syntax highlighting for #tags.

New Note command

Provides a command for quickly creating a new note.

You can bind this to a keyboard shortcut by adding to your keybindings.json:

    {
        "key": "alt+shift+n",
        "command": "vscodeMarkdownNotes.newNote",
    },

New ID command

Provides a new commmand for quickly adding a new ID to the active editor

You can bind this to a keyboard shortcut by adding to your keybindings.json:

    {
        "key": "alt+shift+i",
        "command": "vscodeMarkdownNotes.generateNewId",
    },

Screenshots

Create New Note On Missing Go To Definition

Intellisense Completion for Wiki Links, uniqueFilenames

Intellisense Completion for Wiki Links, relativePaths

Backlinks Explorer Panel

Syntax Highlighting for Tags and Wiki Links

Peek and Go to Definition for Wiki Links

Peek References to Wiki Links

Peek References to Tag

Find All References to Wiki Links

Find All References to Tag

cmd+shift+f to Search Workspace for Notes with Tag

New Note Command

dev

Run npm install first.

TODO

• Provide better support for ignore patterns, eg, don't complete file.md if it is within ignored_dir/
• Add option to complete files without extension, to [[file]] vs file.md
• Should we support links to headings? eg, file.md#heading-text?

Development and Release

Test

For focused jest tests,

• install: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=kortina.run-in-terminal
• and https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vscodevim.vim

Run a focused test with ,rl on a line in a test file, eg line 8, which will make a call to:

./jest-focused.sh ./src/test/jest/extension.test.ts:8

to run only the test at that line. NB, you will also need these bindings for ,rl

To run all tests,

npx jest

All tests are headless.

Release

To create a new release,

npm install
# bump version number in package.json
npm run vpackage # package the release, creates vsix
npm run vpublish # publish to store, see https://code.visualstudio.com/api/working-with-extensions/publishing-extension
# Will prompt for Azure Devops Personal Access Token, get fresh one at:
# https://dev.azure.com/andrewkortina/
# On "Error: Failed Request: Unauthorized(401)"
# see: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-vsce/issues/11
# The reason for returning 401 was that I didn't set the Accounts setting to all accessible accounts.

To install the vsix locally:

1. Select Extensions (Ctrl + Shift + X)
2. Open More Action menu (ellipsis on the top) and click Install from VSIX…
3. Locate VSIX file and select.
4. Reload VSCode.

Helpful Links

• completion: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-extension-samples/blob/master/completions-sample/src/extension.ts
• syntax: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/creating-a-legacy-textmate-grammar/
• vscode syntax: https://code.visualstudio.com/api/language-extensions/syntax-highlight-guide