Journal Templates

[sez11a]

Hi!

I'm working on converting from Logseq over to wiki.vim, due to my desire to keep everything in Markdown and human-readable. I read with interest the documentation on templates, but I'm not sure I get how to make them work.

I'm using Neovim with the Lazy package manager. I converted the setup for journals in the docs over to Lua:

return {
  {
  'lervag/wiki.vim',
    config = function()
      vim.g.wiki_journal = {
        name = 'journal',
        root = '',
        frequency = 'daily',
        date_format = {
          daily = '%Y/%m/%d',
          weekly = '%Y/week_%V',
          monthly = '%Y/%m/summary',
        },
      }
    end
  },
  {
  'lervag/lists.vim',
  }
}

Using this setup, I want to make a template for both the monthly and the daily journal. The docs mention a file called .template.md, but it's not clear where to put it, and it's not clear what to do if you want multiple templates (i.e., one for monthly and one for daily).

I am a tech writer, so I would be happy to contribute documentation back in return for some help in setting this up.

Thank you!

--Rich

[lervag]

I'm using Neovim with the Lazy package manager. I converted the setup for journals in the docs over to Lua: …

I assume this is a lazy.nvim configuration. First, you should use the init function to set options. The config block ends up setting the option too late to be fully effective. Also, you don't need to specify things that you don't change from default values. Thus, this should work:

return {
  {
    'lervag/wiki.vim',
    init = function()
      vim.g.wiki_journal = {
        date_format = {
          daily = '%Y/%m/%d',
          weekly = '%Y/week_%V',
          monthly = '%Y/%m/summary',
        },
      }
    end
  },
  {
    'lervag/lists.vim',
  }
}

Notice, though, I would suggest you also define the vim.g.wiki_root option.

Now, the templates are slightly complicated. First, there are builtin templates for the monthly and weekly frequencies that are made to summarize the daily and weekly entries, respectively. These builtin templates will copy contents from the more frequent steps. These templates are really built around my own personal preference/need and may not be what you want.

Let's consider the daily template, or for that matter, just any template you want for a "general" wiki page: you want to use the vim.g.wiki_templates option. As an example:

return {
  {
    'lervag/wiki.vim',
    init = function()
      vim.g.wiki_root = "/home/USER/wiki/.templates"
      vim.g.wiki_templates = {
        {
          match_re = "\d\d\d\d\/\d\d\/\d\d",
          source_filename = "/home/USER/wiki/.templates/daily.md"
        },
      },
    end
  },

where the daily template daily.md could look something like this:

# {name}

# Plans

# Meetings

The relevant parts of the current docs are :help g:wiki_templates and :help wiki-templates-format. The template mechanism is quite flexible. If you are somewhat into programming, you can use a function both for the matcher and the source in the wiki_templates list.

Notice that any wiki pages will only have one template. Thus, if you define a template that matches any weekly or monthly pages, then the builtin tempolates will be deactivated.

I am a tech writer, so I would be happy to contribute documentation back in return for some help in setting this up.

If my help motivates you to suggest improvements to the docs I'll be very happy! :)

[sez11a]

Okay; here's what I've got so far, but it's not working:

return {
  {
  'lervag/wiki.vim',
    init = function()
      vim.g.wiki_journal = {
        name = 'journal',
        root = '',
        frequency = 'daily',
        date_format = {
          daily = '%Y/%m/%d',
          weekly = '%Y/week_%V',
          monthly = '%Y/%m/summary',
        },
      }
      vim.g.wiki_templates = {
        { 
          match_re = "%d%d%d%d/%d%d/%d%d",
          source_filename = "~/.VimStar/wiki/templates/daily.md"
        },
      }
    end
  },
  {
  'lervag/lists.vim',
  }
}

As you can see, I changed the match_re variable because I was getting an Invalid Escape Sequence error. I'm no Lua expert, so I looked it up. According to this page you can do matches for digits with %, not \.

I have my template in the proper location, and I set the wiki location in another file, but I still get a blank file when I use ww to open the journal.

[lervag]

Okay; here's what I've got so far, but it's not working: …

As you can see, I changed the match_re variable because I was getting an Invalid Escape Sequence error.

It is not a Lua pattern, it is a Vim regex. So my version was correct, except it should be [[...]] instead of "...".

Also, not sure why you still include the keys you are not changing from their default values...

So, this should work:

return {
  {
    'lervag/wiki.vim',
    init = function()
      vim.g.wiki_journal = {
        date_format = {
          daily = '%Y/%m/%d',
          weekly = '%Y/week_%V',
          monthly = '%Y/%m/summary',
        },
      }
      vim.g.wiki_templates = {
        {
          match_re = [[\d\d\d\d\/\d\d\/\d\d]],
          source_filename = "/home/USER/wiki/.templates/daily.md"
        },
      },
    end
  },
  {
    'lervag/lists.vim',
  }
}

[sez11a]

Thank you for the correct syntax. For whatever reason, though, I'm still getting a blank file instead of my template when I use the code above.

Also, as far as I can tell, I'm not using the defaults. From your code (which is in my ~/.local/share/nvim/lazy/wiki.vim/plugin/wiki.vim), you have these defaults:

call wiki#init#option('wiki_journal', {
      \ 'name' : 'journal',
      \ 'root' : '',
      \ 'frequency' : 'daily',
      \ 'date_format' : {
      \   'daily' : '%Y-%m-%d',
      \   'weekly' : '%Y_w%V',
      \   'monthly' : '%Y_m%m',
      \ },
      \})

This resulted in a more flat structure for the journal. I preferred what you had in the documentation, which breaks the journal out into year/month directories and then uses the day as the title for the file. That's why I'm specifying that in my configuration.

[lervag]

Thank you for the correct syntax. For whatever reason, though, I'm still getting a blank file instead of my template when I use the code above.

To start, you could try to use a more including regex. E.g., try .*, which should match anything. If that works, then we know the problem is with the regex - if it doesn't work, then the problem is with the template. E.g., perhaps the path you are using is wrong.

Also, as far as I can tell, I'm not using the defaults.

What I mean is that you don't need to specify the keys that you don't change. That is, you are only changing the date_format part, so you don't need to specify name, root and frequency.

---

Btw., I'm not used to the discussion feature on Github. It seems we should have used the comment thread to my initial reply instead of adding new comments. Not really important, just thought I'd mention it.

[sez11a]

Oh, okay. Got it.

Well, I haven't gotten anything to match except for .*, so at least I know my template can be found. I've tried

[[....\/..\/..]]
[[.*\d\d\d\d\/\d\d\/\d\d]]
[[****\/**\/**]] (invalid syntax)
[[*\/*\/*]]
[[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]]

and a bunch of others I don't remember. I'll keep goofing around with it. I'm also no regex expert, so if you have any ideas, I'm all ears. :-)

[sez11a]

BTW, the path is being created as expected:

[lervag]

Ah, sorry, I just remembered - the match_re is only matched against the name, not the path. So, you should do this:

vim.g.wiki_journal = {
  date_format = {
    daily = '%Y/%m/%d',
    weekly = '%Y/week_%V',
    monthly = '%Y/%m/summary',
  },
}
vim.g.wiki_templates = {
  {
    match_func = function(context)
      return context.path_wiki:find "%d%d%d%d/%d%d/%d%d"
    end,
    source_filename = "/path/to/templates/daily.md"
  },
},

Notice, here we use Lua patterns, since we are matching with a Lua function.

[sez11a]

Yes! That did it! Awesome; thank you!

I will write this up (maybe tomorrow) and send you a pull request for the docs.

[lervag]

Great, glad to hear it!