#156 - improved support for index-note-based folder notes

- implementation completed, basic tests done
- needs code review with a fresh head
- needs more regression tests of affected sorting methods

src/custom-sort-plugin.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+import {
+    Plugin
+} from 'obsidian'
+
+export interface CustomSortPluginAPI extends Plugin {
+    indexNoteBasename(): string|undefined
+}

src/custom-sort/custom-sort.ts

@@ -34,10 +34,11 @@ import {
 import {
 	BookmarksPluginInterface
 } from "../utils/BookmarksCorePluginSignature";
+import {CustomSortPluginAPI} from "../custom-sort-plugin";
 
 export interface ProcessingContext {
 	// For internal transient use
-	plugin?: Plugin                     // to hand over the access to App instance to the sorting engine
+	plugin?: CustomSortPluginAPI                     // to hand over the access to App instance to the sorting engine
 	_mCache?: MetadataCache
 	starredPluginInstance?: Starred_PluginInstance
 	bookmarksPluginInstance?: BookmarksPluginInterface,
@@ -371,6 +372,15 @@ export const matchGroupRegex = (theRegex: RegExpSpec, nameForMatching: string):
 	return [false, undefined, undefined]
 }
 
+const mdataValueFromFMCaches = (mdataFieldName: string, fc?: FrontMatterCache, fcPrio?: FrontMatterCache): any => {
+	let prioValue = undefined
+	if (fcPrio) {
+		prioValue = fcPrio?.[mdataFieldName]
+	}
+
+	return prioValue ?? fc?.[mdataFieldName]
+}
+
 export const determineSortingGroup = function (entry: TFile | TFolder, spec: CustomSortSpec, ctx?: ProcessingContext): FolderItemForSorting {
 	let groupIdx: number
 	let determined: boolean = false
@@ -468,16 +478,18 @@ export const determineSortingGroup = function (entry: TFile | TFolder, spec: Cus
 					if (ctx?._mCache) {
 						// For folders - scan metadata of 'folder note' in same-name-as-folder mode
 						const notePathToScan: string = aFile ? entry.path : `${entry.path}/${entry.name}.md`
-						const frontMatterCache: FrontMatterCache | undefined = ctx._mCache.getCache(notePathToScan)?.frontmatter
+						let frontMatterCache: FrontMatterCache | undefined = ctx._mCache.getCache(notePathToScan)?.frontmatter
-						const hasMetadata: boolean | undefined = frontMatterCache?.hasOwnProperty(group.withMetadataFieldName)
+						let hasMetadata: boolean | undefined = frontMatterCache?.hasOwnProperty(group.withMetadataFieldName)
 						// For folders, if index-based folder note mode, scan the index file, giving it the priority
-						!!! Non trivial part: - need to know the folder-index name, this is hidden
+						if (aFolder) {
-						!!! in plugin settings, not exposed - refactoring is a must.
+							const indexNoteBasename = ctx?.plugin?.indexNoteBasename()
-						if (aFolder && ctx?.plugin?.s) {
+							if (indexNoteBasename) {
-
+								frontMatterCache = ctx._mCache.getCache(`${entry.path}/${indexNoteBasename}.md`)?.frontmatter
+								hasMetadata = hasMetadata || frontMatterCache?.hasOwnProperty(group.withMetadataFieldName)
+							}
 						}
 
-						if (hasMetadata || folderIndexNoteHasMetadata) {
+						if (hasMetadata) {
 							determined = true
 						}
 					}
@@ -561,17 +573,23 @@ export const determineSortingGroup = function (entry: TFile | TFolder, spec: Cus
 			if (ctx?._mCache) {
 				// For folders - scan metadata of 'folder note'
 				// and if index-based folder note mode, scan the index file, giving it the priority
-				!!! Non trivial part: - need to know the folder-index-note name, this is hidden
-				!!! in plugin settings, not exposed - refactoring is a must.
-				!!!
-				!!! Then challenging part - how to easily rewrite the below code to handle scanning
-				!!! of two frontMatterCaches for folders and give the priority to folder-index-note based cache, if configured
 				const notePathToScan: string = aFile ? entry.path : `${entry.path}/${entry.name}.md`
 				const frontMatterCache: FrontMatterCache | undefined = ctx._mCache.getCache(notePathToScan)?.frontmatter
-				if (isPrimaryOrderByMetadata) metadataValueToSortBy = frontMatterCache?.[group?.byMetadataField || group?.withMetadataFieldName || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING]
+				let prioFrontMatterCache: FrontMatterCache | undefined = undefined
-				if (isSecondaryOrderByMetadata) metadataValueSecondaryToSortBy = frontMatterCache?.[group?.byMetadataFieldSecondary || group?.withMetadataFieldName || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING]
+				if (aFolder) {
-				if (isDerivedPrimaryByMetadata) metadataValueDerivedPrimaryToSortBy = frontMatterCache?.[spec.byMetadataField || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING]
+					const indexNoteBasename = ctx?.plugin?.indexNoteBasename()
-				if (isDerivedSecondaryByMetadata) metadataValueDerivedSecondaryToSortBy = frontMatterCache?.[spec.byMetadataFieldSecondary || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING]
+					if (indexNoteBasename) {
+						prioFrontMatterCache = ctx._mCache.getCache(`${entry.path}/${indexNoteBasename}.md`)?.frontmatter
+					}
+				}
+				if (isPrimaryOrderByMetadata) metadataValueToSortBy =
+					mdataValueFromFMCaches (group?.byMetadataField || group?.withMetadataFieldName || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING,  frontMatterCache, prioFrontMatterCache)
+				if (isSecondaryOrderByMetadata) metadataValueSecondaryToSortBy =
+					mdataValueFromFMCaches (group?.byMetadataFieldSecondary || group?.withMetadataFieldName || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING, frontMatterCache, prioFrontMatterCache)
+				if (isDerivedPrimaryByMetadata) metadataValueDerivedPrimaryToSortBy =
+					mdataValueFromFMCaches (spec.byMetadataField || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING, frontMatterCache, prioFrontMatterCache)
+				if (isDerivedSecondaryByMetadata) metadataValueDerivedSecondaryToSortBy =
+					mdataValueFromFMCaches (spec.byMetadataFieldSecondary || DEFAULT_METADATA_FIELD_FOR_SORTING, frontMatterCache, prioFrontMatterCache)
 			}
 		}
 	}

src/main.ts

@@ -50,8 +50,13 @@ import {
 	getBookmarksPlugin,
 	groupNameForPath
 } from "./utils/BookmarksCorePluginSignature";
-import {getIconFolderPlugin} from "./utils/ObsidianIconFolderPluginSignature";
+import {
-import {lastPathComponent} from "./utils/utils";
+	getIconFolderPlugin
+} from "./utils/ObsidianIconFolderPluginSignature";
+import {
+	extractBasename,
+	lastPathComponent
+} from "./utils/utils";
 import {
 	collectSortingAndGroupingTypes,
 	hasOnlyByBookmarkOrStandardObsidian,
@@ -64,6 +69,7 @@ import {
 	DEFAULT_SETTING_FOR_1_2_0_UP,
 	DEFAULT_SETTINGS
 } from "./settings";
+import {CustomSortPluginAPI} from "./custom-sort-plugin";
 
 const SORTSPEC_FILE_NAME: string = 'sortspec.md'
 const SORTINGSPEC_YAML_KEY: string = 'sorting-spec'
@@ -75,7 +81,10 @@ type MonkeyAroundUninstaller = () => void
 
 type ContextMenuProvider = (item: MenuItem) => void
 
-export default class CustomSortPlugin extends Plugin {
+export default class CustomSortPlugin
+	extends Plugin
+	implements CustomSortPluginAPI
+{
 	settings: CustomSortPluginSettings
 	statusBarItemEl: HTMLElement
 	ribbonIconEl: HTMLElement     // On small-screen mobile devices this is useless (ribbon is re-created on-the-fly)
@@ -725,5 +734,16 @@ export default class CustomSortPlugin extends Plugin {
 	async saveSettings() {
 		await this.saveData(this.settings);
 	}
-}
 
+	// API
+	derivedIndexNoteNameForFolderNotes: string | undefined
+	indexNoteNameForFolderNotesDerivedFrom: any
+
+	indexNoteBasename(): string | undefined {
+		if (!(this.indexNoteNameForFolderNotesDerivedFrom === this.settings.indexNoteNameForFolderNotes)) {
+			this.derivedIndexNoteNameForFolderNotes = extractBasename(this.settings.indexNoteNameForFolderNotes)
+			this.indexNoteNameForFolderNotesDerivedFrom = this.settings.indexNoteNameForFolderNotes
+		}
+		return this.derivedIndexNoteNameForFolderNotes
+	}
+}

src/test/unit/utils.spec.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import {
     lastPathComponent,
-    extractParentFolderPath
+    extractParentFolderPath,
+    extractBasename
 } from "../../utils/utils";
 
 describe('lastPathComponent and extractParentFolderPath', () => {
@@ -25,3 +26,20 @@ describe('lastPathComponent and extractParentFolderPath', () => {
         }
     )
 })
+
+describe('extractBasenane', () => {
+    const params: Array<(string|undefined)[]> = [
+        // Obvious
+        ['index', 'index'],
+        ['index.md', 'index'],
+        // Edge cases
+        ['',''],
+        [undefined,undefined],
+        ['.','.'],
+        ['.md',''],
+        ['.md.md','.md']
+    ];
+    it.each(params)('>%s< should become %s', (s: string|undefined, out: string|undefined) => {
+        expect(extractBasename(s)).toBe(out)
+    })
+})

src/utils/utils.ts

@@ -16,3 +16,11 @@ export function extractParentFolderPath(path: string): string {
 	const lastPathSeparatorIdx = (path ?? '').lastIndexOf('/')
 	return lastPathSeparatorIdx > 0 ? path.substring(0, lastPathSeparatorIdx) : ''
 }
+
+export function extractBasename (configEntry: string | undefined): string | undefined {
+	if (typeof configEntry === 'string' && configEntry.endsWith('.md')) {
+		return configEntry.slice(0, -'.md'.length)
+	} else {
+		return configEntry
+	}
+}