Obsidian/Feature/Bases

• Bases

  • Core Obsidian plugin that turns a set of notes into a database view. Each row is a file; each column is a frontmatter property, a built-in file property, or a formula. Obsidian 1.9.0 shipped it as "a new core plugin that lets you turn any set of notes into a powerful database."
  • Obsidian/Explanation/What a Base Is explains a base from the beginning — what it gathers, why a row has to be a file, and how it compares with Dataview and Tasks.
  • Being core matters for a vault that has to stay readable elsewhere: there is no community plugin to install, keep updated, or lose when the vault is opened by something other than Obsidian.

  • Where a base lives

    • A .base file, which Obsidian opens in its own view editor.
    • A fenced code block tagged base inside an ordinary note, so the view sits on the page it belongs to (Bases syntax).

  • Views

    • Table — files as rows, properties as columns. Obsidian 1.9.
    • Cards — a grid of cards, with an optional image property. Obsidian 1.9.
    • List — bulleted or numbered. Obsidian 1.10.
    • Map — pins on a map, needs the Maps plugin. Obsidian 1.10.
    • Kanban — cards in columns, grouped by a property. Obsidian 1.14 (Bases views).

  • Syntax

    • A base is YAML with filters, formulas, properties, summaries, and views. Filters compose with and / or / not; a view names its own type, groupBy, order, limit, and summaries.

    • filters:
        and:
          - file.hasTag("todo")
          - note.status != "done"
      formulas:
        days_left: "(note.due - today()).days"
      properties:
        note.priority:
          displayName: "Priority"
      views:
        - type: kanban
          name: "By status"
          groupBy:
            property: note.status
          order:
            - file.name
            - note.priority
            - note.due
            - formula.days_left

    • Property access reads note.<property> for frontmatter, file.name / file.folder / file.tags / file.created / file.modified for the file itself, and formula.<name> for a computed column. if(), contains(), date(), duration(), now(), today(), min(), max() and link() are available to formulas.

  • What this gives a todo

    • Priority, due date, status and tags become typed frontmatter properties, so a base can filter on them, group a kanban by status, sort by due date, and compute how many days remain.
    • Because a row is a file, a todo modeled this way is a page of its own. A - [ ] line inside a page carries no properties and no base sees it — see Obsidian/Feature/Task_Lists for what a plain checkbox line does hold, and Obsidian/Plugin/obsidian-tasks for the plugin that puts fields on the line instead.

  • Sources

    • Bases — Obsidian Help
    • Bases views
    • Bases syntax
    • Obsidian 1.9.0 desktop changelog