Browse filesystem hierarchy

Blog post on 2020-11-11

After Introducing filesystem hierarchy support in Ka, a natural question arose: why not enable users to browse their notes like they browse files in a file manager? To that end, in Ka you can now browse your notes in hierarchical fashion.

Broken down, this change effectively introduces two features:

1. Scope breadcrumbs: displays the full path to the note when viewing the note, or directory
2. Directory view: Displays the contents of a directory

Ka launches with the directory view for / as the default route (see screeshot below).

Implementation

Each note gets an associated “scope”. A scope of a note is simply the directory it resides in. Top-level notes have empty scope.

There is potential for utilizing note scopes towards new features. For example, scopes may be used in designing configurable linking strategies. One particular use case I have in mind is support for Multiple notebooks and cross-linking between them while predictably dealing with duplicate notes across notebooks. It is very common for two notebooks to have notes with the same Daily notes filenames. Ka should continue to work with such predictable conflicts, using a “local first” linking strategy, wherein the daily note from the current notebook would be used.

Finally, note that - as Ka is reactive, as you move files around using your native file manager, Ka’s view will automatically update without manual refresh.

Screenshot

Here’s a screenshot of Ka’s default route page on my private Zettelkasten, displaying the contents of the root scope.