Updating My Obsidian Daily Note Using Bases

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A bases card view from my Obsidian vault

Bases is the newest core plugin in Obsidian. Bases is only available to Catalyst subscribers right now, so it's definitely early days. In this article and the accompanying video I'll dive into how I'm adding Bases into my Daily Note. I'll also hit on some key features I hope Bases gets in the future as well as some things you can do now to optimize your vault for Bases use in the future.

Where Does Bases Functionality Fit?

Bases offers a couple of different use cases. The initial use case I'm going to explore in this article is replacing dataview queries (or if you don't use dataview queries, adding this functionality without using dataview).

The second use case is to introduce what I call object-oriented knowledge management (OOKM). Knowledge Management tools like Capacities and Notion are much more object oriented as they rely on databases of like objects that you then link together with both database and non-database pages. I love certain elements of both Capacities and Notion and I've created some object oriented knowledge management within Obsidian using templates and dataview. We'll dive more into that capability in future articles and videos.

Updating My Daily Note with Bases

At the core of my use of Obsidian is my daily note. This is a structured page that allows me to run my day effectively AND keep track of what I'm working on all in one place. I've written before about how I do Multi-Layer Planning with Obsidian. I wanted to replace the dataview that is in my current daily note template with Bases. This is because using core functionality over community plugin functionality is a part of my Obsidian manifesto.

My Obsidian Manifesto

I love a good manifesto! (If you do too, you should check out the book, You Need A Manifesto.) Here is my current Obsidian Manifesto:

• Obsidian First - If a piece of information can be housed in Obsidian as well as in any other tool, my aim is to build out the information in Obsidian so that I own and control my own data.

• Obsidian Final - Where information must reside elsewhere, typically because of needs on my information access continuum beyond which I wish to use/can use Obsidian, I use other tools in My Stack to store these. However, a link to that item or information on how to access that information should always reside in Obsidian.

• Core Plugins > Community Plugins - I LOVE to play around with Community Plugins and I adore all the functionality they let you add to Obsidian and customize to your liking. However, Community Plugins carry a higher risk than do core features and plugins. They get abandoned and they rely on volunteer labor to maintain. My aim is to maximize my use of core plugins and only add community plugins where the need cannot be met with a core plugin.

• Reward Value - When I use a Community Plugin as a part of my regular habits and routines, I will reward the creator of that plugin in whatever ways I am able.

Since I place a higher value on Core Plugins than Community Plugins, my aim whenever Obsidian rolls out new features is to see:

1. Where can I replace functionality from a community plugin with this new core functionality?

2. Where can I add new functionality that I need using this new core functionality?

Now that we know why we're trying to add this functionality, let's look at the how.

I want to start with just a quick exploration of how to create a base. There are two official ways to create a base and then my unofficial third way for adding an inline base using the Bases syntax. I actually think my third version is the easiest way to get to the syntax you need to copy and paste into a template.

Creating Bases Two Ways

According to the official Bases documentation, you create a base in two ways.

The easiest way to create a base is to create the base as its own file in Obsidian. Open the command palette (Command P on Mac or Control P on windows) and just choose "Bases: Create new base". This will create a new file in your vault with a BASE indicator.

You can then transclude this file in any other note or notes in your Obsidian vault by using an exclamation point in front of the link to that base. You specify which view you want to display in your transclusion by using a hashtag and then the view name - like BaseName.base#ViewName

I created a new blank vault and created a Base file in it. You can see in the File Navigator view that there are two files - one has the BASE indicator to the right.

A Base file in the Obsidian vault

I also added this base to the Welcome note by using a transclusion. Using this method, you can add a base to multiple notes. This includes all the views that are in that base. The view that will show up if you don't specify it is always the default view. You can look at the different views on the page, but every time you reload the page, the default view or the view you specify will be what shows up.

The second way to create a base is to use the Bases Syntax. This involves adding "code" to your markdown note that Obsidian will then display as a Base. Here is the syntax for an incredibly simple Base that will show all the files in the vault that have the .md extension.

A base created using base syntax within the note

Bases lay the groundwork for a number of things in Obsidian:

1. Even in the early access version we have today, Bases comes with the ability to do inline calculations with existing data in your vault.

2. The data displayed in a Base can be selected using properties.

3. Bases gives you different ways to view your notes. Bases, as I type this, contains table and card views. It's very possible by the time this is published, Bases will allow for other views as well. It's logical to anticipate calendar and kanban style views as those are common across many PKM tools like Notion, Tana, etc.

Essentially, Bases gives you a way to turn your notes into one or more databases that you can then use in a variety of ways. Bases could, some day, make the Obsidian Dataview plugin obsolete, but for the foreseeable future, they will remain compliments to one another.

To use Bases effectively, I strongly believe you need to start with building and using templates that make thoughtful use of properties. We'll dig into that more in a bit. But first, let's dig into how I'm creating and editing inline bases for now.

A Hybrid Method of Creating and Editing Bases

As I was playing with Bases, the either-or of creating bases as a file or creating bases using the Bases syntax was annoying me. So, I started creating inline bases simply by entering the base syntax as a starter. This creates an inline base that I can then modify using both the bases syntax and the on screen bases editor.

This leads to my first wishlist item for the Obsidian team around bases. Please give us Source View for Base files! If I could click Source View on a Base file, it would make learning and applying the Bases syntax so much easier! And for those of you out there screaming, Kara just open the file from your drive using a text editor - I did do that. But just give me a Source View toggle right in Obsidian so I don't have to!!!

I also know I can click the source view on any filter item, but again, it's just easier if I can see the source for the entire base no matter where I am in Obsidian.

Replacing Daily Note Dataview Queries with Bases

I use a LOT of dataview queries in my Obsidian vault. The most obvious way to use Bases is to replace Dataview.

I thought I'd start off my exploration of Bases by seeing if I could replace the two Dataview queries that are in my daily note.

The first and (sort of) easiest of my dataview queries to replace is list at the end of my daily note that shows every file I modified that day. Here is what those two things look like together.

Two ways to view the same information - base on top, dataview on bottom

The base version is on top. The text is slightly smaller in the base version. I also am currently just showing the list of the files, but with the Base I can easily add additional properties as fields if I want to do so.

I add this to my daily note using the daily note template (using the Templater community plugin). Here is what the syntax looks like for Templater.

TABLE
FROM ""
WHERE file.mday = date(<% tp.file.title %>)
SORT file.mtime desc

Here is what the syntax looks like for Bases

filters:
   and:
      - file.mtime > date("<% tp.file.title %> 00:00:00")
      - file.mtime < date("<% "tp.file.title %> 23:59:59")
   views:
      - type: table
      name: table

Regardless of whether I'm using dataview or Bases, I get the date from the file name of the daily note, which for me is in the format YYYY-MM-DD.

There is one immediate benefit of using Bases instead of Dataview. I can sort the files using the built-in sort functionality of Bases right from the Live Preview view, using Bases built in sort functionality.

I can see myself using that quite often when I'm working with my files from this view.

Updating My Review Query or Why You Should Be Using File Properties

Bases relies on file level properties. Bases does not currently support properties used inline. If you're not sure of the difference between the two, let me give you a quick overview of the two.

This is a screenshot of a note from my vault.

At the top of the file, under the Properties heading, you can easily see all of the YAML front matter properties. Bases can pull from these.

Farther down the image, you'll see a callout box. That callout box contains two inline properties - review-date and review-schedule. I use these in my vault to surface notes regularly. Here is what the dataview (with templater syntax) looks like that brings the notes with a review date of today into my daily note:

TABLE review-date as Review
WHERE review-date = <% tp.file.title %> OR review-date = date(<% tp.file.title %>) OR review-for-reuse-date = date(<% tp.file.title %>)

This syntax allowed me to use both the inline property OR a file property. I had been using the inline property for a very long time before File Properties rolled out because I preferred the way it looked and functioned in my daily note.

However, Bases doesn't support inline properties - and I don't suspect it ever will. Fixing this across my vault is going to take quite a bit of time for a couple of reasons. First, nearly all of my templates - 40 of them to be exact - have this little call out in them. So, first order of business is deleting this and making sure that the review-date file property is added to those templates. Second, I need to add the review date to the file properties for about 4500 notes at quick glance. That will be one of those "do this instead of scroll social media" tasks.

At the moment, I still prefer the dataview functionality since I can hover over the note, see a preview of it, and even change the date property from the dataview. I can't do that with the Bases view unless I hold down the Command key while hovering.

That said, I'll make the migration and hold down the command key while hovering, despite the work because I do believe in Core Plugins over Community Plugins, but I hope that the Obsidian team gives the ability to at least allow preview on hover without the Command key to some sort of future Bases Plugin options.

Are you starting to check out the Bases Plugin? If so, what is working for you and what do you hope shows up soon?