Use File Frontmatter as default date

[erauner12]

⚠️ Please check that this feature request hasn't been suggested before.

• [X] I searched previous Ideas in Discussions didn't find any similar feature requests.
• [X] I searched previous Issues didn't find any similar feature requests.
• [X] I am only requesting a single feature. Multiple changes should be split into individual requests, with links between them.
• [X] I believe my requested feature will be generally applicable to other users, not just me: it is not uniquely tied to my personal workflow.

🔖 Feature description

In reference to an existing feature:

Use Filename as Default Date - Tasks User Guide - Obsidian Publish - Folder Settings

• Folders with default Scheduled dates

I assume you had a reason for choosing not to use the file's actual creation date since that type of data can be messed up by the OS. But I wanted to be able to leverage this Folders with default Scheduled dates feature without changing the names of the files that I currently create on a day to day basis (which are synced by filename heading sync plugin).

✔️ Solution

To achieve this, I wanted to know if you could consider extending this to a match a pattern of a string in a particular metadata key such as created. This way, something like this linter plugin could be configured to control this property and we could effectively benefit from this feature without needing to adhere to a strict filename convention.

❓ Alternatives

I have considered the alternative of just attaching the plus emoji along with the date to any file that is not a daily note (which would match the naming convention):

ex:

• [ ] test ➕ 2023-09-01

But I would prefer not to do this because I use a different system to manage the start/completion date of my tasks (which is external to obsidian). So what I want the tasks to contain no other data than what I want to eventually do.

📝 Additional Context

Let me know if you have any questions!

[claremacrae]

Thank you for the suggestion.

There is currently a huge backlog of things to do on Tasks, so just to set expectations, it is unlikely this will be picked up any time soon, so I would encourage you to find a setup within the current tasks capabilities in the meantime.

[erauner12]

I actually already put something together in dataviewjs that does something similar, so I'm not waiting. It actually helped me understand what I needed to do as I went through the process of writing this feat req.

But I do genuinely feel that others would benefit from this change.

[claremacrae]

That’s helpful to know. I know that it’s a useful request. There are a lot of useful request!

[claremacrae]

Reviewing this, the summary is ambiguous:

Use File Frontmatter as default date

What bit of the frontmatter and what kind of date?

It really helps for summaries to be specific and clear.

[claremacrae]

Reviewing this, the summary is ambiguous:

Use File Frontmatter as default date

What bit of the frontmatter and what kind of date?

It really helps for summaries to be specific and clear.

Closing having realised the request is unclear (to me). Sorry for not spotting it earlier.

Will be very happy to re-open it if more info can be added...

[erauner12]

@claremacrae , sorry just saw this one. This is what I meant. I feel this would be helpful for users who do not have files following zettelkasten name scheme.

```yaml
created: 20230926000100
modified: 20230926101147
```

• frontmatter metadata

[claremacrae]

@erauner12 - thanks - sorry but I still don't understand what you are asking. Please try to be specific.

It shows 2 fields in yaml, but does not say what Tasks should do with them.

It's also not clear to me what the zettelkasten name scheme has to do with yaml fields.