Note entry time is not respected when inserted into logseq

[isosphere]

Notes are considered to be simple strings: https://github.com/phildenhoff/logseq-slipbox/blob/0c1ab68867604219df1f3ec9caa843fb538a44be/apps/plugin/src/App.svelte#L39

... which means they have no datetime metadata associated with them. If a note is taken today and imported a week from now, that note will exist on the user's current "today" page which will lose valuable context.

[phildenhoff]

Well, I do like adding my notes to my current day. That way you can see all the notes you just imported. We could change that to (optionally) include a reference to the date it was created, either as a link or a property. But having built Logseq plugins in the past, properties are iffy and including it in the text probably means adding template support (which I don't think I'm interested in adding atm).

What do you think? Would an option to either "Add all imported notes to Today" or "Add all imported notes to the page for the day they were created" work? (E.g. if the note is from 10 April 2024, it is added to [[10 April 2024]])

[isosphere]

I would implement it in the latter way you suggest, not with properties or links. I would iterate over the notes, get a reference to the journal page, add the note, etc. We'd need some handling to determine the date format the user is using to get the right page, but we have example code for that:

https://github.com/logseq/plugins/issues/8#issuecomment-1566509582

If I'm greedy, I'd want timestamps too. I use the interstitial notes plugin which makes it easy to dump in the current time in HH:MM format, and since the slipbox could easily have that information I'd like it to include it. It's free extra context for the note - for example if I input into the slipbox that my dog is itching a lot, now I have the time when I noticed it and I don't have to worry about manually taking note of that.

This particular issue is important to me, and I'm happy to work on a PR for it if it would be welcome.

[phildenhoff]

Hmmmm yeah if you're wanting timestamps as well, that's a bit more tricky. Everyone has their own favourite formats for dates and times. If I'm honest, Slipbox is solving my needs right now, and that's why I built it. I don't know if I want to add more features to it.

That said, I'm open to reviewing a PR (or an approach, even if you just find the things that need to be changed and outline how to change them). If it's not too complicated, we can add it in. If it is too much for me, well, you'll be most of the way to forking slipbox into what you want!

A couple notes on the approach:

• I think we'd want to use a formatting template, which provides variables like "note text", "note datetime", and maybe a function to get a journal page from a date, or just "the page for the day this note was created". We would add this to the plugin (apps/plugin). I've used Mustache for this before, in logseq-raindop, and I think I would want to again (to minimize my maintenance burden). From that project: Rendering templates, Default templates.
• The "Proxy" (server) needs to be updated to return the created_at value for each note. That would be done here: https://github.com/phildenhoff/logseq-slipbox/blob/main/apps/proxy/models/notes.ts And... maybe somewhere else?
• Some updates to the Plugins' App.svelte would be required to accept the new created_at field, and to render the Mustache templates with the data

Let me know if you attempt this and get stuck anywhere. It's a bit of a rough codebase!