Include the content of one note in another

Features
1

Hello there.

Could it be possible to have a feature, I'm thinking as a plugin, that would allow to include the content of one note in another note :thinking:

Use case

  • In some Notebook I write a lot of notes referencing multiple other notes, url, pictures…
  • At the moment I create a "collection note" containing a collection of links definition, then I copy paste said note into other notes where I want to use the links.
  • I would like to be able to just add one line and include the content of this "collection note" into other notes.

Cheers.

3 Likes
2

Just found this can be achieved a minima, with the use of templates: Templates - how to use?

However, if I’m not mistaken, if I change the template, this change won’t be reflected in the existing notes where I included it.

My request go further than the templates on two counts:

  1. By having a reference in the note, the content could be updated on rendering.
  2. By referencing a note, all the content is also synced across Joplin instances.

Any opinion ?

3

This is an interesting idea, but my first thought is that it would be a bit of a challenge to implement. Definitely interesting though.
That said Joplin uses the markdown format and I don’t see how this could be implemented without introducing more formatting (which would make this functionality non-portable). So I don’t see this being added to the core joplin, but it could make a very interesting plugin via the Joplin api

4

+1 for this feature!

It could work like using \input{file.tex} in LaTeX.

This would also massively help with separate to-do lists (e.g. one for work, one for private stuff etc.) by just including the content of different notes in one overview file.

1 Like
5

I found out about Markdown Preprocessor (MarkdownPP) which generally enables this feature.
Admittedly, I have no deeper knowledge of JavaSript let alone how Joplin is programmed and this might too big of a change (and/or an undesired dependency) but I'd really fancy this feature. Could also help here.

Edit: there is also a fork of MarkdownPP which was rewritten in JavaScript. It can be found here. It does not seem to be developed anymore but it has an MIT license, so using the code shouldn't be a problem.

The implementation looks fairly simple. but I don't know how easy it is to incorporate that into Joplin. As I mentioned, I don't have too much knowledge of JS but if someone was willing to provide some help and point me in the right direction, I might give it a try.

I'm currently writing my thesis and having the different chapters in different notes really helps with keeping things organized. Moreover, having a little side project is a great way to procrastinate! :wink: