Create link without creating document (a new .md)

[geekscrapy]

I'd love to be able to have some links to an idea which doesn't need a document to be created for it to appear on the graph. This would allow quick thoughts and links to be jotted and the effect would show a graph of overlap of ideas rather than documents. This would enable shorthand brainstorming.

I propose that if even if a link [[new_car]] is created, it would appear on the graph even if a file does not exist for it. If it is clicked, in either the graph or in the document, then a file is created.

[nixsee]

I wouldn't want this, so if it is implemented, please make it a setting that can be toggled.

[geekscrapy]

Can I ask why not? If you want the link to go to a file, you just create the file like you do now and link to it.
Alternatively, if you don't want the link, you just don't make a markdown link in the document?

Question is, do you have lots of markdown links in your documents without the associated files? If you do, then I see that this would break your graph, but if not, I don't see how it changes anything?

[nixsee]

Question is, do you have lots of markdown links in your documents without the associated files?

Yes.

I don't see why you'd care however - if this feature is implemented, my suggestion to have a setting pleases all parties.

[geekscrapy]

I was only interested in your use-case, and to see how another member of the community takes notes... Sorry for the intrusion! 😀

[nixsee]

Sorry - I see now that my comment comes across as unnecessarily defensive. Anyway, hopefully this will get implemented for you and others!

And to explain why I have so many uncreated links - because it is possible. I make them as I type because it would be nearly impossible to do so later (forgotten context etc...). But it is specifically because they are uncreated that I don't want them showing up in the graph yet.

Yet, on further thought, the key for me is not so much whether it is created or not - it is really just about knowing whether a file is "populated" or not. Since it is unlikely that the graph could ever "find" any uncreated links, much less that you can't use link autocompletion with uncreated files, it seems like having uncreated notes is a generally undesirable thing. (What is your use case for having uncreated notes?)

So, perhaps a nice solution to all of this would be having some sort of YAML tag to indicate that a file is "uncreated"/"unpopulated", which Markdown Links could read and then show links to it as a dotted/dashed line. With that, we'd get the best of all worlds - increased ability to link to files, while knowing which are real notes and which are just placeholders. Moreover, you could then better find and prioritize which placeholder notes to start working on/populating.

[nixsee]

This could also have broader implications as well - different YAML tags offering different styling. We've had a discussion regarding "Parenting" within foam, and we seem to have circled in on just such a feature to create link context/aliases/etc... Not sure which would have to come first - link support for tags or the tags.

[geekscrapy]

I love your idea regarding different line styles to indicate if it's an actual file!

My use case is that I have a notes about computers within a network. I work in IT security and will create notes regarding analysis tasks I undertake and any findings. These notes have references to computer names from the network. I'd like to be able to see any overlap of computers between analysis tasks - any computer name that shows up in a graph with a lot of connections would warrant further inspection. But as it is unless there is something specific about a computer I want to note, I don't want to be creating a new file for each computer name...

TLDR; it helps me prioritize my analysis by showing highly connected notes (without creating many files)

[nixsee]

Interesting - surely you've already considered (or even implemented) something like this, but it seems like a good job for a spreadsheet with some conditional formatting and filters, or a database with similar functionality. Or perhaps those are too rigid and this is just an easy to use "graph database".

Anyway, seems like the ideas are out there now - hopefully the various powers that be will bring them into fruition!

[geekscrapy]

Yea, I already have these kind of tools in place - this is for smaller scale linking that is made when taking freehand notes during an investigation, nothing structured - these notes may end up in a textual report of some kind. It'd provide me with a very quick and easy way to see shared links and ideas between notes without having a whole backend database to deal with, especially when it'll only be a handful of links, but it then again it could also be 100s of links!

FYI, I'm using this with Foam too 😀

[nixsee]

Here is a sneak-peak of an upcoming Filters feature in Obsidian. Green are tags, Red are uncreated notes, blue are attachments

[tchayen]

Hi! Sorry for being late to the discussion. I was thinking about displaying links at the very beginning and always considered it something for an optional setting.

But as @nixsee pointed, maybe a whole filter system would be better.

If anyone is interested in implementing that, I'd definitely accept a PR with it with a default false for not displaying it.