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Sidecar Contextual Panel for Obsidian

This is a plugin that enables you to display a contextual sidebar for given files, based on the content of a sidebar-panel frontmatter property.

These files are rendered as though they are coming from the file in which the property is set; this enables you to use plugins such as obsidian-meta-bind to create INPUT fields that bind to the parent, rather than to the panel source itself.

One use case, which motivated me to make this, was that I often want to have different contextual buttons or metadata input lists that display to the side, so that while I am editing a file I don't have to scroll to the top to change, for instance, the attendees of a meeting. Or, so that I can have some buttons that say things like "Add another TODO" or something like that.

A screenshot showing the sidecar panel in action.

This uses the how to release your Obsidian Plugin workflow.

How to Use

There are two ways to associate a sidecar panel with a file. The first is to set the property sidecar-panel in a file (perhaps in a template!) to enable it. The second is to add a mapping between a tag (such as #daily-note) and a sidecar panel file (such as daily-note-editor.md). The mapping between tags and panel files can be done in the Settings for the sidecar panel. When a file with that set is open and focused, the right leaf will include that sidecar panel.

For instance, if you have mysidecar.md in your Vault with this content:

`INPUT[number:somenumber]`

`INPUT[list:somelist]`

And then another file, example.md, with the property sidecar-panel set to [[mysidecar.md]], when you open it the sidecar panel would display that set of widgets which -- crucially! -- will modify example.md rather than mysidecar.md. Now you have a widget that'll be visible all the time, settable on a per-file basis, to keep handy buttons and other things visible.

Multiple Panel Files

It's possible to set multiple cascading files, such that you have multiple concatenated into one sidecar. This can be done through multiple tag maps or through having a tag map and a sidecar-panel property. These will be concatenated and shown in order of the tag maps and then the sidecar-panel file.

Embedding Fun Buttons

Using obsidian-meta-bind, you can embed notes. For instance, I have this in a latex-editor file which I apply to any file with the tag #latex:

label: Export to PDF
icon: ""
hidden: false
class: ""
tooltip: ""
id: ""
style: primary
actions:
  - type: inlineJS
    code: >
      const sidecar = app.plugins.plugins["contextual-sidecar"];
      const pandoc = app.plugins.plugins["obsidian-pandoc"];
      const currentFile = await sidecar.getCurrentFile();
      const fullPath = app.vault.adapter.getFullPath(currentFile.path);
      const v = await pandoc.startPandocExport(fullPath, "pdf", "pdf", "PDF", currentFile);

This puts a button up on in my sidecar panel that exports to PDF. Handy! (Probably worth noting that this specific button requires a change I've issued a pull request for.)

Roadmap

  • Add support for metadatamenu fileClasses to apply sidecar-panel attributes across queries.
  • Add per-tag support, so that not all files have to have their properties modified to benefit.
  • Add a default sidecar file and allow it to always be used even if others are to be applied.
  • Better support changes in properties and sidecar files for open files.

Version History

  • 0.2.3 -- First release in the plugin list!
  • 0.2.4 -- Add a default panel file and a toggle to always apply it.
  • 0.3.0 -- Added a getCurrentFile function for use in embedded widgets.
  • 0.3.2 -- Added a new folder mapping function

License

This template is available under the MIT License. Feel free to modify and use it to create your own Obsidian plugins.

Funding

If you find this plugin useful, please consider donating to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.