feat: option to display as table

[bsnodin]

Hi, firstly thanks for making this really awesome plugin!

I'd really like to have to option to display task queries as a table instead of a list.

E.g. right now I might have a task list like this

And I'd like to be able to display the same information like (something like) this

(preferably the dates wouldn't have text wrapping like they do in my screenshot!)

Recently my task list has started to grow, and I think having a table display would really help me make sense of it / skim it easily. I imagine some other people might find this to be a nice feature too.

Hope that makes sense!

[claremacrae]

Thank you for logging this.

I could have sworn that it was logged already, but must have imagined it, as I can't find any relevant Discussions.

[pcause]

show as {list, table} {full, includes, excludes} {due, scheduled, repeats, status, filename, description, priority..}

list (default) gives what we have today, table creates a table
full (default), includes, excludes : which fields to show. full means all fields so that list full is exactly what we have today. includes and excludes specify fields in the task. these are things we can currently use in queries or appear the the task popup.
fields: these are the different tasks fields that appear in the popup/we can query.

the default list of fields would be the task line items displayed today. So while we can query for filepath it wouldn't be a default field displayed but could be displayed in a query

examples:

If you use the popup and fill out all the fields this is the todo you get:

• some description ⏫ 🔁 every 2 weeks 🛫 2023-02-22 ⏳ 2023-02-23 📅 2023-02-24

no show as clause - what we have today
show as list full - what we have today

show as table:

| Status | Description | Priority | Recurs | Start | Scheduled | Due |

show as table full gives the above

show as table exclude priority starts recurs

| Status | Description | Scheduled | Due |

show as list exclude priority starts recurs

• some description ⏳ 2023-02-23 📅 2023-02-24

show as table exclude priority starts recurs includes path

| Status | Description | Scheduled | Due | Path

show as list exclude priority starts recurs includes path

• some description ⏳ 2023-02-23 📅 2023-02-24 /Vault/Folder/notewithtask

[claremacrae]

So for anyone arriving here, the context is that I said on Discord that suggestions for what Tasks queries might look like, to request a table view.

Thanks for logging this @pcause.

I'm interested why you chose a new field-selection mechanism from the existing show/hide lines?
There is already a request somewhere to allow multiple values on show and hide lines....

If we went with that route, it might look something like:

```tasks
show as table
hide priority starts recurs
show path
```

It feels easier for users and developers to have only one mechanism for controlling which fields to show...

ooooh, with show as table the existing show instructions end up taking on a second meaning...

I'm interested in thoughts from a user perspective as to whether that's a good thing, or confusing...

[pcause]

good point. just tried to transcribe what pshev put in the discord.

[claremacrae]

Ah right, well thank you for the help 😄

[LedaKatopodi]

I would love a feature like this. I was looking for a solution (e.g. here), but I could not edit/mark as complete the tasks in place.

Any updates on this?

[claremacrae]

No, no updates. Nobody with the skills to do it has come forward to offer any help.

I did write how I do tables using dataview and the Tasks plugin though, as an interim solution.

It's linked from here:

https://publish.obsidian.md/hub/01+-+Community/Obsidian+Roundup/2023-03-11+Bookkeeping%2C+Eisenhower+Matrixes%2C+%26+Pretty+Canvas+Cards#Ancillary+Code

[claremacrae]

If you are on the Obsidian Discord, there is some important extra info about how to test it out in this message:
https://discord.com/channels/686053708261228577/965681451297304596/1067587738947305562

[LedaKatopodi]

hey~

thanks for getting back to me, and thank you for the links!

cheers

[RCheesley]

+1 for this, I find the current layout completely visually overwhelming - I still need to see the dates but I'd love to be able to see them in a nice simple table! :)

[claremacrae]

Hi, we don't have time to count the '+1' comments - upvote via the arrow:

[RCheesley]

Yes, I already did that. Added a comment just for the context/use case. Thanks!

[arnonel]

Would love this !

(already voted)

[jack2game]

This would be one of the most useful features, with sortable table plugin.

I briefly looked into the code and it seems the difficulty is in the render part of the code. Currently tasks are rendered in a <li> class for each line. In order to make them into the a table, the render function pretty much needs to be re-written. And given html table's own complexity including <tr> <th> etc, this could indeed take some time to implement.

That said, I really hope to see this one day.

[jack2game]

After some playing around with Dataview, this is what I managed to achieve. Of course, the limitation is pretty much what everyone else already mentioned: Dataview doesn't give you the functionality to click the tasks.

In case anyone is interested, here is the piece of code for populating this table. You would probably need to change the custom task status below according to your own workflow.

TABLE WITHOUT ID
	split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(split(Tasks.text,
		 "➕", 1)[0],
		 "⏳", 1)[0],
		 "🛫", 1)[0],
		 "📅", 1)[0],
		 "✅", 1)[0],
		 "❌", 1)[0],
		 "⏬", 1)[0],
		 "🔽", 1)[0],
		 "🔼", 1)[0],
		 "⏫", 1)[0],
		 "🔺", 1)[0],
		 "🔁", 1)[0],
		 "🆔", 1)[0],
		 "⛔", 1)[0] AS Task, 
	choice(contains(Tasks.text, "🔺"), "🔺",
	choice(contains(Tasks.text, "⏫"), "⏫",
	choice(contains(Tasks.text, "🔼"), "🔼",
	choice(contains(Tasks.text, "🔽"), "🔽",
	choice(contains(Tasks.text, "⏬"), "⏬",""))))) AS "Priority",
	choice(contains(Tasks.text, "🔁"), "🔁", "") AS "Recur",
	default(object(
	    " ", "⏹",
	    "/", "⏺",
	    "-", "❌", 
	    "x", "✅",
	    "I", "⏯",
	    "i", "ℹ️",
	    "b", "🔖",
	    "<", "📅")[Tasks.status], "❓") AS "Status",
	dateformat(Tasks.created, "yyyy-MM-dd EEE") AS "Added",
	dateformat(Tasks.due, "yyyy-MM-dd EEE") AS "Due",
	dateformat(Tasks.completion, "yyyy-MM-dd EEE") AS "Done",
	link(Tasks.section, "🔗") AS "Link",
	Tasks.due - date(today) AS "Countdown"
FLATTEN file.tasks AS Tasks
SORT default(Tasks.due, "") ASC

This is not perfect, of course. Some potential solution could arise from the new Datacore plugin that's currently under development, or the new Dynamic views that official team is working on. The questions is when either will happen, and what level of support they may have for Tasks' emojis.

https://github.com/blacksmithgu/datacore/blob/master/ROADMAP.md
https://obsidian.md/roadmap/

[claremacrae]

Wow, that's amazing.

[SeLiEnisyst]

Wow, that's truely amazing!!! :) Thank you @jack2game !!!

I'm struggling with WHERE-filtering that table right now.
I'd like to show only uncompleted tasks...

Where !completed

... does not work unfortunately. Do you have an idea how to accomplish that?

[claremacrae]

Hi @SeLiEnisyst - I can’t help with that, as it is a dataview question.