Template Prompts (Dialogs)

Templating provides the ability to ask the user questions through prompts when rendering templates.

• Example 1: Simple text input Prompt
• Example 2: Prompt with list of choices
• Example: Define early; use later
• Asking for dates or date intervals
• Working with Frontmatter Keys and Values
• Working with Tags and Mentions
• Usage Tips

Example 1: Simple text input Prompt

For example, if you have a display tag <%@ in your template which is not in your template data, a prompt will be displayed

<%- prompt('What is your first name?') %>

Example 2: Prompt with list of choices

Alternatively, the prompt command can accept optional prompt message and well as choices (for use with choice list prompt)

Using the following template

Task Priority: <%- prompt('priority','What is task priority?',['high','medium','low']) %>

You can then use the same variable anywhere else in template <%- priority %>. When the template is rendered, it will display a choice list prompt

Example: Define early; use later

The following example demonstrates how you can place prompts at the top of templates, and then use somewhere else in the template

<% prompt('lastName','What is your last name?') -%>

The rest of this could be your template code
And then finally use the `lastName` variable
<%- lastName %>

The template would render as follows, with the lastName value result from prompt on first line (assuming entered lastName Erickson)

The rest of this could be your template code
And then finally use the `lastName` variable
Erickson

Asking for dates or date intervals

There are two further commands available:

• promptDate('question','message'), which accepts dates of form YYYY-MM-DD
• promptDateInterval('question','message'), which accepts date intervals of form nnn[bdwmqy], as used and documented further in the Repeat Extensions plugin.

Both require the first parameter to be 'question', but accept an optional prompt message. They must be placed where the text is to be used. For example:

Project start date: <%- promptDate('question','Enter start date:') %>
Review frequency: <%- promptDateInterval('question','Enter review interval:') %>

Working with Frontmatter Keys and Values

promptKey

promptKey allows you to prompt the user to select a value from existing frontmatter keys in your notes.

Syntax

<%- promptKey('key', 'message', 'noteType', caseSensitive, 'folder', fullPathMatch, ['options']) %>

Parameters

• key (string): The frontmatter key to search for values (required)
• message (string): Custom prompt message to display to the user (optional)
• noteType (string): Type of notes to search - 'Notes', 'Calendar', or 'All' (default: 'All')
• caseSensitive (boolean): Whether to perform case-sensitive search (default: false)
• folder (string): Folder to limit search to (optional)
• fullPathMatch (boolean): Whether to match the full path (default: false)
• options (array): Array of predefined options to show instead of extracting from frontmatter (optional)

Examples

Basic usage:

Project status: <%- promptKey('projectStatus', 'Select project status:') %>

With folder restriction and case sensitivity:

Tag: <%- promptKey('tags', 'Select a tag:', 'Notes', true, 'Projects') %>
Tag: <%- promptKey('tags', 'Select a tag:', 'Notes', true, 'Work/Projects/Clients', true) %>

With predefined options:

Priority: <%- promptKey('priority', 'Set priority:', 'All', false, '', false, ['High', 'Medium', 'Low']) %>

Working with Tags and Mentions

promptTag

promptTag allows you to prompt the user to select from existing hashtags in your notes or create a new one.

Syntax

<%- promptTag('Select a hashtag:', 'includePattern', 'excludePattern', allowCreate) %>

Parameters

• promptMessage (string): The message to display in the prompt (required)
• includePattern (string): Regex pattern to include only matching hashtags (optional)
• excludePattern (string): Regex pattern to exclude matching hashtags (optional)
• allowCreate (boolean): Whether to allow creating a new hashtag if not found (default: true)

Examples

Basic usage:

<%- promptTag('Select a hashtag:') %>

Filter tags to include only those containing "project":

<%- promptTag('Select a project tag:', 'project') %>

Filter to include "priority" tags and exclude "low" tags:

<%- promptTag('Select priority:', 'priority', 'low') %>

Don't allow creating new tags:

<%- promptTag('Select from existing tags only:', '', '', false) %>

promptMention

promptMention allows you to prompt the user to select from existing @ mentions in your notes or create a new one.

Syntax

<%- promptMention('Select a mention:', 'includePattern', 'excludePattern', allowCreate) %>

Parameters

• promptMessage (string): The message to display in the prompt (required)
• includePattern (string): Regex pattern to include only matching mentions (optional)
• excludePattern (string): Regex pattern to exclude matching mentions (optional)
• allowCreate (boolean): Whether to allow creating a new mention if not found (default: true)

Examples

Basic usage:

<%- promptMention('Select a person:') %>

Filter mentions to include only those containing "team":

<%- promptMention('Select a team member:', 'team') %>

Filter to include "client" mentions and exclude "former" clients:

<%- promptMention('Select client:', 'client', 'former') %>

Don't allow creating new mentions:

<%- promptMention('Select from existing mentions only:', '', '', false) %>

Usage Tips

• When using includePattern and excludePattern, these are converted to regular expressions, so you can use regex syntax for more advanced filtering.
• The allowCreate parameter is particularly useful when you want to limit selections to existing values only.