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https://github.com/rabirabirara/obsidian-jelly-snippets

A simple text snippets plugin for Obsidian.md. BACKUP SNIPPETS BEFORE UPDATING.
https://github.com/rabirabirara/obsidian-jelly-snippets

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A simple text snippets plugin for Obsidian.md. BACKUP SNIPPETS BEFORE UPDATING.

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# jelly-snippets

A simple text snippets plugin for Obsidian.md.



## BEFORE UPDATING,READ: 



If you have used an older version of this plugin (1.5) or below, updating to version 1.6 will erase your snippets. Backup your snippets before updating; I will update the plugin with a backup functionality later too in case I mess up again. Deepest apologies. 



## What does it do?



Pretty simple. You probably have run into snippets before.



1. Specify a mapping of snippet to replacement in the settings tab.

	

	`snippet. |+| replacement!`

	

2. If the cursor is at the end of a snippet...

	

	`snippet.`

	

3. ..then triggering the snippet conversion...

	

	`snippet.`

	

4. ..will replace the snippet with its replacement!

	

	`replacement!`

	

### In greater detail:



Snippets are defined in a text area (like a file) in settings. Each snippet has two parts: lhs and rhs.



##### The lhs (left hand side) determines what text gets replaced; the rhs (right hand side) determines what replaces the text. 



##### The lhs is *exactly* the text that will be replaced, while the rhs can have certain symbols to represent things like whitespace.



Naturally, there is a symbol to divide these two halves of a snippet, called a snippet part divider:



` |+| `, for example. (With spaces at the ends.)



	lhs |+| rhs

	

So when you type `lhs` and then trigger the snippet command, it will replace the text `lhs` with `rhs`.

	

And, there is a symbol to divide each separate snippet in the list of snippets, called a snippet divider:



`-==-`, for example.



You must keep the snippet divider on their own line - that is, the plugin expects a newline after the snippet divider. (Implicitly, no two snippets can be on the same line.)



So if you had the following snippets file:



```

lhs |+| rhs

-==-

superb |+| superbowls

```



Then you would have two snippets. If your divider was `-==-` still and you had the following file:



```

lhs |+| rhs

superb |+| superbowls

```



Then typing `lhs` and triggering the snippet command would replace `lhs` with:



```

rhs

superb |+| superbowls

```



## Using Symbols (simple)



Say you want to expand `hw` into a full hello-world function. Say we're using Rust. You define the snippet:



```

hw |+| fn hello() {

%\t%\e

}

```



When you trigger the snippet, you'll end up with this:



```

fn hello() {

    |

}

```



... where `|` represents your cursor. Of course, Obsidian is a markdown editor, so expect the little indent guide.



#### List of supported symbols



- Newline: `%\n`

- Tab: `%\t`

- Space: `%\s`

- Cursor Ending position (after snippet replacement): `%\e`



## Why?



I wanted to make a generic snippets plugin that operated on text and worked as I needed. There is an existing snippets plugin already, [Text Snippets](https://github.com/ArianaKhit/text-snippets-obsidian) by ArianaKhit, but not only is the plugin code somewhat outdated and a little complex, it seems to use an older API. (It is a very good plugin by the way.)



One of my goals writing this was to write a simple plugin that used the API exactly as described by the [unofficial docs](https://marcus.se.net/obsidian-plugin-docs/) and by vanilla Typescript. I also wanted to make the core functionality of the plugin more flexible, though of course I have yet to add certain features that would truly provide that.



Another motivation was that I wanted to make a plugin by which I could type in my personal note-taking syntax (called JellyNote); I originally was going to write a whole editor extension, but I eventually realized that I could implement it with snippets. So, I'll be adding features to this plugin as long as I need them for JellyNote syntax.



This plugin also reminds me of LaTeX2Unicode, a neovim plugin which I used extensively in my first two years of college. I liked it because it would automatically change latex to unicode on pressing space; that was it. No stretching for the tab key. 



It's since been incorporated back into [julia.vim](https://github.com/JuliaEditorSupport/julia-vim). I didn't originally mean to write a plugin that could provide this kind of functionality - but I suppose the concept of text translation is really useful!



## Future Improvements/TODO



- [x] Control characters in snippets (whitespace only)

- [x] Semantic symbols in snippets (e.g. where does cursor go afterwards? a snippet with braces might benefit from placing the cursor inside...)

- [ ] Regex capabilities - at least on selection.

- [ ] A backup for snippets - or a way of specifying snippets in a file, to modularize snippets. May be useful if regex snippets need to be defined separately from text snippets.

- [ ] Bugfixes and auditing.

- [ ] AUTOMATED TESTING. Use Jest.

- [ ] Do the things liamcain suggested in my plugin PR to the Obsidian plugin repo. (one half done)

- [ ] Working with Obsidians template stuff.

- [ ] REWRITE: CodeMirror editor extension. [See here on state fields.](https://docs.obsidian.md/Plugins/Editor/State+fields) This should also make things such as tabstops and working in live preview possible, but I don't know for sure. This would mark a version upgrade.

      

### Other caveats



- None right now, except that the maintainer of this plugin (me) is inexperienced and may break something. Keep your snippets safe if you write a lot of them.