Optimizing Org-roam With Consult Notes Templates

Hey there! Let's dive into a neat little challenge involving Org-roam, consult-notes, and how we can make them play nicely together, especially when it comes to templates. The goal here is to enhance your note-taking workflow and make it smoother and more efficient.

The Core Challenge: Template Customization

One of the biggest hurdles when integrating consult-notes with Org-roam lies in customizing the templates used for displaying your notes. The original poster ran into an issue where changes to the consult-notes-org-roam-template weren't taking effect as expected. The user's configuration, which looks something like this, attempts to set a custom template:

(use-package consult-notes
  :custom
  (consult-notes-org-roam-template "${filetitle} ${title}")
  :config
  ;; It's actually defined in my Org roam config.
  (cl-defmethod org-roam-node-filetitle ((node org-roam-node))
    "Return the file TITLE for the node."
    (let ((filetitle (org-roam-get-keyword "TITLE" (org-roam-node-file node)))
          (filebase (file-name-base (org-roam-node-file node)))
          (title (org-roam-node-title node)))
      (if (string= filetitle title)
          ""
        (format "%s > " (or filetitle filebase)))))

  (consult-notes-org-roam-mode))

In this setup, the user intended to display the filetitle followed by the title of the Org-roam node. However, the template wasn't updating as expected. This could be due to several reasons, such as how consult-notes prioritizes or overrides its template settings. It's important to ensure your customizations are correctly loaded and that there are no conflicting settings that might be taking precedence. Let's explore how to ensure your custom templates work.

Troubleshooting Template Issues

To troubleshoot this, you'd want to:

1. Verify Load Order: Make sure that the consult-notes package and your custom configurations are loaded after org-roam. The order in which packages are loaded can heavily influence how configurations are applied.
2. Check for Conflicts: Examine other configurations that might be affecting the template. There could be other custom settings or packages that are overriding your consult-notes-org-roam-template.
3. Restart Emacs: Sometimes, a simple restart of Emacs is necessary to ensure that all configurations are properly reloaded and applied.
4. Inspect the Template: Use C-h v consult-notes-org-roam-template to inspect the actual value of the template in your Emacs session. This helps you confirm whether your custom value has been correctly applied.

Enhancing Template Flexibility

The original post also brings up a valuable point regarding flexibility. The current behavior of consult-notes seems to override the default display template, potentially disrupting the workflow of users who have already customized their org-roam-node-display-template. The suggestion is to provide an option that allows users to choose whether to use their existing org-roam-node-display-template or the consult-notes default. This could be implemented with a new custom variable, such as consult-notes-use-org-roam-node-display-template, along with a modified template configuration that behaves accordingly. This change would offer a more user-friendly experience by honoring existing preferences.

Proposed Enhancements

The suggested code introduces a few improvements:

(defcustom consult-notes-use-org-roam-node-display-template nil
  "Whether use `org-roam-node-display-template' as consult notes template."
  :group 'consult-notes
  :type 'boolean)

(defcustom consult-notes-org-roam-show-file-size nil
  "Show file size in annotations for org-roam notes in `consult-notes'.")

(defcustom consult-notes-org-roam-blinks nil
  "Show number of backlinks for org-roam note in `consult-notes'.")

(defcustom consult-notes-org-roam-template
  (if consult-notes-use-org-roam-node-display-template
      org-roam-node-display-template
    (concat "${title:84} "
            (propertize "${dir:12} "  'face 'consult-key)
            (when consult-notes-org-roam-show-file-size (propertize "${sizes:6} " 'face 'consult-key))
            (propertize "${fmtime} "  'face 'consult-key)
            (propertize "${tags:10} " 'face 'org-tag)
            (when consult-notes-org-roam-blinks "${blinks:3} ")))
  "Default display template for org-roam notes."
  :group 'consult-notes
  :type 'string)

Here’s a breakdown:

• consult-notes-use-org-roam-node-display-template: A new boolean variable to decide whether to use the org-roam-node-display-template or the custom consult-notes template.
• Conditional Template: The consult-notes-org-roam-template now dynamically selects the template based on the consult-notes-use-org-roam-node-display-template setting.
• Additional Customizations: Adds options to show file size and backlinks, enhancing the display information.

By implementing these changes, users can maintain their existing template settings while still leveraging the powerful features of consult-notes.

Fine-tuning the Blink Display

The suggestion to move the consult-notes-org-roam-blinks condition to the initial phase is also a good idea. This aligns with a more intuitive flow and ensures that the number of backlinks is displayed consistently. This change would provide a more consistent and predictable user experience, particularly for those who frequently use backlink information to navigate their notes.

Implementing the Blink Adjustment

To move consult-notes-org-roam-blinks to the initial phase, you would need to adjust the logic in the consult-notes package to ensure that the backlink count is calculated and displayed correctly during the initial rendering of the notes. This could involve modifying the functions that generate the note display strings to include the backlink count unconditionally, or at least before the template is processed. The implementation details would depend on the internals of the consult-notes package.

Conclusion: Optimizing Your Workflow

Ultimately, the goal is to create a seamless experience between Org-roam and consult-notes. The ability to customize templates, respect existing user preferences, and display relevant information (like backlinks and file sizes) are crucial to a streamlined and efficient note-taking system. By carefully configuring and customizing these tools, you can significantly enhance your productivity and improve how you manage your knowledge. Remember to consider the load order, check for conflicts, and inspect your settings to ensure everything is working as expected.

By integrating these enhancements, users can expect a more flexible, user-friendly, and powerful experience when using consult-notes with Org-roam, allowing for more efficient note management and knowledge organization. The key is to start with a clear understanding of your requirements, experiment with different configurations, and incrementally refine your setup to meet your specific needs. Embrace the flexibility and customization options provided by Emacs and these powerful packages to create a note-taking system that truly supports your workflow.

I hope this helps you get the most out of Org-roam and consult-notes! Happy note-taking!

For more information, consider checking out the following links:

• Org-roam Documentation: Org-roam Documentation
• Consult-notes Documentation: Consult-notes