reifat_daily-notes-sorter/README.md

# Daily Notes Sorter

An Obsidian plugin that allows you to automatically sort daily notes by date in the file explorer.

**Requires Obsidian 1.1.0 or newer** (see `manifest.json` → `minAppVersion`).

## Description

Tired of your daily notes jumping out of order? When your note names consist of a date (for example, `15.01.2024`, `01/15/2024`), Obsidian’s file explorer often can’t sort them chronologically. Daily Notes Sorter understands popular regional date formats and keeps your notes exactly where you expect them—newest first or oldest first, on demand.
<p align="center">
  <img src="https://github.com/Reifat/daily-notes-sorter/blob/main/resources/src%26after.png"  height="300" width="400"/>
</p>

### Demo

Curious how it works in practice? In this short clip, you’ll see how to add a folder, pick the date format, and toggle the sort to instantly re-order your daily notes:

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://github.com/Reifat/daily-notes-sorter/blob/main/resources/demo.gif"  height="600" width="800"/>
</p>

## Features

### 📁 Date Sorting
- Automatic sorting of files in specified folders by date
- Support for multiple date formats:
  - `YYYY-MM-DD` (ISO format, e.g.: 2024-01-15)
  - `DD.MM.YYYY` (European format, e.g.: 15.01.2024)
  - `DD.MM.YY` (European short format, e.g.: 15.01.24)
  - `MM/DD/YYYY` (US format, e.g.: 01/15/2024)
  - For numeric formats, the separator must be a single, uniform character that is not a letter or digit (space, dot, dash, underscore, etc.); only the order matters. Examples: `DD-MM-YYYY`, `DD MM YYYY`, `YYYY.MM.DD`, `MM-DD-YYYY`. Multiple or mixed separators (e.g., `15--01--2024`, `15-01_2024`) will not match.
  - If numeric pattern does not match, an optional **textual fallback** is tried: three space-separated tokens at the start of the file name in the **same** day/month/year order as the selected setting (e.g. `2024 Sept. 9`, `15 Aug 2024`). Month names follow a **fixed** locale list in the plugin (English by default), not your OS language, so behavior stays the same when the same vault is opened on different machines.

### 🔄 Sort Direction
- Ascending sort (from old to new)
- Descending sort (from new to old)
- Toggle sort direction via button in file explorer interface

### ⚙️ Flexible Configuration
- Configure individual folders with custom date formats
- Autocomplete folder paths when configuring
- Real-time path validation
- Settings persistence between sessions

### 🔔 Notifications
- Automatic notifications about files that don't match the specified date format
- Files without dates are placed at the beginning (descending) or end (ascending) of the list

## Usage

### Installation

#### Via Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. Open Obsidian Settings
2. Go to **Community plugins**
3. Make sure **Safe mode** is **off**
4. Click **Browse** and search for "Daily notes sorter"
5. Click **Install** and then **Enable**

#### Manual Installation (without working with the repository)

1. Download the latest release from the Releases page:
   - `https://github.com/Reifat/daily-notes-sorter/releases/latest`
2. In the release assets, download and unzip “Source code (zip)”.
3. From the unpacked archive, move `scripts/install/env-example/install-config.env` into the root of the plugin folder (next to `README.md`).
4. Open `install-config.env` and set:
   - `DEST_DIR` — absolute path to your vault’s plugin folder, e.g. `/path/to/YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/daily-notes-sorter`
   - `RELEASE_TAG` — the release tag you want to install (e.g. `1.0.1`)
5. Run the installer for your platform:
   - macOS: `bash scripts/install/install.sh` (make executable if needed: `chmod +x scripts/install/install.sh scripts/install/install.command`)
   - Windows: `scripts\install\install.bat`
   - macOS (double-click): `scripts/install/install.command`

Notes:
- On macOS, if blocked by Gatekeeper, run: `xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine scripts/install`
- Windows `.bat` files do not require execution permissions; ensure the file isn’t blocked in Properties if SmartScreen warns.

### Configuration

1. Open plugin settings (Settings → Daily notes sorter settings)
2. Click "Add item" to add a new folder
3. Enter folder path (you can use autocomplete)
4. Select date format from dropdown
5. Click "Apply settings" to apply changes

### Using in File Explorer

1. After configuring folders, sorting is applied automatically
2. A button for toggling sort direction will appear in the file explorer header
3. Click the button to toggle between ascending and descending sort

> **For developers:** Technical documentation, including plugin architecture, technical details, development instructions, and implementation details, can be found in [`src/README.md`](src/README.md).

## Known Limitations

1. **Date format at the beginning of file name:** The plugin only searches for dates at the beginning of file names. If the date is in the middle or end of the name, it will not be recognized.

2. **Files only:** The plugin sorts only files (TFile), folders remain in their places.

3. **FileExplorer dependency:** The plugin requires the built-in "Files" (FileExplorer) plugin to be enabled.

4. **One format per folder:** Each folder can have only one date format. If a folder contains files with different date formats, they may be sorted incorrectly.

## Future Improvements

- Support for additional date formats
- Search for date anywhere in file name
- Sort folders by date
- Group files by months/years
- Export/import settings

## License

MIT

## Author

Nick (GitHub: [@Reifat](https://github.com/Reifat))

## Support

If you found a bug or have a suggestion for improvement, please create an issue in the project repository.