Ability to select subset of tags for 'group by tags'

[claremacrae]

Having used 'group by tags' a fair bit now, I'm getting more keen on being able to give a partial tag string, to select the tags to use as groups.

I have many tasks with #context/... and some with task_tags/.... Those with both are displayed twice, which is the intended behaviour, but I also have a bunch with no tags.

So I have to scroll past all the duplicates to see the (No tags) ones.

Suggestion:

I was thinking something like:

group by tags #context/

Implementation thoughts

One issue to consider for the parsing code is that we will likely have at some point:

group by tags reverse

Any syntax we choose for this needs to be clear about how reverse would be specified, so we don't break user queries when reverse is added.

For example, we could say that the reverse would have to be the last word on the line... So both these would work:

We have decided to put reverse before the tags...

group by tags #context/
group by tags reverse #context/

How is the supplied argument used. Options:

• case-insensitive substring search on each tag on each task << Agreed to do this
  • Only add groups for the tags that contain the given string
• or do we want to offer something more complex?
  • group by tags include #context/
  • group by tags does not include #context/

[AnnaKornfeldSimpson]

I am not fluent on all tag-related terms, but how much of this could be solved with a query like "group by subtags rootTag" (e.g. "group by subtags #context/") vs wanting to group across root tags and subtags in the same query?

[claremacrae]

Sorry Anna, I don't understand the question.

[AnnaKornfeldSimpson]

Sorry, let me try to rephrase! Is your "partial tag string" always going to end with "/", such that you are grouping essentially by sub-tags of that string? Or are you imagining that "partial tag string" could be any set of tag-allowed characters e.g. "a" or "@" as well as "context/"?

Additional question:
Example task: - [ ] improve my code comments #obs-tasks #context/computer
If I had group by tags #context/ reverse what groups would you intend there to be? Would the #obs-tasks tag show up in any of the group names?

Hopefully this clarifies my request for clarification! 😁

[claremacrae]

Yes, perfectly clarified - thank you!

It seems to me that it should try to behave the same as the tags filter.

• Matches case-insensitive (disregards capitalization).
• Disregards the global filter when matching.
• The # is optional on the tag so #home and home will work to match #home.
• The match is partial so tags include foo will match #foo/bar and #foo-bar.

[revanar]

I want to chime in on this conversation as well. I've run into an issue with group by where I want to have a #waiting tag on tasks where I'm waiting for something, but I want them to still show up under the other tags I've assigned them to---but when using the group by feature, it will display all of the #waiting items twice---once under their other tag, and once in #waiting. Being able to specify a list of tags to include or exclude when running a group by function would be great for reducing duplication!

[claremacrae]

Thank you - that's a useful example.

Being able to specific a specific list of tags to include or exclude

Erm - that's turned this in to two features 😁

I would want to keep this one as focussed on 'select tasks to include' in the first instance, to increase the chance of it happening...

[claremacrae]

Request for something similar: to exclude particular tags from 'group by tags'
#1637

[ionos]

I literally have the same use case as you do, claremacrae - a hierarchy of #Context/... tags which I'd like to use for grouping, while ignoring #NextAction and the likes.

I set up a Next Actions list, which includes all tasks that have the #NextAction tag. As every listed task carries the #NextAction tag, i.e. has at least one tag, there will be no (No Tags)-section, but rather a #NextAction-section which lists every task, whether it has context-tags or not.
Because of this duplication, I often miss tasks without context in this list...

This functionality would be greatly appreciated!

[mathisgauthey]

Hi there, similar demand from me.

As a fellow GTD user, I'm using a #next for my next actions, meaning the next steps/tasks needed to be done when possible.
These tasks often (but not everytime) have some other tags attached to help target tasks easily.
I'll be filtering tasks using #next and then grouping by tags in order to have every next actions grouped by their contexts :

• Computer
• Errands
• Online
• Call
• etc.

The issue is that filtering by #next and grouping by #next isn't good because this implies duplicates tasks that have both tags.

BUT, and that's important, if we totally exclude the #next tag from the filter, we would miss out the tasks that just have a #next tag and no context tag.

TLDR

I would love a feature that helps filtering and searching for #next tasks, grouping by tags, but preventing duplicates.

• If tasks has #next and other tag, just show the task under the context tag section
• If tasks has #next and no other tag, show the tag under the #next tag section
• If a task has two or more context tags, show the task under every context sections, because a task might be doable on multiple contexts

It would probably attract GTD users using this tool, I could write a guide I have a pretty simple yet functionnal setup, but I just need this feature to get it going smoothly.

[claremacrae]

Hi there, similar demand from me.

@mathisgauthey

The TLDR is quite long and I am very busy.

Please first kindly confirm that:

1. you have read the documentation about custom grouping by tags
   • https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Queries/Grouping#Tags
2. You have actually experimented with both sections of examples, to confirm that it is not already possible to do what you want...

Then, if it not solved already can you tell us whether:

1. this is the same as the feature requested in this issue, or whether
2. it is a different idea
   • in which case, please create a new Feature Request -
   • and be sure to include concrete example markdown text that will demonstrate what you want,
   • and show a picture of what you would like the output to look like

Thank you in advance.

[claremacrae]

... GTD users using this tool, I could write a guide I have a pretty simple yet functionnal setup, but I just need this feature to get it going smoothly.

I missed that bit. I feel that a big area missing from the Tasks user docs is general guides covering how to use it for higher level things...

So thank you very much indeed for that kind offer. I would love to included such a guide in the How To section of the Tasks docs ❤️

[mathisgauthey]

Alright, I can't promess anything cause I'm on a trip without much connectivity, but I'll check if it's doable with custom grouping, and I'll write something to share my setup for an advanced GTD setup ADHD free because of simple blocks built together !

[claremacrae]

Thank you!

I'm not saying you would fall in to this pit, but please don't let perfection get in the way of 'existing' - even a first draft would be super helpful, when you have time and connectivity...

Hope the trip goes well. 😄

[mathisgauthey]

Here goes dumb me : I wasn't aware of 4.0 of tasks and hence my downloaded version of the doc did not include the new set of grouping that does... Exactly what I asked for.

[!IMPORTANT]- Next Actions

not done
path does not include 2-Areas
tags include #next
group by function task.tags.filter( (tag) => ! tag.includes("#next") )

This makes it possible to filter task by next, but grouping only by other tags. And if by mistake a task only have a #next, it appears at the top !

I think I should redo my tags as well with nested tags for contexts and use this instead : group by function task.tags.filter( (tag) => tag.includes("#context/") )
EDIT : Maybe not in the end, typing #context/"context-tag" would be time consuming and there is not yet an autocompletion feature for inside the task creation UI as far as I know. So I'll keep using the example provided at the top of this message.

You're right, I'll keep it in mind for sure !

Thanks, sure it does !

[mathisgauthey]

Thank you!

I'm not saying you would fall in to this pit, but please don't let perfection get in the way of 'existing' - even a first draft would be super helpful, when you have time and connectivity...

Hope the trip goes well. 😄

Hi there, I haven't forgotten you. Here's my guide using GTD and your plugin almost everywhere.

You can also find a template vault here.

Hope it helps o/

[claremacrae]

Wow, that's amazing. Thank you.

[mathisgauthey]

I just updated my setup. If that can help people starting with obsidian-tasks here it is :

Introduction

Hi everyone.

In 2023, I shared my obsidian-workflow-template on Github.

The "documentation" was some mere blog posts on my website :

• My Complete Obsidian Workflow to Manage My Life
• Obsidian Publish Alternative, How to One-Click Upload Your Notes on Your Own Website
• Why Using Obsidian for Life Management

What's New

I just wanted to let you know that I just released an updated version of the workflow based on my experience in the past few months.

It has now it's own documentation.

You can see most of the changes in details in the release page. I did not get everything in the text as there was a lot of small plugin config tweaks, but any major part should be here.

Features

If you want to try it, here's the core features :

• 🎨 Beautiful design using AnuPpuccin: Personal theme for Obsidian.
• 🗃️ P.A.R.A[^1] folder organisation based on file actionability.
• ✅ GTD[^2] task management on par with a full Todoist setup, but with a simple and natural way of writing tasks alongside notes. You also get to keep your project tasks, notes and files archives when you finish a project, allowing you to access these informations in the future.
• 📅 Daily notes for task management, periodic notes for projects management (week, month, quarter and year).
• 📓 Journal section for each daily and periodic notes to write about anything that happened during a certain period of time.
• 🎮 Media backlog Kanban board for tracking books, shows, movies or video games backlog, consuming media at the right pace, and archiving what you do. All without proprietary online services that hold you data.
• 🔗 Read-it-later / bookmark manager with automated markdown conversion for offline storage inside your vault using Omnivore app. That means easy search for knowledge inside your vault across sources and personal notes.
• 📝 Zettelkasten note-taking on a flat structure inside 3-Resources folder.
  1. 📎 Import sources automatically using obsidian-omnivore plugin for an automatic markdown conversion of a webpage or document online or manually from a file or using markdownload.
  2. Highlight and take reference notes using Omnivore app or directly inside your vault using a simple markdown file.
  3. Write literature notes to summarise the source informations.
  4. Write permanent notes from key concepts directly inside literature notes using wiki-links.
• 🌐 One click upload of file and attachments to a Hugo website hosted on Github Pages thanks to obsidian-github-publisher plugin.