Annotating multiple entities per file

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. I’d like to store a lot of very small entities in my Vault (think items in inventory). I’d like to be able to use DataView to process them, however it’s frustrating to create a separate file for tons of entries that could be stored in a table / list.

Describe the solution you’d like I’d love to see a way to include multiple distinct entities in a single file. Similar to how every task in a file is treated as a separate object with its own fields, I’d like a way to annotate plain lists or perhaps even sections (headings) in a file. Something akin to:

## Item 1
field1:: <value>
field2:: <value>

## Item 2
field1:: <value>
field2:: <value>

Describe alternatives you’ve considered I’d like to replicate some of the ways I’ve used Notion’s databases for this, which do technically create a page for every table row, but in a fully automated fashion so it’s not a hassle.

Additional context Not applicable.

[aubreyz]

I agree with this. It would allow simple semantic markup. Currently I abuse tasks for this – but the checkbox presents a problem. Extending dataview to single lines of data in files marked in way other than a task would make dataview (and obsidian) the ultimate semantic tool.

[aubreyz]

Not sure I would go with the headings idea (that would create a problem with markup) or every list item (system overload). I think what is needed instead is an exact emulation of what already exists for tasks. The main problem with using tasks for semantic markup is a) tasks are used for other stuff - i.e. tasks b) it can be a pain to get rid of the checkboxes in dataview but can be done c) want different flavours potentially.

I think you need to consider how this would be used and how powerful it could be. Let us suppose I am marking up news reports on the Ukraine war. I want to collate different things without breaking the articles into atomic sentences one per file. Let’s suppose I want to be able to collate a) what individual people did or said on particular dates and b) The geographical location something took place and on what date.

I think we can accept that we are not talking about inline markup, but that the user will have to make statements on their own lines interspersed with the text or at the end of the article. Inline markup which will also produce a seamless output will be too hard.

Currently I could use tasks. lets say as (design your own system)

- [ ] [[2022]] []02-22]] [[Putin Vlad]] announces he has put his nuclear weapons on high alert
- [ ] [[2022]] []02-21]] [[Johnson Boris]] Holds a party at 10 Downing Street
- [ ] [[2022]] ][02-21]] #location [[loc -3.3213,0.342]] Bomb dropped

or maybe

- [ ] [year:: 2022] [day:: 17] [month:: 02] [[Johnson Boris]] Holds a party at 10 Downing Street

You can do all sorts of fancy searches on that, and it already works great

What I would imagine is having something like (perhaps)

- (tracker::people) [[2022] [02-21] [[Johnson Boris]] Holds a party at 10 Downing Street

Perhaps as list items, or perhaps just as single line blocks, but basically doing exactly what tasks are currently doing.

With existing tasks it would be nice to be able to switch off the checkbox in a tasks dataview without having to go through convolutions