How to get into scripting

[XaverStiensmeier]

I have a hard time getting into Scripting. I have seen the examples in Trilium Demo but they are not really explained or commented. I also found https://github.com/Nriver/awesome-trilium which has a few more extensions to learn from.

However, learning by picking apart existing implementations is not really a great way to learn. Are there real tutorials somewhere? The https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Scripts section is also more a random example as far as I can say.

Currently, I am looking for a tutorial on how to add a button to a note that on a press shows a message (for example a number between 1 and 6). The JavaScript would be something like:

function getRandomArbitrary(min, max) {
  return Math.random() * (max - min) + min;
}

async function helloWorld() {
    alert("The number is: " + getRandomArbitrary(1,6));
}

but of course I am unaware of how to link this with Trilium properly. I thought about using widgets, but as I haven't found proper documentation (https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Custom-widget also just another example) on that class I only saw the weight examples which doesn't use a button and is uncommented.

Thank you in advance!

PS: On a second look I now found https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Widget-Basics which might be a bit more helpful, but in general the quetstion still stands: Are there real tutorials somewhere? Is this the best place to ask questions or is there an active scripting community somewhere?

[rauenzi]

There are no real tutorials (yet), I had intended to write more but life gets in the way. The important part is the prerequisite of knowing JavaScript, and DOM manipulation. After that, the Trilium part of things is pretty straightforward and documented.

[XaverStiensmeier]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Maybe I just haven't found the right documentation then? I admit having limited knowledge about JavaScript (maybe 40 hours) and DOM manipulation, but I feel like my issues are more Trilium related.

Looking at https://github.com/zadam/trilium/wiki/Custom-widget for example.

I have no information on the extended class. I cannot guess what 100 means for position as I would've expected a tuple for X and Y. I can guess that isEnabled is what checks whether the widget is shown in a note or not. I don't know when doRender is called. It seems like it also doesn't render anything but prepares a few variables and prepares some html which is later "formatted" in refreshWithNote where getNoteComplement() is unclear. entitiesReloadedEvent seems to just look inside a loadResults whether itself has been reloaded - which feels a bit weird. I would've imagined that to be a signal onReload or whatever.

It's completely possible that I am wrong and that most of my mistakes are related to JavaScript. It's also possible that I haven't found the "deeper" layers of Trilium's documentation yet.

Xaver

[XaverStiensmeier]

I missed the reference to https://zadam.github.io/trilium/frontend_api/FrontendScriptApi.html which basically answers all my questions.