TagStudioDev
[Suggestion] Tags that act like values
So I just came across this project and must admit it pretty much answers all my needs... All your problems with sorting files is pretty much what I've been frustrated with for the longest time. And I noticed there is potential for it to become far more than just a tagging and sorting system. It could become the one stop solution for all your sorting/tracking needs.
My suggestion might sound a little bit more than what you intend to do but it could pretty much separate this project apart from everything else in light years.
Basically, why not have tags as values? Much like properties in Obsidian... Lets say you have a lot of receipts you want to keep track of, add a price value and with an add-on like an expense tracker you can use these values to build a summary of your expenses. But wait, there's more. Maybe you're a crazy person and you want to keep track of how many cats you've photographed your entire life. Add a value to the photo and have it calculate how many cats you've photographed. Or maybe you want something more practical? well... how about a due date? add a notification pusher add-on and have the app remind you about a certain file, maybe its a file you need to work on, or maybe its a PDF of a bill you need to pay? the possibles are endless. Values can be extensible and used for pretty much anything.
Hmm, I'm interested to hear more! I'm not sure if I'm fully understanding though: In my head I'm picturing a couple different things, one being that tags are now fueling some data-driven statistics (either just the tag count or something different?) as well as sort of how Notion handles "tags" or premade properties in some of their tables or databases, where they're predefined values that you can reuse throughout a table/db/board.
I think the regular metadata fields (along with some number/currency field types) may also help with something like this, in addition to the planned feature for tags to optionally be restricted to certain tag groups.
In my head I'm picturing a couple different things, one being that tags are now fueling some data-driven statistics
Yeah, That's very close.
Maybe the word "tag" is a little bit misleading here. the idea it self utilizes the same concept as Obsidian properties. A tag is just something you sort by, a property field can be used globally to do more than just sort. Its just like extra meta-data that plugins or add-ons can use to extend the functionality of the app. Well.. pretty much exactly like how Obsidian does it, except here we're doing it for file management instead of note management.
The beauty of digital files is that they're digital... unlike physical paper you can embed whatever data you want. But some how we found ourselves with file managers that do nothing but move files around and spreadsheet software like excel that does nothing but count. The connection between the digital file and the statistical information it holds is broken into many fragments. And while you don't expect your file manager to make vector graphics you do expect it to sort and track the data you have but everyone has different needs and they want to keep track of different things.
The example of an expense/income tracker would be the most common use I imagine. If you collect scans of your receipts and paychecks, all you need to do is add a cost filed and a category filed and voila you don't need a spreadsheet or financial software. You could literally build a financial tracking system that suits your needs. But as I said this isn't limited to just finances, You can track pretty much anything related to your files or photos.
The other example I gave with the cats, maybe you're a photographer and you want to keep track of statistical information about your photos... You can make what ever system that suits you and there is no need to use a spreadsheet.
The reason I mentioned all of that being extended by plugins is because I can hardly imagine how ALL of this functionality can be built in all at once. an expense tracker is something very specific, I imagine you'd want some kind of visualizations like pie charts to go along with the data. but that's not the original purpose of Tag Studio... Just like Obsidian is not an expense tracker but you can extend its functionality to be exactly that or more.
I think the regular metadata fields (along with some number/currency field types) may also help with something like this
That's probably exactly what can be used for that.
I am also interested in features along these lines. I could see it being useful to run AI over collections to and using an API to auto tag files with calculated values. I could see this being very useful for non-photo file types analysis as well.
Tagged Value Examples:
[People_Count: 3] // There are workarounds to do this with nested tags
[Aesthetic_Rating: 3.14159] // But floats, ranges, and other values types are harder...
[Sentiment: 0.7] // sentiment of an image, video, text, etc.
Then you could search things like:
Search: People_Count > 1 && People_Count < 5 && Sentiment > 0.5
(could be people in an image, or characters in a script, or a video scene, etc.)
Just to be sure, are there any alternative features or other issues tracking similar requests I should watch?
