Error: File already exists

[trustin]

Hi! Thanks a lot for creating this plugin first of all. 🙇

When I clip something when there's no target note created, it creates a new daily/weekly note and adds the clip there. However, if I clip some other thing again, it fails with the following error:

plugin:obsidian-clipper:341
Failed to create file: 'Periodic notes/Weekly notes/2023Q2W20.md' Error: File already exists.
    at t.<anonymous> (app.js:1:966983)
    at app.js:1:235927
    at Object.next (app.js:1:236032)
    at a (app.js:1:234750)

I think it may be related with some plugins I'm using, such as Templater, Periodic notes and Calendar, but it'd be nice if the clipper plugin doesn't attempt to create a new note when it exists already.

[trustin]

Looks like it's happening somewhere in here:

async function createWeeklyNote2(date) {
      const { vault } = window.app;
      const { template, format: format2, folder } = getWeeklyNoteSettings();
      const [templateContents, IFoldInfo] = await getTemplateInfo(template);
      const filename = date.format(format2);
      const normalizedPath = await getNotePath(folder, filename);
      try {
        const createdFile = await vault.create(normalizedPath, templateContents.replace(/{{\s*(date|time)\s*(([+-]\d+)([yqmwdhs]))?\s*(:.+?)?}}/gi, (_, _timeOrDate, calc, timeDelta, unit, momentFormat) => {
          const now2 = window.moment();
          const currentDate = date.clone().set({
            hour: now2.get("hour"),
            minute: now2.get("minute"),
            second: now2.get("second")
          });
          if (calc) {
            currentDate.add(parseInt(timeDelta, 10), unit);
          }
          if (momentFormat) {
            return currentDate.format(momentFormat.substring(1).trim());
          }
          return currentDate.format(format2);
        }).replace(/{{\s*title\s*}}/gi, filename).replace(/{{\s*time\s*}}/gi, window.moment().format("HH:mm")).replace(/{{\s*(sunday|monday|tuesday|wednesday|thursday|friday|saturday)\s*:(.*?)}}/gi, (_, dayOfWeek, momentFormat) => {
          const day = getDayOfWeekNumericalValue(dayOfWeek);
          return date.weekday(day).format(momentFormat.trim());
        }));
        window.app.foldManager.save(createdFile, IFoldInfo);
        return createdFile;
      } catch (err) {
        console.error(`Failed to create file: '${normalizedPath}'`, err);
        new obsidian.Notice("Unable to create new file.");
      }
}

We could avoid calling vault.create() if the note exists at normalizedPath already.

[trustin]

It seems like this issue only affects weekly notes. The plugin adds a clipped entry into daily notes without a problem even if the note exists already.

[jgchristopher]

I haven't been able to reproduce this yet, though I did find other issues unrelated to this.

Can you share what Operating System you are on. Can you also share what version of Obsidian you are using?

Thanks!

[trustin]

Hey, thanks for a reply. Here's the information:

• OS: macOS 13.3.1 (Ventura)
• Obsidian: 1.2.8

[jgchristopher]

I was able to reproduce this now.

Clipper uses the periodic-notes plugin for weekly notes. Clipper would fail and show a Notice that this plugin is required when trying to use the weekly note.

Oddly, I can only recreate this if I use a Note Title Format like yours :).

1. gggg[Q]Q[W]w (like yours fails if note exists)
2. default in periodic notes works
3. gggg[W]w works as well.

[jgchristopher]

This is an issue in the periodic-notes-interface code. For some reason it is trying to recreate a date from file names and the Q2 part of the filename being a weekly file is breaking it.

Not sure why the code doesn't just take the date, the format, generate the path and see if that exists.

I don't think I will be able to fix this one on my end currently.

[jgchristopher]

The periodic-notes-interface library is causing the problem. It was designed/extracted from the calendar plugin so has an odd interface. I am going to play around to see if I can support this a different way.