Disable tasks on a specific page / checklist

[anantshri]

First up awesome work on this plugin. this has really been a whole different level of experiance managing tasks for me.

I know there is a feature where a specific tag if marked allows only those tasks to be added into the tasks lists.

What i am looking for is

1. Checklist are by default tasks
2. Have an option to disable tasks for specific checklist group
3. Have an option to disable tasks for full md page

We can also go nuts also with marking a full folder as exclusion or only one folder as accepted but i will leave that to you.

[claremacrae]

Hi @anantshri

Thanks for the suggestion.

Could you please explain what the specific use case is? It sounds like it might be a suggestion for an implementation, but knowing the problem you are solving might lead to other ideas.

For example

• What might be a reason that you want to disable tasks in specific locations?
• And why might you need a preference/option for it?

Also, there is already the option in Tasks searches to exclude tasks from specific file names and file paths.

[anantshri]

Ah Let me elaborate.

1. Like i said before I like the fliexibility that I can go anywhere in the obsidian vault create tasks and all of it appear in one place.
2. Sometimes I might just want a checklist for myself in a specific file so if i get an option to right then and there mark it as exclude from tasks that makes life easier for me.
   this is where i thought may be a frontmatter could be used. (not sure if the current query language allows inspecting frontmatter if it does that might solve my concern.)

specific folder exclusion yes my bad that can be done via queries. Have done it myself, but the filenames specific exclusion might not work always as there might not be a specific glob to feed in on that place.

[claremacrae]

Thanks for the quick reply. That helps a bit, but if it doesn't break confidentiality, what about a task, or task list, might mean you don't want it to be found by tasks searches?

I'm still missing something fairly fundamental behind the problem!

[Cito]

what about a task, or task list, might mean you don't want it to be found by tasks searches?

Speaking for myself, I have several checkbox lists ins Obsidian that are not meant as open tasks, but as general checklists that I can use on certain occasions (like holiday preparation). For me this is not a problem, as I use the global tag for Obsidian tasks. But if I understand correctly, OP does not want to use the global tag. In that case it could be helpful to have a kind of a global "anti" tag that tells Obsidian that a checkbox on that page or section is not a task.

[claremacrae]

I had wondered if this was a kind of opposite-of-global-filter ... thank you for the example.

I think I would wait for the ability to read tags from front-matter, and then define front-matter value to indicate to exclude all tasks from the file.

[anantshri]

Ah i missed this specific keyword. yes looking for a opposite-of-global-filter

[mjh8431]

I really iike the Tasks plugin, but I have the same concern. There are times when I want to create a simple checklist - not a todo list. Just list of agenda items with the ability to check them off as the meeting proceeds (this would be a section that is different from an actions or todo section) or a list of people who should attend a meeting with a checkbox to mark if they are present. Another type of checklist could be a grocery shopping list. There are actually many uses for a simple checklist that is not a todo list. Unfortunately, it appears that with the Tasksplugin enabled everything becomes a todo list if the global tag is identified. I have several tags I use to create todo lists eg. #remindme, #readlater, #watchlater, etc.), so setting a global tag doesn't work for me. Having a way to disable a specific checklist group would be a big help for me.

[montemartin]

I'm here to ask specifically for an "anti" global filter (or even better filters*) for a lot of the same reasons mentioned above. There a few different ways I can imagine using them:

1. As a tag on the file - any tasks in this file would be ignored in all Tasks searches
2. On a heading/top level task - anything within that block would be ignored by Tasks searches
3. On single tasks

The first is useful for the reasons mentioned by @mjh8431. I use a few project templates that are full of lists of items with Yes/No or True/False checkboxes and it would be great to have those ignored by default using a single tag in the frontmatter. I also have several cases where I've captured entire pages that are checklists and are still only reference material (for example https://raw.githubusercontent.com/portable-cto/side-project-marketing/master/marketing-checklist.md).

The second has a multitude of uses. The one I encounter most is incompleted project plans. I'll fequently start brainstorming with a list to capture all the possible ideas in my head. Some of those tasks are things I can act on, but most of them require further thought. I'd like surface most tasks, but quickly ignore those still in planning.

The last seems somewhat obvious but I don't actually envision using it as frequently. Mostly for some random things that I don't want to have crop up everytime I review my task lists.

*Having multiple negative global filters would be super useful. I'm already replicating this in a lot of my searches using combinations of "does not include" rules. The issue is I find myself having to ignore the same few things repeatedly and it would be much easier to set global ignore on them.

[montemartin]

I found #232 which discusses the same idea.

[montemartin]

An addendum to idea of multiple negative filters. It would allow me to exclude multiple already existing tags such as #waitingFor (#878) and #someday that I don't want to ever show up in searches for active tasks. I understand that might something better left to the query level in order to provide flexibility, but I think it would be super useful.

[claremacrae]

I've been reviewing a load of requests for this plugin. Some are quite focused and request an obvious chunk of work, with an obvious boundary.

I worry that this issue has spread in requests - and so scope - so far that I am not sure it is really actionable any more.

It seems to cover a range of different features - spreading from 'a single tag in YAML in a file meaning to ignore tasks in that file' to more complex facilities in settings.

[claremacrae]

I worry that this issue has spread in requests - and so scope - so far that I am not sure it is really actionable any more.

The original topic is:

• "Disable tasks on a specific page / checklist"

Let's stick with that, and keep this issue specifically providing ways in individual notes to tell tasks to ignore any checkboxes in that note.

I am not sure what constitutes an individual checklist???

Anything else, such exclusions via global filters is very welcome as a separate feature request (via the new Feature Request issue form). Feel free to add a link here pointing to new issues that are generated out of this one.

In case it helps to see what else has already been requested in this area:

• Discussion Ideas with label "scope: parsing markdown - and global filter"
• Issues with label "scope: parsing markdown - and global filter"

[montemartin]

I think maybe the lack of clarity stems from the "page / checklist" part of the topic. For me you hit the nail on the head with "a single tag in YAML in a file meaning to ignore tasks in that file".

You mentioned waiting for reading tags from frontmatter which would mostly solve the problem (with only a single query rule). Is it something that we can expect? There seems to be a number of threads discussing the concept but I couldn't find any issues or conclusions (#717 seems to be the most thorough).

[claremacrae]

A feature in Tasks 7.7.0 allows this to be done by users now....

See Tasks 7.7.0 and the Obsidian Properties documentation page.

Steps:

1. Define a frontmatter property value to use in your vault, to indicate notes whose tasks you want to exclude from Tasks queries
2. Use the docs above to write a filter to exclude tasks with that property
3. Put that filter in your Tasks Global Query.

I am going to label this as Released now, as it can be done without further development work/

[cromelex]

A feature in Tasks 7.7.0 allows this to be done by users now....

See Tasks 7.7.0 and the Obsidian Properties documentation page.

Steps:

1. Define a frontmatter property value to use in your vault, to indicate notes whose tasks you want to exclude from Tasks queries

2. Use the docs above to write a filter to exclude tasks with that property

3. Put that filter in your Tasks Global Query.

I am going to label this as Released now, as it can be done without further development work/

Would this work on Global Filter or only as part of Tasks Global Query?
Thanks

[claremacrae]

@cromelex, as I said, Global Query.

The Global Filter is something totally different and much more limited and less flexible.