Convert WikiLinks to Item Links issue?

DEVONthink Feedback
1

If a page has DT Links as well as WikiLinks and the action ‘Convert to WikiLinks to Item Links’ is carried out, all WikiLinks are converted (which is what is desired) but so too are all the Item Links that are also on the page.

You may ask, how are Item Links converted to Item Links, too?

The text related to the Item Link (the bit in the square brackets) is reset to the original filename, regardless of whatever text is placed in the square brackets.

Example:

If we have the file burgermenu.md

And we write:

[Here is where you can get a menu] (DT link)

After that action (Convert WikiLinks to Item Links) it becomes:

[Burgermenu.md] (DT link)

Even though I just wanted only WikiLinks to be updated.

Can someone else reproduce this?

Is this how the feature is designed to work? If so, I can imagine a lot of sentences suddenly looking strange after the action is applied.

2

A screenshot of Preferences > WikiLinks would be useful.

3

wikipref
wikipref1516×934 80.1 KB

4

Thanks! I can’t reproduce this so far. The raw Markdown source before/after the conversion would be useful. In addition, does burgermenu.md have any aliases?

5

You are correct to not be able to reproduce it because I gave you the wrong action.

Apply the action Update name of Item Links.

Do you see names are reset for everything on the document.

Thank you for your time.

6 
[Here is where you can get a menu](x-devonthink-item://9206D7CE-4DBB-4221-84AA-C1FE9D3F4BEB)

[[mywiki.md]]

This is what my code looks like, After Update name of Item Links is applied it looks like this:

[burgermenu.md](x-devonthink-item://9206D7CE-4DBB-4221-84AA-C1FE9D3F4BEB)

[[mywiki.md]]

The two files I am using are named: burgermenu.md and mywiki.md.

Thanks.

7

The two files I am using are named: burgermenu.md and mywiki.md.

If your item linked file is named burgermenu.md then I don’t see what’s at issue here.

8

But should

[Here is where you can get a menu](x-devonthink-item://9206D7CE-4DBB-4221-84AA-C1FE9D3F4BEB)

revert back to burgermenu.md even though it’s part of a sentence, especially since I was hoping the action only impacts WikiLinks in the document?

9
  1. A WikiLink is not an item link.
  2. The command is Tools > Item Links > Update Names of Item Links, not WikiLinks.
  3. In your mind, it’s part of a sentence. To an application, it’s parsed phrases that match criteria and it has been asked to update those words, which it has done.
10

I got you. I was misunderstanding that. So, I guess it is best to avoid using this action if you have a number of sentences that have DT Links because they will all change to their file names once applied.

I would like to suggest an enhancement for the future:

A new action that is applied to the file whose name has change and then all occurrences of the file in the database are updated to the new name. It would be even better if Devonthink did this automatically.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the way it currently works you have to search for pages that use that link then apply the action ‘Update Names of Item Links’ to each file. For some I think this might work because it gives them control on a per file basis, but others would like to see the update just happen.

Thanks Jim.