I want in a pdf with a annotation file place a link in the url, that after moving the annotation file to obsidian, can open that annotationfile in obsidian from Devonthink.
I have this script, placed in smart rules, but it does not work:
on run
tell application id "DNtp"
-- 1) Ensure at least one item is selected
set sel to the selection
if sel = {} then
display alert "Error" message "Please select one or more items in DEVONthink."
return
end if
-- 2) Process each selected item
repeat with thePDF in sel
try
-- 2a) Only PDF documents
if type of thePDF is not PDF document then
display dialog "Skipped (not a PDF): " & (name of thePDF) buttons {"OK"} default button 1
continue repeat
end if
-- 2b) Must have an annotation
if not (exists annotation of thePDF) then
display dialog "Skipped (no annotation): " & (name of thePDF) buttons {"OK"} default button 1
continue repeat
end if
-- 3) Retrieve the DEVONthink UUID
set theUUID to uuid of thePDF as text
-- 4) Build your Obsidian search link
set obsidianURL to "obsidian://search?query=" & theUUID
-- 5) Write the link into the URL field
set URL of thePDF to obsidianURL
-- 6) Confirmation per file
display dialog "URL information updated for:" & return & (name of thePDF) buttons {"OK"} default button 1
on error errMsg
display dialog "Error processing " & (name of thePDF) & ":" & return & errMsg buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
end repeat
-- 7) Final notification
display notification "All selected PDFs have been updated." with title "Process Complete"
end tell
end run
Starting with Potemkin pastiche is understandably tempting,
but in fact costs you ( and others ) more time than simply starting with the documentation, experimenting, and asking for help.
Turns out that LLMs even slow down experienced coders who imagine that they are being helped. Subjective time feels shorter, but clock time turns out to be longer.
Dear Chrillek, you are right: AI. What is the best place to find good documentation to start automation? In the documentation on DT4 it is not clear for me, I am a psychologist and IT is just a way to organise myself… Where can I find good tutorials? Thanks,
on performSmartRule(theRecords)
tell application id "DNtp"
repeat with theRecord in theRecords
if (annotation of theRecord) is not missing value then
set theAnnotation to annotation of theRecord
set annotationName to name without extension of theAnnotation
set vaultName to "YourVaultName"
set encodedVaultName to my encodeURIComponent(vaultName)
set encodedAnnotationName to my encodeURIComponent(annotationName)
set obsidianURL to "obsidian://open?vault=" & encodedVaultName & "&file=" & encodedAnnotationName
set URL of theRecord to obsidianURL
end if
end repeat
end tell
end performSmartRule
on encodeURIComponent(uri)
run script "encodeURIComponent(" & (the quoted form of uri) & ");" in "JavaScript"
end encodeURIComponent
NOTE: YourVaultName has to be changed to the actual name of your vault.
P.S: This code was written by Claude 4 Opus using an internal build of DEVONthink, I only added the URI encoding
This is nice cgrunenberg, but to have a solid reference, I want to have a unique identifier to that file. It is a link I want to copy to URL in the original pdf so I can launch the linked annotation file in obsidian from the pdf. Even names change afterwards… I hope this is possible…
There’s the chapter on automation in the DT manual. Which is good, though terse.
Then, if you create a smart rule, you might want to select a document type, namely PDF. Which obsoletes the check for PDF in the script. Next, select the “Execute script” action in the smart rule and select “AppleScript” or “JavaScript” (which I’d suggest, though AS is still prevalent here). That will open a small editor window with a scaffold. And as you can see, that is utterly different from your on run approach.
The key part here is the perform smart rule handler (or the performsmartrule function for JavaScript). You’ll see how that encompasses everything your script should do in the sample code @cgrunenberg/Claude posted.
I have a website for JavaScript automation on macOS (“JavaScript for Automation,” JXA). You’ll find a chapter on DT automation there. But the site is by no means a tutorial.
This is deliberately written very compactly. For educational purposes, one should use additional variables like @cgrunenberg/Claude did in their script.
The most notable difference is that with JavaScript, one doesn’t need to run a script to perform URI encoding – the necessary function is built-in. Another detail is that I moved the vault definition outside the loop because imo that should be done only once. Claude doesn’t care about invariants inside loops, apparently.
Disclaimer: Since I do not have Obsidian, I didn’t test the code.
PDF - make Annotation - Make unique ID and link - place it in URL of pdf - rename and move file to obsidian. Working in DT I can then launch the url and open the annotation file (in Obsidian)
Perhaps. I don’t know this software. In DT, one would have to create the file first to be able to get a reference to it afterward.
But from the very cursory search I did, Obsidian does not seem to support OSA (Open Scripting Architecture) – so neither AppleScript nor JXA are available to automate it. Personally, I wouldn’t go down that way. Too much trouble, too many unknowns.
But I think it should be possible to do what you want with the Advanced URI plugin. This URI-scheme can work with files based on a UUID stored in the metadata header/“frontmatter” of the file itself – see: File identifiers - Advanced URI Documentation.
I use Devonthink for gathering research articles, texts, book, powerpoints etc… I use Obsidian to create a second brain.
The annotation files become notes in Obsidian with yaml and links, so I can create links, resume, create my own idea’s. But always come back to the basic text if needed.
With DT creating annotations with yaml and a back-link (in the Obsidian file the backlink to DT is in the note), I rename the annotation and move it to Obsidian. This process is already automated.
What happens a lot is that the link between the original text and the annotation get’s lost, so I want to be sure that the Obsidian link can be found in the metadata of the original text.
my Obsidian vault is indexed in Devonthink
the annotation file let’s me insert info from the pdf, like the backlink
the destination is becoming a note in Obsidian, this is info for my second brain
I want the link to stay between the two files
Does this help?
Thanks for your answer, I will give it a try!
