Hi , I have an error that has just recently cropped up in a shortcut that I created to insert text at a placeholder in my daily note using Actions for Obsidian. Up until recently it worked flawlessly. However, when I tried it today, I’m getting a dialog box asking what the file path is for the daily note. I have the daily note identified in the correct vault and so I’m in a loss.
As the shortcut runs, it correctly opens the most recent daily note (so it does “know” the correct file path relative to the vault). But my dictated text is never inserted at the placeholder and instead a dialog appears twisting the file path. The dialog box contains the following
What’s the file path of the note?
File Path (Get Most Recent Periodic Note)
Hi @Joe_Girardot, welcome to the forum! It’s possible that you’ve run into an issue with iOS 18 beta, indeed, but unless I see the part of the workflow in question, I can’t tell for sure. Could you provide a screenshot, maybe?
Thanks. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary here. Do you use iCloud Sync by any chance? Because I’ve heard of notes temporarily “vanishing” for a sec or two because iCloud Sync decided it needed to sync that file right now, hiding it temporarily in the process, and actions trying to access it in the meantime did fail.
Side note: Your workflow is a bit needlessly complicated, however, and could be simplified, which might change the outcome.
My guess is you actually want the current daily note, and not just the most recent one, is that possible? (Because Get Most Recent Periodic Note and Get Periodic Note do slightly different things.) If it is the current daily note you’re after, you can use the Periodic Note versions of these actions:
Thanks for the review of my Shortcut and tips. However, it seems as if iOS 18 may be the culprit. For some reason the shortcut using the insert text action cannot locate placeholders, position the cursor relative to the placeholder and paste the text. As a result, even though the shortcut can open the Daily Note with no issue, it never pastes the dictated (or even typed) text in the desired location.
I was able to do a workaround using your Search and Replace action, however. That action, for some reason, can locate the placeholder. I simply have the shortcut locate the placeholder and replace it with the dictated text + add a new identical placeholder string at the end so that the next activation of the shortcut will have something to act on.
I’ve provided a screenshot below. This is not as elegant as your primary insert action but it gets the job done for now!
The regular (as opposed to dictated) text box is there solely to supply a line break to move the newly added placeholder to the next line
Thanks for getting back to me! Okay, that’s a bit wild. Out of curiosity, does it make a difference when the placeholder doesn’t contain leading and trailing spaces? I mean, if the placeholder is %%myplaceholder%% instead of %% myplaceholder %%.
Is there a timeline for resolution here? I have the same issue with Insert text at the placeholder in note in vault action. It started with the iOS/iPadOS 18 beta, not now happens with the latest MacOS beta as well. With new os releases next week, I was hoping there was line of sight to resolution.
Hi @Erik_Huddleston, welcome to the forum. I hadn’t heard back from @Joe_Girardot so I haven’t looked further into this. Can you answer this question, maybe?
Thanks. Could you provide a screenshot of the failing action, please? Also, you’re on the latest version of AFO and Actions URI, I guess?
PS: Also, if you would be willing to help me debug in Obsidian, I’d be grateful.! It’d be as easy as installing another plugin of mine for a few minutes, running one of the failing shortcuts, and sending me the plugin output.
It’d be helpful if you could install my Logstravaganza plugin, enable it, restart Obsidian, then try the failing Shortcuts workflow. After it failed, disable the plugin again, and send me the resulting note via feedback mail so I can take a look.
Logstravaganza logs console output to a new note or text file. That note then reveals what Actions URI is doing, if there are any crashes or errors etc.
