Vault evolution and changes

As everything else, one vault should also evolve. As we change, the questions we make and the idea we have for the information in our vault also changes.

The process can be soft, or it can be an all or nothing change. I prefer soft changes and this is what I'll be commenting here.

For my example now, I'll use a template change.

I used to have a single template for stakeholders, but I wanted a better differentiation of people and organizations while creating my notes.

My vault

My vault is mostly organized in folders, with the relevant folders for this example being Management/Stakeholders.

For all notes created there, I automatically apply a template named Templates/Template - stakeholder.

Possible scenarios

With the change, and the way my automations are implemented, on a quick analysis, I had the following options:

Eliminate the template automation and apply templates manually
Create separate folders for people and organizations and apply each template automatically on its folder
Evolve my current stakeholders template so that it asks which template to apply and then apply it to the new note

I've opted for option 3.

New Templates

For the new templates, I've opted to create two other templates, instead of making a single template with conditionals on which part to pick for each case.

This makes my templates easier to maintain, while keeping them modular enough.

And here, depending on the change, one of the options might be to apply the old template or one of the new templates.

Since I had already tested my new templates and since I have backups and a git version history of my files, I simply “destroyed” the original template and replaced it with the new code.

The code

The code below is the one responsible to suggest both new templates and, depending on the choice, apply them to the new file.

<%*
let template_stakeholder = await tp.system.suggester(
["Pessoa", "Organização"],
[1, 2]);
if (template_stakeholder == 1) { -%>
<% tp.file.include("Template - Pessoa") %>
<%* } else { -%>
<% tp.file.include("Template - Organizacao") %>
<%* } %>

The above code simply presents a selection with two options and associate these with numbers.

Based on the choice, it includes the new template file I created and process it. These new templates can include other templates (and I do that to standardize, for example, date properties in my notes) and rules.

What about the notes?

I'll migrate them to the new format as I get back to them. This is usually how I change my vault.

This, implicitly, creates a prioritization by note usage, as in the sense that unused notes get less time investment in their maintenance compared to more accessed / used notes.

Conclusion

As we evolve, our vault should also change to answer new questions or to better represent the information we record.

One should have a clear view of what one wants from the notes stored in a vault. Use backups to make it safer to make big changes because if everything goes wrong, it is always possible to go back to a state where things worked.