Massive core refactoring + Tracking state indicator

[rupel190]

Hiho @plasmabit

Great plugin! I've used it for a while and meant to add a formatter to the editing_time as #25 suggests. However, things escalated and I've... I've kinda re-written the core logic using debouncing.
It works the same, but improves on robustness and efficiency, especially avoiding excessive function calls.

Since I'm not completely done I'll open this as a draft, though I'm already using it for 1-2 weeks now. Let me know what you think in the meanwhile!

Adds:

Status Indicator

Emojis at the bottom indicating whether time is counted.

After typing is halted a configurable timeout counts down and resets the indicator.

The frontmatter is not just updated after typing has stopped, but every x seconds (where x is the typing timeout). So if my typing timeout is set to 30 seconds and I type for 80 seconds the frontmatter is updated at 30s, 60s and then once more as the timer runs out.

Modified timestamp

The modified time is now updated only if a configurable threshold is used. So if set to 30 seconds, the overall typing time needs to exceed 30 seconds. Important: When typing timeout >= modified threshold, the modified time will always be updated. I.e. when the typing icon is blue for longer than the modified threshold it updates.

Restructures settings:

• Date/Time formatter in settings are dynamically highlighted depending on validity
  

Fixes:

• CAMS did not create frontmatter on empty notes
• CAMS did not create frontmatter entries after changing key names, it only modified existing ones
• One more property to show minutes or hours #25

Current plan:

• Fix bug: When CAMS is selected in the settings the slider lower constraint should stay at 1 second but resets to the BOMS value of 10s when restarting the application. Only a graphical issue.
• Add global filter https://publish.obsidian.md/tasks/Getting+Started/Global+Filter Exclude paths #19
• Update readme
• Unit-tests

[plasmabit]

Wow, I haven't been active on GitHub, and I just saw this. Give me a minute

[plasmabit]

Feedback on this pull request

edited_seconds

Couple of things.

1. backward compatibility

   • I think it’s fair to say that contributions should generally be backward compatible so people can enjoy the benefits of previous versions. The issue is how you’ve reimagined the edited_seconds property.
   • Before, it was just a number—straightforward. Now it’s a date. I get the idea of adding customization, but by default, it really should stay as a number. It’s literally the number of seconds a file was edited. I couldn’t get it to work with my setup either. When I set it to s or sss, it stopped updating after 10 seconds. It would be nice to have a toggle between being a number or a date.

2. inflated edit times

   • The new setup inflates how long I actually spend editing notes. For example, when I edit for 4 seconds, it logs it as 10 seconds, which is more than double. Even with the lowest intervals, it overestimates. I like the idea of giving users options to tweak things, but there should still be an option for accurate tracking. This is especially important for CAMS, which is built for this exact purpose — precise and frequent updates. You can’t edit an inactive file with CAMS, so it has limits in its ability to be optimized.

3. data vs presentation

   • Honestly, there’s no real need for it to be a date. Numbers are just easier to work with, and if someone wants a date, they can convert it through the interface. I used to display it on the status bar and might bring that back. This kind of flexibility should happen in how the data is displayed, not in the core property itself.

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File Updates

I appreciate the effort to optimize things, but it feels like it lost its precision. The whole point of CAMS is to be accurate and snappy. Right now, if a file becomes inactive before its frontmatter is updated, it updates the next file you open instead. This also happens with edited_seconds. It’s especially bad when the timeout is set to higher intervals.

I’ve only tested this with CAMS, so I’m not sure how it behaves in other setups.

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One last thing—please don’t edit manifest.json. It doesn’t support contributors, but I could add you to the README instead.

There are a lot of great ideas here, but right now, it feels more like a fork than a direct contribution.