Turn a folder into a database

A database can show the files of a folder of your vault instead of rows you type. Each file becomes a row. When you rename, date, describe, tag or move a file from the table, Filarr changes the file itself.

It is a handy way to sort a folder of invoices, photos or documents with the tools of a database: a board by folder, a calendar by date, filters by tag.

Attach a folder

1. In a note, insert a new database: type /database and choose Database. See Databases inside your notes.
2. In the header of the database, click ⋯ (Database settings), then Link to a vault folder….
3. Choose a folder.

The table now lists the files of this folder and of the folders directly inside it. Deeper folders are not included.

If you had already typed rows in the database, Filarr asks first. Link and replace the rows attaches the folder, and your rows leave the table. Create a separate database keeps them, and adds a new database linked to the folder just below.

The list of folders leaves out those protected by a password. The table leaves out files in the trash, shortcuts to items of a shared vault, and subfolders protected by a password.

The table follows the folder: a file added, renamed or moved there also shows up here.

The columns

A file carries a name, a folder, tags, a date and a description, and nothing else. The columns are therefore fixed.

Column	Type	What it does
Name	Text	Renames the file. An empty name is refused.
Folder	Select	Moves the file to the attached folder or to one of its direct subfolders
Tags	Multi-select	Sets the tags of the file
Date	Date	Sets the date of the file
Description	Text	Sets the description of the file
Size	Number	Read-only
Type	Text	The extension of the file (pdf, jpg…), read-only
Created	Created time	Read-only
Modified	Last edited time	Read-only

What you type in a read-only column is not kept.

Tags offers the tags already used on the files of these folders. To use a new tag, first add it to a file from its details panel: a tag created from the table reaches the file as a code, not under the name you typed. See Tags, favorites and recent files.

Three changes only work from the file itself. Emptying a Description cell or a Date cell, or removing the last tag of a file, is not saved: do it from the file's details panel.

Sort your files with the views

Filters, sorts, the gallery, the calendar by Date and the board all work on a folder. See Database views, filters and sorts.

The board is the most useful one. Group it by Folder: the attached folder and each of its direct subfolders get a column, and dragging a card to another column moves the file into that folder. The No value column stays empty. In the calendar, dragging a row to another day changes the date of the file.

Views, filters and column widths are saved in the note. The files stay in your vault: the note never holds a copy of them.

No new files, no deleted files

A folder-backed database never creates or deletes a file. This is deliberate: undo in a note cannot bring back a file sent to the trash.

The header has no New row button. Some commands of an ordinary database still show, but do nothing on a folder: the buttons that add a row (New row under the table, New card on the board, the + of a calendar day, the Form layout), Duplicate row, Delete row, and the commands that add, change or delete a column. Create page opens a new note, but that note is not attached to the file.

• To add a file, import it into the folder: see Add files to Filarr.
• To delete a file, do it from the folder: see Organize files in folders.

When the table is read-only

The table only writes to your vault from your own notes. In other cases it stays readable, and a line under its header says why:

Message	When
Read-only: this note cannot be edited.	The note is shown read-only, for example an older version of it.
Read-only: multi-user editing is open on this note.	The note is being edited live on several devices. Changes made elsewhere would otherwise rename your files.
Read-only: this surface cannot write to the vault.	The database is shown somewhere that cannot write to your vault, for example a note of a shared vault.
This folder no longer exists, or it is password-protected.	The folder was deleted, or protected by a password since. Choose another one.

Detach the folder

Click ⋯, then the Linked folder line, which shows the name of the folder, and choose None. The database becomes an ordinary one again, with no rows. Your files stay where they are.

Related articles

• Databases inside your notes
• Database views, filters and sorts
• Organize files in folders
• Tags, favorites and recent files