Calendar Views

← Back to Views

TaskNotes provides two calendar-based views: the Mini Calendar and the Calendar View. Both operate as Bases views (.base files) and require the Bases core plugin to be enabled in Obsidian.

Bases View Architecture

Calendar views in TaskNotes v4 are implemented as Bases views, which means:

• Calendar views are created as .base files in your vault
• Configuration is controlled through YAML frontmatter in the base file
• The Bases plugin is an official Obsidian core plugin and must be enabled
• Views can be opened in tabs, pinned, and managed like other Obsidian views

Mini Calendar View

The Mini Calendar displays a month-based view that shows which days contain tasks or other dated notes. It provides navigation and an overview of your task distribution across time.

Features

• Date Navigation: Click any date to open a fuzzy selector modal showing all notes associated with that date
• Keyboard Navigation: Navigate the calendar using arrow keys and select dates with Enter
• Heatmap Styling: Visual indicators show the density of tasks or notes on each day
• Configurable Date Property: Set which date property to track (not limited to tasks - can display any dated notes based on configured property)
• Month Navigation: Browse forward and backward through months to view historical and future task distribution

Calendar View

The Calendar View provides multiple view modes (month, week, day, year, list, and custom days) with drag-and-drop scheduling and time-blocking capabilities. Tasks can be created by clicking on dates or time slots, and rescheduled by dragging them to new dates or times.

View Modes

The Calendar View supports the following view modes:

• Month: Month grid showing all-day and timed events
• Week: Week view with hourly time slots for detailed scheduling
• Day: Single day view with hourly breakdown
• Year: Annual overview showing event distribution across months
• List: Chronological list of events. TaskNotes also includes a dedicated Agenda command that opens this mode via its own .base file for quick reviews.
• Custom Days: Configurable multi-day view (2-10 days)

Week View	Day View	Year View

Performance Improvements

The Calendar View uses virtual scrolling to maintain performance when displaying large numbers of events. This allows the calendar to handle extensive task lists and long time ranges without degradation in responsiveness.

Custom Days View

The Custom Days view provides a configurable multi-day calendar that displays between 2-10 days at once. This view addresses screen space utilization by offering a middle ground between the single-day view and the full week view.

Key Features

• Configurable Duration: Set the number of days to display (2-10 days) via Settings > Calendar > Custom view day count
• TimeGrid Format: Uses the same hourly time slots and time-based event layout as Week and Day views
• Real-time Updates: The view updates immediately when the day count setting is changed
• Default Configuration: Ships with 3 days displayed by default for optimal space utilization

Use Cases

The Custom Days view is particularly useful for: - Users who find the single-day view too wide and wasteful of screen space - Planning workflows that require seeing a few days at a glance without the full week - Detailed scheduling tasks that benefit from the time-grid format - Customizing the viewing window to match personal preference and screen size

Configuration

1. Select the View: Choose "Custom Days" from the calendar toolbar alongside Month, Week, Day, and Year views
2. Adjust Day Count: Navigate to Settings > Calendar > Custom view day count and use the slider to select 2-10 days
3. Set as Default: Optionally set "Custom Days" as your default view in Settings > Calendar > Default view

Recurring Task Support

The Calendar View provides recurring task management with visual hierarchy and drag-and-drop behavior.

Visual Hierarchy

Recurring tasks are displayed with distinct visual styling:

• Next Scheduled Occurrence: Solid border with full opacity, representing the specific date/time when you plan to work on the next instance
• Pattern Instances: Dashed border with reduced opacity (70%), showing preview of when future recurring instances will appear based on the DTSTART and recurrence rule

Drag and Drop Behavior

The calendar provides different behaviors depending on which type of recurring event you drag:

Dragging Next Scheduled Occurrence (Solid Border):

• Updates only the scheduled field in the task
• Reschedules just that specific occurrence to the new date/time
• Leaves the recurrence pattern unchanged
• Notice: "Rescheduled next occurrence. This does not change the recurrence pattern."

Dragging Pattern Instances (Dashed Border):

• Updates the DTSTART time in the recurrence rule
• Changes when all future pattern instances appear
• Does not affect the independently scheduled next occurrence
• Notice: "Updated recurring pattern time. All future instances now appear at this time."

Flexible Scheduling

The next scheduled occurrence can appear on any date, even:

• Before the DTSTART date
• On days that don't match the recurring pattern (e.g., Tuesday for a weekly Monday pattern)
• At different times than the pattern instances

This flexibility allows for complete control over both the recurring pattern and individual occurrence scheduling.

View Options

The Calendar View provides several display options that control what types of events appear on the calendar:

• Show scheduled: Display tasks with scheduled dates
• Show due: Display tasks with due dates
• Show timeblocks: Display time-blocking entries
• Show recurring: Display recurring task events
• Show ICS events: Display events from imported ICS calendars
• Show time entries: Display time tracking entries
• All-day slot: Show or hide the all-day event area at the top of time grid views (Week, Day, and Custom views)

The All-day slot option is particularly useful when you have many all-day tasks on a single date, as hiding it can resolve scrolling issues and make the hourly time slots more accessible. When disabled, all-day events will not be displayed in time grid views, but they will still appear in month view.

These display options are preserved when you save a view, allowing you to create specialized calendar views that show only specific types of events and maintain those preferences across sessions.

OAuth Calendar Integration

The Calendar View supports bidirectional synchronization with external calendar services through OAuth authentication:

• Google Calendar: Connect to Google Calendar accounts to display and sync events
• Microsoft Outlook: Connect to Microsoft Outlook accounts for calendar integration

Synchronization Behavior

• External calendar events appear alongside TaskNotes tasks in all calendar views
• Drag and drop events to reschedule them - changes sync back to the external calendar service
• Events from external calendars respect the same view options and display settings as native TaskNotes tasks

Configuration

OAuth calendar connections are configured through the TaskNotes settings panel. Authentication uses standard OAuth flows to securely connect to external services.

Time Entry Editor Modal

The Calendar View includes a Time Entry Editor Modal for creating time tracking entries directly from the calendar interface.

Creating Time Entries

• Drag on the calendar to select a time range
• When the selection menu appears, choose Create time entry
• The modal opens with the start and end times pre-populated based on the selection, and the entry can be linked to a task or left standalone

Editing Time Entries

Time entries displayed on the calendar can be selected to open the Time Entry Editor Modal for modification. The modal provides fields for adjusting start time, end time, associated task, and other time entry metadata.

Filtering and View Configuration

Calendar filtering is configured through the Bases YAML frontmatter in the .base file. This allows you to define which tasks and events appear in each calendar view. Filtering options include task properties, date ranges, tags, and other criteria supported by the Bases plugin.

Saved calendar views retain their filter configuration, display options, and view mode, allowing you to create specialized calendar views for different purposes.