Sure, I did Google before posting my question. But neither the link you have kindly suggested nor Tagging files from the macOS command line - BrettTerpstra.com seem to me straightforward to integrate with Tinderbox’s $Tags. At least not for my level of computing skills.
Besides my own computing shortcomings, I think it is reasonable to expect that Tinderbox adopts a seamless way to handle Finder tags (when exporting, watching folders, etc), as DEVONthink, Marginnote and other good apps used for research do. I for sure would welcome it.
Need to be a bit more precise here. Pat’s method uses a script to directly create a note in DEVONthink, using data in your Tinderbox file, and then update existing notes. There’s nothing going on in Finder with Pat’s Publish from Tinderbox to DEVONthink. So, his script can be modified to create and update tags, because the commands used by his script can write tags to DEVONthink. So, this has nothing to do with any Tinderbox enhancement controlled by Eastgate or Tinderbox “exporting … to Finder” – instead, you’d need to convince Pat to change his script.
I assumed @pat doesn’t want his Tinderbox $Tags in DEVONthink, as I do. This is why I was hoping to modify the script myself. But I can’t. Therefore, I follow your suggestion and hope he can take into consideration to add this feature to the script in the future, as I think it would probably be useful for other users.
Alternatively and although I so far have a minimal grasp of Tinderbox export (just enough to have set up a few simple templates), I do wonder if it would make sense for Tinderbox to add a specific export ^action or ^value to easily transform #Tags into Finder tags?
But for what? The exported data file? The xattr data (resource fork in Mac of old) is stored separately from the actual file itself.
Tinderbox does export $Tags to DEVONThink.
As it happens, I’m currently helping another MarginNote user (privately) with this issue and it’s quite plain the problem here is lack of functionality in MarginNote. As it’s not a cheap app, why not get the MarginNote dev to give you decent import export rather than try an make other apps deal with MarginNote’s lack of functionality?
I suppose we are talking about different issues here, because MarginNote exports its tags by default to DEVONthink (File > Export Notebook > DEVONthink). Firstly, as Apple tags of rtf files, and from these into DEVONthink.
As for the exporting of Tinderbox tags into DEVONthink, I better post in the dedicated thread to the script. Thanks for your replies.
I’m not a regular DEVONthink user, so others can check this, but my understanding is copying items to DT does pass Tinderbox $Tags into the DT tags, as of Tinderbox 6.4.0 and DEVONThink v2.8.8.
My earlier point - this seems the only way MarginNote has to export such data which seems pretty inflexible.
In the (private) thread I mentioned I think the MN user is manually putting the ‘#Tags’ into the exported text files and I’m helping him remove these from $Text, clean off the MN clutter (hashes, underscores) and place it in $Tags.
Even in the Pro MN version (needed for most export types) looks pretty limited for export and is tied to a few target apps some of which require a further third party app en route, e.g. you need OmniOutliner to get to DOCX (according to the MN manual). I can’t check further as there’s no user forum. Frankly, I think it would make far more sense to get the MN dev to offer a CSV or Tab-delim output which Tinderbox and other apps can easily handle rather than push Tinderbox for more niche and breakable (each version of both apps has to be tested for unintended breakage) bespoke export/import. My 2¢, anyway.
I understand now, and I agree that removing the clutter of #tags in the exported text files is certainly an improvement: they are added automatically and are redundant. There is something similar to a forum in https://marginnote.uservoice.com/, but it is largely unattended.
FWIW, I use MarginNote quite a bit but only export in .mmap format (mind map). Even there, the exports are crammed full of superfluous and ugly formatting. The other export formats need a lot of work, IMO. Not meant to criticize anyone’s use of MN.
Edit: if @eastgate is looking for more examples of artisanal software, MarginNote definitely fits into that category. It would be nice if there were tighter integration – perhaps a “watched” feature for Tinderbox to watch the notes in a given MarginNote “Notebook”.
Good to hear there’s an MN forum as fellow users often know odd tricks that haven’t filtered back to the dev (users being driven by need ).
When/if the side task is complete I’ll post more on the MN->TB tag process. TL;DR the aim is to ensure the tags form the last paragraph of each note’s $Text and if multiple tags that they have a consistent delimiter. I think the last needs doing outside MN (if so that’s an issue its dev might be persuaded to fix). Then an action can grab the last paragraph, remove hashes/underscore, replace the value delimiter characters with a semi-colon and set that as the $Tags value. Job done.
Aside, the subject of MN highlights (in RTF) came up. If you export highlighted text to RTF, it should survive in TB. I don’t have MN but have made highlights in TextEdit and drag dropped an RTF into Tinderbox and the highlight is there. Note, Tinderbox itself can remove highlights but can only create highlights in 3 colours (red,green,yellow) - it’s RTF text controls don’t have TextEdit’s custom color well for highlights.