Support the Obsidian JSON `.canvas` format for Whiteboard

Feedback Feature Requests
1

Hey. It’s great that Logseq’s page files are parseable by other tools like Obsidian. It gives me a lot of confidence to know that this data isn’t completely tied to the tool. Vice versa, migrating over from other tools to Logseq is pretty straightforward.

Could I say the same of the Whiteboard feature and the Clojure edn file format that it uses? I’m not sure. I see that Obsidian has proposed a JSON-based file format for its comparable Canvas feature, and I wonder if there is scope for developing interoperability between these two file formats — or else converging on one?

My worry is that these edn files are very niche and no other tool is likely to accept them, whereas I can imagine Obsidian’s likely larger community / ecosystem may spawn a neighbourhood of canvas tools.

2

Very hard. As Logseq’s whiteboard is a super-set of the Obsidian’s
Even harder given they are closed-source.
Would be possible if the Obsidian’s developers can collaborate with us on settling down a new protocol. Their current protocol is too simple to fit Logseq’s whiteboard features.

3

I hear that, but it actually sounds easy: take the protocol, extend it to what is required by Logseq, submit it back as a superset proposal.

What I’m hearing is that, inversely, it could be very feasible to import Obsidian canvases into Logseq, as Obsidian canvas files are more or less a subset!

3 Likes
4

The Obsidian .canvas format is now open-source and known as JSON Canvas.