A lot of useful functionality in SilverBullet is implemented through Templates, as well as regular Pages. Some of these you will create yourself for your own specific use, but many are generic and generally useful. Libraries offer a way to distribute sets of templates and pages easily, but also help to give some guidance on how to structure templates for your personal use.
Useful pages that help you perform maintenance on your space, like detecting broken links, such as Maintenance.
Configuring libraries
Libraries are managed by specifying them in SETTINGS under the libraries attribute. The paths used to libraries are using Federation page reference syntax.
When you set up a fresh space, the Core is automatically configured:
If you would like to exclude specific pages, for instance Table of Contents, you can do so using the library’s exclude attribute
libraries: - import: "[[!silverbullet.md/Library/Core/*]]" exclude: - "[[!silverbullet.md/Library/Core/Widget/Table of Contents]]"
In these paths, you can also use the * wildcard:
- "[[!silverbullet.md/Library/Core/Widget/*]]"
This would exclude all widgets specified in the Core library.
Updating libraries
To update all libraries from their original source (we recommend doing this regularly to get the latest updates), run the command.
Updating does the following for each library:
It deletes all pages under its local source prefix in your space. For instance for the Core library, this would be Library/Core/*. This means that you should not make local changes to these files, because they will be wiped out on every update.
It downloads fresh copies from the source and puts them in the local source prefix (for !silverbullet.md/Library/Core/* this would be Library/Core/).
It performs a so all new commands and configurations are immediately available.
Where are libraries stored?
Libraries are kept in your space’s Library/ folder. Since these are just regular Meta Pages, the just live along the rest of your content. For instance, the Core is kept under Library/Core. This is largely a convention, but one worth to sticking to.
If you would like to keep your own templates as a library as well, we recommend putting them in Library/Personal as a convention. Then, when you identify a set that may be valuable to other people, you can move them elsewhere under Library/.
Can I change libraries locally?
Technically there is nothing stopping you from making local changes to library content, however these changes would be reset on every library update.
Therefore, the recommended approach when requiring to make local adjustments is:
Make a copy (copy & paste or ) of the page or template you want to change outside the original library path, e.g. under Library/Personal.
Exclude the page in question using the exclude attribute explained under #Configuring libraries and then run again, to remove the excluded (non-modified) version of the page from your space.
Profit
How to host a library?
This is a topic for exploration. The way it is done here at silverbullet.md is by running a SilverBullet instance with the libraries in read-only mode (see Configuration#Run mode). However, we should explore easier ways to do this. Come talk to us in the SilverBullet Community if you’re interested.
What libraries exist?
Libraries are still a young concept in SilverBullet and therefore we’re still exploring how to organize and structure these.
Currently, we have the following libraries available:
Core: this is the library you want to use for sure. Just do it.