SilverBullet v2 removed a slew of features that were still present in the 0.x series (also known as “v1”). Sadly, we just had to rip the bandaid on this one.

Here are some pointers on what was removed and how to adapt.

Queries

v2 does not have support for old-style queries (live queries) anymore. They have been replaced with Space Lua/Lua Integrated Query. Give the linked page a read, but generally there’s a few differences:

  1. Lua Integrated Queries tend to start with from index.tag "tag-name" instead of plain tag-name. This is a bit longer, but since whatever comes after from is a Lua expression, you can not just query Objects, you can query any Lua table as well in the same way.
  2. In the old query language, you access attribute simply by their name, this works in LIQ too, but stylistically it’s nicer to use either _.attribute, or to give the object you’re iterating over a name, using from page = index.tag "page", for instance.
  3. The = equals operator is == in Lua 😄

Templates

In v1 there were various types of templates:

Live templates are now better expressed by simply putting ${lua expressions} in text. Iterating and rendering queries using templates is generally done using the ${template.each(query[...](...), someTemplateExpression)} pattern.

Live Template Widgets can now be implemented using an event listener:

event.listen {
  name = "hooks:renderTopWidgets", -- or hooks:renderBottomWidgets
  run = function(e)
    return widget.new {
      markdown = "Showing up at the top"
    }
  end
}

See ^Library/Std/Widgets/Widgets for some examples.

Snippets can be implemented as follows: Library/Std/Infrastructure/Slash Templates.

Page templates now work slightly differently: ^Library/Std/Infrastructure/Page Templates.

Plugs

Many existing plugs should keep working, but some may need updating. However, since Space Config is removed. You now specify the plugs you like to use with Space Lua + the API/config API:

config.set("plugs", {
  "github:joekrill/silverbullet-treeview/treeview.plug.js"
})

After which you run the Plugs: Update to download and/or update them. Plugs: Add has not been (re)implemented, so you have to do this in code.

Other changes

  • Since no database is kept on the server, you can safely delete any .silverbullet.db file from your space — this isn’t used anymore.
  • Since space config is no longer a thing, SETTINGS is now gone. Instead the CONFIG page is now the preferred place to configure things. However, this is just a convention. You can use the config.set Space Lua API in any Space Lua block.

Removed features

Certain features have been removed:

  • Online mode: v2 is sync mode only, meaning all your content will be synced into your browser. A simpler Online mode may be added back later. If you like to wipe your local content at any time, use the System: Wipe Client command.
  • Federation
  • Share replaced by ^Library/Std/Infrastructure/Export
  • Space Script: replaced by Space Lua
  • Space Config: replaced by the API/config APIs.
  • Command link syntax ({[...]})) replaced by the ${widgets.commandButton(...)} API.