◀ Excalidraw Automate How To

Utility functions

isExcalidrawFile()

isExcalidrawFile(f:TFile): boolean

Returns true if the file provided is a valid Excalidraw file (either a legacy *.excalidraw file or a markdown file with the excalidraw key in the front-matter).

clear()

clear() will clear objects from cache, but will retain element style settings.

reset()

reset() will first call clear() and then reset element style to defaults.

toClipboard()

async toClipboard(templatePath?:string)

Places the generated drawing to the clipboard. Useful when you don’t want to create a new drawing, but want to paste additional items onto an existing drawing.

getElements()

getElements():ExcalidrawElement[];

Returns the elements in ExcalidrawAutomate as an array of ExcalidrawElements. This format is useful when working with ExcalidrawRef.

getElement()

getElement(id:string):ExcalidrawElement;

Returns the element object matching the id. If the element does not exist, returns null.

create()

async create(params?:{filename: string, foldername:string, templatePath:string, onNewPane: boolean})

Creates the drawing and opens it. Returns the full filepath of the created file.

filename is the filename without extension of the drawing to be created. If null, then Excalidraw will generate a filename.

foldername is the folder where the file should be created. If null then the default folder for new drawings will be used according to Excalidraw settings.

templatePath the filename including full path and extension for a template file to use. This template file will be added as the base layer, all additional objects added via ExcalidrawAutomate will appear on top of elements in the template. If null then no template will be used, i.e. an empty white drawing will be the base for adding objects.

onNewPane defines where the new drawing should be created. false will open the drawing on the current active leaf. true will open the drawing by vertically splitting the current leaf.

frontmatterKeys are the set of frontmatter keys to apply to the document { excalidraw-plugin?: “raw”|”parsed”, excalidraw-link-prefix?: string, excalidraw-link-brackets?: boolean, excalidraw-url-prefix?: string }

Example:

create (
  {
    filename:"my drawing", 
    foldername:"myfolder/subfolder/", 
    templatePath: "Excalidraw/template.excalidraw", 
    onNewPane: true, 
    frontmatterKeys: {
      "excalidraw-plugin": "parsed",
      "excalidraw-link-prefix": "",
      "excalidraw-link-brackets": true,
      "excalidraw-url-prefix": "🌐",
    }
  }
);

createSVG()

async createSVG(templatePath?:string)

Returns an HTML SVGSVGElement containing the generated drawing.

createPNG()

async createPNG(templatePath?:string, scale:number=1)

Returns a blob containing a PNG image of the generated drawing.

wrapText()

wrapText(text:string, lineLen:number):string

Returns a string wrapped to the provided max lineLen.

Accessing the open Excalidraw view

You first need to initialize targetView, before using any of the view manipulation functions.

targetView

targetView: ExcalidrawView

The open Excalidraw View configured as the target of the view operations. User setView to initialize.

setView()

setView(view:ExcalidrawView|"first"|"active"):ExcalidrawView

Setting the ExcalidrawView that will be the target of the View operations. Valid view input values are:

• an object instance of ExcalidrawView
• “first”: meaning if there are multiple Excalidraw Views open, pick the first that is returned by app.workspace.getLeavesOfType("Excalidraw")
• “active”: meaning the currently active view

getExcalidrawAPI()

getExcalidrawAPI():any

Returns the native Excalidraw API (ref.current) for the active drawing specified in targetView. See Excalidraw documentation here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@excalidraw/excalidraw#ref

getViewElements()

getViewElements():ExcalidrawElement[] 

Returns all the elements from the view.

deleteViewElements()

deleteViewElements(elToDelete: ExcalidrawElement[]):boolean 

Deletes those elements from the view that match the elements provided as the input parameter.

Example to delete the selected elements from the view:

ea = ExcalidrawAutomate;
ea.setView("active");
el = ea.getViewSelectedElements();
ea.deleteViewElements();

getViewSelectedElement()

getViewSelectedElement():ExcalidrawElement

You first need to set the view calling setView().

If an element is selected in the targetView the function returns the selected element. If multiple elements are selected, either by SHIFT+Clicking to select multiple elements, or by selecting a group, the first of the elements will be selected. If you want to specify which element to select from a group, double click the desired element in the group.

This function is helpful if you want to add a new element in relation to an existing element in your drawing.

getViewSelectedElements()

getViewSelectedElements():ExcalidrawElement[]

You first need to set the view calling setView().

Gets the array of selected elements in the scene. Returns [] if no elements are selected.

Note: you can call getExcalidrawAPI().getSceneElements() to retrieve all the elements in the scene.

viewToggleFullScreen()

viewToggleFullScreen(forceViewMode?:boolean):void;

Toggles targetView between fullscreen mode and normal mode. By setting forceViewMode to true will change Excalidraw mode to View mode. Default is false.

The function will do nothing on Obsidian Mobile.

connectObjectWithViewSelectedElement()

connectObjectWithViewSelectedElement(objectA:string,connectionA: ConnectionPoint, connectionB: ConnectionPoint, formatting?:{numberOfPoints?: number,startArrowHead?:string,endArrowHead?:string, padding?: number}):boolean

Same as connectObjects(), but ObjectB is the currently selected element in the target ExcalidrawView. The function helps with placing an arrow between a newly created object and the selected element in the target ExcalidrawView.

addElementsToView()

async addElementsToView(repositionToCursor:boolean=false, save:boolean=false):Promise<boolean>

Adds elements created with ExcalidrawAutomate to the target ExcalidrawView. repositionToCursor default is false

• true: the elements will be moved such that the center point of the elements will be aligned with the current position of the pointer on ExcalidrawView. You can point and place elements to a desired location in your drawing using this switch.
• false: elements will be positioned as defined by the x&y coordinates of each element.

save default is false

• true: the drawing will be saved after the elements were added.
• false: the drawing will be saved at the next autosave cycle. Use false when adding multiple elements one after the other. Else, best to use true, to minimize risk of data loss.

onDropHook

onDropHook (data: {
  ea: ExcalidrawAutomate, 
  event: React.DragEvent<HTMLDivElement>,
  draggable: any, //Obsidian draggable object
  type: "file"|"text"|"unknown",
  payload: {
    files: TFile[], //TFile[] array of dropped files
    text: string, //string 
  },
  excalidrawFile: TFile, //the file receiving the drop event
  view: ExcalidrawView, //the excalidraw view receiving the drop
  pointerPosition: {x:number, y:number} //the pointer position on canvas at the time of drop
}):boolean;

Callback function triggered when an draggable item is dropped on Excalidraw. The function should return a boolean value. True if the drop was handled by the hook and further native processing should be stopped, and false if Excalidraw should continue with the processing of the drop. type of drop can be one of:

• “file” if a file from Obsidian file explorer is dropped onto Excalidraw. In this case payload.files will contain the list of files dropped.
• “text” if a link (e.g. url, or wiki link) or other text is dropped. In this case payload.text will contain the received string
• “unknown” if Excalidraw plugin does not recognize the type of dropped object. In this case you can use React.DragEvent to analysed the dropped object.

Use Templater startup templates or similar to set the Hook function.

ea = ExcalidrawAutomate;
ea.onDropHook = (data) => {
  console.log(data); 
  return false;
}