ObsidianLink and ObsidianLinkNew misbehave when called from a keybind

[kohotli]

🐛 Describe the bug

I have ObsidianLink and ObsidianLinkNew bound to keys, and when I try to use them while having a keybind, the first time I use them they throw an error:

E5108: Error executing lua: vim/_editor.lua:0: nvim_exec2(): Vim:ObsidianLink must be called with visual selection                                                     
stack traceback:                                                                                                                                                       
        [C]: in function 'nvim_exec2'                                                                                                                                  
        vim/_editor.lua: in function 'cmd'                                                                                                                             
        /Users/amelia/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/obsidian.lua:143: in function </Users/amelia/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/obsidian.lua:142>

Even while I have text selected. If I clear my visual selection, select a different block of text, then use either command, they will perform the expected operation on the previously selected block.

Here's how I have these commands mapped:

local map = vim.keymap.set
map("v", "<leader>Ole", function()
	vim.cmd('ObsidianLink')
end)

map("v", "<leader>Oln", function()
	vim.cmd('ObsidianLinkNew')
end)

However, if I just call the commands by hitting colon and typing the commands in, they work as expected.

I'm using lazy.nvim as my plugin manager and have the version set to "*". Neovim version is 0.9.5 release, though this behavior remains the same as of the latest dev build of neovim.
Thanks in advance!

Versions

NVIM v0.9.5
Build type: Release
LuaJIT 2.1.1703358377

   system vimrc file: "$VIM/sysinit.vim"
  fall-back for $VIM: "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/neovim/0.9.5/share/nvim"

Run :checkhealth for more info
[obsidian.nvim (v2.9.0)] Commit SHA: 8b10f0c377ee6f8f45aaeb59a6eb8a8ce28c5a43
[plenary.nvim] Commit SHA: 4f71c0c4a196ceb656c824a70792f3df3ce6bb6d
[nvim-cmp] Commit SHA: 04e0ca376d6abdbfc8b52180f8ea236cbfddf782
[telescope.nvim] Commit SHA: 7b5c5f56a21e82fdcfe5b250278b8dfc4b1cbab4
ripgrep 14.1.0%

[epwalsh]

Hey @kohotli, have you tried this:

 local map = vim.keymap.set
 map("v", "<leader>Ole", function()
-	vim.cmd("ObsidianLink")
+	vim.cmd("'<,'>ObsidianLink")
 end)

 map("v", "<leader>Oln", function()
-	vim.cmd("ObsidianLinkNew")
+	vim.cmd("'<,'>ObsidianLinkNew")
 end)

[kohotli]

Just tried it, I now get a different error when I highlight something for the first time:

E5108: Error executing lua: vim/_editor.lua:0: nvim_exec2(): Vim:E20: Mark not set                                                                                     
stack traceback:                                                                                                                                                       
        [C]: in function 'nvim_exec2'                                                                                                                                  
        vim/_editor.lua: in function 'cmd'                                                                                                                             
        /Users/amelia/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/obsidian.lua:145: in function </Users/amelia/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/obsidian.lua:143>

And then it behaves the same as previously indicated in this issue (i.e. it makes a link of the previously highlighted text, not what's currently highlighted)

[sotte]

@kohotli, I stumbled upon something similar and have some notes here:
#329 (comment)

The marks that '<,'> are referring to and which are used here, are on set when you leave the visual mode. That is why calling the user command :ObsidianLink<cr> works (as you leave visual mode and implicitly setting the marks) but doing it via a keymap does not.

The whole visual selection, keymap, user command situation is a bit messy IMO.

A workaround from my obsidian configuration (with lazy):

return {
  "epwalsh/obsidian.nvim",
  keys = {
      {
        "<cr>",
        -- leave visual mode to set marks and make ObsidianLink command work
        ":ObsidianLink<cr>",
        desc = "Search link",
        ft = "markdown",
        mode = "v",
      },
  },
}

Some related links that might be helpful if we want to improve this in obsidian.nvim:

Here is an implementation of a user command in a different plugin which seems to work for this scenario:
https://github.com/linrongbin16/gitlinker.nvim/blob/cafacd0bbc9c6f5e89d4e5366d64a7ee9f239c98/lua/gitlinker.lua#L411-L428

And fzf-lua has this helper to get the visual selection:
https://github.com/ibhagwan/fzf-lua/blob/6ee73fdf2a79bbd74ec56d980262e29993b46f2b/lua/fzf-lua/utils.lua#L434-L466

[epwalsh]

@sotte thanks for that. I adapted that helper function from fzf-lua in #396. Hopefully that gets it working for this use case.

[kohotli]

@epwalsh This fixes my problem! Thanks much for taking care of that :D

[epwalsh]

Yay!