📕 eplog

CLI utility for creating documents in notion.so databases

Installation

Install locally

npm install -g eplog

Use without installing

npx eplog

Setup

Step 1

The first time you launch eplog it will prompt you to provide it with an Integration Token which you can create in Notions' My Integrations section: https://www.notion.so/my-integrations

Step 2

Once you've created a new integration, copy the Internal Integration Token and provide it to eplog when asked during the setup process.

$ eplog
❯ Initialize Eplog
  ⠇ Notion API
  ◼ Enter API Key
  ◼ Select Default Database

? You do not have an API key (integration token) set up - would you like to set one up right now? (y/N) › false

You'll need to Share a database with this new integration, and once you do you will be able to configure eplog to use the database you shared.

You can share more than one database with the integration and use -d flag to save a new entry to the provided database.

Usage

$ eplog --help
Usage: eplog [options] [command]

 ✎  Write down notion database rows from cli - use as a simple logging tool

Options:
  -V, --version             output the version number
  -l, --list                List avialable databases
  -u, --database [name]     Set default database (choices: "Daylog", "Testlog")
  -r, --reload              Reload databases
  -h, --help                display help for command

Commands:
  settings
  add [options] [title...]

Adding a new entry

To add new entries simply type eplog add [Your log entry]:

$ eplog add This ismy first entry!

✔ Save "This is my first entry!" to Testlog
id: 421eecad-83a4-4cad-9c2e-20725d536842
time: 2021-05-22T23:42:42.564Z

properties:
.----------------------------------------.
| Tags        |                          |
| Description |                          |
| Created     | 2021-05-22T23:42:42.564Z |
| Name        | This is my first entry!  |
'----------------------------------------'

If you prefer a less noisy output you can configure eplog to use compact mode:

$ eplog settings set compact true

Custom properties

Eplog will detect any properties in your database and will allow you to set them when creating a new entry.

To see the available properties for your default database run the eplog add --help command:

$ eplog add --help

Usage: eplog add [options] <title...>

Options:
  -l, --list                 List avialable databases
  -d, --database <database>  Select specific database (choices: "Daylog", "Testlog")
  --Tags <value>             Set the "Tags" field to <value> - (choices: Blue, Orange)
  --Description <value>      Set the "Description" field to <value>
  -h, --help                 display help for command

In this case my default database has --Tags (with choices of Blue and Orange), and a --Description options.

Example:

$ eplog add Notion is Awesome! --Tags Orange --Description "This is an amazing description"
✔ Save "Notion is Awesome!" to Testlog
id: 7c1d4f28-b77a-47e2-85f1-ca016228a55a
time: 2021-05-22T23:52:32.646Z

properties:
.----------------------------------------------.
| Tags        | Orange                         |
| Description | This is an amazing description |
| Created     | 2021-05-22T23:52:32.646Z       |
| Name        | Notion is Awesome!             |
'----------------------------------------------'

Relations

Added on: v1.3.0

You can associate new entries with relations - any existing relations (which their respective database is explictly shared with the integration) checkout the help to see your available relation flags.

For example:

$ eplog add This is an example title --Project Demo
✔ Resolve relations
✔ Save "This is an example title" to Eplog
id: 72134b91-b493-447d-b2ef-c23e4b9a2810
url: https://notion.so/72134b91b493447db2efc23e4b9a2810
time: 2021-06-01T22:27:30.882Z

properties
Last Update: 2021-06-01T22:27:30.882Z
Created: 2021-06-01T22:27:30.882Z
Project: f31f341e-2831-4e3c-44ab-d0492715b32f
Name: This is an example title

Note: If you provide a non-existing relation eplog will prompt to create a new one.

Note: You can provide more than a single relation on the same column - simply use the flag again. e.g. $ eplog add --Project "My Pet Project" --Project "Main Project" Important note!

Note: If you don't provide a value for the relation flag, eplog will prompt you with a list of existing options.

Note: If you don't see your relation in the add --help options try reloading your databases (run $ eplog -r), revoke and grant access of relation database to the integration and reload databases again.

Using a different database

If you've shared more than one database with the integration you can occasionally use the --database <name> flag (or the shorthand -d <name>) when adding a new entry.

Note: Using a -d flag currently does not fully support additional properties

Example:

$ eplog add -d Mydb2 Adding this to another database...

✔ Save "Adding this to another database..." to Mydb2
id: ec1a24b1-bb44-5224-a92b-95a256cc365b

Changing default database

Run $ eplog -u [Database Name] - optionally provide a database name.

$ eplog -u

Listing database entries - Basic search

Run $ eplog list [keywords] - optionally provide a keyword to search for.

$ eplog list
Listing database items - Testlog 
[01] Name: testing tests (https://notion.so/76d0b83813704f56b5f9a1f05d282ca0)
[02] Name: testing (https://notion.so/6b317cb3af64425d9ff20c05236975cd)
...

Executing a javascript file

Added on: v1.2.0

You can quickly execute a local file and have it communicate with Notion's API via eplog by running $ eplog exec [filename]:

// file notion-test.js
const yargs = require('yargs/yargs')
const { hideBin } = require('yargs/helpers')
// note: yargs needs to be installed relatively to the executed script - e.g. `npm i yargs` in the same directory of the script

exports.init = async (ctx, client) => {
  const argv = yargs(ctx.args).argv
  const response = await client.search({
    query: argv.query || 'test',
    sort: {
      direction: 'ascending',
      timestamp: 'last_edited_time',
    },
  });

  console.log('response:', response)
}

$ eplog exec notion-test.js
response: {
  object: 'list',
  results: [
    {
      object: 'page',
      id: 'd2aad83f-9142-4e15-a5bd-5c3665b9584b',
      created_time: '2021-05-23T02:09:18.446Z',
      last_edited_time: '2021-05-23T02:09:18.446Z',
      parent: [Object],
      archived: false,
      properties: [Object]
    },
    {
      object: 'page',
      id: '80357a38-a7d3-23a6-b038-27858191c1d0',
      created_time: '2021-05-26T22:05:47.055Z',
      last_edited_time: '2021-05-26T22:06:00.000Z',
      parent: [Object],
      archived: false,
      properties: [Object]
    }
  ],
  next_cursor: null,
  has_more: false
}

Pipe Title

Added on: v1.4.0

You can pipe the title of a new entry using the standard pipe.

Examples:

$ echo "The time on `hostname` is `date`" | eplog add
✔ Save "The time on elimbps is Fri Jul 30 15:13:45 IDT 2021" to Daylog
...

$ head CHANGELOG.md | eplog add

Custom settings

There are two ways to provide the executed script with custom settings;

.eplogrc file

You can place a YAML file named .eplogrc in the same directory as the executed script which can be used to provide eplog with a different settings profile than the installed settings profile - allowing you to access different databases and using different integration tokens without changing your global eplog settings.

# file .eplogrc
integrationToken: secret_...

# Provide a database ID to select a specific database
# database: 16c4e990-82f4-437f-9fe1-d0a66bbabdaf

# or provide a database name
databaseName: Journal

exports.profile

Alternatively the script can export profile object containing the configuration object.

// file notion-test.js

exports.profile = {
  integrationToken: 'secret_...',
  // database: '16c4e990-82f4-437f-9fe1-d0a66bbabdaf',
  databaseName: 'Journal'
}

exports.init = async (ctx, client) => {
  // `client` is connected to notion using the integration token provided above
}

Passing arguments

To pass arguments to your script simply add -- before your arguments, e.g.:

$ eplog exec notion-test.js -- --query Something

In your script you can access the arguments from the initialize function:

// file notion-test.js
exports.init = async (ctx, client) => {
  console.log('args:', ctx.args)
  // args: [ '--query', 'Something' ]
}

Compact mode

Set compact mode for a less noisy output:

$ eplog settings set compact true

Reference

• Notion API: https://developers.notion.com/
• Notion "My Integrations": https://www.notion.so/my-integrations