Template - My Book Notes template

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This example creates a new book note from a template and fills in a book’s highlights straight from Readwise. When you run it, you pick a book, and QuickAdd builds a note whose body already contains that book’s highlights and notes.

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Before you start

A Readwise account and its access token. Get your token here.
The sample template’s title and date lines (<% ... %>) are Templater syntax, so you need the Templater plugin for those to render. Every QuickAdd placeholder uses {{ ... }} instead.

Installation

Here’s a video guide for installing user scripts in QuickAdd.

Create a new JavaScript file (with the .js extension) containing the script below. In it, replace YOUR_READWISE_TOKEN with your own Readwise token.
Create the macro that runs the script: open QuickAdd’s settings, click New choice, and select Macro. Name it (I use Readwise), then click the configure button (the gear icon) to open the Macro Builder. See the Macro choice docs for a full walkthrough.
In the builder, add a User Script command: type the name of the script you created (or click Browse) and click Add.
Create a Template choice whose Template Path points at the template you made from the one below. Set the remaining options to your liking. The screenshot shows settings resembling mine:

Template choice setup

A few notes on how it behaves:

The note is named after the book you select. I prepend a { to that name, because I use it to denote literature notes in my vault.
Running the choice opens a menu to choose a book, and the highlights are appended into the template where the macro placeholder sits.
Customize the template however you like, but keep {{MACRO:Readwise::instaFetchBook}} - that placeholder is what fetches the highlights and marks where they are inserted. If you named your macro something other than Readwise, replace Readwise in that placeholder with your macro’s name.

Script

Most of the setup is shown in the gif.

module.exports = { start, getDailyQuote, instaFetchBook, getBooks };
const apiUrl = "https://readwise.io/api/v2/";
const books = "📚 Books",
  articles = "📰 Articles",
  tweets = "🐤 Tweets",
  supplementals = "💭 Supplementals",
  podcasts = "🎙 Podcasts",
  searchAll = "🔍 Search All Highlights (slow!)";
const categories = {
  books,
  articles,
  tweets,
  supplementals,
  podcasts,
  searchAll,
};
const randomNumberInRange = (max) => Math.floor(Math.random() * max);
const token = "YOUR_READWISE_TOKEN";
let quickAddApi;

async function start(params) {
  ({ quickAddApi } = params);
  let highlights;
  const category = await categoryPromptHandler();
  if (!category) return;

  if (category === "searchAll") {
    highlights = await getAllHighlights();
  } else {
    let res = await getHighlightsByCategory(category);
    if (!res) return;

    const { results } = res;
    const item = await quickAddApi.suggester(
      results.map((item) => item.title),
      results
    );
    if (!item) return;

    params.variables["author"] = `[[${item.author}]]`;

    const res2 = await getHighlightsForElement(item);
    if (!res2) return;

    highlights = res2.results.reverse();
  }

  const textToAppend = await highlightsPromptHandler(highlights);
  return !textToAppend ? "" : textToAppend;
}

async function getBooks(params) {
  const { results: books } = await getHighlightsByCategory("books");
  const bookNames = books.map((book) => book.title);
  const selectedBook = await params.quickAddApi.suggester(
    bookNames,
    bookNames
  );
  params.variables["Book Title"] = selectedBook;
  return selectedBook;
}

async function instaFetchBook(params) {
  const bookTitle = params.variables["Book Title"];
  if (!bookTitle) return await start(params);

  const { results: books } = await getHighlightsByCategory("books");
  const book = books.find((b) =>
    b.title.toLowerCase().contains(bookTitle.toLowerCase())
  );
  if (!book) throw new Error("Book " + bookTitle + " not found.");

  params.variables["author"] = `[[${book.author}]]`;

  const highlights = (await getHighlightsForElement(book)).results.reverse();
  return writeAllHandler(highlights);
}

async function getDailyQuote(params) {
  const category = "supplementals";
  const res = await getHighlightsByCategory(category);
  if (!res) return;

  const { results } = res;
  const targetItem = results[randomNumberInRange(results.length)];

  const { results: highlights } = await getHighlightsForElement(targetItem);
  if (!highlights) return;

  const randomHighlight = highlights[randomNumberInRange(highlights.length)];

  const quote = formatDailyQuote(randomHighlight.text, targetItem);

  return `${quote}`;
}

async function categoryPromptHandler() {
  const choice = await quickAddApi.suggester(
    Object.values(categories),
    Object.keys(categories)
  );
  if (!choice) return null;

  return choice;
}

async function highlightsPromptHandler(highlights) {
  const writeAll = "Write all highlights to page",
    writeOne = "Write one highlight to page";
  const choices = [writeAll, writeOne];

  const choice = await quickAddApi.suggester(choices, choices);
  if (!choice) return null;

  if (choice == writeAll) return writeAllHandler(highlights);
  else return await writeOneHandler(highlights);
}

function writeAllHandler(highlights) {
  return highlights
    .map((hl) => {
      if (hl.text == "No title") return;
      const { quote, note } = textFormatter(hl.text, hl.note);
      return `${quote}${note}`;
    })
    .join("\n\n");
}

async function writeOneHandler(highlights) {
  const chosenHighlight = await quickAddApi.suggester(
    highlights.map((hl) => hl.text),
    highlights
  );
  if (!chosenHighlight) return null;

  const { quote, note } = textFormatter(
    chosenHighlight.text,
    chosenHighlight.note
  );

  return `${quote}${note}`;
}

function formatDailyQuote(sourceText, sourceItem) {
  let quote = sourceText
    .split("\n")
    .filter((line) => line != "")
    .map((line) => {
      return `> ${line}`;
    });

  const attr = `\n>\\- ${sourceItem.author}, _${sourceItem.title}_`;

  return `${quote}${attr}`;
}

function textFormatter(sourceText, rawSourceNote) {
  // Readwise can return a highlight without a note (null/undefined rather
  // than ""); normalize once so the .includes probe below can't throw and
  // abort the whole import on a single note-less highlight.
  const sourceNote = rawSourceNote ?? "";
  let quote = sourceText
    .split("\n")
    .filter((line) => line != "")
    .map((line) => {
      if (sourceNote.includes(".h1")) return `## ${line}`;
      else return `> ${line}`;
    })
    .join("\n");

  let note;

  if (sourceNote.includes(".h1") || sourceNote == "" || !sourceNote) {
    note = "";
  } else {
    note = "\n\n" + sourceNote;
  }

  return { quote, note };
}

async function getHighlightsByCategory(category) {
  return apiGet(`${apiUrl}books`, { category, page_size: 1000 });
}

async function getHighlightsForElement(element) {
  return apiGet(`${apiUrl}highlights`, {
    book_id: element.id,
    page_size: 1000,
  });
}

async function getAllHighlights() {
  const MAX_PAGE_SIZE = 1000;
  const URL = `${apiUrl}highlights`;
  let promises = [];

  const { count } = await apiGet(URL);
  const requestsToMake = Math.ceil(count / MAX_PAGE_SIZE);

  for (let i = 1; i <= requestsToMake; i++) {
    promises.push(apiGet(URL, { page_size: MAX_PAGE_SIZE, page: i }));
  }

  const allHighlights = (await Promise.all(promises)).map((hl) => hl.results);

  return allHighlights;
}

async function apiGet(url, data) {
  let finalURL = new URL(url);
  if (data)
    Object.keys(data).forEach((key) =>
      finalURL.searchParams.append(key, data[key])
    );

  return await fetch(finalURL, {
    method: "GET",
    cache: "no-cache",
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      Authorization: `Token ${token}`,
    },
  }).then(async (res) => await res.json());
}

Template

---
image:
tags: in/books
aliases:
    - <% tp.file.title.replace('{ ', '') %>
cssclass:
---

# Title: [[<%tp.file.title%>]]

## Metadata

Tags::
Type:: [[{]]
Author:: {{VALUE:author}}
Reference::
Rating::
Reviewed Date:: [[<%tp.date.now("gggg-MM-DD - ddd MMM D")%>]]
Finished Year:: [[<%tp.date.now("gggg")%>]]

# Thoughts

# Actions Taken / Changes

# Summary of Key Points

# Highlights & Notes

{{MACRO:Readwise::instaFetchBook}}