Re: Saving column views in agenda

From: Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl>
To: mdl@imapmail.org
Cc: emacs org-mode mailing list <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Saving column views in agenda
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2008 08:27:14 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <D772C6B5-49B3-449E-8A91-CBC5A23D51C0@uva.nl> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87k5aau0lh.fsf@fastmail.fm>

Hi Matt,

this is an interesting problem.  I can see three ways to go forward:

1. To indeed export agenda column view, but maybe it would actually
    be nicer to capture it into a table somewhere.

2. I believe I can relatively easily make it possible to capture
    in an Org buffer from a sparse tree, or even using a full
    match string with tags and properties.  However, I don't think
    that I can make he partial sums work in this way, and I don't
    actually think that you'd want your parent properties filled with
    temporary, partial sums.  Maybe the way to go would be to capture
    a sparse tree, and then to do the summing using calc formulas on the
    captured table, would that work?  I am not sure tight now if such
    formulas persist, but I believe it works for clock tables, so we
    could make it work for column view capture as well.

3. Maybe what would be even beter is to build on Eric Schultes collector
    function an make something that would create a custom able from
    selected properties of matched entries.  That could then be
    incorporated into a dynamic block so that it can be easily updated.
    Eric, would you like to comment?

- Carsten

On Dec 8, 2008, at 4:51 PM, mdl@imapmail.org wrote:

>
> Hi Carsten,
>
> Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:
>
>> Hi Matthew,
>>
>> this is currently not possible.
>>
>> You could try to use the mapping API to do something yourself.
>>
>> What is your use-case?
>>
>> - Carsten
>
> Thanks for the quick response. I use the agenda to filter column views
> via property searches. Let's say I'm keeping track of my spending with
> the following outline:
>
> #+COLUMNS: %20ITEM %10TIMESTAMP %20spendtype %10amount{$}
>
> * December Spending
> ** Week One
> *** Grocery Store [2008-12-01 Mon]
>    :PROPERTIES:
>    :amount: 56.77
>    :spendtype: food:
>    :END:
> *** Athletic club [2008-12-02 Tue]
>    :PROPERTIES:
>    :amount: 75.00
>    :spendtype: health
>    :END:
> ** Week Two
> *** Restaurant [2008-12-08 Mon]
>    :PROPERTIES:
>    :amount: 30.67
>    :spendtype: food
>    :END:
>
> With such an outline (obviously much longer and more complex in
> reality), I use columns and dynamic blocks to give me a quick overview
> (with sums) of spending by week. I also use the agenda to filter these
> views by spendtype, so that I can see, for instance, the sum of how
> much I spent on food each week/month/year. Currently, I can use column
> view in the agenda to generate sums, but I cannot export the column
> view for permanent reference or for sharing with others.
>
> I suppose this functionality could be achieved in a few other ways as
> well:
>
> 1) A dynamic block that captures a column view, but with a parameter
> that filters for TAG, property, etc.
>
> 2) A column view combined with a sparse tree that sums the amounts of
> only the visible items. Currently, when "summary-type" is specified,
> the column view adds all items in the outline hierarchy, regardless of
> their visibility. (Of course, if this method were possible, one would
> still have to devise a way to export the filtered column view.)
>
> 3) A filter for tables that one could apply to the exported column
> view. (E.g., show only rows in which "Column 3 = x" and calculate only
> the visible items.)
>
> There is, of course, the likelihood that #1, #2, or #3 already exist
> and that I have simply missed something in the manual. Please do let
> me know if this is the case. I also realize that I could simply
> create subheadings for each spending type (e.g., *** Food) that would
> create the desired effect in the column view. But as data becomes more
> complex, it would be nice to generate these filtered views
> dynamically.
>
> To sum up a long reply: I am curious whether it is possible to create
> exportable, dynamically filtered data in column views, in which the
> sum created in a "summary-type" column is recalculated when items are
> filtered. (I suppose this would count as part of org-mode's
> "spreadsheet" functionality.)
>
> Thanks, as always, for such a wonderful program.
>
> Matt
>
>>
>> On Dec 8, 2008, at 6:52 AM, Matthew Lundin wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I often use dynamic blocks to save/export column views in org-mode
>>> files. Does anyone know of a similar way to export/save a column  
>>> view
>>> from the agenda? When I write the agenda to a file, it naturally
>>> writes only the text (not the column overlay).
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Matt
>>>
>>>
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