Re: Using properties for diary-anniversaries

[lecodesportif@eml.cc]

On Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:03 -0500, "Nick Dokos" <nicholas.dokos@hp.com>
wrote:
> lecodesportif@eml.cc wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I have an anniversary list in Org Mode where entries have this format:
> > 
> > * John
> >   :PROPERTIES:
> >   :Name: John
> >   :Birthday: 5 4 1900
> >   :END:
> > 
> > I would like to add the "Birthday" and "Name" properties to Org Agenda
> > automatically. What I have so far is:
> > 
> > %%(apply 'diary-anniversary (read (org-entry-get nil "Birthday"))) John
> > 
> > When I enter this line right after the properties, the anniversary is
> > added at the correct date in the agenda. But I still have to enter the
> > name manually.
> > 
> > Is there a way to have the "Name" property added to the diary text
> > automatically? Can this be done for all entries in the list by adding
> > code at the top of the org file?
> 
> Not really an answer to your question - it's a different method that I
> find convenient. I use bbdb for contacts and so I prefer to add
> birthday/anniversary information to selected bbdb entries. Then one of
> the org files in my org-agenda-files includes the following entry:
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> #+CATEGORY: Anniv
> %%(org-bbdb-anniversaries)
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> This causes entries in my agenda like this:
> 
> ,----
> | Friday     28 January 2011
> |   ...
> |   Anniv:      Birthday: [[bbdb:John][John (32nd)]]
> `----
> 
> with a link to the bbdb entry that you can open with org-open-at-point
> to get more information (e.g. an email address that you can send
> birthday wishes to).
> 
> The bbdb entry for "John" is presented by bbdb like this:
> 
> John:
>             net: john@foo.com
>     anniversary: 1979-01-28 birthday
>                  2009-02-28 wedding
> 
> and the entry in the bbdb database looks like this:
> 
> ["John" nil nil nil nil ("john@foo.com") ((creation-date . "...")
> (timestamp . "...") (anniversary . "1979-01-22 birthday\n2009-02-28
> wedding") ...) nil]
> 
> The only difficulty was how to enter multiple anniversaries into an entry
> (as above): when you visit a bbdb entry, you create a new field with
> ``C-o''
> called ``anniversary'' (bbdb knows about it and conveniently provides
> completion)
> or edit the existing ``anniversary'' field with ``e''. The value is
> entered literally,
> except that you have to quote any newlines, so you type:
> 
>    1979-01-28 <SP> birthday C-q C-j 2009-02-28 <SP> wedding <RET>
> 
> I added some spaces for readability above but you should *not* type any
> spaces
> except those explicitly called out as <SP>.

Thanks for the explanations. In fact I once had a look at BBDB but found
it too difficult to use. Then I decided to manage contacts using org
files only which is working well so far.

The anniversary list is part of that. I really hope to get an automatic
interaction between the properties and the agenda. If I give up on that,
I may have to use BBDB.

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