Multiple column views for one file

Multiple column views for one file

[Thomas Leitner]

Hi,

I don't know if org-mode supports having multiple column views for one
file currently but I did not find a way to do the following.

What I have is a journal file in org-mode in which I record, for
example, films I have seen, books I have read and kilometres I have
run. All of these entries have properties based on their type, for
example, films have the properties Genre, Year and Director. Now I
would like to get a sparse tree for all entries tagged with `film` and
use a special column view for the films. However, when I define the
#+COLUMNS variable at the top, this procedure only works for films, and
not for books or other entry types which have different properties.

Therefore it would be nice to be able to define several column views
and the possibility to switch between them. It is currently possible to
disable column view by pressing `q` when the cursor is on a head line
in column view. It should probably be no problem to add another hotkey
like `s` for switching to a different column view. The different column
views could be defined like this:

#+COLUMNS: films %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Genre %Year %Director
#+COLUMNS: books %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Author %Year %Pages

It seems that org-mode currently ignores the column view names ("films"
and "books") so this would be backwards compatible.

I'm still at the beginning of learning Elisp, so I'm not able to
implement this myself and would like to know if others find this
proposal useful and if it could be implemented?  

Best regards,
  Thomas

Re: Multiple column views for one file

[Matt Lundin]

Thomas Leitner <t_leitner@gmx.at> writes:

> I don't know if org-mode supports having multiple column views for one
> file currently but I did not find a way to do the following.
>
> What I have is a journal file in org-mode in which I record, for
> example, films I have seen, books I have read and kilometres I have
> run. All of these entries have properties based on their type, for
> example, films have the properties Genre, Year and Director. Now I
> would like to get a sparse tree for all entries tagged with `film` and
> use a special column view for the films. However, when I define the
> #+COLUMNS variable at the top, this procedure only works for films, and
> not for books or other entry types which have different properties.
>
> Therefore it would be nice to be able to define several column views
> and the possibility to switch between them. It is currently possible to
> disable column view by pressing `q` when the cursor is on a head line
> in column view. It should probably be no problem to add another hotkey
> like `s` for switching to a different column view. The different column
> views could be defined like this:
>
> #+COLUMNS: films %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Genre %Year %Director
> #+COLUMNS: books %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Author %Year %Pages
>
> It seems that org-mode currently ignores the column view names ("films"
> and "books") so this would be backwards compatible.
>
> I'm still at the beginning of learning Elisp, so I'm not able to
> implement this myself and would like to know if others find this
> proposal useful and if it could be implemented?  

AFAIK, it is not possible to switch between multiple column overlays for
the same subtree. One immediate solution, however, would be to keep all
your film entries in a subtree and to define a local column view for the
subtree. E.g.,

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* Films
  :PROPERTIES:
  :COLUMNS: %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Genre %Year %Director
  :END:
** Citizen Kane
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The same method could be used for books, running, etc.

Another 

Best,
Matt

Re: Multiple column views for one file

[Thomas Leitner]

On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:39:03 -0500, Matt Lundin wrote:
> AFAIK, it is not possible to switch between multiple column overlays
> for the same subtree. One immediate solution, however, would be to
> keep all your film entries in a subtree and to define a local column
> view for the subtree. E.g.,
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> * Films
>   :PROPERTIES:
>   :COLUMNS: %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Genre %Year %Director
>   :END:
> ** Citizen Kane
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> The same method could be used for books, running, etc.

Thanks for the answer. However, I know of this solution and it won't
work for me because my journal has time stamped entries and the entries
are ordered by time -- here is a small excerpt:

* 2009
** December 2009
*** <2009-12-26 Sat> Board game session                    :friends:
*** <2009-12-30 Wed> Avatar                                :film:

    :PROPERTIES:
    :Imdb:     [[imdb:0499549]]
    :Director: James Cameron
    :Year:     2009
    :Genre:    Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
    :Country:  USA, UK
    :END:

*** <2009-12-31 Thu> Pragmatic Thinking and Learning       :book:

    :PROPERTIES:
    :Author:   Andy Hunt
    :Pages:    288
    :END:

-- Thomas

Re: Multiple column views for one file

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Thomas,

On Dec 31, 2009, at 3:31 PM, Thomas Leitner wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I don't know if org-mode supports having multiple column views for one
> file currently but I did not find a way to do the following.
>
> What I have is a journal file in org-mode in which I record, for
> example, films I have seen, books I have read and kilometres I have
> run. All of these entries have properties based on their type, for
> example, films have the properties Genre, Year and Director. Now I
> would like to get a sparse tree for all entries tagged with `film` and
> use a special column view for the films. However, when I define the
> #+COLUMNS variable at the top, this procedure only works for films,  
> and
> not for books or other entry types which have different properties.
>
> Therefore it would be nice to be able to define several column views
> and the possibility to switch between them. It is currently possible  
> to
> disable column view by pressing `q` when the cursor is on a head line
> in column view. It should probably be no problem to add another hotkey
> like `s` for switching to a different column view. The different  
> column
> views could be defined like this:
>
> #+COLUMNS: films %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Genre %Year  
> %Director
> #+COLUMNS: books %70ITEM(Details) %TAGS(Context) %Author %Year %Pages

Not a bad idea, but pretty troublesome to implement, because
column view allows you to change the columns format which
then makes it harder to determine where to make the changes.

For now, you can just put several lines into the buffer and
change the order - but I do realize that this is not the most
convenient solution.

I am not implementing this - unless we find more people
who can bring forward a good use case for this.

- Carsten

>
> It seems that org-mode currently ignores the column view names  
> ("films"
> and "books") so this would be backwards compatible.
>
> I'm still at the beginning of learning Elisp, so I'm not able to
> implement this myself and would like to know if others find this
> proposal useful and if it could be implemented?
>
> Best regards,
>  Thomas
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

- Carsten

Re: Multiple column views for one file

[Thomas Leitner]

On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 14:06:08 +0100, Carsten Dominik wrote:
> Not a bad idea, but pretty troublesome to implement, because
> column view allows you to change the columns format which
> then makes it harder to determine where to make the changes.
> 
> For now, you can just put several lines into the buffer and
> change the order - but I do realize that this is not the most
> convenient solution.
> 
> I am not implementing this - unless we find more people
> who can bring forward a good use case for this.

I completely understand. Thanks for the answer nonetheless - will go
with your suggestion.

-- Thomas