Re: Merge Properties into Template

[Christian Moe <mail@christianmoe.com>]

Hi,

On 10/6/11 5:56 PM, Richard Parsons wrote:
(...)
> Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to write some code,
> which (even as a newbie) I was able to get running quickly and easily.

My pleasure. I'm finding my legs in elisp myself, and I often find a 
better solution to a problem I've been grappling with when I think 
about someone else's request. So it was in this case -- I had worked 
on an insanely complicated mail-merge setup, your post made me realize 
it could be done more simply.

> Of practical benefit to me would be either: (a) make a new Org entry
> and file it (as you suggest) or (b) simply put it in the kill ring, so
> that I can yank it wherever I want.

I enclose a new version (below) that does (b), add to the kill ring.

We could also do (a), make an entry and refile it, but if this is what 
you want to do, I'd be more interested in looking into ways to do it 
with org-capture and avoid reinventing the wheel -- even if setting up 
org-capture templates is a little more involved than what you had in mind.

> Again, thanks so much for your help, and also the other replies I
> received.  I'm very impressed by the org-mode community responding so
> quickly to my question.

Pass it forward!

Yours,
Christian



#+begin_src emacs-lisp
   (defun cm/org-merge (target)
     "Fill a template headlined TARGET with the properties of the
   entry at point, replacing e.g. `[AGE]' with the contents of
   an :AGE: property. Use `[HEADLINE]' for the text of the entry
   heading."
     (interactive "sTarget template: ")
     (let ((props (org-entry-properties))
           prop
           template)
       (setq props (cons (cons "HEADLINE" (org-get-heading)) props))
       (save-excursion
         (org-open-link-from-string (format "[[*%s]]" target) t)
         (setq template (org-get-entry)))
       (dolist (p props)
         (setq template
               (replace-regexp-in-string
                (format "\\[%s\\]" (car p))
                (cdr p)
                template t)))
       (kill-new template)
       (message template)))
#+end_src