Re: What is the Preferred Method for Logging Creation Date?

[Ian Barton <lists@wilkesley.net>]

On 10/11/14 14:18, Ian Barton wrote:
> On 06/11/14 20:20, Dominic Surano wrote:
>> I'm a huge fan of Org-mode and have been using it daily for a little
>> over a
>> year. I've been following this list for about 8 months and really benefit
>> from
>> the level of technical discussion. I've finally encountered a methodology
>> problem that I haven't quite been able to wrap my head around and I'm
>> curious
>> how other people implement this functionality.
>>
>> I'm a heavy user of capture templates. One thing I've been struggling
>> with
>> for a while now is how to appropriately log the creation time of such
>> templates
>> in a way that can be useful for agenda views. Knowing WHEN I created a
>> heading is often just as useful as the content in the heading. The end
>> goal
>> is to
>> be able to quickly pull up an agenda view that shows each entry on the
>> day /
>> time it was created.
>>
>> For all the examples below, I've just included the FINAL output from org-
>> capture rather than the templates themselves. I feel I have a pretty good
>> understanding of capture templates, but can provide them if you think
>> they'll help in formulating a solution.
>>
>> Org-mode currently has built in support for DEADLINE, SCHEDULED, and
>> CLOSED
>> times. Ideally, for my use cases, CREATED would also be built in such
>> that
>> headings would look like:
>>
>> * DONE Task
>>    CLOSED: [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59] DEADLINE: <2014-11-06 Thu> CREATED:
>> [2014-
>> 11-06 Thu 10:50]
>>    :LOGBOOK:
>>    - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59]
>>    :END:
>>    :PROPERTIES:
>>    :Via:      Origin of this task
>>    :Note:     Note describing task
>>    :ID:       64f7fa18-0936-46cb-a2c8-21a0fbc9bae3
>>    :END:
>>
>> And I would be able to pull up an agenda view using a similarly named
>> special property
>> (http://orgmode.org/manual/Special-properties.html#Special-
>> properties). Unfortunately, since CREATED is not a special property, I
>> end
>> up with:
>>
>> * DONE Task
>>    CLOSED: [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59] DEADLINE: <2014-11-06 Thu>
>>    :LOGBOOK:
>>    - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59]
>>    :END:
>>    CREATED: [2014-11-06 Thu 10:50]
>>    :PROPERTIES:
>>    :Via:      Origin of this task
>>    :Note:     Note describing task
>>    :ID:       64f7fa18-0936-46cb-a2c8-21a0fbc9bae3
>>    :END:
>>
>> I consider this similar to Bernt Hansen's approach
>> (http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#InsertInactiveTimestamps). Turning on
>> inactive timestamps, using v
>> [ in the agenda view, doesn't just pull up the CREATED time, but also the
>> state change time in LOGBOOK in addition to any other inactive timestamps
>> (either in the entry, notes in LOGBOOK, etc.). I've considered using the
>> special property TIMESTAMP_IA, but unfortunately, as shown above
>> "CREATED:
>> ..."
>> always ends up getting bumped down when a state change is made or note is
>> taken, and the :LOGBOOK: drawer is created.
>>
>> I have no doubt that implementing CREATED as a special time would be non-
>> trivial.
>>
>> Here are some solutions I've contemplated implementing:
>>
>> 1) Including the creation date in the logbook using a format
>> consistent with
>> org-todo state changes:
>>
>> * DONE Task
>>    CLOSED: [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59] DEADLINE: <2014-11-06 Thu>
>>    :LOGBOOK:
>>    - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59]
>>    - State "TODO"       from ""           [2014-11-06 Thu 10:50]
>>    :END:
>>    :PROPERTIES:
>>    :Via:      Origin of this task
>>    :Note:     Note describing task
>>    :ID:       64f7fa18-0936-46cb-a2c8-21a0fbc9bae3
>>    :END:
>>
>> This seems to make a lot of sense (although I'm still unclear about
>> how to
>> generate the aforementioned agenda view), but it breaks down for capture
>> templates that don't use org-todo-keywords (i.e. are ALWAYS stateless).
>>
>> 2) Including the creation date in the logbook using something similar to
>> note (C-c z):
>>
>> * DONE Task
>>    CLOSED: [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59] DEADLINE: <2014-11-06 Thu>
>>    :LOGBOOK:
>>    - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59]
>>    - Created from capture template on [2014-11-06 Thu 10:50]
>>    :END:
>>    :PROPERTIES:
>>    :Via:      Origin of this task
>>    :Note:     Note describing task
>>    :ID:       64f7fa18-0936-46cb-a2c8-21a0fbc9bae3
>>    :END:
>>
>> This makes sense, but breaks consistency with org-todo state changes
>> and has
>> the same agenda problem described in (1).
>>
>> 3) Including the creation date in a the property drawer:
>>
>> * DONE Task
>>    CLOSED: [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59] DEADLINE: <2014-11-06 Thu>
>>    :LOGBOOK:
>>    - State "DONE"       from "TODO"       [2014-11-06 Thu 10:59]
>>    - State "TODO"       from ""           [2014-11-06 Thu 10:50]
>>    :END:
>>    :PROPERTIES:
>>    :Via:      Origin of this task
>>    :Note:     Note describing task
>>    :Created:  [2014-11-06 Thu 10:50]
>>    :ID:       64f7fa18-0936-46cb-a2c8-21a0fbc9bae3
>>    :END:
>>
>> This would maintain consistency with org-todo, but I'm not sure how I
>> would
>> generate the agenda view. It seems to be the preferred method for
>> users of
>> org-expiry.el.
>>
>
> Not quite what you wanted, but I use CREATED in the PROPERTY draw:
>
> ("t" "Todo" entry (file+headline
> "~/Documents/emacs/org/org_files/tasks/todo.org" "Tasks") "* TODO
> %?\nSCHEDULED: %^t\n
> :PROPERTIES:\n:CREATED: %U\n:LOGGING: DONE(@)\n:END:\n%a\n" :prepend t)
>
> I haven't needed to filter the Agenda by a PROPERTY, but according to
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-custom-agenda-commands.html it
> is possible. However, a quick Google doesn't turn up any examples.
>
> Ian.
>
>

I didn't look hard enough. Here: 
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10033797/matching-property-in-agenda-view 
is an example of filtering the Agenda using a PROPERTY.

Ian.