feature request/discussion: org-forms

feature request/discussion: org-forms

[khaije rock]

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I've found on some occasions that I wish for the ability to simply export
my org-mode notes, (procedural instructions, status/inventory tables, work
log)  into a simple fill-able form, (w/ content derived from the enclosed
content and properties), and either print it or record inputs directly
through the form in some organized way, (to a table perhaps) [fn:1] into
emacs.

It might operate something like a simplified Google Docs Forms [fn:2], as a
conceptual example.


Since I'm not capable to do this myself I'm not compelling anyone else to
work on it. I just wanted to see if this (1) already existed in some way,
(2) could motivate/unify any more capable interest, or (3) was something
that I could assist in bringing to existence.

Cheers,
Nick


[fn:1] org-agenda-columns is a good example upon which to model the data
presentation/interaction
[fn:2] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzgaUOW6GIs][features-demo]]

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Re: feature request/discussion: org-forms

[Bastien]

Hi Khaije,

khaije rock <khaije1@gmail.com> writes:

> I've found on some occasions that I wish for the ability to simply
> export my org-mode notes, (procedural instructions, status/inventory
> tables, work log)  into a simple fill-able form, (w/ content derived
> from the enclosed content and properties), and either print it or
> record inputs directly through the form in some organized way, (to a
> table perhaps) [fn:1] into emacs.

If I understand correctly, you may want "templates" -- i.e. an entry
skeleton that you can use for inserting data.

You might be interested in yasnippet:
  http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Yasnippet

For something fancier like Org entry->HTML form, I guess you'll have
to hack something together.

HTH,

-- 
 Bastien

Re: feature request/discussion: org-forms

[khaije rock]

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On Jan 4, 2014 9:21 AM, "Bastien" <bzg@gnu.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Khaije,
>
> khaije rock <khaije1@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I've found on some occasions that I wish for the ability to simply
> > export my org-mode notes, (procedural instructions, status/inventory
> > tables, work log)  into a simple fill-able form, (w/ content derived
> > from the enclosed content and properties), and either print it or
> > record inputs directly through the form in some organized way, (to a
> > table perhaps) [fn:1] into emacs.
>
> If I understand correctly, you may want "templates" -- i.e. an entry
> skeleton that you can use for inserting data.
>
> You might be interested in yasnippet:
>   http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/Yasnippet
>
> For something fancier like Org entry->HTML form, I guess you'll have
> to hack something together.
>
> HTH,
>
> --
>  Bastien

With your response it now occurs to me that much of this functionality is
indeed available with the combination of a set of custom captures, and
column-view mode for spot editing.

The glue would be:
(1) a "composite state" report block to parse the capture files as a kind
of log, and display the latest data for each changed field, grouped by item
(as some uniqe id)
(2) additionally some ability to load the composite state in (1) into the
capture buffer in order to ease editing relative to the current state.

I don't have much free time and my elisp is rudimentary, but I will work on
this as a hobby project and will happily share once useful. Additionally,
since I can never assume org-mode *doesnt* have certain functionality,
could someone indicate if significant portion of the "glue" portion exists
already?

Summary:
Perhaps incorrectly, I sometimes think of Org-mode as a fun personal
database.
An analogy of my view on this project is to use a capture log as a tlog in
order to compose records as report tables.
As always I'm interested to know if this effort is redundant a/o misguided?

Cheers,

ps. I'll look into org->html if I can put together the basics

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