individual alerts

individual alerts

[cschr]

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Hello

 

Im a software developer and new to emacs. I want to maintain my calendar
appointments in orgmode, and define individual alerts for each appointment
(which also includes to have no alert for some appointments). Using the
emacs diary is not enough for me – I want orgmode!   

 

I found out already how to export SCHEDULED and DEADLINE timestamps from
orgmode to iCalendar VEVENTs, but the VALARM TRIGGERs produced always have
the same value (VALARM TRIGGER is always “P0DT0H0M0S”). How can I define an
individual alert for each appointment in ORGMODE, and have the alert values
exported as icalendar VALARM TRIGGERs?  

 

The :APPT_WARNTIME: property in orgmode seems to do nothing, nor does it
seem to help if I add a “WARNTIME …” text to the orgmode item – this seems
to work for emacs diary entries only.   

 

I would furthermore like my individual orgmode alerts to be interpreted by
the emacs appointment system in order for emacs to notify me – again this
seems to always produce a constant notification

 

Again: maintaining my appointments within the emacs diary is not an option
for me – I need the orgmode features

 

Thanks very much

Kind regards

Christoph Schröder


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Re: individual alerts

[Nick Dokos]

"cschr" <cschr@freenet.de> writes:

> Hello
>
> Im a software developer and new to emacs. I want to maintain my calendar appointments in
> orgmode, and define individual alerts for each appointment (which also includes to have no
> alert for some appointments). Using the emacs diary is not enough for me – I want orgmode!
>   
>
> I found out already how to export SCHEDULED and DEADLINE timestamps from orgmode to
> iCalendar VEVENTs, but the VALARM TRIGGERs produced always have the same value (VALARM
> TRIGGER is always “P0DT0H0M0S”). How can I define an individual alert for each appointment
> in ORGMODE, and have the alert values exported as icalendar VALARM TRIGGERs?  
>
> The :APPT_WARNTIME: property in orgmode seems to do nothing, nor does it seem to help if I
> add a “WARNTIME …” text to the orgmode item – this seems to work for emacs diary entries
> only.  
>

There are various constraints on the item in order to get a VALARM: it
has to be a TODO item, it has to have a timestamp with both date and
time in it and the timestamp has to *follow* the properties drawer.

I think this last one is a bug in ox-icalendar.el: when I add a
SCHEDULED timestamp, it gets added right after the headline, pushing
the properties drawer down, and ISTR that that is now the mandated order
of org things, but that seems to break ox-icalendar.el's
ability to find the timestamp.

This was mostly trial-and-error (with just a look or two into the code),
so it might be wrong.

However, the following org file:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* TODO foo
  :PROPERTIES:
  :APPT_WARNTIME: 10
  :END:
  SCHEDULED: <2016-01-13 Wed 12:00>
  something to do
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

exports to a reasonable-looking ics file:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:foo
PRODID:-//Nick Dokos//Emacs with Org mode//EN
X-WR-TIMEZONE:EST
X-WR-CALDESC:
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20160113T052724Z
UID:TS1-bcc61d9a-6f28-47d1-9e10-710dbe4fed2c
DTSTART:20160113T120000
DTEND:20160113T140000
SUMMARY:foo
DESCRIPTION:SCHEDULED: <2016-01-13 Wed 12:00> something to do
CATEGORIES:foo
BEGIN:VALARM
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:foo
TRIGGER:-P0DT0H10M0S
END:VALARM
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

whereas the "normal" position of the timestamp:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* TODO foo
  SCHEDULED: <2016-01-13 Wed 12:00>
  :PROPERTIES:
  :APPT_WARNTIME: 10
  :END:
  something to do
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

leads to a rather sorry-looking ics file:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:foo
PRODID:-//Nick Dokos//Emacs with Org mode//EN
X-WR-TIMEZONE:EST
X-WR-CALDESC:
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
END:VCALENDAR
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

-- 
Nick

Re: individual alerts

[Nick Dokos]

Nick Dokos <ndokos@gmail.com> writes:

> "cschr" <cschr@freenet.de> writes:
>
>> Hello
>>
>> Im a software developer and new to emacs. I want to maintain my calendar appointments in
>> orgmode, and define individual alerts for each appointment (which also includes to have no
>> alert for some appointments). Using the emacs diary is not enough for me – I want orgmode!
>>   
>>
>> I found out already how to export SCHEDULED and DEADLINE timestamps from orgmode to
>> iCalendar VEVENTs, but the VALARM TRIGGERs produced always have the same value (VALARM
>> TRIGGER is always “P0DT0H0M0S”). How can I define an individual alert for each appointment
>> in ORGMODE, and have the alert values exported as icalendar VALARM TRIGGERs?  
>>
>> The :APPT_WARNTIME: property in orgmode seems to do nothing, nor does it seem to help if I
>> add a “WARNTIME …” text to the orgmode item – this seems to work for emacs diary entries
>> only.  
>>
>
> There are various constraints on the item in order to get a VALARM: it
> has to be a TODO item, it has to have a timestamp with both date and
> time in it and the timestamp has to *follow* the properties drawer.
>
> I think this last one is a bug in ox-icalendar.el: when I add a
> SCHEDULED timestamp, it gets added right after the headline, pushing
> the properties drawer down, and ISTR that that is now the mandated order
> of org things, but that seems to break ox-icalendar.el's
> ability to find the timestamp.
>
> This was mostly trial-and-error (with just a look or two into the code),
> so it might be wrong.
>
> However, the following org file:
>
> * TODO foo
>   :PROPERTIES:
>   :APPT_WARNTIME: 10
>   :END:
>   SCHEDULED: <2016-01-13 Wed 12:00>
>   something to do
>
> exports to a reasonable-looking ics file:
>
> ...
>
> whereas the "normal" position of the timestamp:
>
> * TODO foo
>   SCHEDULED: <2016-01-13 Wed 12:00>
>   :PROPERTIES:
>   :APPT_WARNTIME: 10
>   :END:
>   something to do
>
> leads to a rather sorry-looking ics file:
>
> ...

The OP sent me a private reply, saying that he couldn't get it to work,
but he is using an old org version (whatever comes with emacs 24.3.1
IIRC, presumably pre-8.0).

I should have mentioned that I'm using fairly recent versions:

Org-mode version 8.3.3 (release_8.3.3-437-g4de71e)

on this machine and an even later one on the machine where I did the
above testing.

--
Nick

Re: individual alerts

[Eric S Fraga]

On Wednesday, 13 Jan 2016 at 00:30, Nick Dokos wrote:

[...]

> There are various constraints on the item in order to get a VALARM: it
> has to be a TODO item, it has to have a timestamp with both date and
> time in it and the timestamp has to *follow* the properties drawer.

I don't this is entirely true?  My diary entries, none of which is a
TODO item, all get exported with a VALARM entity.

Now, your comment about the timestamp being after the properties drawer
may indeed be the case as non-TODO items will only appear in the diary
if they have a timestamp and that timestamp does indeed have to come
after the properties.

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.5.1, Org release_8.3.3-449-gd85ff3

Re: individual alerts

[Eric S Fraga]

On Tuesday, 12 Jan 2016 at 14:49, cschr wrote:

[...]

> I found out already how to export SCHEDULED and DEADLINE timestamps from
> orgmode to iCalendar VEVENTs, but the VALARM TRIGGERs produced always have
> the same value (VALARM TRIGGER is always “P0DT0H0M0S”). How can I define an
> individual alert for each appointment in ORGMODE, and have the alert values
> exported as icalendar VALARM TRIGGERs?  
>
> The :APPT_WARNTIME: property in orgmode seems to do nothing, nor does it
> seem to help if I add a “WARNTIME …” text to the orgmode item – this seems
> to work for emacs diary entries only.   

I cannot help you with the desire to have different alerts for each
appointment but I can point you to org-icalendar-alarm-time for the
actual warning time which applies to all items exported.  The default is
indeed no warning but I have

  (setq org-icalendar-alarm-time 10)

to give me 10 minutes' warning.

In any case, I also wanted to note that appointments should not have
scheduled and/or deadline information, just active time stamps.  TODO
items, on the other hand, could/should have scheduling information.  In
other words, an appointment can be as simple as:

  * Meet with Joe and Martha
    <2016-01-15 Fri 11:00-12:00>

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 24.5.1, Org release_8.3.3-449-gd85ff3