Re: Archive subtrees hierarchical (keep the parent structure)

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Florian Adamsky <fa-orgmode@haktar.org> writes:

> Dear all,
>
> some of my org-mode files are getting bigger and bigger. So, I decided
> to use the archive feature to remove old stuff. However, I was not happy
> with the current archive feature, because it just puts subtrees
> unorganized in the archive file.
>
> I was more looking for a way to archive a subtree, but keep the parent
> structure. Means, if the point is at the subtree "*** FOO" in the
> following example:
>
> * A
> ** B
> *** FOO
>
> then it should copy the heading "* A" and "** B" to the archive file and
> then move "*** Foo" to it. The only thing that I found was a feature
> request from Florian Lindner [fn:1]. A couple of days I was given it a
> shot and tried to implement that myself. Attached you'll find my
> attempt.

Thanks for this work -- I think this is a nice feature. One concern
about the above is that, if you're archiving many FOOs, then you'll get
a whole bunch of duplicate A/B parent structures. There are several
places in my agenda files where I have the exact structure in your
example, and a *whole* lot of FOOs going in and getting archived out.
How hard would it be to look for an existing A/B parent structure in the
archive file, and put FOO there if it's found? Not a perfect solution,
since you might have more than one A/B, but seems like it would help in
a majority of cases...

Thanks again,
Eric

> It is a bit hackish, but it works for me. I think the attached code
> misses two features:
>   1. it only copies the parent headings with tags, but ignores
>   properties and stuff like that
>
>   2. it ignores org-reverse-note-order, but that should not be too hard
>   to add.
>
> Before I work on it again, I would like to hear your comments. Have I
> implemented functions that are already in org-mode? Is this feature
> useful for other people? Does it in more complicated org-mode files?
>
> Best regards
>
> Footnotes:
>
> [fn:1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2014-05/msg01214.html
> --
> Florian Adamsky
> http://florian.adamsky.it/