Re: Setting PROPERTIES in remember templates automatically

[Tassilo Horn <tassilo@member.fsf.org>]

James TD Smith <ahktenzero@mohorovi.cc> writes:

Hi James,

>> What I'd like to have is something like the existing
>> 
>>   %^{prop}p   Prompt the user for a value for property `prop'
>> 
>> but more like
>> 
>>   %{prop,escape}p   Insert property `prop' with value taken from escape,
>>                     if that is non-nil
>> 
>> With this
>> 
>>   "%{created,U} %{link,a}"
>> 
>> in a template would always create a :created: property with an inactive
>> timestamp, and :link: would only be inserted, if there is an annotation
>> for that remember invocation.
>> 
>> What do you think?
>
> I've actually got something like this working, as part of a whole load
> of improvements to remember which I've been working on for ages. If
> you want to take a look it's in the remember-lite branch at
> git://yog-sothoth.mohorovi.cc/org-mode.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

> The first major change is that remember templates are now plists.
> Old-style templates are automatically converted to the new format, but
> if you want to access any of the new features you will need to use the
> new template format, and add your templates to
> org-remember-templates-2.
>
> Properties are now set by adding a :properties property to the
> list. This should be followed by a list containing either:
> - A string. Query the user for the property value.
> - A cons cell. The head should be a string (the property name) and the tail can
>   be either:
>   - Another string: add the property with that string as its value
>   - A variable: add the property with the value of the variable 
>   - A function: call the function to get the property value.
>
> There is also a variable `org-remember-default-properties', for
> properties you want added to all remembered items.
>
> Mine is set like this
>
> (setq org-remember-default-properties
>       '(("CREATED" .
>        (lambda () (format-time-string (org-time-stamp-format t t)
>        org-remember-current-time)))
>        ("CONTEXT" .
>         (lambda () (if (and (marker-buffer org-clock-marker)
>              (not (eq (marker-buffer org-clock-marker)
>                    (current-buffer))))
>                    (org-substring-no-properties org-clock-heading)
>                          "Idle")))))
>
> which adds two properties to every item I remember, one containing the
> current time as an inactive timestamp and the other containing the
> name of the currently clocked task or 'Idle' if I'm not clocked into
> anything.

What if the function or variable evals to nil?  I'd expect that then the
property is not inserted at all.

> Here's an example template with properties:
>
> (:key ?r :type headline :name "Book"
>       :target "~/Personal/ReadingList.org::Books"
>       :properties ("AUTHOR" "ISBN") :tag t :tagscope file
>       :template "* MEDIA %^{Title} %?")

Looks pretty self-explanatory and logical to me.

> When I remember something using this template, the CREATED and CONTEXT
> properties are added automatically, and I get asked for the values for
> AUTHOR and ISBN.

Nice.

> Anyway, there are lots of other changes, and probably a few bugs, and
> there isn't much in the way of documentation yet :). Let me know how
> you get on.

This looks all very nice.  Do you plan to merge your enhancements back
into Carsten's branch anytime soon?

Bye,
Tassilo