Re: How to add content from a file to a table automatically

[Eric Schulte <schulte.eric@gmail.com>]

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Darlan Cavalcante Moreira <darcamo@gmail.com> writes:

> Is there a way to detect when a file changes and then add the content from
> it (if any, the file could be empty) to a specified org-mode table? Each
> line in that file is already constructed in a way that it could be copied
> and pasted to the table directly (but I can change that if it makes things
> easier).
>

Interesting question.  Here is a partial answer.

If you can write a code block which reads the external file, and then
outputs the desired table, then the attached Org-mode file should work
for you.

The following defines a function (`continually-run') which re-runs a
named code block every couple of seconds.  Code blocks already handle
the updating of their results every time they are run.  See the file
itself for more information.  After testing this I will warn that it
caused some weirdness with my cursor in the mini-buffer.

Hope this helps,


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#+Title: Periodically Rerun a Code Block

Here's the lisp code to define a function to continually re-run a code
block.  Evaluate the following code block, then =M-x continually-run=,
press ENTER and then type in the name of the code block to continually
run (in this case "date").
#+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
  (defvar continual-runners nil
    "Holds running block timers (so they may be canceled).")
  
  (defun run-block-in-buffer (name buffer)
    (save-match-data
      (with-current-buffer buffer
        (save-excursion
          (org-babel-goto-named-src-block name)
          (with-local-quit
            (undo-boundary)
            (with-temp-message (format "re-running %s" name)
              (org-babel-execute-src-block))
            (undo-boundary))))))
  
  (defun continually-run (name)
    "Continually run the supplied code block name.
  The code block is assumed to be in the current buffer."
    (interactive "scode block to continually run: ")
    (let ((run-buffer (current-buffer)))
      (add-to-list 'continual-runners
                   (run-at-time nil 5 'run-block-in-buffer name run-buffer))))
#+end_src

Here's the code block to be continually re-run.
#+Name: date
#+begin_src sh
  date
#+end_src

And here are the results which will be continually updated.
#+RESULTS: date
: Wed Jan  9 22:04:08 MST 2013

Execute the following to stop all continually updating code blocks.
#+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent
  (mapc #'cancel-timer continual-runners)
#+end_src

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-- 
Eric Schulte
http://cs.unm.edu/~eschulte