org-agenda and org-agenda-columns, display time text property

org-agenda and org-agenda-columns, display time text property

[Richard Sent]

Hi org mode!

Quick disclaimer, this may already exist and I missed it in my research. 
If it does, please reinterpret this as a plea for help as opposed to a 
feature request! :)

It would be nice if there was a way to display the time text property 
while using org-columns in the agenda by modifying 
org-local-columns-format (or similar variables). Something like

;; in appropriate hook or similar
(setq org-local-columns-format "%AGENDA_TIME %ITEM ..."

The next-best option, %TIMESTAMP, will display the raw timestamp for the 
agenda item, but this isn't ideal.

a) it's overly wordy compared to the time text property e.g. [2023-11-18 
Sat 11:30] vs. "11:30 ┄┄┄┄┄ "
b) repeating timestamps are displayed as  [2023-11-11 Sat 14:30 +2d], 
meaning you can't tell what time a particular entry is scheduled.

org-columns does add some unique advantages to org-agenda. For example, 
I like to add a LOCATION property to my entries and use %LOCATION to 
display the location in the agenda. It's a shame that there's a tradeoff 
when doing this.

I have found an implementation that accomplishes this at 
https://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/59940 and discussion at 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2020-08/msg00090.html, 
but this seems to focus on a different problem related to 
org-agenda-columns-add-appointments-to-effort-sum. It does not look like 
the implementation discussed ever made its way in.

Thanks!
Richard

Re: org-agenda and org-agenda-columns, display time text property

[Ihor Radchenko]

Richard Sent <richard@freakingpenguin.com> writes:

> It would be nice if there was a way to display the time text property 
> while using org-columns in the agenda by modifying 
> org-local-columns-format (or similar variables). Something like
>
> ;; in appropriate hook or similar
> (setq org-local-columns-format "%AGENDA_TIME %ITEM ..."
> ...
> a) it's overly wordy compared to the time text property e.g. [2023-11-18 
> Sat 11:30] vs. "11:30 ┄┄┄┄┄ "
> b) repeating timestamps are displayed as  [2023-11-11 Sat 14:30 +2d], 
> meaning you can't tell what time a particular entry is scheduled.
>
> org-columns does add some unique advantages to org-agenda. For example, 
> I like to add a LOCATION property to my entries and use %LOCATION to 
> display the location in the agenda. It's a shame that there's a tradeoff 
> when doing this.
>
> I have found an implementation that accomplishes this at 
> https://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/59940 and discussion at 
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2020-08/msg00090.html, 
> but this seems to focus on a different problem related to 
> org-agenda-columns-add-appointments-to-effort-sum. It does not look like 
> the implementation discussed ever made its way in.

Providing a way to get some column values from agenda buffer does make
sense. Patches welcome!

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>