Re: [ANN] Gnorb: Glue code between Gnus, Org, and BBDB

[tsd@tsdye.com (Thomas S. Dye)]

Aloha Eric,

Perfect timing! 

OS X Mavericks broke the workflow I'd developed with Contacts and I've
been looking to jettison the only Mac App I ever really used.  My
earlier experiments with bbdb generated lots of "friction".  I'm looking
forward to the time needed to explore gnorb.

Thanks,
Tom

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> [this didn't seem to make it through the list hiccup yesterday, sending again]
>
> Hello all,
>
> I've spent the past couple weeks organizing various bits of code into a
> proper package, called Gnorb, which I'm billing as "Glue code between
> Gnus, Org, and BBDB". The main point is to reduce friction between these
> three packages, making it easier to sling around emails, TODOs,
> attachments, and the like, and providing multiple views on information.
>
> https://github.com/girzel/gnorb
>
> Most of these bits fall under the category of "things you could have
> written yourself", but taken together I've found that they really smooth
> out my daily work flow. Some features:
>
> - Whang attachments from Gnus messages onto Org headings, using org-attach.
> - Automate the above as part of the org capture process
> - Email contents of org subtree under point (prompt for export routine)
> - Single-keystroke Org links or email citations of BBDB contacts
> - Initiate search of emails from contacts in open BBDB buffer
> - Initiate Org agenda tag search from BBDB buffer
> - Inverse of the above: pop up a BBDB buffer alongside an Org tags search
> - Treat headings as email-related TODOs, and handle them DWIM-style
>
> See the README.org for more. Most of these are single-use small
> snippets, but the last I've found particularly useful. A typical flow
> would go like this: you have a capture template that looks like:
>
> ("r" "Reply" entry (file+headline "~/org/notes.org" "Emails")
>  "** REPLY %a %?" :gnus-attachments t)
>
> Use this template to capture from an email in the Gnus summary buffer.
> You're prompted to attach the message attachments to the new heading,
> and while you're there you decide to add BBDB links to people who should
> also be in on the reply. You end up with this:
>
> ** REPLY [[gnus:link]] and also send to [[bbdb:bob]] and [[bbdb:jane]] :ATTACH:
>    :PROPERTIES: (attachments and all that)
>
> Then call `gnorb-org-handle-mail' on this headline in an Org or Agenda
> buffer. A reply is started to the Gnus message, Bob and Jane are added
> to the To header, and you're prompted to attach the attachments to the
> outgoing message (presumably you've edited them). When the message is
> sent you're returned to the original Org buffer and prompted to mark the
> TODO as done. Next email!
>
> The current version of this thing is "Works on My Computer (Beta)". I
> would love bug reports, but would love feature requests even more! I'm
> currently working on getting BBDB to store links to the last N messages
> from any given contact. Also, how best to model email conversations
> using TODO state-changes, log entries, and links.
>
> I'm sure there's plenty more fun to be had, though.
>
> Eric
>
>
>

-- 
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com