Refile existing entry to different location in Org Mode date-tree - emacs

I use the Org-Mode diary to keep a record of my upcoming appointments.
In my diary.org file I could have an entry that looks something like the following:
*** 2014-10-31 Friday
**** 9:30 Take dog to vet
<2014-10-31 Fri>
Now imagine I need to reschedule my vet appointment. Is there a quick way (i.e. some Org-Mode command) to refile the appropriate heading within the same file but under a different date?

I don't see a builtin function that does this, but it sounds pretty useful. This function is really just a simplification of the code in org-archive.el that archives to datetrees. If you instead want to refile based on SCHEDULED, DEADLINE or some other property, just change "TIMESTAMP" to the property you want.
(defun org-refile-to-datetree ()
"Refile a subtree to a datetree corresponding to it's timestamp."
(interactive)
(let* ((datetree-date (org-entry-get nil "TIMESTAMP" t))
(date (org-date-to-gregorian datetree-date)))
(when date
(save-excursion
(org-cut-subtree)
(org-datetree-find-date-create date)
(org-narrow-to-subtree)
(show-subtree)
(org-end-of-subtree t)
(newline)
(goto-char (point-max))
(org-paste-subtree 4)
(widen)
)
)
))

Use org-refile with C-c C-w. This will allow you to refile it to the rescheduled date. Also be sure to check out the variables org-refile-use-outline-path (nil by default) and org-outline-path-complete-in-steps.
I would also recommend using the full power of org-mode dates so they show up in the agenda (C-a) appropriately. For example:
* Take Dog to Vet
<2014-10-31 Fri 09:30>--<2014-10-31 Fri 10:30>

Related

Bulk reschedule org agenda items preserving date

I sometimes forget to do one or more of my daily habits that happen at the same time each day and need to bring them current so I can get orgzly notifications of them.
I am able to shift a single item in org agenda preserving the date with M-x org-agenda-date-later and it reschedules that to the current date with whatever time existed.
If I try to use it as a bulk action by marking an item and doing B f org-agenda-date-later I get:
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (wrong-number-of-arguments #f(compiled-function (arg &optional what) (interactive "p") #<bytecode 0x1ad5eed>) 0)
org-agenda-date-later()
org-agenda-bulk-action(nil)
funcall-interactively(org-agenda-bulk-action nil)
call-interactively(org-agenda-bulk-action nil nil)
command-execute(org-agenda-bulk-action)
This tells me that org-agenda-date-later wasn't written to be used as a bulk action. One solution for this could be writing a bulk action that calls org-agenda-date-later multiple times but I do not know how to do that.
I searched for other solutions and I found something recommended by the author of org mode from the org mode FAQ:
(defun org-agenda-reschedule-to-today ()
(interactive)
(flet ((org-read-date (&rest rest) (current-time)))
(call-interactively 'org-agenda-schedule)))
This works as a bulk action but it loses the time the item was scheduled. That means I would have to go through my habits and reschedule the time for each one after doing this which is inconvenient.
There is the org-agenda-bulk-custom-functions to which you can add a key-binding and an associated function. So, for example, adding a binding for D after calling org-agenda-bulk-action, you could use
(setq org-agenda-bulk-custom-functions
`((?D (lambda () (call-interactively 'org-agenda-date-later)))
,#org-agenda-bulk-custom-functions))
It will pass the prefix on, allowing C-u -1 B D to reshedule the tasks a day earlier at the same time, for example.

How can I mark Org habits as done in the past

I regularly mark habits as DONE the day after the activity was done. The habits module automatically updates a bunch of dates in the metadata when I do this, but the date is always today. So then, I have to manually edit the SCHEDULED, LOGBOOK, and LAST_REPEAT states.
Is there a way to mark a habit as DONE for a day in the past? So instead of doing C-c C-t d (I have "d" set up as "DONE") I could get a prompt which asked me for a date.
I've wanted to do this for some time, too, and your question inspired me to finally figure it out.
There is a function called "org-todo-yesterday." By default, it's not mapped to any keys, but you could always call it with M-x org-todo-yesterday (or map it if you're using it a lot). For me, it breaks because it calls "third" which isn't a defined function in my install.
For a more generic function that prompts us for the date and marks things as done at that time, we can add this function (inspired by org-todo-yesterday) to our emacs init file. It will act as if you finished things at 23:59 on the target date, which is hopefully good enough.
(defun dk/org-todo-custom-date (&optional arg)
"Like org-todo-yesterday, but prompt the user for a date. The time
of change will be 23:59 on that day"
(interactive "P")
(let* ((hour (nth 2 (decode-time
(org-current-time))))
(daysback (- (date-to-day (current-time-string)) (org-time-string-to-absolute (org-read-date))))
(org-extend-today-until (+ 1 (* 24 (- daysback 1)) hour))
(org-use-effective-time t)) ; use the adjusted timestamp for logging
(if (eq major-mode 'org-agenda-mode)
(org-agenda-todo arg)
(org-todo arg))))
Will this work? This simply completes the habit and reschedule it for today
(defun org-todo-yesterday2 (&optional arg)
(interactive "P")
(org-todo-yesterday arg)
(org-schedule arg (format-time-string "%Y-%m-%d")
)
)

Custom diary-sunrise function not working. `autoload-diary`? (Emacs.)

Intro:
Based on the existing code for Emacs' diary-sunrise-sunset, I attempted to create two new functions diary-sunrise and diary-sunset.
My reasons for this are included below under the heading "XY-description".
I have code below which seems to work, except when I restart with a new Emacs. I can fix this by momentarily using the original built-in diary-sunrise-sunset. From then on, my functions perform beautifully.
In other words, I have to use the built-in %%(diary-sunrise-sunset) just a one time before my %%(diary-sunrise) and %%(diary-sunset) will work.
Question:
Can you help me fix my use of these functions so that I do not have to take the awkward step of first getting the built-in function called?
The lines of code that seem suspicious to me are the ones that go
;;;###diary-autoload
While I have some idea of the necessity of loading programs, I am not sure what's going on here, or if this is where the issue lies. (I've never seen that particular syntax.)
I have tried M-: (require 'solar) and M-: (require 'diary), but neither have worked (and just now calendar). I have tried putting my code both in my .emacs and in the built-in .../lisp/calendar/solar.el (and byte-recompiling), but neither have worked.
My functions:
(They are each slight modifications of solar-sunrise-sunset-string and diary-sunrise-sunset, which are both defined in .../lisp/calendar/solar.el).
Sunrise:
(defun solar-sunrise-string (date &optional nolocation)
"String of *local* time of sunrise and daylight on Gregorian DATE."
(let ((l (solar-sunrise-sunset date)))
(format
"%s (%s hours daylight)"
(if (car l)
(concat "Sunset " (apply 'solar-time-string (car l)))
"no sunset")
(nth 2 l)
)))
;; To be called from diary-list-sexp-entries, where DATE is bound.
;;;###diary-autoload
(defun diary-sunrise ()
"Local time of sunrise as a diary entry.
Accurate to a few seconds."
(or (and calendar-latitude calendar-longitude calendar-time-zone)
(solar-setup))
(solar-sunrise-string date))
Sunset:
(defun solar-sunset-string (date &optional nolocation)
"String of *local* time of sunset and daylight on Gregorian DATE."
(let ((l (solar-sunrise-sunset date)))
(format
"%s (%s hours daylight)"
(if (cadr l)
(concat "Sunset " (apply 'solar-time-string (cadr l)))
"no sunset")
(nth 2 l)
)))
;; To be called from diary-list-sexp-entries, where DATE is bound.
;;;###diary-autoload
(defun diary-sunset ()
"Local time of sunset as a diary entry.
Accurate to a few seconds."
(or (and calendar-latitude calendar-longitude calendar-time-zone)
(solar-setup))
(solar-sunset-string date))
XY description:
I am using Emacs' Org-mode, and just starting to use agenda views. I like the builtin diary-sunrise-sunset function, but wanted to make some minor tweaks to make it more to my liking.
Basically, Org-mode's agenda view will extract the first time it sees from the diary sexp %%(diary-sunrise-sunset), for instance
Sat, Apr 5, 2014
Sunrise 6:43am (PDT), sunset 7:42pm (PDT) at Springfield, OH (12:59 hours daylight)
and thus make an entry of
6:43am........ Sunrise (PDT), sunset 7:42pm (PDT) at Springfield, OH (12:59 hours daylight)
in the agenda view.
What I would like it to do is something more like,
6:43am........ Sunrise (PDT) (12:59 hours daylight)
8:00am........ ----------------
10:00am........ ----------------
12:00pm........ ----------------
2:00pm........ ----------------
4:00pm........ ----------------
5:51pm........ now - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6:00pm........ ----------------
7:42pm........ Sunset (PDT) (12:59 hours daylight)
Where the data is split into the two times, rather than all written only at the sunrise time.
Bonus:
a snippet so that C-c a d will give you a nice day agenda view:
(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
'(("d" "day's agenda"
agenda ""
(
(org-agenda-files '("/e/org/agendatest.org"))
(org-agenda-prefix-format "%t %s")
(org-agenda-span 'day)
(org-agenda-timegrid-use-ampm t)
)
)
))
In the last paragraph of my question (eighth paragraph?), I lied, (require 'solar) was the answer... I did not try it hard enough as it didn't respond to auto-completion.
The scenic route to the answer took me to these distractions:
Maintaining Emacs autoload files for user-installed elisp?
elisp - Where should I add autoload cookies in my Emacs Lisp package? Is there a definitive guide?
C-h i g (elisp) Autoload
a search through the lisp directory for any update-file-autoloads
I did some Edebugging wondering if anything I was using had an autoload cookie (not completely understanding it yet), but then noticed there was a (provide 'solar) at the end of solar.el, so then I figured (require 'solar) had to work. It did and that was that.
From the code in my question, I remove the autoload cookies (not sure if that's necessary), and add (require 'solar), and it works! Enjoy!

Add CREATED date property to TODOs in org-mode

I read the org-mode manual but couldn't find an easy way to add a CREATED field to newly created TODOs. In combination with org-log-done one could then compute the time it took to close a particular TODO. This is especially useful when using archive files.
Example:
* TODO Do something
CREATED: [2012-09-02 Sun 23:02]
* DONE Do something else
CREATED: [2012-09-02 Sun 20:02]
CLOSED: [2012-09-02 Sun 22:02]
I would expect the CREATED field to be added to new tasks (tasks which don't have that field) whenever the file is saved.
Any suggestions on how to achieve this? Using something like Git is not a solution for me to track the creations of TODOS.
I use org-expiry to implement that functionality, which is in the contrib directory of org.
The base configuration I use is:
;; Allow automatically handing of created/expired meta data.
(require 'org-expiry)
;; Configure it a bit to my liking
(setq
org-expiry-created-property-name "CREATED" ; Name of property when an item is created
org-expiry-inactive-timestamps t ; Don't have everything in the agenda view
)
(defun mrb/insert-created-timestamp()
"Insert a CREATED property using org-expiry.el for TODO entries"
(org-expiry-insert-created)
(org-back-to-heading)
(org-end-of-line)
(insert " ")
)
;; Whenever a TODO entry is created, I want a timestamp
;; Advice org-insert-todo-heading to insert a created timestamp using org-expiry
(defadvice org-insert-todo-heading (after mrb/created-timestamp-advice activate)
"Insert a CREATED property using org-expiry.el for TODO entries"
(mrb/insert-created-timestamp)
)
;; Make it active
(ad-activate 'org-insert-todo-heading)
If you are using capture it does not automatically work and needs a little glue. I have posted the complete config here: https://gist.github.com/4037694
A more lightweight solution would be to add ! flag to the TODO state:
(setq org-todo-keywords '((sequence "TODO(!)" "DONE")))
Then:
* TODO get of your ass
- State "TODO" from [2016-06-03 to. 10:35]
It isn't very pretty though.
Ref: http://orgmode.org/org.html#Tracking-TODO-state-changes
You don't need to modify functions with 'defadvice' to run expiry code on capture.
You should use hook:
(add-hook 'org-capture-before-finalize-hook
(lambda()
(save-excursion
(org-back-to-heading)
(org-expiry-insert-created))))
Same for 'org-insert-todo-heading'. There is a hook:
(add-hook 'org-insert-todo-heading-hook
(lambda()
(save-excursion
(org-back-to-heading)
(org-expiry-insert-created))))
Org provides a hook org-after-todo-state-change-hook which you can use here:
org-after-todo-state-change-hook is a variable defined in ‘org.el’.
Documentation:
Hook which is run after the state of a TODO item was changed.
The new state (a string with a TODO keyword, or nil) is available in the
Lisp variable ‘org-state’.
Use it as follows:
(require 'org-expiry)
(add-hook 'org-after-todo-state-change-hook
(lambda ()
(when (string= org-state "TODO")
(save-excursion
(org-back-to-heading)
(org-expiry-insert-created)))))
org-expiry is part of org-contrib, which is included in the org-plus-contrib package on the org ELPA.
Here's a buried treasure:
(setq org-treat-insert-todo-heading-as-state-change t)
I found it here, in response to someone saying they wanted an org-insert-todo-heading-hook.
Just tried it out and, true to form, when you org-insert-todo-heading, it counts as a state change, so ex: #+TODO: TODO(t!) | ... will add a log.
If you create all your TODOs with org-capture the following capture template does the trick:
(setq org-capture-templates
'(
("t" "TODO Task" entry (file+headline "~/inbox.org" "Tasks")
"* TODO %?\nCREATED: %u\nSRC: %a\n%i\n")
))
The result will look something like this:
* Tasks
** TODO Dummy task
CREATED: [2015-05-08 Fri]
SRC: [[file:~/path/to/file/where/you/created/the/task.org::*heading"][heading]]
Here is a lightweight solution that does not require an external package. I got it from the answer by #MarcinAntczak, the comments by #Clément, and this similar thread. It works with org-capture and with M-S-RET. Put this in your Emacs initialization file (e.g. ~/.emacs):
(defun insert-created-date(&rest ignore)
(insert (format-time-string
(concat "\nCREATED: "
(cdr org-time-stamp-formats))
))
(org-back-to-heading) ; in org-capture, this folds the entry; when inserting a heading, this moves point back to the heading line
(move-end-of-line()) ; when inserting a heading, this moves point to the end of the line
)
; add to the org-capture hook
(add-hook 'org-capture-before-finalize-hook
#'insert-created-date
)
; hook it to adding headings with M-S-RET
; do not add this to org-insert-heading-hook, otherwise this also works in non-TODO items
; and Org-mode has no org-insert-todo-heading-hook
(advice-add 'org-insert-todo-heading :after #'insert-created-date)
I did not add this function to state changes (e.g., from plain heading to TODO) because it would need to be in a properties drawer and I prefer to not have those extra lines. If you prefer to have it in properties, use the function defined in see this thread.
You can add a time stamp at creation time with zero config, but it won't be labeled CREATED. Rather than manually typing TODO, use C-c C-t. It will then be logged as "state changed to TODO from """ and time stamped.

Interactively enter headline under which to place an entry using capture

Using capture templates like the one below, I can add entries to different headlines in a file. How can I manually enter a headline during capture, instead of setting up each headline to a key in the .emacs file like I am now doing?
(setq org-capture-templates
'(
("l" "Log" entry
(file+headline "c:/Org/log.org" "Log")
"\n\n** %?\n<%<%Y-%m-%d %a %T>>"
:empty-lines 1))
It looks like, in newer versions of org at least, that custom functions can be used in capture templates to do this.
Instead of:
entry
(file+headline "~/Work/work.org" "Refile")
You can use:
entry
(file+function "~/Work/work.org" function-finding-location)
Where 'function-finding-location' is a custom function you have written yourself, which could easily prompt you for a headline.
Or, you can go even farther, and define a custom function which will prompt for both file name and headline name (or anything else you can dream up):
entry
(function function-finding-location)
I don't really know enough elisp to write these functions myself, but this looks like the place to start. It'd be nice if someone else could offer up some code. The relevant documentation is here:
http://orgmode.org/manual/Template-elements.html
I wrote a function to be used with file+function which will prompt for a location on capture.
It uses the internal prompting function of org-refile so we get completions of headings in the prompt (with maxlevels overridden to 9). When the user enters an unknown heading, it creates it at the end of the file.
(defun org-ask-location ()
(let* ((org-refile-targets '((nil :maxlevel . 9)))
(hd (condition-case nil
(car (org-refile-get-location nil nil t t))
(error (car org-refile-history)))))
(goto-char (point-min))
(outline-next-heading)
(if (re-search-forward
(format org-complex-heading-regexp-format (regexp-quote hd))
nil t)
(goto-char (point-at-bol))
(goto-char (point-max))
(or (bolp) (insert "\n"))
(insert "* " hd "\n")))
(end-of-line))
In your case, you use it like this:
(setq org-capture-templates
'(("l" "Log" entry
(file+function "c:/Org/log.org" org-ask-location)
"\n\n** %?\n<%<%Y-%m-%d %a %T>>"
:empty-lines 1))
I don't believe you can have it prompt for the headline on capture. You can however refile from within the capture window which should result in the desired behaviour.
I would define a catch-all target headline/file so that if you forget you will always collect them in the same location and then just have to refile them once created. If you also set a category/tag on this headline you will be able to easily see the misfiled capture entry and refile it as desired. (Example below)
Then instead of finishing with C-c C-c choose to refile with C-c C-w and you will be asked to select the headline you want to send the new entry to.
The capture template I use for this catch all is as follows (adapted from Bernt Hansen's capture settings)
("i"
"Incidents"
entry
(file+headline "~/Work/work.org" "Refile")
"* TODO %^{Ticket} - %^{User}\nSCHEDULED: %^t DEADLINE: %^t\n:PROPERTIES:
\n:DATE: %^U\n:END:\n%^{MANAGER}p%^{HOSTNAME}p%^{LOCATION}p%^{TEL}p\n%c"
:empty-lines 1 :clock-in t :clock-resume t)
(Line breaks are added to avoid scrolling when reading here)
The heading is configured as follows
* Refile :refile:
:PROPERTIES:
:CATEGORY: Unsorted
:END:
With this I end up with all non-refiled tasks showing up as
Unsorted: Deadline: TODO <Headline> :refile::
I currently tend to use tags as reference if I'm waiting for coworkers/managers to deal with the ticket, or to remind me to speak to them about it when I see them so the tag at the end stands out clearly, as does Unsorted if I'm trying to remember what the issue is (since I simply have a case number and user name showing, details within the entry).
while capturing a note, after finishing writeup press C-u C-c C-w to refile under desired new headline.
you also need to set this variable
(setq org-refile-allow-creating-parent-nodes (quote confirm))
you can set it to t instead of confirm. But I like it be confirm because I dont often refile to new targets