Clocking in on non-org files

Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Hi all,

I have a bunch of TODO items connected with LaTeX files (in general:
projects) I'm working on.  I was wondering whether it might be possible
and/or wise to set things up so that I could clock in (C-c C-x C-i) in
a buffer containing such a file.  Currently, executing org-clock-in in
a non-Org buffer results in an error (at least with my setup); with a
prefix argument, everything is fine, I'm asked for one of the last
clocked items.  My dream is that I can clock in my buffer with just
C-c C-x C-i, and Org somehow could know which item to clock.  I imagine
file-local variable might be the way to go.  It might be a good idea to
both change/advise org-clock-in to accomodate for this use case, and
define something like
org-associate-file-with-org-headline-for-the-purpose-of-clocking to
e.g. ask for the item (from org-clock history), or use the refile
interface (which I haven't used, but I guess it could work well) and
set the file-local variable accordingly.

Also, this might allow for "automated clocking", i.e., advising
switch-buffer or something so that when I switch to a buffer belonging
to some project, clocking on it starts automatically.

Does there exist something like this?  Do you like this idea?  Does it
have any pitfalls I cannot see? Would anyone but me use this?  If the
answers are no, yes, no, yes, I might try to implement it when I have
some time to spare (i.e., not now - I'm extremely busy during this week
- but maybe in a week or two)

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Suvayu Ali]

On Sun, Oct 06, 2013 at 02:07:45PM +0200, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have a bunch of TODO items connected with LaTeX files (in general:
> projects) I'm working on.  I was wondering whether it might be possible
> and/or wise to set things up so that I could clock in (C-c C-x C-i) in
> a buffer containing such a file.  Currently, executing org-clock-in in
> a non-Org buffer results in an error (at least with my setup); with a
> prefix argument, everything is fine, I'm asked for one of the last
> clocked items.  My dream is that I can clock in my buffer with just

Try capture: (info "(org) Template elements").

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2013-10-06, o godz. 17:11:25
Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> napisał(a):

> On Sun, Oct 06, 2013 at 02:07:45PM +0200, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > I have a bunch of TODO items connected with LaTeX files (in general:
> > projects) I'm working on.  I was wondering whether it might be
> > possible and/or wise to set things up so that I could clock in (C-c
> > C-x C-i) in a buffer containing such a file.  Currently, executing
> > org-clock-in in a non-Org buffer results in an error (at least with
> > my setup); with a prefix argument, everything is fine, I'm asked
> > for one of the last clocked items.  My dream is that I can clock in
> > my buffer with just
> 
> Try capture: (info "(org) Template elements").
> 

Thanks, I didn't think about it, though it's not exactly what I'm
looking for.  My dream setup is like this: I bind globally C-c C-x C-i
to something, and when typing this key sequence /outside/ Org-mode, I
am asked about a /node/ somewhere in my Org files (preferably with
autocompletion, like refiling).  Then, apart from starting the clock, a
file-local variable remembering this node is added /to the file I'm in/
(as a comment at the end, for instance), so that the /next/ time I'm
editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2013-10-06, o godz. 23:26:25
Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> napisał(a):

> Dnia 2013-10-06, o godz. 17:11:25
> Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> napisał(a):
> 
> > On Sun, Oct 06, 2013 at 02:07:45PM +0200, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> > > 
> > > I have a bunch of TODO items connected with LaTeX files (in
> > > general: projects) I'm working on.  I was wondering whether it
> > > might be possible and/or wise to set things up so that I could
> > > clock in (C-c C-x C-i) in a buffer containing such a file.
> > > Currently, executing org-clock-in in a non-Org buffer results in
> > > an error (at least with my setup); with a prefix argument,
> > > everything is fine, I'm asked for one of the last clocked items.
> > > My dream is that I can clock in my buffer with just
> > 
> > Try capture: (info "(org) Template elements").
> 
> Thanks, I didn't think about it, though it's not exactly what I'm
> looking for.  My dream setup is like this: I bind globally C-c C-x C-i
> to something, and when typing this key sequence /outside/ Org-mode, I
> am asked about a /node/ somewhere in my Org files (preferably with
> autocompletion, like refiling).  Then, apart from starting the clock,
> a file-local variable remembering this node is added /to the file I'm
> in/ (as a comment at the end, for instance), so that the /next/ time
> I'm editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.

Hi,

I finally had some time & motivation to look into it.  Below is my
solution.  It is not perfect (in fact, probably far from being
perfect), but should work.  I'd like to hear some comments, especially
regarding two issues: (1) whether my keybindings are reasonable
(especially C-c C-x C-j, which has different semantics than its
Org-mode counterpart, but C-c C-j is already taken e.g. by AUCTeX) and
(2) usage of org-insert-link, which asks for the description, which is
completely unnecessary here.  (This touches one problem I have with
Org: it has lots of huge functions, which could be split into smaller
ones.  For instance, if org-insert-link called a separate function to
select the link and another one asking for the description, I could
use the former and not care about the latter.  But this is a minor
issue.)

The workflow is as follows: I use org-store-link in e.g. some Org
headline, say "* TODO Write a cool book", then go to cool-book.tex and
do M-x org-insert-default-link.  From now on, in cool-book.tex, I can
C-c C-x C-j in cool-book.tex (and look into subtasks of the
abovementioned TODO, for example), I can also C-c C-x C-i to clock in,
C-c C-x C-o to clock out and C-c C-x C-x to cancel the clock.

WDYT?

;;;;;;;;;;;; Code begins here ;;;;;;;;;;;;
;; Org-related functions (clocking and goto) working in arbitrary files

(defun org-goto-default-link ()
  "Jumps to the link pointed by the variable org-default-link,
which should be a file local variable."
  (if (boundp 'org-default-link)
	  (let ((org-link org-default-link))
	    (set-buffer (get-buffer-create "*Org Link Temp Buffer*"))
	    (erase-buffer)
	    (insert org-link)
	    (org-open-at-point-global)
	    (kill-buffer "*Org Link Temp Buffer*"))
	(error "Not in Org mode and org-default-link not set.")))

(defun org-goto-anywhere (&optional alternative-interface)
  "An interactive wrapper around org-goto-default-link, calling
normal org-goto if in Org mode."
  (interactive)
  (if (equal major-mode 'org-mode)
      (org-goto alternative-interface)
    (org-goto-default-link)))
    
(defun org-clock-in-anywhere (&optional select)
  "Clock in.  If called without prefix and not in Org-mode, clock
in the entry pointed by org-default-link."
  (interactive "P")
  (if (or select (equal major-mode 'org-mode))
      (org-clock-in select)
    (save-excursion
      (org-goto-default-link)
      (org-clock-in))))

(defun org-insert-default-link ()
  "Inserts a link (using org-insert-link) into the
org-default-link file local variable.  Uses org-insert-link
interface, which prompts also for the description, which is
irrelevant here."
  (interactive)
  (let ((link (save-excursion
	       (switch-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "*Org Link Temp Buffer*"))
	       (erase-buffer)
	       (org-insert-link)
	       (buffer-string))))
    (add-file-local-variable 'org-default-link link)
    (kill-buffer "*Org Link Temp Buffer*")))
    
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-x C-i") 'org-clock-in-anywhere)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-x C-o") 'org-clock-out)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-x C-j") 'org-goto-anywhere)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-x C-x") 'org-clock-cancel)

;;;;;;;;;;;; Code ends here ;;;;;;;;;;;;

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 14:12:48
Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> napisał(a):

> abovementioned TODO, for example), I can also C-c C-x C-i to clock in,
> C-c C-x C-o to clock out and C-c C-x C-x to cancel the clock.

Oops.  Clocking in doesn't work for some weird reason.  I sometimes
get the "org-heading-components: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil"
message, and sometimes it seems to jump to a wrong buffer.  Any ideas?

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 14:31:17
Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> napisał(a):

> Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 14:12:48
> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> napisał(a):
> 
> > abovementioned TODO, for example), I can also C-c C-x C-i to clock
> > in, C-c C-x C-o to clock out and C-c C-x C-x to cancel the clock.
> 
> Oops.  Clocking in doesn't work for some weird reason.  I sometimes
> get the "org-heading-components: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil"
> message, and sometimes it seems to jump to a wrong buffer.  Any ideas?

OK, sorry for spamming the list, but here's what I established (with
the help of Edebug).  The problem is with org-heading-components; for
some reason, the variable org-complex-heading-regexp is nil when
running that function.  This variable is buffer-local, and it seems
that (somehow) the value org-clock-in sees is nil.  A further
inspection shows that the (current-buffer) is (at that time) *not* the
one jumped to by org-open-at-point-global.  Anyone knows why that is
so?

BTW, I've just discovered org-open-link-from-string, so that I'll be
able to simplify my code a bit.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 15:47:58
Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> napisał(a):

> OK, sorry for spamming the list, but here's what I established (with
> the help of Edebug).  The problem is with org-heading-components; for
> some reason, the variable org-complex-heading-regexp is nil when
> running that function.  This variable is buffer-local, and it seems
> that (somehow) the value org-clock-in sees is nil.  A further
> inspection shows that the (current-buffer) is (at that time) *not* the
> one jumped to by org-open-at-point-global.  Anyone knows why that is
> so?

Got it.  Here's an excerpt from the Elisp manual:

"When an editing command returns to the editor command loop, Emacs
automatically calls `set-buffer' on the buffer shown in the selected
window."

In other words, I guess that org-open-at-point-global (and I assume
that also org-open-link-from-string) change the /selected window/ and
rely on Emacs command loop to make the respective buffer /the current
buffer/ after they exit.

Is this a good behavior?  I guess not - it makes using them
non-interactively harder.  (I was only able to find that bug because
of a recent, unrelated thread - also started by me;) - on the Emacs
mailing list!)  So let me file a feature request for such functions to
actually set the current buffer.

And here's the corrected code, which seems to work:

(defun org-clock-in-anywhere (&optional select)
  "Clock in.  If called without prefix and not in Org-mode, clock
in the entry pointed by org-default-link."
  (interactive "P")
  (if (or select (equal major-mode 'org-mode))
      (org-clock-in select)
    (save-window-excursion
      (save-selected-window
	(org-goto-default-link)
	(set-buffer (window-buffer (selected-window)))
	(org-clock-in)))))

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Thorsten Jolitz]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

>> I'm editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.

> I finally had some time & motivation to look into it.  Below is my
> solution.  

This almost works with outshine.el (use head of tj-outshine branch).

Insert outshine header in emacs-lisp-mode buffer:

,----
| ;; * ELISP SCRATCH
`----

and put point at beg-of-line

call M-x outshine-speed-command-help to find this:

,----
| Clock Commands
| --------------
| I   outshine-clock-in
| O   outshine-clock-out
`----

and thus type I to clock in ->

,----
| ;; * ELISP SCRATCH
| ;;   :LOGBOOK:
| ;;   CLOCK: [2014-08-16 Sa 15:47]
| ;;   :END:
`----

(type y when prompted if you want to clock out)

wait 2min, type O to clock out:

,----
| ;; * ELISP SCRATCH
| ;;   :LOGBOOK:
| ;;   CLOCK: [2014-08-16 Sa 15:47]--[2014-08-16 Sa 15:49] =>  0:02
| ;;   :END:
`----

this works *sometimes* only, and the prompts from org-mode are rather
annoying. Its on my agenda to have a deeper look into this pretty
soon. But the whole setup for doing this is already there using
outshine/outorg, all what is needed is maybe a somewhat fancier trick to
con the org clocking mechanism and a way to get rid of those annoying
user-prompts (which are sometime hardcoded into org functions,
unfortunately).

-- 
cheers,
Thorsten

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 16:01:39
Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> napisał(a):

> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
> 
> >> I'm editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.
> 
> > I finally had some time & motivation to look into it.  Below is my
> > solution.  
> 
> This almost works with outshine.el (use head of tj-outshine branch).

Do I get it correctly (I don't know outshine) that it means that you
have the actual Org entry /in the same file/, in the comments?  If
yes, this is not really what I'm after.  My goal is twofold:

1. To be able to clock in from a file I'm editing (currently this
means for me mainly LaTeX projects).  Until now, I was using C-u C-c
C-x C-i, but what if I don't have that particular task on the recent
clocked tasks list?

2. To be able to have a todo list associated with a particular file,
and to go from that file to the relevant place in my org file.

(A further possible extension would be to go from the context of
"files" to the context of "projects".  One possible idea would be to
look for the org-default-link in, say, some file - call it
.org-default-link.org - in the current directory, and if not present,
in its parent directory etc.  In fact, I like this idea and I'll
probably implement it.)

Still thanks, Thorsten.  I guess I'll finally have to look at outshine
anyway...;)

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Thorsten Jolitz]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

> Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 16:01:39
> Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> napisał(a):
>
>> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
>> 
>> >> I'm editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.
>> 
>> > I finally had some time & motivation to look into it.  Below is my
>> > solution.  
>> 
>> This almost works with outshine.el (use head of tj-outshine branch).
>
> Do I get it correctly (I don't know outshine) that it means that you
> have the actual Org entry /in the same file/, in the comments?  If
> yes, this is not really what I'm after.

The outshine idea is rather that your programming-mode file IS (kind of)
your Org file (i.e. programming-mode/org-mode are just two different
views on the same file, and with outorg you can easily switch between
them).  You structure it like an Org file, only with outcommented
headers. And then (-> outline-minor-mode/outshine activated) you can do
a lot of things you are used to do in an Org buffer => "Org-mode outside
org-mode" (the major-mode).

-- 
cheers,
Thorsten

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 17:02:05
Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> napisał(a):

> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
> 
> > Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 16:01:39
> > Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> napisał(a):
> >
> >> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
> >> 
> >> >> I'm editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.
> >> 
> >> > I finally had some time & motivation to look into it.  Below is
> >> > my solution.  
> >> 
> >> This almost works with outshine.el (use head of tj-outshine
> >> branch).
> >
> > Do I get it correctly (I don't know outshine) that it means that you
> > have the actual Org entry /in the same file/, in the comments?  If
> > yes, this is not really what I'm after.
> 
> The outshine idea is rather that your programming-mode file IS (kind
> of) your Org file (i.e. programming-mode/org-mode are just two
> different views on the same file, and with outorg you can easily
> switch between them).  You structure it like an Org file, only with
> outcommented headers. And then (-> outline-minor-mode/outshine
> activated) you can do a lot of things you are used to do in an Org
> buffer => "Org-mode outside org-mode" (the major-mode).

I see.  Interesting.  What about generating agendas?  Do I lose this
functionality with outshine?

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Thorsten Jolitz]

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:

> Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 17:02:05
> Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> napisał(a):
>
>> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
>> 
>> > Dnia 2014-08-16, o godz. 16:01:39
>> > Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com> napisał(a):
>> >
>> >> Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl> writes:
>> >> 
>> >> >> I'm editing this file, C-c C-x C-i just starts clocking.
>> >> 
>> >> > I finally had some time & motivation to look into it.  Below is
>> >> > my solution.  
>> >> 
>> >> This almost works with outshine.el (use head of tj-outshine
>> >> branch).
>> >
>> > Do I get it correctly (I don't know outshine) that it means that you
>> > have the actual Org entry /in the same file/, in the comments?  If
>> > yes, this is not really what I'm after.
>> 
>> The outshine idea is rather that your programming-mode file IS (kind
>> of) your Org file (i.e. programming-mode/org-mode are just two
>> different views on the same file, and with outorg you can easily
>> switch between them).  You structure it like an Org file, only with
>> outcommented headers. And then (-> outline-minor-mode/outshine
>> activated) you can do a lot of things you are used to do in an Org
>> buffer => "Org-mode outside org-mode" (the major-mode).
>
> I see.  Interesting.  What about generating agendas?  Do I lose this
> functionality with outshine?

Its not that advanced yet, but it would definitely be possible, since
your programming-mode file turns into an org buffer in less than a
second, and that buffer(file) could be added to the agenda. But I rather
have more simpler things working in the near future, that agenda stuff
is complex ...

-- 
cheers,
Thorsten

Clocking in on non-org files

[Marcin Borkowski]

Hi all,

I have a bunch of TODO items connected with LaTeX files (in general:
projects) I'm working on.  I was wondering whether it might be possible
and/or wise to set things up so that I could clock in (C-c C-x C-i) in
a buffer containing such a file.  Currently, executing org-clock-in in
a non-Org buffer results in an error (at least with my setup); with a
prefix argument, everything is fine, I'm asked for one of the last
clocked items.  My dream is that I can clock in my buffer with just
C-c C-x C-i, and Org somehow could know which item to clock.  I imagine
file-local variable might be the way to go.  It might be a good idea to
both change/advise org-clock-in to accomodate for this use case, and
define something like
org-associate-file-with-org-headline-for-the-purpose-of-clocking to
e.g. ask for the item (from org-clock history), or use the refile
interface (which I haven't used, but I guess it could work well) and
set the file-local variable accordingly.

Does there exist something like this?  Do you like this idea?  Does it
have any pitfalls I cannot see? Would anyone but me use this?  If the
answers are no, yes, no, yes, I might try to implement it when I have
some time to spare (i.e., not now - I'm extremely busy during this week
- but maybe in a week or two)

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
room B3-46, phone no +48 61 829 5375
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Adam Mickiewicz University

Re: Clocking in on non-org files

[Bastien]

Hi Marcin,

Marcin Borkowski <mbork@amu.edu.pl> writes:

> I have a bunch of TODO items connected with LaTeX files (in general:
> projects) I'm working on.  I was wondering whether it might be possible
> and/or wise to set things up so that I could clock in (C-c C-x C-i) in
> a buffer containing such a file.

I have this capture template :

(setq org-capture-templates
      '(

        ("IC" "Information read (keep clocking)" entry
         (file+headline "~/org/garden.org" "Infos")
         "* TODO %?%a :Read:\n  :PROPERTIES:\n  :CAPTURED: %U\n  :END:\n\n%i"
         :prepend t :clock-in t :immediate-finish t :clock-keep t :jump-to-captured t)

       ))

which I use in such cases: capturing does not take longer than
clocking in, and I have both the capture and the running clock.

Hope this helps,

-- 
 Bastien