sharing Org-mode files for collaboration

sharing Org-mode files for collaboration

[Carles]

Hello,

There have been some threads here about sharing and collaboratively
editing Org-mode files. I have a LAN with a central server and Samba
shares, all clients have Emacs and Org-mode installed. 

Sharing of calendars and tasks could be done through Org agenda. Right
now I am implementing a very simple setup:

- a shared folder with one org file per user

- each user has writing permissions for his own file and reading
  permissions for all other org files

- org-agenda-files of each user includes the names of the shared files
  of the other users

Do you see any problems arising from this setup. Any other suggestions
how it could be improved or extended?

Re: sharing Org-mode files for collaboration

[Sébastien Vauban]

Hello Carles,

> There have been some threads here about sharing and collaboratively
> editing Org-mode files. I have a LAN with a central server and Samba
> shares, all clients have Emacs and Org-mode installed. 
>
> Sharing of calendars and tasks could be done through Org agenda. Right
> now I am implementing a very simple setup:
>
> - a shared folder with one org file per user
>
> - each user has writing permissions for his own file and reading
>   permissions for all other org files
>
> - org-agenda-files of each user includes the names of the shared files
>   of the other users
>
> Do you see any problems arising from this setup. Any other suggestions
> how it could be improved or extended?

I have launched such a discussion, about extending the CLOCK times with a
suffix identifying the user. I have not had that much amount of reaction.
Maybe, this is not (yet) a main theme, currently.

I find your setup interesting. The only drawback, for me, is that the next
thing we want is to work on common tasks, meaning we want to clock on common
tasks. Hence, my topic http://osdir.com/ml/emacs-orgmode-gnu/2010-06/msg00277.html.

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sébastien Vauban


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Re: sharing Org-mode files for collaboration

[Carles]

Hello Sébastien

> > There have been some threads here about sharing and collaboratively
> > editing Org-mode files. I have a LAN with a central server and Samba
> > shares, all clients have Emacs and Org-mode installed. 
> >
> > Sharing of calendars and tasks could be done through Org agenda. Right
> > now I am implementing a very simple setup:
> >
> > - a shared folder with one org file per user
> >
> > - each user has writing permissions for his own file and reading
> >   permissions for all other org files
> >
> > - org-agenda-files of each user includes the names of the shared files
> >   of the other users
> >
> > Do you see any problems arising from this setup. Any other suggestions
> > how it could be improved or extended?
> 
> I have launched such a discussion, about extending the CLOCK times with a
> suffix identifying the user. I have not had that much amount of reaction.
> Maybe, this is not (yet) a main theme, currently.
> 
> I find your setup interesting. The only drawback, for me, is that the next
> thing we want is to work on common tasks, meaning we want to clock on common
> tasks. Hence, my topic
http://osdir.com/ml/emacs-orgmode-gnu/2010-06/msg00277.html.

I personally do not use clocking but common tasks sound useful. However the
question remains as to the sharing and simultaneous editing of the files by
multiple persons. In the clock thread you mention your use of SVN for that. For
my requirements SVN would be overkill, hence my simple setup as a workaround.
More collaboration features for Org-mode would be great though.

Re: Re: sharing Org-mode files for collaboration

[Eric Schulte]

Sébastien Vauban <wxhgmqzgwmuf@spammotel.com> writes:

> Hello Carles,
>
>> There have been some threads here about sharing and collaboratively
>> editing Org-mode files. I have a LAN with a central server and Samba
>> shares, all clients have Emacs and Org-mode installed. 
>>
>> Sharing of calendars and tasks could be done through Org agenda. Right
>> now I am implementing a very simple setup:
>>
>> - a shared folder with one org file per user
>>
>> - each user has writing permissions for his own file and reading
>>   permissions for all other org files
>>
>> - org-agenda-files of each user includes the names of the shared files
>>   of the other users
>>
>> Do you see any problems arising from this setup. Any other suggestions
>> how it could be improved or extended?
>
> I have launched such a discussion, about extending the CLOCK times with a
> suffix identifying the user. I have not had that much amount of reaction.
> Maybe, this is not (yet) a main theme, currently.
>
> I find your setup interesting. The only drawback, for me, is that the next
> thing we want is to work on common tasks, meaning we want to clock on common
> tasks. Hence, my topic http://osdir.com/ml/emacs-orgmode-gnu/2010-06/msg00277.html.
>
> Best regards,
>   Seb

Hi Carles,

I've also been following the previous collaboration discussions, but
haven't recently had a personal collaboration need.

I would second Sébastien's suggestions of maintaining a single Org-mode
file to be shared by all users, that way each task need only appear
once, and users can share notes, task information etc... in that one
file.

From one previous thread, the following can be used to associate each
user's username with clock in-out information.

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun org-clock-out-mark-clock ()
(unless remove (insert (format " (%s)" user-full-name))))

(add-hook 'org-clock-out-hook 'org-clock-out-mark-clock)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Also, take a look at the `org-log-note-headings' variable (documentation
included below [1]), which consists of an easily customized format
string, and can be used to associate information (most notably username)
with task state changes.

Summary information (e.g. who's been working on what) could then be
collected using the username tags above in combination with something
like org-collector [2].

I certainly find this area interesting, and I'd be interested to hear
how your collaboration experience plays out.

Best -- Eric

Footnotes: 
[1]  
,----[org-log-note-headings]
| org-log-note-headings is a variable defined in `org.el'.
| Its value is shown below.
| 
| Documentation:
| Headings for notes added to entries.
| The value is an alist, with the car being a symbol indicating the note
| context, and the cdr is the heading to be used.  The heading may also be the
| empty string.
| %t in the heading will be replaced by a time stamp.
| %T will be an active time stamp instead the default inactive one
| %s will be replaced by the new TODO state, in double quotes.
| %S will be replaced by the old TODO state, in double quotes.
| %u will be replaced by the user name.
| %U will be replaced by the full user name.
| 
| In fact, it is not a good idea to change the `state' entry, because
| agenda log mode depends on the format of these entries.
| 
| You can customize this variable.
| 
| Value: 
| ((done . "CLOSING NOTE %t")
|  (state . "State %-12s from %-12S %t")
|  (note . "Note taken on %t")
|  (reschedule . "Rescheduled from %S on %t")
|  (delschedule . "Not scheduled, was %S on %t")
|  (redeadline . "New deadline from %S on %t")
|  (deldeadline . "Removed deadline, was %S on %t")
|  (refile . "Refiled on %t")
|  (clock-out . ""))
| 
| [back]
`----

[2]  http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/org-collector.php