Agenda filtering

Agenda filtering

[Richard Lawrence]

Hi everyone,

I have an Org file with a lot of projects that look like this:

* TODO Project A
  DEADLINE: <2016-10-28 Fri>
** NEXT Subtask 1
** TODO Subtask 2

* TODO Project B
  DEADLINE: <2016-10-31 Mon>
** DONE Subtask 1
** NEXT Subtask 2

Some of these projects have deadlines far in the future, some near.  I'd
like to focus on just the NEXT tasks for projects with upcoming
deadlines.

Is there a simple way for me to say to the agenda, "Show me all (and
only) the NEXT tasks that are part of a project whose deadline is before
(say) 2016-11-01"?  It seems like this should be possible with the
built-in agenda but I can't quite figure it out.  The tricky thing is
filtering by the deadline of the parent project, which might be several
levels up.

Many thanks for your insights!

Best,
Richard

Re: Agenda filtering

[Bastien]

Hi Richard,

Richard Lawrence <richard.lawrence@berkeley.edu> writes:

> Is there a simple way for me to say to the agenda, "Show me all (and
> only) the NEXT tasks that are part of a project whose deadline is before
> (say) 2016-11-01"?  It seems like this should be possible with the
> built-in agenda but I can't quite figure it out.  The tricky thing is
> filtering by the deadline of the parent project, which might be several
> levels up.

I would add a category to each project, then use something along this:

("N" "My important tasks" tags-todo
 "CATEGORY={cat1\\|cat2}+TODO={NEXT}+DEADLINE<=\"<+3d>\"")

HTH,

-- 
 Bastien

Agenda filtering (take 2)

[Richard Lawrence]

Hi everyone,
 
About a year ago, I wrote: 
> 
>> Is there a simple way for me to say to the agenda, "Show me all 
>> (and only) the NEXT tasks that are part of a project whose 
>> deadline is before (say) 2016-11-01"?  It seems like this 
>> should be possible with the built-in agenda but I can't quite 
>> figure it out.  The tricky thing is filtering by the deadline 
>> of the parent project, which might be several levels up. 

I'm still stuck on this, so I'd like to ask this question again. 
Bastien responded: 
 
> I would add a category to each project, then use something along 
> this: 
> 
> ("N" "My important tasks" tags-todo 
>  "CATEGORY={cat1\\|cat2}+TODO={NEXT}+DEADLINE<=\"<+3d>\"") 

But that doesn't seem to work for me.  The problem is that the 
tasks I want to list in the tags-todo search don't themselves have 
deadlines; only their parent projects do.

I have a file with projects that look like this:

** TODO Foo University 
   DEADLINE: <2017-11-01>
*** NEXT Determine application requirements for Foo U.
*** TODO Submit application

I'd like to see a list of just NEXT tasks in this file, sorted by 
the deadline of their parent projects.

I thought that property inheritance would be the way to do this. 
So I tried: 
 
        ("jn" "Job application NEXT tasks" tags-todo 
         "+jobmarket+application+TODO={NEXT}" 
         ((org-use-property-inheritance t)) 
          (org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(deadline-up)))) 
 
as well as
 
        ("jn" "Job application NEXT tasks" tags-todo 
         "+jobmarket+application+TODO={NEXT}" 
         ((org-use-property-inheritance '("DEADLINE")) 
          (org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(deadline-up)))) 
 
in org-agenda-custom-commands.  But neither seems to work.  Can 
anyone provide any insights here?  Is it possible for sub-tasks 
within a project to inherit their deadline? 

Many thanks as always!

Best,
Richard

Re: Agenda filtering (take 2)

[Narendra Joshi]

Richard Lawrence <richard.lawrence@berkeley.edu> writes:

> Hi everyone,
>
> About a year ago, I wrote: 
>>
>>> Is there a simple way for me to say to the agenda, "Show me all (and only)
>>> the NEXT tasks that are part of a project whose deadline is before (say)
>>> 2016-11-01"?  It seems like this should be possible with the built-in agenda
>>> but I can't quite figure it out.  The tricky thing is filtering by the
>>> deadline of the parent project, which might be several levels up. 
>
> I'm still stuck on this, so I'd like to ask this question again. Bastien
> responded: 
>
>> I would add a category to each project, then use something along this: 
>>
>> ("N" "My important tasks" tags-todo
>> "CATEGORY={cat1\\|cat2}+TODO={NEXT}+DEADLINE<=\"<+3d>\"") 
>
> But that doesn't seem to work for me.  The problem is that the tasks I want to
> list in the tags-todo search don't themselves have deadlines; only their parent
> projects do.
>
> I have a file with projects that look like this:
>
> ** TODO Foo University DEADLINE: <2017-11-01>
> *** NEXT Determine application requirements for Foo U.
> *** TODO Submit application
>
> I'd like to see a list of just NEXT tasks in this file, sorted by the deadline
> of their parent projects.
>
> I thought that property inheritance would be the way to do this. So I tried: 
>
>        ("jn" "Job application NEXT tasks" tags-todo
> "+jobmarket+application+TODO={NEXT}"       ((org-use-property-inheritance t))
> (org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(deadline-up)))) 
>
> as well as
>
>        ("jn" "Job application NEXT tasks" tags-todo
> "+jobmarket+application+TODO={NEXT}"       ((org-use-property-inheritance
> '("DEADLINE"))        (org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(deadline-up)))) 
>
> in org-agenda-custom-commands.  But neither seems to work.  Can anyone provide
> any insights here?  Is it possible for sub-tasks within a project to inherit
> their deadline? 
Found an already asked question that might help:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2016-04/msg00373.html
You can set org-agenda-sorting-strategy to `user-defined-up' and use the
function used in the thread I have posted above to compare two NEXT entries.

> Many thanks as always!
>
> Best,
> Richard
>

-- 
Narendra Joshi