Re: org-agenda-list-stuck-projects and nested projects

[Ross Patterson <me@rpatterson.net>]

Carsten Dominik <dominik@uva.nl> writes:

> Hi Ross,
>
> The "stuck projects" view depends on the hypothesis that you can
> clearly identify what a "project means".  In the default setup, projects
> are assumed to have LEVEL=2 and should not be DONE.
>
> In the hierarchy you are using, it seems that any entry can be called a
> "projects",  and that you do have projects within projects.  So the
> idea that
> you need to avoid skipping subtrees and limit yourself to skipping
> entries only
> is the right approach.
>
> However, what you are really asking for is to look only at direct
> children,
> and in this case is is better to write a special skip function:
>
> (defun org-skip-unless-child-todo ()
>   (let ((subtree-end (save-excursion (org-end-of-subtree t)))
> 	(entry-end (save-excursion (or (outline-next-heading) (point-max)))))
>     (if (re-search-forward
> 	 (concat "^" (regexp-quote
> 		      (make-string (1+ level) ?*))
> 		 "[ \t]+"
> 		 "\\("
> 		 (mapconcat 'identity org-not-done-keywords "\\|")
> 		 "\\)")
> 	 subtree-end t)
> 	;; skip this entry by returning the entry-end position
> 	entry-end
>       ;; do not skip this entry by returning nil
>       nil)))
>
> As you can see, this function first determines the end of the subtree
> (for the search) and the end of the entry positions.  Then it creates
> a special regular expression that will only match headlines that are
> direct children of the current level.  During a tags search, the
> "level" variable contains the current level (careful, when you are
> using org-odd-levels-only, it contains the reduced level...).
> So the special regexp contains one star more that the current, and then
> any TODO keyword.
>
> If there is a TODO child, the function returns the position at the end
> of
> entry, to continue search from there.
>
> If there is no mach, it returns nil, meaning that this entry should
> *not* be skipped.
>
> The agenda custom command would look like this:
>
> (("0" "Special Stuck" tags "LEVEL>0/-DONE-TODO"
>   ((org-agenda-skip-function 'org-skip-unless-child-todo)))
>
> So we select entries that are LEVEL>0, i.e. all entries, but we require
> that these entries are not TODO entries.  OK, these are the candidate
> projects.  And the we skip them when they have a direct TODO child.
>
> HTH
>
> - Carsten

Wow, that is a response and a half!  Looks like you've pretty much done
it for me.  Thanks so much!  I'll let you know how it works.

Thanks again!
Ross

> On Jul 7, 2008, at 3:21 PM, Ross Patterson wrote:
>
>> One of the things I love about org-mode is that it's generally
>> hierarchy
>> agnostic which is to say it doesn't care what level or depth entries
>> are
>> with regards to the functionality org-mode provides with entries
>> (TODOs,
>> Dates and times, tags, etc.).
>>
>> Many of the projects I'd like to manage with org-mode are fairly large
>> and as such I'd like to make use of org-mode's heirarchical
>> agnosticism
>> to factor my projects into nested projects arbitrary depth.  This is
>> supported very well by the rest of org-mode, just not the stuck
>> projects
>> agenda view.
>>
>> I find that view very valuable, but if I have a project with lots of
>> branches that can move in parallel and one of those branches is stuck
>> but another isn't stuck, then the stuck projects report doesn't
>> reflect
>> this assuming that if one branch isn't stuck then the project isn't
>> stuck.  Since the project is very large, that means I have to inspect
>> the whole tree to figure out what might be stuck.  The only workaround
>> with the current implementation is that anytime I have a
>> project/sub-project/branch lower than LEVEL=2 that I need to be able
>> to
>> review, then I have to break it out to a LEVEL=2 headline.  This
>> creates
>> a negative feedback which will probably result in me not using the
>> stuck
>> projects view and probably insufficiently reviewing my projects.
>>
>> What I'd like is an agenda view like the stuck projects view but
>> rather
>> than omitting any project that has any active TODO's all the way up
>> the
>> hierarchy, it will only omit headlines that have active TODO's among
>> its
>> immediate children.
>>
>> If I start with a test.org file like so:
>>
>>    * Testing
>>    ** Stuck Project at Level 2
>>    *** Sub-project at Level 3
>>    **** DONE bar
>>    *** Sub-project 2 at Level 3
>>
>> And customize org-stuck-projects to remove the LEVEL=2 restriction
>> like
>> so:
>>
>>    (setq org-stuck-projects '("/-DONE" ("TODO") nil ""))
>>
>> And finally customize the org-tags-match-list-sublevels to allow tags
>> matching to descend.
>>
>> Then if I open test.org and do "C-c a < #" I get:
>>
>>    List of stuck projects:
>>      test:       .Stuck Project at Level 2
>>      test:       ..Sub-project at Level 3
>>      test:       ..Sub-project 2 at Level 3
>>
>> Then if I re-activate the bar heading by putting it in the TODO state:
>>
>>    * Testing
>>    ** Stuck Project at Level 2
>>    *** Sub-project at Level 3
>>    **** TODO bar
>>    *** Sub-project 2 at Level 3
>>
>> I get an empty list:
>>
>>    List of stuck projects:
>>
>> I'd like a list with the sub-heading that is still stuck:
>>
>>    List of stuck projects:
>>      test:       .Stuck Project at Level 2
>>      test:       ..Sub-project 2 at Level 3
>>
>> I tried modifying the org-agenda-list-stuck-projects function by
>> implementing an org-agenda-skip-function that only skips the heading
>> and not the whole subtree:
>>
>>    (defun org-agenda-skip-entry-when-regexp-matches ()
>>      "Checks if the current entry contains match for `org-agenda-
>> skip-regexp'.
>>    If yes, it returns the end position of this entry, causing agenda
>>    commands to skip this entry.  This is a function that can be put
>>    into `org-agenda-skip-function' for the duration of a command."
>>      (org-agenda-skip-if nil '(regexp org-agenda-skip-regexp)))
>>
>> Then I replaced the org-agenda-skip-function set in
>> org-agenda-list-stuck-projects by replacing:
>>
>>  (let* ((org-agenda-skip-function 'org-agenda-skip-subtree-when-
>> regexp-matches)
>>
>> with:
>>
>>  (let* ((org-agenda-skip-function
>> org-agenda-skip-entry-when-regexp-
>> matches)
>>
>> But that gets me:
>>
>>    List of stuck projects:
>>      test:       .Stuck Project at Level 2
>>      test:       ..Sub-project at Level 3
>>      test:       ...TODO bar
>>      test:       ..Sub-project 2 at Level 3
>>
>> I'm new to the internals of org-mode.  Can anyone help me figure out
>> what's wrong with my attempted solution here?
>>
>> Ross