org-ql-agenda: Custom formatter support

[georgewsinger]

Is there a way to force org-ql-agenda to show the name of the buffer from which each task is derived? I tried adding :auto-category t to :super-groups but it didn't work (i.e., it probably groups by category but still doesn't show the name of the category).

[alphapapa]

You could modify the formatter to do so.

[georgewsinger]

By this do you mean modifying this function to show the buffer source?

[alphapapa]

Yes. You can see a comment at the bottom that mentions adding the proper prefix, which refers to imitating org-agenda-prefix-format. Adding support for that would let you set the prefix according to your preferences.

Alternatively, you could use simple :after function advice to alter the string returned by the function.

[alphapapa]

I probably won't work on this soon, but it's a good idea.

[alphapapa]

#44

[Whil-]

Isn't this already supported with the use of "select" in org-ql-query? There one can provide a custom sexp to format the output. Same with the action argument to org-ql-select, no?

Is there a reason for not using the same functionality in the org-ql views?

[alphapapa]

@Whil- If you want to override the formatting function used in org-ql-view, you could use function advice. As I've said in other issues, I'm not very interested in adding little things that would be intended to be deprecated in the future.

[Whil-]

Got it, thanks. Though providing the select functionality also for the view function should hardly be considered minor. Thinking of org mode documents as a database of entities is very powerful and org-ql is very helpful with this. And allowing the output from the query on the database to be customized by for example adding attributes from the nodes etc. makes a lot of sense.

This ofc already is possible using org-ql-select and org-ql-query. So I'll just finish with a thumbs up for that! 👍

[alphapapa]

Though providing the select functionality also for the view function should hardly be considered minor.

What I mean is, since I plan to implement a new view library, I don't want to spend much effort on implementing formatting changes that would be obsoleted by the future plans.

In the meantime, you can use advice-add or cl-letf to override the formatting function in your code.

However, since this has taken a while, it might be worth adding an argument and/or a variable to let users more easily change the formatting function.

[pragmat1c1]

As I have pointed out here on reddit, the URL from OP provided in link is not working anymore. So I don't know which format function he is referencing.

Also does that mean - asked from an Elisp newbie - I need to go into the source code and modify the format function? Or the returned string?

[alphapapa]

Let's pick one place or the other to have this conversation. I'll reply on Reddit again.

[pragmat1c1]

For completeness I'll repost the solution via adding an advice here as well, if you don't mind?

(defun ugt/org-ql-view--format-element (orig-fun &rest args)
  "This function will intercept the original function and
   add the filename to the result.

   ARGS is `element' in `org-ql-view--format-element'"
  (if (not args)
      ""
    (let* ((element args)
           (properties (cadar element))
           (result (apply orig-fun element))
           (filename (buffer-name
                      (marker-buffer
                       (plist-get properties :org-marker)))))
      (concat filename " " result))))
(advice-add 'org-ql-view--format-element :around #'ugt/org-ql-view--format-element)

[jun8git]

Minor tweak to @pragmat1c1 code. In case someone wants to add category instead of filename.
updated properties as mentioned @ reddit comment

(defun ugt/org-ql-view--format-element (orig-fun &rest args)
  "This function will intercept the original function and
   add the category to the result.

   ARGS is `element' in `org-ql-view--format-element'"
  (if (not args)
      ""
    (let* ((element args)
           (properties (cadar element))
           (result (apply orig-fun element))
           (category (get-text-property
                      0
                      'org-category
                      (plist-get properties :todo-keyword))))
      (org-add-props (concat category ":" result) (text-properties-at 0 result)))))
(advice-add 'org-ql-view--format-element :around #'ugt/org-ql-view--format-element)

[alphapapa]

Since it's been so long since the last 0.x release, I'm going to defer this to 0.7 in an effort to reduce the scope of 0.6 and release it sooner.

[dmitri-zganiaiko]

I'm using this version of org-ql:

     Status: Installed in ‘org-ql-20220301.841/’ (unsigned).
    Version: 20220301.841
     Commit: af18eac2b80b2f56c135f37fcbdcce19fbc34b65

and the function from the comment above returns an empty category.

Here's the fixed version:

  (defun zdo/org-ql-view--format-element (orig-fun &rest args)
    "This function will intercept the original function and
   add the category to the result.

   ARGS is `element' in `org-ql-view--format-element'"
    (if (not args)
        ""
      (let* ((element args)
             (properties (cadar element))
             (result (apply orig-fun element))
             (category (org-entry-get (plist-get properties :org-marker) "CATEGORY")))
        (org-add-props
            (format "   %-8s %s" (concat category ":") result)
            (text-properties-at 0 result)))))
  (advice-add 'org-ql-view--format-element :around #'zdo/org-ql-view--format-element)

with nice indentation 🙂

[alphapapa]

For future reference, this issue will generally be addressed by the branch mentioned here: #331

[larrasket]

Thanks @dmitri-zganiaiko. I added some modifications to make sure the indentation will work too if the file or buffer name are too long.

(defun salih/org-ql-view--format-element (orig-fun &rest args)
  "This function will intercept the original function and
add the category to the result.

ARGS is `element' in `org-ql-view--format-element'"
  (if (not args)
      ""
    (let* ((element args)
           (properties (cadar element))
           (result (apply orig-fun element))
           (smt "")
           (category (org-entry-get (plist-get properties :org-marker) "CATEGORY")))
      (if (> (length category) 11)
          (setq category (substring category 0 10)))
      (if (< (length category) 11)
          (setq smt (make-string (- 11 (length category)) ?\s)))
      (org-add-props
       (format "   %-8s %s" (concat category ":" smt) result)
       (text-properties-at 0 result)))))