Re: [Orgmode] Organising freezers and generating shopping lists

[John Hendy]

Hi Shelagh,

Sounds like a neat application for org-mode! I haven't seen anyone respond yet, so here is what I can offer for starting points. I think what you're looking to do is define a custom TODO state progression. Instead of TODO -> DONE you want something more applicable to frozen food.

To point you in the right direction, I think you're looking at defining a custom workflow:

- Define workflow states in .emacs: http://orgmode.org/manual/Workflow-states.html#Workflow-states

- The same with key bindings: http://orgmode.org/manual/Fast-access-to-TODO-states.html#Fast-access-to-TODO-states

- Bernt Hanson's workflow definitions (power user!): http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#sec-3_1

- Lastly, how to do this to just one file (vs. globally in .emacs): http://orgmode.org/manual/Per_002dfile-keywords.html

I haven't done much with this but did tinker around and it's not very difficult. You could start with the last link on "per file" TODO states and see if that works on a test file. Perhaps when you've got your words how you like them you can define the full set of states that you want to use. You can define multiple sets so that once you apply a particular TODO state to an item, it's within a particular work flow. So, you could define one for your day to day items like TODO -> SCHEDULED -> DONE or whatever and have a separate sequence for food so if you enter an item as FREEZER (meaning purchased/in freezer/clock ticking), the next state would be SOON or something.

Have fun with your project. Sounds cool!

I have no knowledge of capture at present and can't help you out there... sorry!

John

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 4:30 PM, Shelagh Manton <address@hidden> wrote:

I often find that I have lost food items in the botton of my freezer
that I have to throw out because I've forgotten about them and I'm
trying to set up an org-mode file that helps prevent that.

I've made a file that lists the articles that I have put into the
freezer such as different food types that have different freezer-lifes
(lives?). I have used deadlines for the moment to indicate best before
dates.

Ideally I would like to have some sort of automated system that alerts
me in the agenda that I have some sausages or something still in the
freezer that should be used soon but say a month before the actual
use-by date. I could see maybe using the SCHEDULED keyword for that. But
what I would like is that the todo word which is "AVAILABLE" gets changed
to say SOON (any better choices?) on the day indicated by the SCHEDULED
date.

Has anyone done something like this or could anyone suggest some code
that I could study to do this for myself?

Also of course if I change the status from AVAILABLE to USED because I
have actually taken it out of the freezer, I would like to be able to
add that Item to another file that could be exported to a shopping
list. I know I could look at some of the trigger functions that people
have sent into the mailing list. This I could probably work out myself
with enough time, but if someone could point me in the right direction I
would appreciate it.

A generic capture template that would let you add the category of food
and the use-by date could be automatically inserted eg if it is fish the
use-by date is automatically +3m from now. I haven't studied the new
capture templates yet, I still rely on my old remember set up. But would
the new capture templates be capable of this, especially with some
accompanying functions?

Just thinking on paper.

Regards

Shelagh
--
email: address@hidden

BA (Asian Studies) - ANU | Grad Dip IST - UOW

_______________________________________________
Emacs-orgmode mailing list
Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
address@hidden
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode