Script: FoldingText to OmniFocus
 

[URL="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foldingtext/id540003654"]FoldingText[/URL] is a very quick and fluid outliner (in the Markdown idiom, with a powerful XPath-modelled filtering engine beneath the hood, and a scripting interface to use it with).

I find it an unusually good environment in which to think and write, and in which to quickly outline and reorganise a project before committing it to OmniFocus.

Here is an early draft of [URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/blob/master/FoldingText%20scripts/Import%20Export/2012-12-05-export-to-OPML-or-Omni-script.md"]a script[/URL] which exports a sub-tree from FoldingText to OmniFocus, avoiding any duplication, and reporting (through Growl or an Applescript dialog) on the existing matches which it has found, and on any new Folders, Projects and Tasks which it has created in OmniFocus.

[B]Usage:[/B][LIST][*]In FoldingText, place your cursor in the first line (the top level line) of the outline which you wish to export to OmniFocus,[*]run this script,[*]and exercise a little patience – creating tasks through Applescript works well, but can never be fast.[*]In a while, a report will appear … [/LIST]
[B]Approach:[/B][INDENT]Which levels of the FoldingText outline will be treated as folders, and which as projects and tasks ?

The first line in the outline which ends with FoldingText's special [I].todo[/I] tag will be interpreted as a project. Any ancestors of this line will become nested folders in OmniFocus, and any descendants will become nested tasks.

Outlines which contain no [I].todo[/I] tag will be interpreted as projects - the top level line will be exported as a project, and its descendants as nested tasks.

[B]Non-duplication[/B]. The script checks to see whether the outline, or part of it, is already in OmniFocus. If it finds any existing matches, it will add any new material, but will not duplicate. The report at the end gives counts of objects found and created.
[/INDENT]
[B]Note:[/B][INDENT]For reasons internal to the OmniFocus Applescript interface, when the script is updating an existing set of nested tasks in OmniFocus, any existing task which gets new children will initially be collapsed rather than expanded in the GUI, so you may not immediately notice the new additions :-)[/INDENT]
[B]Feedback:[/B][INDENT]Very much a first draft, so test it cautiously with toy data, until you get a sense of how it works. Bug reports and suggestions welcome.[/INDENT]
[B]Update:[/B][LIST][*]I have updated this script to a version which also offers exports to OmniOutliner or OmniGraffle, so it now starts with a menu of three export targets. [*]Anyone who prefers to disable the menu and make three separate copies (giving each, for example, a different key assignment in Keyboard Maestro) can first edit [I]pblnMenu[/I], near the top of the script, to [I]false[/I], and then set plngTarget to one of the three appropriate values. (See below).[/LIST]
[CODE]property plngOFOC : 0 -- OmniFocus
property plngOOut : 1 -- OmniOutliner
property plngOGfl : 2 -- OmniGraffle

property pblnMenu : true -- IF FALSE, SKIPS MENU AND EXPORTS TO APP indicated by plngTarget (below)
property plngTarget : plngOOut[/CODE]

The [URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/blob/master/FoldingText%20scripts/Import%20Export/2012-12-05-export-to-OPML-or-Omni-script.md"]current version[/URL] is in a Github repository.

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Excellent! Works exactly as advertised.
Thank you very much.

+1 ... this is awesome!

In Ver .006 (above) you should now be able to select and export more than one outline at a time.

Rob, wonderful! Bridges two excellent tools.

Three suggestions: include a property to disable Growl. Instead of not finding Growl and simply moving on, the Applescript interpreter is opening it's pointless "where is it ..." dialog.

Second, perhaps someday the script could parse FT tags (@tag), interpret them as contexts if the line is a task, and assign the relevant context in OF. Ultimately, maybe parsing json-ish strings for start and due dates, such as:

{start:201210050800} and {due:201210101500} where time is the last 4 digits of the string, in 24 hr notation.

If a task in FT is checked done, then it probably shouldn't import into OF. Checking for doneness and ignoring it also makes the FT document more flexible (don't have to start a new .todo mode section, just append the existing lists).

Thanks for the feedback - that's very helpful.

Ver 007 above should, I think, use the Applescript dialog when Growl is not installed (and avoid the compile-time error message). Let me know if that doesn't seem to fix it.

Processing FT tags, including some form of date – yes, good thought, and that was at the back of my mind as something to do. I may look at my old [URL="http://www.complexpoint.macmate.me/Site/Taskpaper2Omnifocus.html"]TaskPaper parser[/URL] to see how that handled things. I think it treated the first user-defined tag on the line as the context.

(And yes, a default of suppressing the import of @done lines sounds helpful – thanks)

Postscript - the built-in OmniFocus to TaskPaper exporter is (like my earlier scripts) using these conventions:
[INDENT][I]test date @flag @mins(15) @start(2012-10-05) @due(2012-10-07 17:00)[/I][/INDENT]
So by default I think I'll stick to them for FoldingText export/import.

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[QUOTE=RobTrew;115635][INDENT][I]test date @flag @mins(15) @start(2012-10-05) @due(2012-10-07 17:00)[/I][/INDENT]
So by default I think I'll stick to them for FoldingText export/import.

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I'd suggest one other
[INDENT][I]@note(text)[/I][/INDENT]
which could go into the Note field of an OF action or OO3 list item. I tried this with a test FT script and if the "text" portion of @note is merely a standard Markdown link, then it would be pretty straightforward if the FT2OF parser could put that link into the note. I'm thinking something like this would be really useful for an FT-OF-DEVONthink toolset:

@note([ReadMe](x-devonthink-item://%3COF33248CED.6F073C46-ON85257A7F.0050FAC8-85257A8E.006AB107@faa.gov%3E))

For example, a DEVONthink triggered script applied to a smart group could write its own FT action plan, and add it to a group where I'm putting the annotations for those documents, and then Rob's script could nicely put the work plan into OF.

Can certainly add recognition of a [I]@note()[/I] tag, destined for OmniFocus/OmniOutliner notes.

(FoldingText seems happy with long strings inside tag parentheses, though not with line breaks – tags can't span paras/outline-nodes)

Syntax Error v0.08
 

Trying to run v 0.08 and get the following syntax error:

Can’t get application id "OGfl".

Have set:

property pblnMenu to "false"
property plngTarget to "plngOFOC"

If you don't have OmniGraffle on your system, you will need to edit the .applescript text version to comment out any functions containing references to [I]application id "OGfl"[/I]

(i.e. [I]ExportToOG()[/I] and [I]DrawTree()[/I])

Once it is working, you can save an .scpt (compiled) copy.

[QUOTE=RobTrew;115723]If you don't have OmniGraffle on your system, you will need to edit the .applescript text version to comment out any functions containing references to [I]application id "OGfl"[/I]

(i.e. [I]ExportToOG()[/I] and [I]DrawTree()[/I])

Once it is working, you can save an .scpt (compiled) copy.[/QUOTE]

That did it.

Thanks!

Mucho thank Rob! Always appreciate your scripting work.

Thanks, I'm glad it's useful.

Ver 0.09 is slightly re-structured and should now compile on systems which do not have all three of the Omni apps installed.

It's now a .scptd bundle rather than a flat file, so I haven't added an .applescript text file this time, but I'll leave the ver. 008 files in place for reference.

Ver 0.10 should now only throw up a menu if more than one of OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, and OmniOutliner are installed.

Over here, OmniGraffle doesn't come with a default template named "Standard" -- the out-of-box default is "Blank". "Standard" isn't the name of a template that ships with OG, AFAIK. If I leave [B]pstrTemplate[/B] set to "Standard" this odd error is thrown:

[QUOTE]OmniGraffle template "Org Chart(plain)" not found
Edit the pstrTemplate property at the top of the main script to specify a template.
Temporarily using "Org Chart(plain)"[/QUOTE]

Despite the message, OG use the "Blank" template.

All is fixed when I manually update pstrTemplate to set it to "Blank"

Thanks for spotting that.

I've just uploaded a version (011) which should fix it.

Ver 012 changes the way in which installation is tested, which seems to make exports to OO3 marginally faster.

If there was an award for OmniFocus scripting Rob would bring it home.

Error message
 

Hi all,

This is a great script. I just bought FoldingText and was very excited to see the existence of this script. (It is, in fact, one of the things that pushed me over the edge toward purchasing it.)

Anyway, when I run the script I get the following error:

[CODE]error "The variable pTitle is not defined." number -2753 from "pTitle"[/CODE]

Any idea why that might be?

Sounds like the first line of the script might somehow have been lost.

I would start by downloading a fresh copy.

[QUOTE=RobTrew;116764]Sounds like the first line of the script might somehow have been lost.

I would start by downloading a fresh copy.[/QUOTE]

It may also be helpful to understand that it is an .scptd (script bundle, effectively a folder with other small scripts in a Resources sub-folder).

You can duplicate and rename it, but you may inadvertently create a version which lacks the called scripts if you try to do a Save As from a script editor.

(It has to have this structure to avoid compile-time errors on systems which only have a subset of the Omni applications installed).

FWIW added a basic OPML export option to the script (above).

Ver 016 (above, in first post) is the first pass of an update to run with the new scripting syntax of FoldingText 1.1 Dev (553)

Should work with both the AppStore version and the 1.1 Dev version, but if you are using the latter you may need to force a recompile of the script by making a trivial edit to it, like adding a couple of blank lines, before the first time you run it.


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Rob,

Is there a way you can modify the script to just import the folding text file.

I am actually not using Folding Text but exporting this out to an Android phone using one of your scripts, and would like to bring in the file that I edit manually. I can bring back any format you like from your export script just something I can edit via Folding Text type editor on android.

Any help would be appreciate it.
For now I keep a separate file and bring it in via an import that does not do duplicate checking.


[QUOTE=RobTrew;116943]Ver 016 (above, in first post) is the first pass of an update to run with the new scripting syntax of FoldingText 1.1 Dev (553)

Should work with both the AppStore version and the 1.1 Dev version, but if you are using the latter you may need to force a recompile of the script by making a trivial edit to it, like adding a couple of blank lines, before the first time you run it.
[COLOR="White"]--[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

Not sure that I have quite understood your use case, but this particular script depends on the FoldingText API.

Are you looking for an analogue of the [I]paste MarkDown/FoldingText into OO3[/I] script ?

[QUOTE=RobTrew;118370]Not sure that I have quite understood your use case, but this particular script depends on the FoldingText API.

Are you looking for an analogue of the [I]paste MarkDown/FoldingText into OO3[/I] script ?[/QUOTE]

Rob, I maybe missed something, but the script I found was ReadTP52 and it just imports text back, but will create all duplicates. Is there a script that checks if the duplicates are there and just imports the differences as this script does?

Thank you for your ultra fast reply!

Fast, but not with with the news you are hoping for :-)

I haven't written such a script no.

[URL="http://www.foldingtext.com"]FoldingText[/URL] → OF is the only route I have created, and that's partly because it has an unusually rich scripting interface, which provides very simple and powerful operations on nested text structures.

Isn't that the script that exports to Taskpaper? Found this here:[url]http://www.complexpoint.macmate.me/Site/Taskpaper2Omnifocus.html[/url]

Taskpaper to Omnifocus importer


A draft Applescript droplet which I use to copy my data from Taskpaper-formatted text files to Omnifocus.


The code is intended to:


1.Place Taskpaper projects and their tasks in a date-stamped Omnifocus import folder.

2.Place any Taskpaper tasks which are not preceded by a project header into the Omnifocus inbox.

3.Also place tasks in any Taskpaper project named “Inbox:” into the Omnifocus inbox.


In addition to files created with Taskpaper, it should also work with any plain .txt file which conforms to the Taskpaper file format. Apart from context and @done tags, it is intended to correctly interpret tags of the following form:

@start(yyyy-mm-dd) or @start(yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) - Start date

@due(yyyy-mm-dd) or @due(yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm) - Due date

@mins(nn) - Estimated minutes

@flag - Flagged


Note that it runs fairly slowly - when it is finished it will display simple import statistics.


USAGE

- Drag one or more .taskpaper or .txt files onto the droplet,

-Or select and copy some text (or one or more text files in in the Finder) and then run the script.


(I find it works well in a Keyboard Maestro macro which precedes it with a Copy action, to pick up currently selected text or text files)


ReadTP52.app.zip

Thank you for pointing to the site!

I found the exporter there as well.

[QUOTE=kingsinger;118505]Isn't that the script that exports to Taskpaper? Found this here:[url]http://www.complexpoint.macmate.me/Site/Taskpaper2Omnifocus.html[/url]

Taskpaper to Omnifocus importer
[/QUOTE]

Rob,

Is the exporter one of your scripts? And if so is that the latest version?

The complexpoint.macmate.me site is Rob's replacement for his old MobileMe site, and he is diligent about keeping the site up to date, in my experience.

Yes, as whpalmer4 explains, that is my site, and there are no later versions (by my hand) of those TaskPaper scripts.

As I have personally moved on to FoldingText, I can't really justify doing any more work to the TaskPaper code myself, but I have now put copies of the old scripts [URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/tree/master/OmniFocus%20scripts/TaskPaper%20scripts"]on GitHub[/URL] whence others would be welcome to fork and develop them further.

I do, however, strongly recommend [URL="http://www.foldingtext.com"]FoldingText[/URL], which has a much richer scripting interface (now available in the AppStore version as well as in the DEV versions) and generally has much more power and potential than TaskPaper did. I think it will develop into a platform for quite a rich ecosystem of add-ons.

[QUOTE=RobTrew;118525]I do, however, strongly recommend [URL="http://www.foldingtext.com"]FoldingText[/URL], which has a much richer scripting interface (now available in the AppStore version as well as in the DEV versions) and generally has much more power and potential than TaskPaper did. I think it will develop into a platform for quite a rich ecosystem of add-ons.[/QUOTE]

Rob,
Since I am editing on an android system I do not care what I use since I can not use Folding Text since there are no versions for Android. I use a plain editor and just work with the data.

The difference that I noticed when exporting things was that the previous script had dates, and that was missing from the export for Folding Text.

What I am trying to do is adjust the system to using an Android phone, I do not want to PRINT the data and mark up PDF's to enter it back I want it to be a bit more fluid.

Now if I can edit the data on Android and bring it in to Folding Text to convert to OmniFocus I will be willing to give it a try. It would be a pain to use another program though to just convert the data.

I will also look at the Github and examine the scripts in detail, while I am no where close to you... I might be able to make sense of them and see if I can extend / maintain them.

BTW: In case I have not said it before, thank you very much for creating this.

Hi Rob,
thanks for the scriptfirst of all1
but...
it says "DEPRECATED get nodes as records path DEPRECATED selected nodes path"

?

TIA

amelchi

The API of the MAS version of FoldingText has now caught up with the Dev version.

[URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/blob/master/FoldingText%20scripts/Import%20Export/2012-12-05-export-to-OPML-or-Omni-script.md"]Ver 018[/URL] of this script (in a Github repository) will automatically use the newer API, as long as you are running FT 1.1+

thanks!,

but now
error "Non posso trasformare \"1.2\" nel tipo number." number -1700 from "1.2" to number

I cannot transform \"1.2\" in type number...
relate to the FT version number, I am using 1.2 dev

thanks

I think is a system language problem: Italian, French and other Latin languages deal with decimal by comma, not by dot...
Could you please send me a little FT text sample that fits...

[QUOTE=amelchi;118685]"Non posso trasformare \"1.2\" nel tipo number." number -1700 from "1.2" to number[/QUOTE]

FT's version number string is "1.2" and Applescript is playing the innocent and claiming that it can only recognise "1,2" while its international settings are Italian :-)

Fair enough - a good Xmas puzzle ...

Perhaps we can gently explain to the Applescript interpreter that the "." is an exotic Anglo-Saxon translation of the second character in a decimal representation of Pi ?

Could you replace the IsDev() function with the code below and test it for me ?
If it works I'll put it into version 19, though I suppose that the numbers of those using FoldingText 1.0 are probably small now :-)

Have a good holiday !

Rob

[CODE]on IsDev()
set strLocalSeparator to (text 2 of (pi as string))

tell application "FoldingText"
set strVersion to version
set {dlm, my text item delimiters} to {my text item delimiters, "."}
set lstParts to text items of strVersion
set my text item delimiters to strLocalSeparator -- local number separator
set strVersion to lstParts as string
set my text item delimiters to dlm

return (strVersion as number) > 1
end tell
end IsDev
[/CODE]

Thanks,
now it works perfectly with different languages
flawlessly with OO,
but
when it comes to OF it says
"[SIZE="2"][SIZE="1"]{"Subtree of 'todo three'", {{{|id|:"6", tagNames:{"done"}, textIndex:69, childIndex:3, tags:{done:""}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:5, type:"unordered", level:1, |text|:"todo three", |line|:" - todo three @done", previousSiblingID:"4"}, {}, false}}} non corrisponde ai parametri {strRootText, lstTree, blnSkipDone} per Export2OF.[/SIZE][/SIZE]"

Have a nice Xmas time and many thanks for your job, Rob!

amelchi

Thanks for catching that.

Could I ask you to test the version [URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/blob/master/FoldingText%20scripts/Import%20Export/2012-12-05-export-to-OPML-or-Omni-script.md"]here[/URL] ?

ok for OO
almost same as before for OF,
"[COLOR="RoyalBlue"][SIZE="1"][COLOR="Magenta"]Risultato:
error "{project id \"kZEpkel-Chd\" of document id \"juZgQoU9dg2\" of application \"OmniFocus\", {{{|id|:\"3\", tagNames:{}, textIndex:22, childIndex:0, tags:{}, parentID:\"1\", lineIndex:1, type:\"unordered\", level:0, |text|:\"todo one\", nextSiblingID:\"4\", |line|:\"- todo one\"}, {}, false}, {{|id|:\"4\", tagNames:{}, textIndex:33, childIndex:1, tags:{}, parentID:\"1\", lineIndex:2, type:\"unordered\", level:0, lastChildID:\"5\", |text|:\"todo two\", nextSiblingID:\"6\", firstChildID:\"5\", |line|:\"- todo two\", previousSiblingID:\"3\"}, {{{textIndex:44, parentID:\"4\", |id|:\"5\", lineIndex:3, level:1, childIndex:0, |text|:\"Mix in notes as you see fit.\", type:\"body\", tagNames:{}, tags:{}, |line|:\" Mix in notes as you see fit.\"}, {}, false}}, false}}} non corrisponde ai parametri {oParent, lstTree, blnSkipDone} per PlaceInOF." number -1721 partial result «handler PlaceInOF» from {«class FCpr» id "kZEpkel-Chd" of document id "juZgQoU9dg2", {{{|id|:"3", tagNames:{}, textIndex:22, childIndex:0, tags:{}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:1, type:"unordered", level:0, |text|:"todo one", nextSiblingID:"4", |line|:"- todo one"}, {}, false}, {{|id|:"4", tagNames:{}, textIndex:33, childIndex:1, tags:{}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:2, type:"unordered", level:0, lastChildID:"5", |text|:"todo two", nextSiblingID:"6", firstChildID:"5", |line|:"- todo two", previousSiblingID:"3"}, {{{textIndex:44, parentID:"4", |id|:"5", lineIndex:3, level:1, childIndex:0, |text|:"Mix in notes as you see fit.", type:"body", tagNames:{}, tags:{}, |line|:" Mix in notes as you see fit."}, {}, false}}, false}}}
[/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR]

actually it creates an empty item in OF...

OK, thanks for testing :-)

I'll take a look later on.

Rob

Only exports the top level to OF
 

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your work on these scripts.

I have a problem in that only the top level of the hierarchy form FoldingText ends up in OmniFocus when I export to that application. I cannot create tasks within the project in OF whatever I try in FT. If I export to OO or OGP, the hierarchy is replicated fine.

Getting this AppleScript Execution error when running in Debug mode in Script Debugger:

{«class asDB» id (application "OmniFocus") of «class FCpr» id "hG4oRDio0JF" of document id "hsvIS9nuxgi" of application "OmniFocus", {{{|id|:"21", tagNames:{}, textIndex:20, childIndex:0, tags:{}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:1, type:"unordered", level:1, |text|:"Do something", nextSiblingID:"22", |line|:" - Do something"}, {}, false}, {{|id|:"22", tagNames:{}, textIndex:36, childIndex:1, tags:{}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:2, type:"unordered", level:1, |text|:"Do the next thing", nextSiblingID:"23", |line|:" - Do the next thing", previousSiblingID:"21"}, {}, false}, {{|id|:"23", tagNames:{}, textIndex:57, childIndex:2, tags:{}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:3, type:"unordered", level:1, |text|:"Go to the bank with the momey", nextSiblingID:"24", |line|:" - Go to the bank with the momey", previousSiblingID:"22"}, {}, false}, {{|id|:"24", tagNames:{}, textIndex:90, childIndex:3, tags:{}, parentID:"1", lineIndex:4, type:"unordered", level:1, |text|:"Buy some groceries", |line|:" - Buy some groceries", previousSiblingID:"23"}, {}, false}}} doesn’t match the parameters {oParent, lstTree, blnSkipDone} for PlaceInOF.

Your advice appreciated when you have a moment - of if you need more from the debugger.

Matt

Thanks for the reports Amelchi and Matt – the Dec 26 regression should now be fixed in [URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/tree/master/FoldingText%20scripts/Import%20Export"]FT2Omni Ver 20[/URL]

[URL="goo.gl/lk3D5 "]Ver 21[/URL] adds option to exclude @done items when exporting to OmniFocus

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[QUOTE=RobTrew;118969]Thanks for the reports Amelchi and Matt – the Dec 26 regression should now be fixed in [URL="https://github.com/RobTrew/tree-tools/tree/master/FoldingText%20scripts/Import%20Export"]FT2Omni Ver 20[/URL][/QUOTE]

Rob - many thanks. It now works in OF. I'm happy.

All the best.
Matt

Thanks Rob,
It works perfectly, but...
every line is either (OF wording) a task or a project...
no possibility to have a note (of a task)?

Big thanks!

amelchi

[QUOTE=amelchi;118980]no possibility to have a note (of a task)?[/QUOTE]

That would certainly be possible, though you would need to settle on a convention for the pattern to be interpreted as a note:
[LIST][*]Markdown body paragraphs ?[*]Interpreted as notes of their preceding list siblings ?[*]Or as notes of their indentation parents ?[*]If notes of parents, then how do we interpret sibling sets with mixtures of list and body paragraphs ?[/LIST][INDENT]etc. etc. Not insoluble, but would require a more or less arbitrary and codified set of conventions ...[/INDENT]
Moving notes from FT towards OF is not part of my own work-flow at the moment (I keep working notes in NVAlt, and archived notes in DevonThink), so it would probably be bad GTD practice (and certainly sub-economic) for me to implement it myself, but the source code is there in the GitHub repository, and others are very welcome to fork it :-)

I will try, don't know if I succeed...

thanks!

Do you save to DevonThink via some applescript form nvALt?