Request: purge completed actions
 

I'd find it handy if there were a "purge all completed actions" script.

As a bonus, it'd be great if one could even provide a threshhold date before which all actions are purged, and after which they'd let be. (For example, "purge all actions completed more than a week ago.")

I am accomplishing what you are asking by setting the option to do so in iCal. When I sync iCal to OF, all the to-do-items deleted in iCal will be deleted in OF. You can set the option to delete completed items by x days in iCal.

So, having this might be a good in OF, but I don't really miss it now.

[QUOTE=ksrhee;24494]I am accomplishing what you are asking by setting the option to do so in iCal. When I sync iCal to OF, all the to-do-items deleted in iCal will be deleted in OF. You can set the option to delete completed items by x days in iCal.
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I think you are a bit braver than I am when it comes to deletions! But thanks for the suggestion.

[QUOTE=MichaelShapiro;24497]I think you are a bit braver than I am when it comes to deletions! But thanks for the suggestion.[/QUOTE]

I'm not as brave as you think. I have multiple backups of the OF data including the one created by OF, Time Machine, and my own (cloned disks). So, if something goes wrong, I can retrace my steps and get these back. My iCal is also backed up to (synchronized) my Palm; so, I can always retrieve my data from my Palm as well.

So far, I haven't had any issues. I set the option to 30 days; so, it would have a minimum impact even if something goes wrong.

It sounds like a reasonable approach if you already synch with iCal, but I'd rather not add the data complexity. I suspect this would be a trivial AppleScript for someone to write, and am hoping a Lazy/Impatient/Hubristic hacker will whip one up.

[QUOTE=MichaelShapiro;24491]I'd find it handy if there were a "purge all completed actions" script.

As a bonus, it'd be great if one could even provide a threshhold date before which all actions are purged, and after which they'd let be. (For example, "purge all actions completed more than a week ago.")[/QUOTE]

Couldn't you just display all completed actions, select all, and delete? By setting a perspective, this seems like it would be nearly the same amount of work as invoking a script.

(This is not to discourage anyone who would want to write up the requested script...)

And for the latter, couldn't you just display all completed actions grouped or sorted by completion date, select the range you want, and delete? (Though here you're getting into an area where a script would certainly be less fiddly.)

[QUOTE=Craig;24508]Couldn't you just display all completed actions, select all, and delete? By setting a perspective, this seems like it would be nearly the same amount of work as invoking a script.
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I think I tried this once, and could swear it deleted some projects as well. Horrified, I slammed Undo and swore to never again mess in the affairs of the gods.

[QUOTE=MichaelShapiro;24509]I think I tried this once, and could swear it deleted some projects as well. Horrified, I slammed Undo and swore to never again mess in the affairs of the gods.[/QUOTE]

I think the key here is to show all completed actions in Context mode (where you can also group them by completion date). That way, when you select all of them you won't also end up selecting the projects that contain those actions.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;24510]I think the key here is to show all completed actions in Context mode (where you can also group them by completion date). That way, when you select all of them you won't also end up selecting the projects that contain those actions.[/QUOTE]

Weird. I went to Context mode, changed the filter to only display Completed, selected an Action, then Select All, and then hit delete. A lot of actions went away, but a few remained. I repeated the process, then got the same result. It took three or four deletes to clear everything out.

All that said, despite the quirkiness, this seems to work as a stopgap solution. But lots of productivity applications have a "clean up" function, and I think OmniFocus would benefit here as well.

[QUOTE=MichaelShapiro;24491]I'd find it handy if there were a "purge all completed actions" script.[/QUOTE]

There is a feature request for this logged as <bug://bugs/35859> (Request: Archive completed items after some period of time [purge]) if'n you all want to reference it in feature requests.