[compraxis]

I'd very much like to be able to programatically edit my list of tasks. For example, I'd like to find all the tasks with a special annotation and increment the due date for those tasks by a day. I want to export my OmniFocus database to some format (XML would be great), process it in a manner of my own design, and import the changed data back into OmniFocus. This could all be done as a batch process.

exporter:
I can see that OF supports exporting to an OmniFocus document, which is a folder containing a zipped XML file, containing all my tasks. That would work just fine for my purposes.

process:
I am a programmer, so I can figure out how to transform the data (assuming it's in a commonly understood format, like XML).

importer:
If I change one of the task descriptions or dates in the XML file, and reverse the unpacking process (zipping it up, using the same cryptic name as the orignal OmniFocus .zip file), and then try to import the result file into OmniFocus, Omnifocus balks. Perhaps OF balks because the name of the file is no longer correct, because it needs to reflect the contained data, as in a checksum. But that's just a guess.

Can someone suggest how to perform a round-trip export -> process -> import activity?

-- Bill