Re: [Orgmode] Feature improvement request: state change logging

[Carsten Dominik]

On Feb 11, 2009, at 5:52 PM, Wanrong Lin wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My TODO sequence is set up as following:
>
> (setq org-todo-keywords '((sequence "TODO(t)" "STARTED(s!)"  
> "WAITING(w@/!)" "MAYBE(m/!)" "DELEGATED(g@/!)" "DEFERRED(d!/!)"  
> "HOLD(h!/!)" "|" "DONE(x)" "CANCELED(c)")))
>
> The state change logging is great, but I wonder whether we can  
> further improve it:
>
> 1. Can we also include the original state in the log message?
> i.e.: instead of having      - State "DEFERRED"   [2009-02-11 Wed  
> 11:38]
> we can have
> - State "DEFERRED"  from "HOLD" [2009-02-11 Wed 11:38]
>
> The message will be clearer, and useful even when somebody edited  
> the TODO keyword in place without using the "org-todo" command (in  
> that case, simply looking at all the "destination states" in the log  
> message does not give us the right information).

This strikes me like a useful idea, in particular if you are
jumping between states, or if only some states record logging info.

So I have added this capability.  If you are configuring
the variable `org-log-note-headings', use the %S (capital S) as
a place holder for the old state.

> 2. Can we put all of those state change history logging messages  
> into a drawer like "STATE-HIST" (when the drawer is defined in org- 
> drawers), so it is less intrusive in the file?

I do like the idea to be able to put state changes into a drawer,
but I do not think that making it dependent on what it is org-drawers
is good.  So lets use a separate variable:

If you configure org-log-state-notes-into-drawer, you can get all new
state changes into a drawer (sorry, no automatic wrapping of old ones).

Note that putting state log into a drawer will remove it from
export.  If you want to export state changes, try

#+OPTIONS: d:("LOGBOOK")

> Thank you for giving a thought on it.

Thank you for contributing very good ideas!

- Carsten