Support for plain timestamps

[lahertel]

I was wondering whether there is any particular reason why only deadlines and schedules are implemented in orgzly, but not plain timestamps. I find the latter really helpful for appointsments etc. Also check gnu.org

[tkamat]

I will try to implement this, seems relatively straightforward despite my meager android knowledge.

[nevenz]

I will try to implement this, seems relatively straightforward

Thanks!

Just note there can be multiple timestamps per note anywhere in the content, which would need to be parsed and stored in a new table and linked to notes. Which also answers original question - that's the reason why this hasn't been implemented right from the start - it's more complex then scheduled and deadline times.

[tkamat]

Yeah you are right, I have been having more trouble with this than I initially expected.

One question, do you want the timestamps in the ui to show up only when it senses one present, or do you want an "add timestamp" button at all times?

[nevenz]

One question, do you want the timestamps in the ui to show up only when it senses one present, or do you want an "add timestamp" button at all times?

So considering that:

• Plain timestamps can be scattered throughout note's content
• There's no single place in note where one timestamp should be put when writing an Org file (like there is for scheduled and deadline times)

I think there are two parts of implementing full support for plain timestamps:

1. Parse note's content (for the first time and on after any content change) and search for timestamps. Store every found timestamp to DB (to a new table which would contain note_id).
2. Add a toolbar above note's content in note view (similar to the one for comments on GitHub). This toolbar will be used for many other things in the future (bold, italic, lists, tables, links, ...). Add "Insert timestamp" to the toolbar, which would open a dialog with date/time picker (already exists in Orgzly) and insert it to the note's content.

First one is I think much more important and will allow searching, showing notes in agenda, reminders, etc. And UI part would be pretty convenient (well, more then convenient, since typing org timestamp is a PITA).

Anyway, that was my plan and how I'd go for it. Perhaps there's a better one, or we can support only one plain timestamp per note, though I don't think that's a good idea.

It's a decent amount of work, but can be done step at the time. And it's not really complicated as it might sound. First part is probably enough to consider plain timestamps supported (at least I would).

If you're still up for it, which would be great, feel free to ask about anything.

There are already pieces of code in Orgzly which do similar things. For example, looking for timestamp reminds of searching for #+TITLE: in book's preface after it's changed. Storing multiple timestamps per note in DB is similar to storing multiple properties per note. And the only problem with the toolbar that comes to mind is inserting value from the dialog to EditText at the cursor position from which dialog is called (might be trivial, I just haven't done anything like that).

[Sodel-the-Vociferous]

What do you think of having this in the long-press "right-click" menu in the note editor, instead of creating an ever-present toolbar?

[nevenz]

What do you think of having this in the long-press "right-click" menu in the note editor, instead of creating an ever-present toolbar?

I think we'd still want a tool bar for other stuff, like bolding, lists, etc.

Personally I'm not a fan of long-click in general - I find it slow. But it might make more sense for inserting new content.

However, if we have a toolbar, it might be better to keep all actions you can perform visible in it and in one place. Though we could still keep a subset of actions in long-click pop-up, similar to swipe menu now.

[fresheed]

@tkamat, any news on that? Do you need help?

[wyleyr]

@tkamat and @fresheed: this issue is really keeping me from using Orgzly more seriously, and it seems to be important for a lot of other feature requests, so if there's any way I can help, let me know! (I am a heavy Org mode user but unfortunately, I have no Android development experience. Happy to learn something if it would help, though!)