Use citar to maintain two kinds of notes

[MArpogaus]

Hello,

I would like to use citar to manage two types of notes:

1. General Notes

I would like to maintain multiple note files containing notes about the content of a book or paper i read.
It looks like the default notes function has been developed with this goal in mind and i just need to add a new template string.

  (setq ctar-notes-template-multiple-files '(concat "#+TITLE: ${title}\n"
                                                   "#+AUTHOR: ${author editor}\n"
                                                   "#+DATE: ${date}\n"
                                                   "#+SOURCE: ${doi url}\n"
                                                   "#+CUSTOM_ID: ${=key= id}\n"
                                                   "#+cite_export: biblatex ieee\n"
                                                   (concat "#+bibliography: " citar-bibliography "\n\n")
                                                   "* Notes :ignore:\n"
                                                   ":PROPERTIES:\n"
                                                   ":NOTER_DOCUMENT: ${file}\n"
                                                   ":END:\n\n"
                                                   "* Summary :childless:showchildren:export:\n"
                                                   "This is a summary of [citet:@${=key=}].\n"
                                                   "** Bibliography :ignore:\n"
                                                   "#+print_bibliography "
                                                   ))
  (setq citar-bibliography (car (file-expand-wildcards (concat org-directory "bib/*.bib")))
        citar-notes-paths (list (concat org-directory "brain/bib_notes/"))
        citar-templates  `((main . "${author editor:30}     ${date year issued:4}     ${title:48}")
                          (suffix . "          ${=key= id:15}    ${=type=:12}    ${tags keywords:*}")
                          (preview . "${author editor} (${year issued date}) ${title}, ${journal journaltitle publisher container-title collection-title}.\n")
                          (note . ,(eval ctar-notes-template-multiple-files)))...)

In my first tests this seams to work pretty well.
The only problem i've discovered so far is that ${file} yields all the files listed in the file attribute of the corresponding BibTeX entry.
Is there a easy way to make this selectable or just use the first occurring PDF file?

2. TODO Notes

Additionally, i would like to have a file containing todo entries for literature that I want to read.
Unfortunately i don't yet understand completely how to achieve that.
I thought of creating an other template like the following:

  (setq citar-notes-template-one-file (concat "** TODO ${=key=}: ${title}, (${year}) :${type}:\n"
                                              ":PROPERTIES:\n"
                                              ":Custom_ID: ${=key=}\n"
                                              ":FILE: [[file:${file}]]\n"
                                              ":END:\n"
                                              "See [[cite:&${=key=}]]\n"))

an the define some custom notes function that uses this template an appends the content to a file.
I guess this function should the be added to citar-open-note-functions in order to chose between them in the embark menu.

Unfortunately i am very new to emacs and elist and it feels like this is far ahead from my current skill level.
I am very happy for any advice.

Thanks in advance
Marcel

[bdarcus]

Interesting.

The only problem i've discovered so far is that ${file} yields all the files listed in the file attribute of the corresponding BibTeX entry.
Is there a easy way to make this selectable or just use the first occurring PDF file?

Not that I can think of. You'd probably need to write your own function for that.

BTW, you can play in IELM to see what's happening internally.

ELISP> (citar-get-value "file" "testkey")

Additionally, i would like to have a file containing todo entries for literature that I want to read.
Unfortunately i don't yet understand completely how to achieve that.

Instead of doing that, could you not create placeholder notes and have some status metadata for "TODO"/"DONE" "TOREAD/READ"? Org is designed for that kind of thing.

PS - we're working on this BTW https://github.com/emacs-citar/citar-org-roam

cc @roshanshariff

[MArpogaus]

Hello @roshanshariff,

thanks for your quick reply.

Not that I can think of. You'd probably need to write your own function for that.

ok, do you know if the template itself may include elisp code like org capture templates do?

Unfortunately i don't quite get what you mean by:

Instead of doing that, could you not create placeholder notes and have some status metadata for "TODO"/"DONE" "TOREAD/READ"? Org is designed for that kind of thing.

[MArpogaus]

Looks like this function could be used to get all pdf files

(citar-file--parse-file-field (citar--get-entry "KEY") "file" nil (list "pdf"))

[bdarcus]

I'm not Roshan; I was just tagging him ;-)

What I mean is:

https://orgmode.org/guide/TODO-Items.html

I guess in general, I don't think of TODO items as notes, and there are tons of features in org to manage projects, todo lists etc.

When I need to read something, for example, I put is as a TODO in a project-specific list of tasks. Like:

** TODO Read [cite:doe22]
** DONE Write introduction

... and then use embark-act to open a new note at-point when you're ready.

It's just a thought to consider if you're new to Emacs and Org. I don't have a super specific suggestion.

[bdarcus]

Looks like this function could be used to get all pdf files

(citar-file--parse-file-field (citar--get-entry "KEY") "file" nil (list "pdf"))

You can also try the more higher-level, more general:

(citar-get-files "testkey")