Missing parent tag information in case of nested tags

[mmshivesh]

Things supports creating nested tags. This workflow doesn't seem to be supported when using this API as the returned object from things.tags() doesn't contain the parent tag title/id.

Ideally this would look similar to how Projects (things.projects()) includes the parent Area using a area/area_title key.

[mikez]

@mmshivesh Thank you for reporting this!

It sounds like you'd want things.tags() to indicate the nested tag structure; e.g., by including a parent_uuid key where applicable. Would you also expect calls like things.todos(tag="Focus") to return the todos tagged with 5m, 15m, etc. as well?

[mmshivesh]

Would you also expect calls like things.todos(tag="Focus") to return the todos tagged with 5m, 15m, etc. as well?

Yep! Precisely. "Focus" will act like a superset container tag that can be queried for to get all the todos tagged with any of its children tags. Do note that current Things behavior does allow tagging something with just "Focus" as well.

When querying for "5m" however, it will not return everything.

[mikez]

@mmshivesh Got it, thanks for confirming. 👍

Maybe we could split this up into two pull requests. The first pull request would be to include the "parent"-key in the things.tags() output. Would you want to give that a try? I'm happy to guide if you get stuck.

[mikez]

/cc @AlexanderWillner FYI: the Things TMTag Table has a parent column. I don't see anything speaking against including it in the output. Feel free to veto if you feel otherwise.

[AlexanderWillner]

I think the test database doesn't have any nested tags, this is something to be added first, I suppose. Some initial thoughts at AlexanderWillner@dedec9b

[mikez]

@AlexanderWillner Do you think we might instead do a JOIN in get_tags (akin to how we do it in make_tasks_sql_query to get area_title and project_title)? That way, we get the parent_title for free in one request as opposed to doing the follow-up ones.

[AlexanderWillner]

Would probably be better, yes. Was just a first draft.

[mikez]

@mmshivesh Would you enjoy to do this pull request? (We can guide you if you want.)

[mmshivesh]

I'd be happy to take a shot at it! The setup was a bit involved because of the necessity to back up my personal database first (and having to deal with Things Sync on my mobile devices) so I didn't take a crack at it yet.