ksalzke / delegation-omnifocus-plugin

A series of delegation (waiting for/follow up) scripts for OmniFocus

About

This is an Omni Automation plug-in bundle for OmniFocus that provides 'waiting for' and 'follow up' actions. Further details of these actions are provided below.

Please note that all scripts on my GitHub account (or shared elsewhere) are works in progress. If you encounter any issues or have any suggestions please let me know--and do please make sure you backup your database before running scripts from a random amateur on the internet!)

Known issues

• These scripts do not currently appear to function correctly on tasks in the inbox.
• The first time the 'Waiting For' action is run it does not do anything. Subsequent attempts appear to be working correctly.

Installation & Set-Up

Important note: for this plug-in bundle to work correctly, my Function Library for OmniFocus is also required and needs to be added to the plug-in folder separately.

Forthcoming.

Actions

This plug-in contains the following two actions:

Waiting For

This action can be run on one or more selected tasks. For each task, it:

1. Runs the actions configured in the configuration file (under functionsForOriginalTaskBeforeWaiting). By default, this runs the customComplete function in the 'Custom Complete' library of my Custom Complete OmniFocus Plugin, or, if that is not installed, simply marks the task as complete.
2. Creates a new task after the selected task(s). Optionally (when the showForm setting in the configuration file is set to true), a form is shown to confirm or change the task's details, including its due date, before it is created. By default (in the form and also if the form is not shown), this task's:
   • name is the same as the original task's name, but with Waiting for: prepended unless the original tasks's name matches on of the patterns specified under replacements in the configuration file, in which case the specified replacement is used instead, e.g. by default:

     original task	becomes...
     Call Someone re something	Waiting for: Someone to return phone call re something
     Email Someone re something	Waiting for: Someone to reply to email about something

   • tag is the waitingTag specified in the configuration file (currently this is Activity Type: ⏳ Waiting by default)
   • defer date is the the date that is the number of days specified in the configuration file from today (e.g. if defaultDeferDays is 1, the default defer date will be tomorrow); the user's default start time is used. By default this is set to null and there is no defer date set

Note that any project tags will also be inherited, unless they are specified as uninheritedTags in the configuration file.

Follow Up

This action simply runs the followUp function (below) on one or more selected tasks.

Follow Up Items Due Today

This action simply runs the followUpDueToday function (below).

Functions

This plugin also contains the following function within the delegationLib library:

followUp

This function takes an array of tasks as input.

If more than one 'contact method' tag is listed in followUpMethods in the configuration file, this first prompts the user to select one of these to be applied. (By default, these are any children of the Activity Type: Contact tag).

Then, for each task in the array:

1. If the task is not already contained within such an action group, creates a sequential action group with the same name as the selected task(s).
2. Moves the task into the parent sequential action group.
3. Creates a new task before the original task (and inside the action group) whose:
   • name is the same as the original task's name, but with Follow up: prepended in place of Waiting for: .
   • tags are the same as the original task's tags (tags may also be inherited from a containing action group or project), but with the the following changes:
     • the selected follow-up method is added
     • any waiting tags (the tag specified as waitingTag in the configuration file as well as any of its children) are removed
     • any tags specified as uninheritedTags in the configuration file are removed
   • note is a link to the original task in the format [FOLLOWUPON: omnifocus///task/taskid]
   • status is flagged if the original task was flagged
   • due date is the same as the original task's effective due date

Note that the parent sequential action group is created so that the 'waiting for' task only becomes available after the follow-up task has been completed (or dropped or deleted), even in a parallel project or single-action list.

followUpDueToday

This function takes no parameters.

It checks all remaining tasks tagged with the waitingTag specified in the configuration file and, if they are due today, runs the followUp function using the due tasks as input.

noteFollowUp

This function takes a task as input and if the task begins with follow up or Follow up it looks in the note of the task for a [FOLLOWUPON] tag of the type created by the Follow Up action.

If one is found it adds a note to that original task indicating that the task has been followed up on the current time and date.

It is hoped that in the future this will be able to be run automatically on the completion of a task, but currently the intention is that it will be run manually from a 'custom complete' action. It can be used as follows (given a task stored in variable task):

delegationPlugin = PlugIn.find("com.KaitlinSalzke.Delegation");
	if (delegationPlugin !== null) {
		delegationPlugin.library("delegationLib").noteFollowUp(task);
	}

An example can be seen in the customComplete function in the 'Custom Complete' library in my Custom Complete OmniFocus Plugin/Repository.