Things Parser 2.0

Actions - Share What You've Made
21

This is designed to work when adding tasks to an existing project, but not when creating a new project. So for an existing project

#Existing Project ==Existing Heading
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3

will add three tasks under the heading. If you wanted to do this with a new project, you would have to create it first and then add the tasks in two separate blocks, e.g.

+New Project ==New Heading 1 ==New Heading 2

#New Project ==New Heading 1
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3

The reason for this design is that you can only add headings to a project on creation, so users will have to indicate all the headings they want after the +New Project. Tasks in the same block canā€™t be added to all of those headings, so if the userā€™s intention is to add some of them to particular headings, that needs to be specified.

22

Thanks, Peter. I appreciate it.

23

So, firstly I just wanted to say I think this is great.

So far a great use I have found for it is problematic for me since I have a document with a number of suggestions about local networking meetups etc. It contains places and times etc.

What I am hoping to do is to schedule some actions according to the document by breaking it down using the delimiters that you have set up so that I can send the whole text into ā€˜Thingsā€™ and have your action do the heavy lifting.

So am I right in suggesting that:

  • Everything for 1 task has to be in the same sentence. i.e. Your action differentiates a new line as a new task?

  • One problem I have run up against is that if I am not mistaken I canā€™t refer to any Date or Time in the notes as they appear to be removed when I sent them over.

I am assuming the following presents all kinds of problems as itā€™s not working as I would like.

e.g.

#Networking ==Networking Events Dalycom Nottingham Business Networking //Thursdays 8.00am - 10.00am Contact Anita Popat, 01509 410 407 *Ugly Bread Bakery, 21 Market Street Nottingham NG1 6HX

#Networking ==Networking Events An informal business networking event for Businesses in Nottingham and the surrounding areas //taking place on the 3rd Thursday of every month (starting 18th January 2018) from 8.00am - 10.00am.

If this were possible, Iā€™d like to see it under Networking (which is one of my Projects) as listed items, and Iā€™d continue to work down the sheet to highlight the others.

So far when I send this over, I get nothing at all anywhere?! :worried:

@pdavisonreiber Can you explain why?

25

I put my header on the first line
And my tasks on separate lines underneat
However the parser 2.0 script I install makes each it own subject in things instead of using the first line as a subject and the lines below as task?
How do I fix this and get it to work.

I am new to drafts 2nd testing

Thanks in advance for helping and getting me a step closer

26

Is there a way to have Drafts prompt for a text and date based variables and then have the project/tasks adjust their names and dates relative to these variables?

27

This is not what my script does, but Iā€™m sure this is possible within Drafts. Did you want to export all of your drafts to Things? And do you want each one to be a separate to-do?

28

Not at the moment, but some kind of date templating is something I am considering for the next version so stay tuned.

1 Like
29

There are a few bugs with the date interpretation at the moment. Dates in the notes section is a problem which I still need to fix. I hope to release an update in the next few months.

30

The tags arenā€™t being imported for me, but everything else is. Hereā€™s what Iā€™m parsing:

+New Project ==Head1 ==Head2 #Area @tag1
Task without heading Feb 6
Task under heading 1 ==Head1 @tag2 //note
Task under heading 2 ==Head2 !Tuesday

What am I doing wrong?

31

This is a really cool and useful Action, thanks for creating it.

Feature request: Some kind of comment syntax that would stop the parser from evaluating a given line.

Also, I think this is a bug. Iā€™m typing this on Thursday 4/30. When I feed the parser this line:

testing !Sunday

it creates a to-do with a deadline on Sunday 5/10ā€”not this coming Sunday, but a week from Sunday, 10 days away.

32

OK, thanks for finding this bug. Iā€™m planning to do a new version of this at some point in the next few months, so Iā€™ll try to incorporate your feedback.

1 Like
33

Syntax question re: #Project vs. #Area:

I think Iā€™m being dense because no one else has mentioned this, but donā€™t your #Project Name and #Area syntaxes conflict? Iā€™ve read the documentation a couple times and only see examples of #Area in the context of creating new projects with +Project. Iā€™ve never seen an example combining #area with #project.

Definitely wouldnā€™t rule out user error. Hereā€™s what Iā€™m trying to parse for a test run:

+Learn to Use Things Parser for Drafts #Home ==Research ==Implementation ==Evaluation
Read documentation ==Research *Find documentation *Copy to .md file *Create PDF *Store in iCloud Drive/5 Software Documentation !Friday ++I'd like to make better use of Drafts' actions and Things' ability to accept data from 3rd party apps.

Test #Learn to Use Things Parser for Drafts #Home
1 Like
34

Thanks for the excellent parser!
Is there a way to enter dates in the format dd/mm?

35

For all the fans of Things Parser, a big update has just come to Things Parser in version 3. Iā€™ve decided to move from the old custom syntax to TaskPaper to take advantage of the syntax highlighting in Drafts and to aid compatibility with other apps. It also adds variables, including date variables with time offsets. You can read more about the details in my blog post.

For die-hard fans of version 2, this will remain available on the action directory but will no longer be maintained.

2 Likes
36

hey @colinmorris i know this is quite an old post now, but i was wondering if you ever got to the bottom of the area vs project issue?
iā€™d really like to be able to add a new project to an existing area.
is that possible at all?

37

I ended up using Send to Things instead. The syntax was easier for me to commit to memory and habit, and it also solved the apparent conflict between Project and Area.

Disclaimer: I donā€™t remember ever receiving a reply to my question about that apparent conflict, so I canā€™t definitively say that conflict exists in the Things Parser syntax.

Good luck, Jason!

38

thanks Colin, i appreciate the response - Iā€™ll go the same direction