#EmacsConf backstage: adding notes to Org logbook drawers from e-mails

Oct 14, 2023| emacs, emacsconf, notmuch

Sometimes I want to work with all the talks associated with an email in my inbox. For example, maybe a speaker said that the draft schedules are fine, and I want to make a note of that in the conference Org file.

First we start with a function that gets the e-mail addresses for a talk. Some speakers have different e-mail addresses for public contact or private contact, and some e-mail us from other addresses.

emacsconf-mail-get-all-email-addresses: Return all the possible e-mail addresses for TALK.

(defun emacsconf-mail-get-all-email-addresses (talk)
  "Return all the possible e-mail addresses for TALK."
  (split-string
   (downcase
    (string-join
     (seq-uniq
      (seq-keep
       (lambda (field) (plist-get talk field))
       '(:email :public-email :email-alias)))
     ","))
   " *, *"))

Then we can use that to find the talks for a given e-mail address.

emacsconf-mail-talks: Return a list of talks matching EMAIL.

(defun emacsconf-mail-talks (email)
  "Return a list of talks matching EMAIL."
  (setq email (downcase (mail-strip-quoted-names email)))
  (seq-filter
   (lambda (o) (member email (emacsconf-mail-get-all-email-addresses o)))
   (emacsconf-get-talk-info)))

We can loop over that to add a note for the e-mail.

emacsconf-mail-add-to-logbook: Add to logbook for all matching talks from this speaker.

(defun emacsconf-mail-add-to-logbook (email note)
  "Add to logbook for all matching talks from this speaker."
  (interactive
   (let* ((email (mail-strip-quoted-names
                  (plist-get (plist-get (notmuch-show-get-message-properties) :headers)
                             :From)))
          (talks (emacsconf-mail-talks email)))
     (list
      email
      (read-string (format "Note for %s: "
                           (mapconcat (lambda (o) (plist-get o :slug))
                                      talks", "))))))
  (save-window-excursion
    (mapc
     (lambda (talk)
       (emacsconf-add-to-talk-logbook talk note))
     (emacsconf-mail-talks email))))

The actual addition of notes is handled by these functions.

emacsconf-add-to-logbook: Add NOTE as a logbook entry for the current subtree.

(defun emacsconf-add-to-logbook (note)
  "Add NOTE as a logbook entry for the current subtree."
  (move-marker org-log-note-return-to (point))
  (move-marker org-log-note-marker (point))
  (with-temp-buffer
    (insert note)
    (let ((org-log-note-purpose 'note))
      (org-store-log-note))))

Then we have a function that looks for the heading for a note and then adds a logbook entry to it.

emacsconf-add-to-talk-logbook: Add NOTE as a logbook entry for TALK.

(defun emacsconf-add-to-talk-logbook (talk note)
  "Add NOTE as a logbook entry for TALK."
  (interactive (list (emacsconf-complete-talk) (read-string "Note: ")))
  (save-excursion
    (emacsconf-with-talk-heading talk
      (emacsconf-add-to-logbook note))))

All together, that makes it easy to use Emacs as a very simple contact relationship management system where I can take notes based on the e-mails that come in.

output-2023-10-14-10:23:29.gif — Figure 1: Logging notes from e-mail

These functions are in emacsconf-mail.el.

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.