GNU ELPA - denote-menu

denote-menu provides an interface for viewing your denote files that goes beyond using the standard dired emacs command to view your denote-directory. Using dired is a fine method for viewing your denote files (among other things), however denote’s file naming scheme tends to clutters the buffer with hyphens and underscores. This package aims to declutter your view of your files by making it easy to view the 3 main components of denote files, that is their timestamp, title, and keywords. Derived from the builtin tabulated-list-mode, the *Denote* buffer that is created with the list-denotes command is visually similar to that created by commands like list-packages and list-processes, and provides methods to filter the denote files that are shown, as well as exporting to dired with the denote files that are currently shown for them to be operated upon further. In this way, denote-menu adheres to the core tenants of the denote package itself.

It is predictable as it makes use of existing emacs functionality to display files in a tabulated way similar to the package menu. It is composable, integrating well with other emacs packages (denote, in this case) and builtin functionality, opting to not reinvent the wheel as to how the data is displayed. The scope of this package is narrow: displaying and filtering denote files in a visually appealing and intuitive manner. denote-menu is also flexible and hackable, providing a simple API to create your own filters, and integrates well with dired by providing the denote-menu-export-to-dired command, which allows for further action on denote files beyond just viewing and filtering them.

denote-menu is available on the GNU ELPA package archive. To install, simply run

M-x package-install RET denote-menu RET

This package requires Denote v1.2.0 or above.

Assuming that you have denote-directory set to a directory that has denote files, simply run M-x list-denotes to open the *Denote* buffer. You will be presented with a tabulated list of your denote files whose filenames match the denote-menu-initial-regex regular expression. By default this is set to match all denote files in the denote-directory.

The tabulated list includes 3 columns, one for the timestamp, title, and keywords of each denote file. The timestamp column includes a button that when followed will open the corresponding denote file using find-file.

The user options for denote-menu are:

denote-menu-date-column-width

A number value for the width of the date column. Defaults to 17.

denote-menu-title-column-width

A number value for the width of the title column. Defaults to 85.

denote-menu-keywords-column-width

A number value for the width of the keywords column. Defaults to 30. This value is irrelevant as it is the final column and will take up the remaining width of the buffer.

denote-menu-show-file-type

If non-nil, appends the file type of the current denote file to the title.

denote-menu-initial-regex

A string that is the regular expression that is used to initially populate the *Denote* buffer with matching entries. This could allow for potential workflows such as having a dedicated buffer to display your journal denote files (e.g those tagged with the “journal” keyword), etc. Defaults to the . regular expression.

denote-menu-action

A function that takes as argument the current denote file path and performs an action on it. Defaults to (lambda (path) (find-file path)). This function is then called whenever the button in the timestamp column is followed.

A sample user configuration is given below that sets appropriate keybindings for the commands described in the previous section:

(require 'denote-menu)

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c z") #'list-denotes)

(define-key denote-menu-mode-map (kbd "c") #'denote-menu-clear-filters)
(define-key denote-menu-mode-map (kbd "/ r") #'denote-menu-filter)
(define-key denote-menu-mode-map (kbd "/ k") #'denote-menu-filter-by-keyword)
(define-key denote-menu-mode-map (kbd "e") #'denote-menu-export-to-dired)