Creating clj-tdo, a command line todo list, part 3.
In the previous post we made some improvements to the command line todo list we created.
In this post we will be making a few more improvements. You can get the code in its current state from here, update to the part-2 tag.
Excluding finished tasks
I'm going to start off by fixing a few little issues. I want to change the default ls action to exclude finished tasks and instead use the -f option to show them.
First, lets change src/clj-tdo/task.clj so that it makes available a finished? function.
src/clj-tdo/core.clj will need to change as well, in order to capture the new -f switch.
Then we can update src/clj-tdo/handlers.clj so that list-tasks captures the finished switch and does the appropriate filtering.
Improving task printing
Create a new file src/clj-tdo/printers.clj. Here we are going to define a TaskPrinter protocol.
The first implementation of this protocol will be very similar to the prn-task function in src/clj-tdo/task.clj, lets call it DefaultTaskPrinter.
We can also create a convenience function to create a DefaultTaskPrinter.
Now we can make use of this in src/clj-tdo/handlers.clj, first lets refer to the items we require.
[clj-tdo.printers :refer [TaskPrinter default-task-printer print-tasks]]
list-tasks can now make use of the printer.
Adding a second printer and the -p switch
Now, we can create a second TaskPrinter. For this one we will just spit out the raw string as stored in the data file.
We can also remove the default-task-printer and replace it with create-task-printer. This will give us the RawTaskPrinter if we ask for it, otherwise, it will give us the DefaultTaskPrinter.
Now we need to hook up the -p switch and capture the "printer" we wish to use. Add the definition below to our cli-options in src/clj-tdo/core.clj.
We also need to update the desctructuring of function arguments in list-tasks so that it captures the specified printer and update our print-tasks call so that is uses create-task-printer.
Identify a task with a short identifier
Currently tasks are identified and considered unique based on their :title. This has generally been ok for me so far but it is irritating when trying to run a done command like so.
tdo done -t "Some task with a long title and maybe some kind of punctionation?!"
It would be useful to be able to add a short title or identifier to a task. This is particularly useful for me as I can use an id from a bug tracker like FogBugz.
Lets start by updating the definition of the Task record in src/clj-tdo/task.clj to include an id.
We will also need to update the create function so that it desctructures id and uses it in the ->Task call.
The logic that stores tasks in src/clj-tdo/stores.clj will also need to change. It currently filters out an existing task by title and then replaces it with its new equivalent. We will change this so that it uses the new id.
Now we can update the DefaultTaskPrinter in src/clj-tdo/printers.clj so that it ouputs the new id.
The do-task function in src/clj-tdo/handlers.clj also has logic that identifies which task to mark as done, we need to change that to use the new id as well.
All thats left to do now is update our cli-options in src/clj-tdo/core.clj to capture -i or –id.
Improving documentation
The last thing we will change in this post is the definition of help in src/clj-tdo/core.clj. I think its useful to include a few examples of commands and switches.
I think we made some good changes in this post, specifically around printing. Next time it will be interesting to allow better status support and then make use of those statuses to print a "swim lane" style task board.
You can get the code in its current state from here, update to the part-3 tag.