About

This is an Omni Automation plug-in bundle for OmniFocus that sends a list of completed tasks for a given period (in Markdown format) to a Day One journal, to Drafts, or to the clipboard. It also includes functions that allow the user to use their own custom URL schemes. Further details are provided below.

You may find the 'Mark Completed Yesterday' script included in my Miscellaneous OmniFocus Plug-ins to be useful in conjunction with this plug-in.

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

Running a report for a day other than today

Although this plug-in will allow a report to be run for any period of time, the Day One URL scheme does not allow for a day to be specified (nor does Drafts). Therefore, the report will be added ton the current date at the current time. This can then be edited in Day One if desired.

Also bear in mind that if a report is run for a date in the past, tasks will only be included in the report if they are still in the database (e.g. if tasks from that date have been archived they will not appear in the report).

Other

Refer to 'issues' for other known issues and planned changes/enhancements.

Installation & Set-Up

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

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

1. Download the latest release.
2. Unzip the downloaded file.
3. Move the .omnifocusjs file to your OmniFocus plug-in library folder (or open it to install).
4. Configure your preferences using the Preferences action. (Note that to run this action, no tasks can be selected.)

For instructions on adding additional actions to run custom reports or different URL schemes, refer to Adding New Actions in the Actions section below.

The Report

By default, a report similar to the below is produced in Markdown and sent to the desired destination.

Actions

This plug-in bundle contains three actions, To Day One, To Drafts, and Copy To Clipboard. In all three cases, the action:

1. Asks the user to select a day for the report. The options are:

   • Today (default)

   • Yesterday

   • Other Date - If this is selected, the user will also be prompted for a specific date. Note that OmniFocus date parsing can be used. (A time is shown but may be ignored.)

   • Custom Period - If this is selected, the user will also be prompted to enter a start and end time. Note that OmniFocus date parsing can be used. (In this case, the specific times will be used.)

2. Identifies tasks that have been completed on the entered date (in the first three cases) or between the specified times (if a Custom Period is entered), provided they do not have any of the tags from the tagsToExclude list set up in the configuration. If showTopLevelOnly is set to true in the configuration file, this stops at the top-level task that has been completed; e.g if a task or project "Buy groceries" has subtasks "Buy potatoes" and "Buy milk", only "Buy groceries" will be included in the final list. If this is set to false, the report will include all completed tasks that do not have children, or whose children are all hidden.

3. Generates a report including those tasks in Markdown, with:

   • A h1 heading such as Tasks Completed on Mon Dec 23 2019 (for the first three options, or if the custom period begins and ends on the same date) or Tasks Completed from Mon Dec 23 2019 to Wed Dec 25 2019.

   • (If includeFolderHeadings is set to true) a bold heading for each top-level folder (where the folder has completed tasks)

   • (If includeProjectHeadings is set to true) an italic heading for each project (where the project has completed tasks).

   • A list of completed tasks, grouped under the applicable folder and project headings if shown (Note that the root project task will not be included in the 'task' listing if a project heading is already shown.) If there are multiple tasks (or projects, where project headings are shown) with the same name in a row (for example as the result of a repeating task) the task will only be listed once with (for example) (x5) appended.

It also contains a Preferences action.

Preferences

This action allows the user to set the preferences for the plug-in. These sync between devices using the Synced Preferences plug-in linked above. Currently, the available preferences are:

• Day One Journal Name The name of the Day One journal for the report to be sent to.

• Show Top Level Only If this option is checked, the report will stop at the top-level task that has been completed; e.g if a task or project "Buy groceries" has subtasks "Buy potatoes" and "Buy milk", only "Buy groceries" will be included in the final list. If this is unchecked, the report will include all completed tasks that do not have children, or whose children are all hidden. By default, only the top level is shown.

• Include Folder Headings If this option is checked, the report will include folder headings. By default, folder headings are included.

• Include Project Headings If this option is checked, the report will include project headings. By default, project headings are not included.

• Bullet Point This is a string to be used as the bullet point before each task in the report.

• Tags To Exclude Tasks that have these tags will be excluded from the report.

• Projects To Exclude Tasks from these projects will be excluded from the report.

To Day One

This action generates the report as described above and sends it to the Day One journal specified as dayOneJournalName in the configuration (using Day One's URL scheme). The report is shown in Day One.

To Drafts

This action generates the report as described above and creates a new draft in Drafts (using the Drafts URL scheme).

Copy To Clipboard

This action generates the report as described above, copies it to the clipboard, and shows an alert when this has been completed.

Adding New Actions

Given a particular URL scheme, a new action can be added by:

1. Creating an additional sendToSomewhere.js file in the Resources folder of this bundle with code similar to the sample code below; for a basic case, all that needs to be changed is the urlTemplate = URL line (to reflect the URL scheme of the app you are using). The placeholder {{LIST}} can be used where the list needs to go.
2. Creating an additional sendToSomewhere.strings file in the Resources/en.lproj folder of this bundle. Its content should be similar to the existing .strings files.
3. Add { "identifier": "sendToDrafts" } to the actions array in manifest.json.

If you do create a new action, consider creating a pull request so that it can be included here for others to use.

Sample code:

(() => {
  const action = new PlugIn.Action(function (selection, sender) {
    const lib = this.completedReportLib

    const urlTemplate = 'someapp://post?entry={{LIST}}'

    lib.promptAndRunReport(urlTemplate)
  })

  action.validate = function (selection, sender) {
    // only valid if nothing is selected - so does not show in share menu
    return selection.tasks.length === 0 && selection.projects.length === 0
  }

  return action
})()

Functions

This plug-in bundle also contains several functions in the completedReportLib which may be useful in adapting it to fit your own needs or in creating other plug-ins.

loadSyncedPrefs ()

This function loads the synced preferences for the 'Completed Task Report' plug-in.

getExcludedTags ()

This function returns an array of excluded tags, as set in the preferences. If no preference has been set, it returns an empty array.

getExcludedProjects ()

This function returns an array of excluded projects, as set in the preferences. If no preference has been set, it returns an empty array.

getDayOneJournalName ()

This function returns a string containing the Day One journal name, if it has been set in the preferences. If it has not been set, a form is shown prompting the user for the name of the journal and the entered string is saved in preferences.

getShowTopLevelOnly ()

This function returns a boolean value reflecting whether the 'Show Top Level Only' preference has been set. If no preference has been set, this defaults to true.

getIncludeFolderHeadings ()

This function returns a boolean value reflecting whether the 'Include Folder Headings' preference has been set. If no preference has been set, this defaults to true.

getIncludeProjectHeadings ()

This function returns a boolean value reflecting whether the 'Include Project Headings' preference has been set. If no preference has been set, this defaults to true.

getBulletPoint ()

This function returns a string containing the bullet point that has been set in preferences. If no prefernce has been set, this defaults to ' * '.

getTasksCompletedBetweenDates (startDate, endDate)

This function takes a start time and end time (in the Date format) as input and returns an array of the tasks that have been completed between the two times.

makeDateHeading (startDate, endDate)

This function produces a markdown heading using the provided start and end dates.

getMarkdownReport (heading, tasksCompleted)

This function takes a heading and an array of tasks as input, and returns a string which is a report listing the tasks (in Markdown format).

runReportForPeriod (startDate, endDate, templateUrl)

This function takes a start time and end time as input (in the Date format) as well as a string which uses a URL scheme. The placeholder {{LIST}} can be used in the URL to indicate where the Markdown list of tasks which have been completed between the two times should be included.

The function will generate the Markdown list using getMarkdownReport and then call the specified URL.

Special case: If the templateURL is set to 'CLIPBOARD' the report will instead be copied to the clipboard.

promptAndRunReport (templateUrl)

This function will complete steps 1-3 directly under Actions above (most noteably prompting the user for input), then call runReportForPeriod to create the report.