Mimic org-capture for seting variables

Question

I like the way org-capture works, it promotes a buffer for selecting predefined templates. I am trying to do something similar for setting variables.

For example, I have three HTML themes, one for office, one general use, and one for journal. I am trying to define a choose-html-themes() function which has similar behaviour.

I defined a list of options,

(setq html-themes-list 
  '((Office . "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" ..... " )
    (General . "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" ..... ")
    (Journal . "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" ..... "))

When I call choose-html-themes function, then type

• "o" to set the /entry/ variable to "Office"
• "g" to "General"
• "j" to "Journal".

Then it will look up the list using entry as key, and set the org-html-head variable to the returning value, something like

(setq org-html-head (assoc entry html-themes-list))

I wonder how to popup a buffer, and capture keyboard input from that buffer?

Answer 1

Use completing-read. See C-h f completing-read.

(let* ((user-input  (completing-read "Theme: " html-themes-list nil t))
       (theme-link  (cdr (assoc user-input html-themes-list))))
  (DO-SOMETHING-WITH theme-link))