How to write a complex function for binding on a global hotkey?

Question

I would like to set a global hotkey in Emacs to perform a org-clock-in for a defined task in a defined file. This means that I have to open the file ~/org/main.org, then go to the beginning of the buffer, then find the first occurrence of "Some Task", then go to the beginning of the line and running org-clock-in and then save the file. At the same time I must remain in the current buffer at the cursor position. How can I do this?

Answer 1

You should probably look at the documentation of orgmode agenda views before coding your own todo list. There is already a global TODO list available. See also the variable org-agenda-files.

Nevertheless, the following example code would do what you want. You can paste it into your init file.

(defvar valeriy-org-main-file "~/org/main.org"
  "My main org file.")

(defun valeriy-org-clock-in (task)
  "Clock in for TASK in `valeriy-org-main-file'."
  (interactive "sTask: ")
  (assert (file-readable-p valeriy-org-main-file) nil "File %s not existing." valeriy-org-main-file)
  (with-current-buffer (find-file-noselect valeriy-org-main-file)
    (save-excursion
      (let ((pos (org-find-exact-headline-in-buffer task)))
        (assert pos nil "Task %s not found in file %s." task valeriy-org-main-file)
        (goto-char pos)
        (org-clock-in)
        ;; maybe... (save-buffer)
        ))))


(global-set-key (kbd "C-c i") #'valeriy-org-clock-in)