README.md

otdb: org-table Database

This package uses Emacs org-mode tables to assist storing relatively small amounts of user-collected data and perform any calculations required. The two current applications manage detailed ingredient lists for recipes (the cooking variety) and equipment lists for backpacking trips.

The motivation for the recipe application was the frustration of it not being straightforward to calculate useful cost and nutritional information for home cooked food. With this application, up to several dozen variations on a menu plan are easily compared and matched to current needs.

The motivation for the backpacking gear application arose from the frustration of too many trips with overweight and/or under-equipped backpacking loads. For the solo backing done by the developer (akroshko), it has been especially important to get all factors correct when trip planning. Up to several dozen variations on a pack load can be easily examined for iterative finding the best combination of equipment for a specific trip.

Mobile applications, such as Paprika for storing recipes, are now quite capable and mature. However, I (akroshko) still prefer to edit and store the data as a text file. This also has advantages for both portability and archival purposes.

Requirements

This package requires a standard Emacs installation, of course. It has mostly tested with the current Emacs 25 package on Debian Linux (Stretch).

The library from http://github.com/akroshko/cic-emacs-common is the only additional Emacs requirement. Particularly important is the tblel.el, which supports functions that act directly on the Emacs Lisp representation of Emacs org-mode tables. The git version control system is an optional requirement to using the installation instructions below.

Installation

The library from http://github.com/akroshko/cic-emacs-common can be installed using the command:

git clone https://github.com/akroshko/cic-emacs-common.git ../cic-emacs-common

meeting the assumption of the sample configuration file otdb-sample-config.el that cic-emacs-common it is in a sibling directory of this package.

Basic usage

The backpacking-recipes, gear, and recipes directories contain some sample database files, recipes, and gear collections. Launch Emacs with the command emacs -q --load otdb-sample-init.el to try the otdb package out. Ensure the aforementioned cic-emacs-common library is at ../cic-emacs-common/, or modify the otdb-sample-init.el file accordingly.

Go to any of the directories mentioned in the previous paragraph, open a .org file that does not contain -database in the name. Use otdb-table-recalculate (s-d *) to do a lookup in the database for all items in the table at point and recalculate, where s- is the super key. If the super key is not defined for a particular system, then remap the keys in otdb-table.el or call the appropriate commands using M-x. Use one, two, or three C-u prefixes with otdb-table-recalculate (s-d *) to respectively recalculate for the current file, current directory, or current directory three times.

New table rows, recipes, or gear collections are added manually for now but the names of ingredients/items/recipes/gear collections can be inserted with otdb-table-goto-key-in-database (s-d d).

The recipe at point can be exported with M-x otdb-recipe-export and a set of recipes in a table can be exported with M-x otdb-recipe-export-multiple. There are no default key sequences to perform export yet so the menu shuld be used.

Other functionality is also in the pull-down menu.

Complete Description

Recipes

The food database stores ingredients in an org-mode table, and includes information on cost, calories, and macro-nutrients. The recipes themselves are also specified by org-mode tables with one ingredient or a component recipe (a recipe used within the current recipe) on each table row. A single key sequence then queries both the cost and nutritional values in the food database and performs the necessary calculations. Nested recipes allow, for example, the cost/nutritional value of part of a tomato sauce recipe to be used in a lasagna recipe. This can easily be expanded into full menu plans based solely on data about the individual ingredients. Even when cooking completely from scratch with a partially complete database, many different tradeoffs concerning cost/calories/etc. can be readily examined.

Screenshots

Backpacking gear

The backpacking gear database stores individual items in an org-mode table, and includes the weight and cost of purchase. The gear collections themselves (equivalent to the recipes above) are also specified by org-mode tables with one item or a gear collection (nested like the component recipes above) on each table row. A single key sequence can then be used to query both the weight and cost values in the database and performs the necessary calculations. Nested gear collections allow easy comparisons of different substitutions of gear collections, e.g., different first-aid/repair/kitchen kits, in order to explore and quantify any tradeoffs. This can be easily extended into large nested collections of gear based solely on data about the individual items.

Screenshots

New development that needs to be documented

• generating temporary buffers with list of items matching tags, regex, or that have been checked (uses the "s-d c" keybinding)

Planned development

TODO: hardcopy for travelling where electronics is not doable

• templates/keys to create a recipe/collection and to insert a line

• export to nicely formatted .html

• export gear collections and checklists

• improve export to .pdf, collections of recipes with one recipe per page

• export to .pdf for mobile devices or hardcopy for convenience while working or travelling

• more complete agenda integration with better testing

• give a range of values when optional ingredients are included or excluded

• more convenient ways to query recipes/gear collections for tablet/laptop/mobile

• incorporate an SQL database for data manipulation, while still retaining the org-mode based editing and storage