Org-sync: Synchronize Org-mode Files with Bug Tracking systems

CAUTION This package is under a heavy reconstration, please be patient. Feel free to contribute!

Org-sync is a tool to synchronize online bugtrackers with org documents. It is made for relatively small/medium projects: I find Org documents are not really suited for handling large bug lists.

Org-sync was developed during the Google Summer of Code 2012, the original project page can be found on Worg: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/gsoc2012/student-projects/org-sync/.

Installation

The ordinal way to install Org-sync is to issue the command:

M-x package-install RET org-sync RET

You could use the bleeding edge version from the repository:

git clone https://github.com/arbox/org-sync.git

Put the org-sync directory in your load-path and load the org-sync backend you need. You can add this to your .emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "path/to/org-sync")
(mapc 'load
      '("org-sync" "org-sync-bb" "org-sync-github" "org-sync-redmine"))

Tutorial

After you have installed org-sync you need to import a working project.

First open a new org-mode buffer and run M-x org-sync-import. It prompts you for an URL. You can try my Github test repo: github.com/arbox/org-sync-test. Org-sync should import the issues from the repo.

Note: This is just a test repo, do not use it to report actual bugs.

Now, let's try to add a new issue. First you have to set a user/password to be able to modify the issue remotely.

Set the variable org-sync-github-auth to like so: (setq org-sync-github-auth '("ostesting" . "thisisostesting42"))

Make sure to use personal access token instead of password; it's more secure, and also necessary if you use 2FA.

Try to add another issue e.g. insert ** OPEN my test issue. You can type a description under it if you want.

The next step is simple, just run M-x org-sync. It synchronizes all the buglists in the document.

How to write a new backend

Writing a new backend is easy. If something is not clear, try to read the header in org-sync.el or one of the existing backend.

;; backend symbol/name: demo
;; the symbol is used to find and call your backend functions (for now)

;; what kind of urls does you backend handle?
;; add it to org-sync-backend-alist in org-sync.el:

(defvar org-sync-backend-alist
  '(("github.com/\\(?:repos/\\)?[^/]+/[^/]+"  . org-sync-github-backend)
    ("bitbucket.org/[^/]+/[^/]+"              . org-sync-bb-backend)
    ("demo.com"                               . org-sync-demo-backend)))

;; if you have already loaded org-sync.el, you'll have to add it
;; manually in that case just eval this in *scratch*
(add-to-list 'org-sync-backend-alist (cons "demo.com" 'org-sync-demo-backend))

;; now, in its own file org-sync-demo.el:

(require 'org-sync)

;; this is the variable used in org-sync-backend-alist
(defvar org-sync-demo-backend
  '((base-url      . org-sync-demo-base-url)
    (fetch-buglist . org-sync-demo-fetch-buglist)
    (send-buglist  . org-sync-demo-send-buglist))
  "Demo backend.")


;; this overrides org-sync--base-url.
;; the argument is the url the user gave.
;; it must return a cannonical version of the url that will be
;; available to your backend function in the org-sync-base-url variable.

;; In the github backend, it returns API base url
;; ie. https://api.github/reposa/<user>/<repo>

(defun org-sync-demo-base-url (url)
  "Return proper URL."
  "http://api.demo.com/foo")

;; this overrides org-sync--fetch-buglist
;; you can use the variable org-sync-base-url
(defun org-sync-demo-fetch-buglist (last-update)
  "Fetch buglist from demo.com (anything that happened after LAST-UPDATE)"
  ;; a buglist is just a plist
  `(:title "Stuff at demo.com"
           :url ,org-sync-base-url

           ;; add a :since property set to last-update if you return
           ;; only the bugs updated since it.  omit it or set it to
           ;; nil if you ignore last-update and fetch all the bugs of
           ;; the repo.

           ;; bugs contains a list of bugs
           ;; a bug is a plist too
           :bugs ((:id 1 :title "Foo" :status open :desc "bar."))))

;; this overrides org-sync--send-buglist
(defun org-sync-demo-send-buglist (buglist)
  "Send BUGLIST to demo.com and return updated buglist"
  ;; here you should loop over :bugs in buglist
  (dolist (b (org-sync-get-prop :bugs buglist))
    (cond
      ;; new bug (no id)
      ((null (org-sync-get-prop :id b)
        '(do-stuff)))

      ;; delete bug
      ((org-sync-get-prop :delete b)
        '(do-stuff))

      ;; else, modified bug
      (t
        '(do-stuff))))

  ;; return any bug that has changed (modification date, new bugs,
  ;; etc).  they will overwrite/be added in the buglist in org-sync.el

  ;; we return the same thing for the demo.
  ;; :bugs is the only property used from this function in org-sync.el
  `(:bugs ((:id 1 :title "Foo" :status open :desc "bar."))))

That's it. A bug has to have at least an id, title and status properties. Other recognized but optionnal properties are :date-deadline, :date-creation, :date-modification, :desc. Any other properties are automatically added in the PROPERTIES block of the bug via prin1-to-string and are read back by org-sync. All the dates are regular emacs time object. For more details you can look at the github backend in org-sync-github.el.

More information

You can find more in the org-sync.el commentary headers.