Need to refresh org-ql-view buffers in order to see any results

[apc]

Very often, when I run org-ql-search, I get no results back when clearly there should be some. And indeed, running org-ql-view-refresh once shows the results I expect. Puzzlingly, this doesn't happen all the time, but I haven't yet noticed a pattern.

I noticed this change in behavior a few months ago but I still haven't managed to find the source of it. And annoyingly, each time I've tried using edebug to step through org-ql-search and see whether I can understand what's going on, the behavior in question goes away.

I'm now just looking for hints on places to look in order to figure out why this is happening.

[apc]

OK, just to add that the behavior in question seems to only happen when using the :super-groups keyword. I'm assuming this thus has something to do with when org-super-agenda-mode is enabled? I've tried making sure that org-super-agenda is loaded before running org-ql-search and got the same results. See e.g.:

So I guess my question is what is the best way of configuring org-ql and org-super-agenda-mode so that org-super-agenda-mode is enabled when needed. At the moment, I have a org-agenda-mode-hook call org-super-agenda-mode, but maybe that's not enough?

[alphapapa]

I've never seen this problem before, and I can't think of a reason for it. It's likely a configuration problem. So your first step should be to try to reproduce the problem in a clean configuration. You could use this script to help with that: https://github.com/alphapapa/makem.sh

[apc]

Thanks! I think I found the culprit, but I'm still not sure I fully understand. Right after the *Org QL View* buffer is displayed, the value of org-agenda-finalize-hook includes this function: org-super-agenda--hide-or-show-groups. The following minimal configuration seems to reproduce the problem I'm encountering:

(defvar bootstrap-version)
(let ((bootstrap-file
       (expand-file-name "straight/repos/straight.el/bootstrap.el" user-emacs-directory))
      (bootstrap-version 5))
  (unless (file-exists-p bootstrap-file)
    (with-current-buffer
        (url-retrieve-synchronously
         "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raxod502/straight.el/develop/install.el"
         'silent 'inhibit-cookies)
      (goto-char (point-max))
      (eval-print-last-sexp)))
  (load bootstrap-file nil 'nomessage))

(setq-default use-package-enable-imenu-support t)
(setq straight-use-package-by-default t)
(setq use-package-always-ensure t)

(straight-use-package 'use-package)

(use-package org-ql)

(use-package org-super-agenda)

(add-hook 'org-agenda-finalize-hook #'org-super-agenda--hide-or-show-groups)

The file I'm testing with is just this:

* Something
** Headline 1                                                           :tag:
:PROPERTIES:
:GROUP:    1
:END:
** Headline 2                                                           :tag:
:PROPERTIES:
:GROUP:    2
:END:
* Views
#+begin_src elisp :results output none
(org-ql-search (buffer-file-name)
  '(and (tags "tag")
        (level 2))
  :super-groups '((:auto-property "GROUP")))
#+end_src

Executing the block with the call to org-ql-search yields no results:

Now, I haven't yet figured out what is adding org-super-agenda--hide-or-show-groups to org-agenda-finalize-hook in my config. I have a bunch of spaghetti code involving origami and org-super-agenda that I'll need to sort through. But in the meantime perhaps you can tell me whether having org-super-agenda--hide-or-show-groups added to org-agenda-finalize-hook should be causing this kind of trouble?

Thanks again for your time. And thanks for everything you share here. My workflow is so dependent on org-super-agenda and org-ql that I don't know what I'd do without them!

[alphapapa]

See https://github.com/alphapapa/org-super-agenda/blob/ee3379ae92b90c084717fb2a7614060ce12283cb/org-super-agenda.el#L365-L369

You probably enabled org-super-agenda-hide-empty-groups.

Thanks again for your time. And thanks for everything you share here. My workflow is so dependent on org-super-agenda and org-ql that I don't know what I'd do without them!

Thanks for the kind words. I'm always glad to hear that these tools are useful. If you ever write up your workflow in a blog or something, I'd be interested to read about how you use them.

[apc]

Thanks! I now see what’s adding that function to org-agenda-finaliza-hook. One last question though: since there are no empty groups, why am I getting no results?

[alphapapa]

I don't know. I don't use that feature and I didn't develop it myself. I guess you should file a bug against org-super-agenda. If you do, please include important information like software versions. And I would recommend that you reproduce the problem using makem.sh instead of straight.