How to get a list of keys for references that have notes?

[bdarcus]

I thought this would be straightforward, and it's possible I'm missing something, but I can't figure it out.

From a discussion on a related project.

Thoughts on this @roshanshariff @aikrahguzar?

EDIT: I linked a simple PR to make this easier.

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So you need a list keys for all entries that have associated notes?

E.g.:

("doe1" "doe2" "doe3")

That's all?

If so, could you not just take the code you reference above to filter the candidates, and from there extract the keys?

EDIT: maybe not. I'll dig a little.

Originally posted by @bdarcus in Vidianos-Giannitsis/zetteldesk.el#5 (comment)

[roshanshariff]

This function seems to do the trick:

(defun citar-get-keys-with-note (&optional force-rebuild-cache)
  (let ((candidates (citar--get-candidates force-rebuild-cache))
        (hasnotep (citar-has-note)))
    (seq-map #'cadr (seq-filter (pcase-lambda (`(_ ,citekey . ,entry))
                                  (funcall hasnotep citekey entry))
                                candidates))))

The seq-filter call gets the list of candidates that have notes, each element being of the form (candstring citekey . entry), and the seq-map extracts just the citekeys from that filtered list.

[roshanshariff]

Also, I didn't fully read the context of this request, but one thing to beware of if you're adding the "has-note" key to citation entries: the candidates are usually only refreshed when the bib file is updated on disk. If notes are created/deleted without the bib file being changed, the has-note information will get out of date.

That is avoided if you call citar--has-note freshly every time and use the returned predicate to filter. That'll make it scan your notes directory each time. I'm not sure if that matters in this case.

[bdarcus]

What is that pcase-lambda doing? Why is that needed?

Edit: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/53z616/no_examples_of_pcaselambda_online_so_heres_one

If notes are created/deleted without the bib file being changed, the has-note information will get out of date.

Yes; good point.

Hmm; need to think on that a bit.

[aikrahguzar]

If notes are created/deleted without the bib file being changed, the has-note information will get out of date.

I think citar-filenotify can handle this, add 'notes to the citar-filenotify-files.

[bdarcus]

think citar-filenotify can handle this, add 'notes to the citar-filenotify-files.

Yes, it can.

But the downside I can imagine is that's a more user-facing option, that a programmer wouldn't have any control of.

I suppose we could have both options?

[aikrahguzar]

But the downside I can imagine is that's a more user-facing option, that a programmer wouldn't have any control of.

I suppose we could have both options?

I don't understand what are the two options you are referring to. But it should be user option although I think default can be changed to '(bibliography notes). It won't hurt people like me who haven't set a notes path and if people with notes opted in to filenotify they probably want to have their notes taken into account?

[bdarcus]

I don't understand what are the two options you are referring to.

The linked PR (add cons cells to the candidate entries) and the suggestion from Roshan.

Or, as a more general solution, I was thinking maybe citar---get-candidates should allow a filter arg instead?

(seq-map #'cadr 
  (citar--get-candidates t (citar-has-note)))

That would allow a developer to filter the candidates however they want, and control the cache rebuilding too.

Edit: added to the PR 728e810.

But it should be user option although I think default can be changed to '(bibliography notes). It won't hurt people like me who haven't set a notes path and if people with notes opted in to filenotify they probably want to have their notes taken into account?

Now that I think about it, I'm not actually sure, TBH.

Maybe @Vidianos-Giannitsis can weigh in.

Edit: here replied in general Vidianos-Giannitsis/zetteldesk.el#5 (comment)