org-opml lets you edit OPML files using Org mode in Emacs.
Let’s break that down:
- OPML is a standardized XML file format for storing outlines.
- Org mode is an Emacs extension for editing outlines (among other things).
- Emacs is a powerful text editor and programming environment.
org-opml came about as Org mode’s outliner interface is just about
perfect, except I was looking for a way to save my outlines as OPML
rather than Org mode’s default file format of plain text with light
markup.
Here’s how it works:
Once org-opml is installed and you open an OPML file, it converts
the OPML to Org mode style text. Think stars for headlines, dashes for
list items, etc. This text is then displayed in Emacs and you can edit
it freely using Org mode.
When saving, the reverse happens. The displayed Org mode style text is converted to OPML and the result is written to disk.
So, in Emacs, you see Org mode. But on disk, it’s OPML.
I find this to be the best of both worlds. You get all the power of Emacs/Org mode to edit your outlines while the resulting file can be parsed using standard XML/OPML libraries.
- Handles headlines, plain list items, and paragraphs
- HTML entities (<, >, &, etc.) are safely escaped
- Can set
<outline>attributes via property drawers - Uses standard export settings in the
<head>element - Follows the OPML 2.0 specification
Until we get this on MELPA, you have a few options:
- Copy
org-opml.elandox-opml.elinto a directory in yourload-path - Update the path to
opml2org.py, if necessary - Then, in
~/.emacsput(load-library "org-opml") - Move your cursor after the last parenthesis and type
C-x C-e. Everything inorg-opml.elwill now be evaluated and you should be ready to start using it.
From caiorss on GitHub:
- Install el-get
- Execute this code in the scratch buffer to install the package. It is already the recipe.
;; Install https://github.com/org-opml/org-opml (el-get-bundle org-opml :type github :pkgname "org-opml/org-opml" :description "org-opml lets you edit OPML files using Org mode in Emacs." )
- Then add this line to ~/emacs.d/.init.el
(load-library "org-opml")
Clone this git repo somewhere, such as /home/user/org-opml/, then add the
following lines to your Elisp:
(setq org-opml-src "/home/user/org-opml/") (use-package ox-opml :ensure t :load-path org-opml-src) (use-package org-opml :ensure t :load-path org-opml-src)
org-opml consists of three files:
- ox-opml.el converts Org mode to OPML. It defines an OPML backend using Org mode’s export dispatcher.
- opml2org.py converts OPML to Org mode. It’s a Python script.
- org-opml.el handles all the necessary configuration.
Also, as ox-opml.el is built using Org mode’s export dispatcher, you
can perform a one-way Org mode -> OPML export by typing C-c C-e m in
an open Org mode file.