An Applescript that creates an Omnifocus project from a Tinderbox Note and reciprocally links them

[yggy (Will Farr)]

I almost always use Tinderbox to brainstorm topics and projects in order to figure out what I need to do, and then I track the actual project/tasks in Omnifocus. I wanted to automate the process of creating an Omnifocus project from a note, and copy/pasting reciprocal links between Omnifocus and Tinderbox.

This script:

• Creates a new project in Omnifocus named after the currently selected Tinderbox note of the frontmost open Tinderbox document.
• The “Notes” field of the new Omnifocus project contains the “$NoteURL” from the Tinderbox note.
• The Omnifocus project’s “task URL” is copied to the Tinderbox note’s “$URL”
• The Tinderbox Note’s “$KeyAttributes” is changed to “$URL;” (Note: I don’t bother with $KeyAttributes for this kind of brainstorming. If you don’t want a note’s $KeyAttributes replaced, you will have to modify this or delete the relevant line).
• The script colors the Tinderbox note (I just love that “poppy” color!) and gives it a badge so I can identify which notes I have added to Omnifocus.

Hopefully posting this helps anyone who has been looking for similar functionality in their workflow.

Applescript:

  tell application "Tinderbox 8"
	tell front document's selection
		set noteName to name
		set noteURL to value of (attribute named "NoteURL")
	end tell
end tell
tell front document of application "OmniFocus"
	set theProject to make new project with properties {name:noteName, note:noteURL}
	set omniTaskID to id of theProject
end tell
tell application "Tinderbox 8"
	tell front document's selection
		set value of (attribute named "Badge") to "link"
		set value of (attribute named "Color") to "poppy"
		set value of (attribute named "KeyAttributes") to "URL;"
		set value of (attribute named "URL") to ("omnifocus:///task/" & omniTaskID)
	end tell
end tell

[yggy (Will Farr)]

Thanks for the pre-formatted text tip! [Edited now!]

Regarding task creation:
AFAICT, the Omnifocus URL scheme doesn’t distinguish between tasks and projects. If I decide the project I created in OF via the script is a subtask of another project, moving it in OF doesn’t break the link. I do use this script to create new items in OF that I manually drag into projects as subtasks.

Some extensions or versions of the script I am planning on trying out (in order of personal usefulness):

• A version that looks through the contents of the Tinderbox note for child notes flagged somehow (e.g. a boolean attribute “$include_in_project”), and creates them as subtasks when invoking the script.
• Instead of creating a project in the top-level directory, a version of the script that looks to see if the Tinderbox note is the child of a Note already linked to an Omnifocus project, and creates the item as a sub-task of that project or task in OF.
• A version that works with multiple selected notes in Tinderbox. Right now it only works with a single selection.

If I implement any, I will update this thread.

Also, copying over due dates, start dates, etc. would be possible but I usually do all that kind of nitty-gritty in Omnifocus, so probably won’t ever bother.

[andreas (Andreas Grimm)]

What a nice contribution @yggy. Thank you!

Is it possible to scale in the sense of having all notes subordinated to the one note that – through your script – becomes an OmniFocus Project become subordinated tasks in the OmniFocus project as well?

[yggy (Will Farr)]

Thanks for the kind words!

I think the first bullet in my list of planned additions above describes what you suggest, but with an option to include/exclude. It is possible and planned, but I want to wait and use the script as it is for a bit first.

For my purposes, it may be an advantage to require a discrete action for every added task in Omnifocus. Very easily, my Omnifocus becomes less of a task manager and more of a hybrid task-manager / research collector / word processor / wish-list, and it becomes unpleasant to use.