Better rule for an adornment

Agents, Actions and Automation
1

CleanShot 2025-08-15 at 08.23.08@2x
CleanShot 2025-08-15 at 08.23.08@2x2498×1358 93.5 KB

I currently have a rule inside an adornment:

$Total(adornment)=sum(find(inside(adornment)), $Price);

This works, but feels inefficient. Basically what I’m trying to do is have the $Total update every time a new pPurchase prototype is added to the adornment, adding the new note’s $Price to the adornment’s $Total.

Suggestions?

2

I wouldn’t worry about inefficiency until it becomes a factor. It might be an issue in a really large map, I suppose.

In a really large document, find() looks at every note, and you can do better with something like collect_if(children(/path/to/container), inside(adornment), $Path) instead of find(). But I’m not entirely sure that would be an improvement.

Another possibility is to drop the Rule and use an OnAdd action. That would keep a running total of all the purchases that had even been inside the adornment.

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3

I had a problem with children and adornments. Adornments know items inside() them are ‘on’ the adornment but those items aren’t AFICT detected as children†. Also an adornment might be a smart adornment so notes might come and go not just by the user moving them.

So, an adornment can an OnAdd and a lesser known/used OnRemove action. Moving a note onto the adornment fires OnAdd (code in $OnAdd & Action Inspector ‘Action’ sub-tab). Moving a note off the adornment fires OnRemove (code in $OnRemove & Action Inspector ‘Remove’ sub-tab). Actually, OnRemove doesn’t seem to work for a smart adornment‡. But for a ‘manual’ adornment we can do the following…

$OnAdd: $Total(adornment) = $Total(adornment)+$Price;

$OnRemove: $Total(adornment) = $Total(adornment)-$Price;

As a fallback in case things seem to be out of whack we can make a reset/re-calculate stamp:

Stamp ‘Reset count’: $Total = sum(find(inside(that)),$Price);

For instance if calling the adornment’s $Total in code you can, if cautious, first call a stamp. so if the adornment is called ‘Anna Dornment’, the code might include this:

...
stamp("Anna Dornment", "Reset count");
RunningTotal += $Total("Anna Dornment");
...

Here, using 10.2.0, is my test TBX: Of-totals.tbx (132.3 KB)

Things to try:

  • drag notes onto or off the adornment, check the adornment’s $Total changes/
  • run the stamp on the adornment: regardless of items or note, the $Total should be correct.

†. As the logic of what an adornment is does not allow for it to have children, it would be neat if an adornment evaluated a call for its children as inside(that).

‡. Testing in v10.2.0, smart adornment fire the OnAdd, but not the OnRemove. Whether this on oversight or intention (for agent performance tuning?) . I’m not sure, so pinging @eastgate: comment not sought here, we can pursue this on the Backstage if needed.

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