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B.3 Pulling from MobileOrg

When MobileOrg synchronizes with the server, it not only pulls the Org files for viewing. It also appends captured entries and pointers to flagged and changed entries to the file mobileorg.org on the server. Org has a pull operation that integrates this information into an inbox file and operates on the pointers to flagged entries. Here is how it works:

  1. Org moves all entries found in mobileorg.org1 and appends them to the file pointed to by the variable org-mobile-inbox-for-pull. Each captured entry and each editing event will be a top-level entry in the inbox file.
  2. After moving the entries, Org will attempt to implement the changes made in MobileOrg. Some changes are applied directly and without user interaction. Examples are all changes to tags, TODO state, headline and body text that can be cleanly applied. Entries that have been flagged for further action will receive a tag :FLAGGED:, so that they can be easily found again. When there is a problem finding an entry or applying the change, the pointer entry will remain in the inbox and will be marked with an error message. You need to later resolve these issues by hand.
  3. Org will then generate an agenda view with all flagged entries. The user should then go through these entries and do whatever actions are necessary. If a note has been stored while flagging an entry in MobileOrg, that note will be displayed in the echo area when the cursor is on the corresponding agenda line.
    ?
    Pressing ? in that special agenda will display the full flagging note in another window and also push it onto the kill ring. So you could use ? z C-y C-c C-c to store that flagging note as a normal note in the entry. Pressing ? twice in succession will offer to remove the :FLAGGED: tag along with the recorded flagging note (which is stored in a property). In this way you indicate that the intended processing for this flagged entry is finished.

If you are not able to process all flagged entries directly, you can always return to this agenda view2 using C-c a ?.

Footnotes

[1] mobileorg.org will be empty after this operation.

[2] Note, however, that there is a subtle difference. The view created automatically by M-x org-mobile-pull <RET> is guaranteed to search all files that have been addressed by the last pull. This might include a file that is not currently in your list of agenda files. If you later use C-c a ? to regenerate the view, only the current agenda files will be searched.