Re: Feature request: IDs for everything

[Tor Erlend Fjelde]

> Although we have at least one caveat that we need to consider - the
> current users of the id: links blindly assume that they always link to
> headings. This includes many third-party packages, like org-roam.
>
> If we simply allow id: links to point to non-headings, it will be a
> major breaking change that may affect third-party packages. So, we
> need to design the extended ids carefully to avoid breakage. For
> example, `org-id-find' and other API function may need to work in two
> modes: (1) legacy, only searching for headings; (2) new, searching for
> anything. This can, for example, be done via an extra optional argument.

This is a very good point, and definitively makes things non-trivial.
Nonetheless, I'd be happy to have a go at it if this seems like the way
to go! But I'll probably need quite a bit of help in the process as I
haven't contributed to Org before.

> As an alternative option, we had a proposal that extends id: links to
> have a search option:
>
>  [[id:<ID>:search-string]]
>
> Then, we may have top-level drawer like
>
> :PROPERTIES:
> :ID: unique-file-id
> :END:
>
> And then refer to anything inside the file as
>
>  [[id:unique-file-id:object-id-inside-the-file]]

Indeed; I was actually about to have a go at implementing this because
I thought this would be the quickest way of adding support for referencing
blocks in something like org-roam. But this does seem like a sub-optimal
solution vs. just adding support for more general IDs, and so I thought
it would be better to see if that could be done first (hence I'm here).

All the best,
Tor


On Sat, 21/10/2023, Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net> wrote:

> Tor Erlend Fjelde <tor.github@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I was wondering if there's a reason why we couldn't have IDs a la
>> org-id.el for everything? It seem to me that it would be useful to use
>> something like `#+ID` in place of `#+NAME` for tables, blocks, etc. as
>> well as headlines.
>
> This has been discussed in the past.
>
> Apart from #+NAME, we also have radio <<<targets>>> that can be used a
> link anchors (#+NAME or other affiliated keywords are not allowed, for
> example, in items).
>
> We also discussed linking to #+name and <<<target>>> globally, without
> specifying the file path.
>
>> Would this go against the intended design of
>> org-id.el, or is this a change that would be welcome but that no one
>> has gotten around to implementing yet?
>
> Mostly nobody has gotten around.
>
> Although we have at least one caveat that we need to consider - the
> current users of the id: links blindly assume that they always link to
> headings. This includes many third-party packages, like org-roam.
>
> If we simply allow id: links to point to non-headings, it will be a
> major breaking change that may affect third-party packages. So, we
> need to design the extended ids carefully to avoid breakage. For
> example, `org-id-find' and other API function may need to work in two
> modes: (1) legacy, only searching for headings; (2) new, searching for
> anything. This can, for example, be done via an extra optional argument.
>
> -----
>
> As an alternative option, we had a proposal that extends id: links to
> have a search option:
>
>  [[id:<ID>:search-string]]
>
> Then, we may have top-level drawer like
>
> :PROPERTIES:
> :ID: unique-file-id
> :END:
>
> And then refer to anything inside the file as
>
>  [[id:unique-file-id:object-id-inside-the-file]]
>
> -- 
> Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
> Org mode contributor,
> Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
> Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
> or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>