Is org-id-get-create always necessary in org-download-clipboard?

[okomestudio]

This is a question about the presence of the org-id-get-create function in org-download-clipboard.

At the following line

https://github.com/abo-abo/org-download/blob/master/org-download.el#L420

the function executes org-id-get-create, so that every time that I execute org-download-clipboard, it creates an ID property if it does not already exists.

I'd assume that this ID property creation is to ensure the existence of ID in case the Org attachment facility is in use (in which case ID is used to generate directory to store the attached content).

I use 'directory for org-download-method and save downloaded images to the current directory, so the extraneous ID creation is spurious in this use case. I use the package with org-roam and I have my own guideline as to whether an Org heading should have an ID or not.

Is there any harm in running the org-id-get-create conditionally only when org-download-methd is 'attach? Or are there any other ripple effects?

I could send in a patch and PR if desired.

[okomestudio]

I see that #219 is a similar request, though the proposed implementation seems different. Please feel free to merge this issue if that's more appropriate.

[brutal-force]

I really liked the decision to add the org-id-get-create function exactly the way it was implemented. It’s now enabled by default and can’t be turned off (of course, our hacker-level Elisp skills can solve many things... but still).

It seems like many people weren’t happy with this change, and there’s already a pull request proposing an option to disable it: https://github.com/abo-abo/org-download/pull/220/files. But when will this actually be merged? The issue requesting org-id-get-create to be added by default (#168) took three years to be considered. Maybe this new pull request will also take three years to get reviewed.

Of course, we can’t demand faster responses or insist on our preferences. But the fact that this change broke many people's workflows—and no one even asked us (though, to be fair, no one ever does)—is a bit frustrating.
@abo-abo

[ethernet-gravy]

@brutal-force I'm pretty new to emacs elisp. How would you stop org-id-get-create from running? I'm assuming it's through the advice keyword. I tried (advice-remove 'org-download-clipboard #'org-id-get-create) to no avail. Would you advice add a function that walks this back somehow instead? Is there an org-id-delete?

[rockneurotiko]

I think that just like org-attach has org-attach-use-inheritance to get the first heading that has an ID, and if it doesn't find one create one, org-download should use the same behaviour (maybe using the org-attach-use-inheritance if attach method is used, or with a new custom variable)

[Gleek]

Just to add another case where this breaks is in buffers that are not visiting file.
(org-id-get-create) requires a file visiting buffer. So downloading images from clipboard on such buffers errors out.

I face this, when pasting an image in gptel buffers to send images to LLMs. Those are usually temporary buffers and I face errors in doing so.

I've solved this by lexically overriding the org-id-get-create and calling my custom function instead

  (defun +org-download-clipboard (&optional basename)
    "Call `org-download-clipboard' with a custom `org-id-get-create` implementation.
If `org-download-method' is `'attach`, call the original `org-id-get-create`;
otherwise, do nothing."
    (interactive)
    (let ((orig-org-id-get-create (symbol-function 'org-id-get-create)))
      (cl-letf (((symbol-function 'org-id-get-create)
                 (lambda ()
                   (when (eq org-download-method 'attach)
                     (funcall orig-org-id-get-create)))))
        (org-download-clipboard basename))))