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+#+TITLE: Org Agenda As My New Tab Page
+#+DATE: 2021-01-14T01:25:33-05:00
+#+DRAFT: false
+#+DESCRIPTION: How to I keep an updated version of my org agenda as my new tab page
+#+TAGS[]: emacs org-mode agenda
+#+KEYWORDS[]: emacs org-mode agenda
+#+SLUG:
+#+SUMMARY:
+
+#+ATTR_HTML: :title An example output from agenda-html
+#+ATTR_HTML: :alt An example output from agenda-html
+[[file:cover.png]]
+
+I absolutely love [[https://orgmode.org/][org mode]]. I use it extensively almost every day to
+keep track of tasks and due dates, both for my personal life and at
+work. A lot of this workflow centres around the [[https://orgmode.org/features.html#agendas][org agenda]], which
+compiles all the current and upcoming tasks and due dates from several
+files into a single view.
+
+The only gripe I had with it was that I had to be within Emacs to use
+it. This wasn't a deal breaker, but there were often times when I
+wanted to check my agenda, but I wasn't already in Emacs. In those
+cases I had to open Emacs and pull up the agenda. This felt a little
+clunky for something I may check a dozen times every day.
+
+The solution I came up with was a way to automatically generate and
+export an HTML version of my agenda every 15 minutes on my server.
+That way I can serve it over HTTP and access it on all my devices.
+They're also password protected so that strangers on the internet
+can't access my data.
+
+The heart of this system is a small set of scripts I wrote called
+[[https://github.com/dantecatalfamo/agenda-html][agenda-html]], which let you export a fully fontified view of the org
+agenda to HTML without having to open Emacs in a terminal. This means
+it can be easily scripted.
+
+My org mode files are synchronized between my machines using a
+self-hosted [[https://nextcloud.com/][Nextcloud]] instance. This means that I have access to all
+my up to date org documents on a remote machine, which will come in
+handy very soon.
+
+To start setting things up, I first cloned [[https://github.com/dantecatalfamo/agenda-html][agenda-html]] onto the server
+which hosts my Nextcloud.
+
+I edited =config.el= and set the location of the org files I wanted
+included in the agenda. These files are located inside of the
+Nextcloud storage directory. This would typically be somewhere like
+=/var/www/nextcloud/data/<user>/files/Org=. I then set the output for
+HTML to be =/var/www/html/agenda/agenda.html=, so that it is served by
+=nginx=.
+
+To protect the =/agenda= path, I then put it behind basic auth.
+
+To do this I downloaded =apache2-utils= for the =htpasswd= tool and
+used it to generate an =htpasswd= file at =/etc/nginx/htpasswd=.
+
+#+begin_src sh
+htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/htpasswd <user>
+#+end_src
+
+I then opened the site's nginx config file in my text editor and
+added these lines.
+
+#+begin_src js
+location /agenda {
+         auth_basic "Agenda Files";
+         auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/htpasswd;
+}
+#+end_src
+
+Then I reloaded =nginx=.
+
+#+begin_src shell
+nginx -s reload
+#+end_src
+
+
+Finally I edited root's crontab to run =agenda-html.sh= every 15
+minutes, using this line.
+
+#+begin_src
+*/15 * * * * /root/agenda-html/agenda-html.sh
+#+end_src
+
+Now every 15 minutes the latest version of my org files are pulled
+from my Nextcloud storage and exported as an HTML file, which I can
+view from any device. I'm also able to set as the new tab page in my
+browser. I'm even able to check it from my phone, or any other device
+that doesn't have Emacs installed.