To take advantage of the special EccoEXT features there are certain input rules that must be followed.  The inten is that all entries may be made in the Calandar or the TO-Do folder with automatic assignment to the various folders depending on the entry.  The reason for the data structure was to facilitate data entry on a Palm calandar device where the seperate folders are not included and then after syncronization the data may be extracted and placed into the appropriate folers.

luacmd.lua
function dependssequential()
--
-- this script sequentially will assign a selected item to be dependant on the next selected item
--
-- Version 1.0
-- February 2, 2008
-- Albert Schepers
--
NumberItems=get_select_items()
MaxNumber=table.maxn(NumberItems)
--
-- verify that there are more than one item selected
--
if MaxNumber <= 1 then
 msgbox("Need more than one itme selected","Error 001")
else
--
-- Loop to add dependancies
--
for inc1 = 1,MaxNumber-1 do
    add_depend_item(NumberItems[inc1+1],NumberItems[inc1])
end
end
end


function dependsmany()
--
-- this script will assign all selected items to be dependant on the last item selected
--
-- Version 1.0
-- February 1, 2008
-- Albert Schepers
--
NumberItems=get_select_items()
MaxNumber=table.maxn(NumberItems)
--
-- verify that there are more than one item selected
--
if MaxNumber <= 1 then
 msgbox("Need more than one itme selected","Error 001")
else
--
-- Loop to add dependancies
--
for inc1 = 1,MaxNumber-1 do
    add_depend_item(NumberItems[MaxNumber],NumberItems[inc1])
end
end
end


function dependsone()
--
-- this script will assign to all selected items to be dependant on the first item selected
--
-- Version 1.0
-- February 1, 2008
-- Albert Schepers
--
NumberItems=get_select_items()
MaxNumber=table.maxn(NumberItems)
--
-- verify that there are more than one item selected
--
if MaxNumber < 1 then
 msgbox("Need more than one itme selected","Error 001")
else
--
-- Loop to add dependancies
--
for inc1 = 2,MaxNumber do
    add_depend_item(NumberItems[inc1],NumberItems[1])
end
end
end

function ProjectToITT()
NumberItems=get_select_items() -- get the item ids of all selected items
MaxItems=table.maxn(NumberItems) -- determine the total number of selected items
for ctr=1, MaxItems do
 set_item_text(NumberItems[ctr],"#"..get_folder_value("Project",NumberItems[ctr]).." "..get_item_text(NumberItems[ctr]))
end
end


function JobCostAlbert() -- function name note the () at the end of the name
name="Albert Schepers" -- employee name
folder="P:\\common\\" -- set the directory into which the data file will be placed
file=folder..name..".txt" -- create a txt file name from the folder and emplyee name
io.output(file,"w+") -- open an empty file for output if file exists it will be emptied, this is done early to ensure an empty file should the extraction fail
NumberItems=get_select_items() -- get the item ids of all selected items
MaxItems=table.maxn(NumberItems) -- determine the total number of selected items
if get_folder_value("Appointments",NumberItems[1])=="" then
 msgbox("Invalid Selection\nNot a TLI (no Appointment date)","error 1")
else -- line 8
 if MaxItems > 0 then -- A checks to see if there are one or more items
   h1="Date" -- all the hn variables are the header row for teh output data
   h2=",".."Start Time"
   h3=",".."End Time"
   h4=",".."Employee Name"
   h5=",".."Project Number"
   h6=",".."Work Description"
   h7=",".."Regular Hours"
   h8=",".."Overtime 1"
   h9=",".."Overtime 2"
   h10=",".."Mileage"
   h11=",".."Expense Amount"
   h12=",".."Expense Type"
   h13=",".."Equipment Time"
   h14=",".."Equipment Description"
   h15=",".."Consumable Quantity"
   h16=",".."Consumable Description"
   h17=",".."Reimbursable Amount"
   h18=",".."Reimbursible Description"
   header=h1..h2..h3..h4..h5..h6..h7..h8..h9..h10..h11..h12..h13..h14..h15..h16..h
17..h18.."\n"
   io.write(header) -- store the header row in the open data file
   ctr1=1 -- set the counter to 1 for the while loop
   while ctr1 <= MaxItems do
datetime=get_folder_value("Appointments",NumberItems[ctr1])
if datetime~="" then -- check to see if the date has no value and if true set variables for following lines
 date=datetime
 starttime=tonumber(string.sub(datetime,9,12))
 stoptime=tonumber(string.sub(datetime,14,17))
 project=get_folder_value("Project",NumberItems[ctr1])
else -- line 35 -- if it has no value then set the start and stop times to null
 stoptime=""
 starttime=""
end -- line 35
text=get_item_text(NumberItems[ctr1])
if string.sub(text,1,1)=="#" or string.sub(text,1,1)=="$" then -- get rid of the front end of the text if it starts with #
 if string.sub(text,1,3)=="#m " or string.sub(text,1,3)=="#M " then
   text=text.." Mileage" -- add "Mileage" to the string if it represents mileage (#m)
 end  -- line 46
 text=string.match(text,"%s%a\.*") -- regex expression that replaces the text with the end of the string
end  -- line 45
ptr1=ctr1 -- set pointer to current item
j=ctr1
while j<MaxItems do -- do loop to concatenate text based on the next item text not starting with a #
 ctr1=j
 nexttext=get_item_text(NumberItems[j+1])
 nextdate=get_folder_value("Appointments",NumberItems[j+1])
 first = string.sub(nexttext,1,1)
 if first =="#"  or first =="$" then
   j=MaxItems
 else
   if nextdate=="" then
text=text.." "..nexttext
   else -- line 58
j=MaxItems -- exit the loop pas the next item is a TLI, the Appoinments folder has value
   end -- line 58
 end -- line 57
 j=j+1 -- increment the cocatenation loop (j)
end -- line 51
f1='"'..date..'"'
f2=',"'..starttime..'"'
f3=',"'..stoptime..'"'
f4=',"'..name..'"'
f5=',"'..project..'"'
f6=',"'..text..'"'
f7=','..get_folder_value("Reg",NumberItems[ptr1])
f8=','..get_folder_value("OT1",NumberItems[ptr1])
f9=','..get_folder_value("OT2",NumberItems[ptr1])
f10=','..get_folder_value("Mileage",NumberItems[ptr1])
f11=','..get_folder_value("Expense Amount",NumberItems[ptr1])
f12=',"'..get_folder_value("Expense Type",NumberItems[ptr1])..'"'
f13=',"'..get_folder_value("Equipment Time",NumberItems[ptr1])..'"'
f14=',"'..get_folder_value("Equipment Description",NumberItems[ptr1])..'"'
f15=','..get_folder_value("Consumable",NumberItems[ptr1])
f16=',"'..get_folder_value("Consumable Description",NumberItems[ptr1])..'"'
f17=','..get_folder_value("Reimbursable",NumberItems[ptr1])
f18=',"'..get_folder_value("Reimbursable Description",NumberItems[ptr1])..'"'
    data=f1..f2..f3..f4..f5..f6..f7..f8..f9..f10..f11..f12..f13..f14..f15..f16..f17.
.f18.."\n"
io.write(data)
ctr1=ctr1+1 -- increment the counter
   end -- line 33 -- end of the while loop
 else -- line 11
   msgbox("No items selected","error 2")
 end -- line 11
end -- line 8
io.close()
msgbox("Click on enter to finish","Last Message")
end -- line 1 function end