Introduction describing each chapter in order of their inclusion?

Question

In a report I have multiple chapters as separate tex files that I include by means of \input{chapter_title}. Furthermore I have a chapter 0 which deals as an introduction. The introduction shall contain a single paragraph for each chapter roughly describing what's written in the chapter. The order in which the chapters appear is not yet fixed and might change a couple of times. Since I'm a sort of lazy fellow I would like to have the short description paragraph in the actual chapter file and have the introduction chapter generate the order of the description paragraphs based on the order of the \input{chapter} calls.

Document class is scrreprt.

The description paragraphs of the chapters as they are defined in the chapter tex-files could look like this:

\<some_reference_to_current_chapter> describes...

or

In \<some_reference_to_current_chapter> ... will be explained. 

The references to the current chapter should be generated automatically so that the result is always in the order of the chapters and the chapter numbers in the description paragraphs as it is printed in the introduction chapter will always be consistent.

I assume this might possible by means of something similar to the table of contents, just not using the chapter headlines but the description paragraphs instead.

Is there an easy way to achieve this?

Answer 1

A first version without hyperlinking, the tcolorbox is just an option and can be removed.

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage[most]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{blindtext}

\makeatletter

\newcounter{chapterdesc}


\newcommand{\l@cd}[2]{%
  \begin{tcolorbox}[enhanced jigsaw, sharp corners, colback=white!60!yellow,colframe=red!80!black]
    In \cref{#1} we will see #2
  \end{tcolorbox}
}

\newcommand{\chapterdescription}[2]{%
  \addtocontents{cd}{\protect\contentsline{cd}{#1}{#2}}
}

\newcommand{\listofchapterdescriptions}{%
  \@starttoc{cd}
}

\makeatother


\usepackage{cleveref}


\begin{document}

\listofchapterdescriptions

\chapterdescription{foochapter}{This is the first 

chapter description}
\chapter{Foo}\label{foochapter}


\chapterdescription{somechapter}{\blindtext  

\blindtext}
\chapter{Third}\label{somechapter}

\chapterdescription{foobarchapter}{This is the second chapter description}
\chapter{Second}\label{foobarchapter}




\end{document}

Answer 2

You can use the tocloft package to create your own toc-like lists. Minimal example:

\documentclass[totocnumbered]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\usepackage[titles]{tocloft}
\newlistof{intro}{intro}{Introductions}
\newcommand{\introduction}[1]{%
    \refstepcounter{intro}%
    \addtocontents{intro}{#1}%
    \addtocontents{intro}{}%
}

\begin{document}

\listofintro

\section{First}
\label{sec:first}
\introduction{Chapter \ref{sec:first} has the first two paragraphs of \emph{Lorem ipsum}. This is a very interesting start to this document.}
\lipsum[1-2]

\section{Second}
\label{sec:second}
\introduction{In Chapter \ref{sec:second}, we find the third and fourth paragraph.}
\lipsum[3-4]

\end{document}

I didn't find an easy way to have a \thischapter (or so) macro that you can use in the introductions, however using the \label and \ref pair for the chapters should be fair enough. Also, this gives you correct hyperlinks (in case you want them).

Edit 1: If you also load the package subfigure, you have to load tocloft with the option subfigure:

\usepackage[titles,subfigure]{tocloft}

Edit 2: If you want to have the introductions without the "Introductions" headline (note that you can adjust this label), you can redefine (after the call of \newlistof) the \listofintro macro like this (credits):

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\listofintro{%
    \@starttoc{intro}%
}
\makeatother

A side effect is that you furthermore don't insert a page break before.