Chucky Eggs Nested Tasks, Structured Outlook Tasks for WM Professional and Classic |
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 Apr 30 2008, 21:50
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#41
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 Newbie  Group: Posters Posts: 6 Joined: 9th January 2008 Member No.: 342,471 Device(s): Cingular 2125 (HTC Faraday)  |
QUOTE(chucky.egg @ Apr 29 2008, 13:41)  ...but it wouldn't necessarily be able to re-build the nesting, because it won't know which tasks go into which Root task. Actually, I just rebuilt my trees by doing something similar to what I'm proposing. I went into the tasks and updated the task IDs from the old IDs to the new IDs. As long as you store the current task ID of the parents (what I called the ROOT tag) in the category tag (you can have more than one) you will be able to reconstruct. If you notice the ROOT tag of any to-do doesn't match the real record ID, all you have to do is search the to-dos for any occurrences of the ID number from the ROOT tag in the parent. All of the tasks that had the old task ID are the children of the task that doesn't match. Update their task IDs to the new value. Then you update the ROOT tag in the parent with the new task ID. I did this manually by grouping the tasks in Outlook and editing the tasks manually. Viola, next time I ran Nested Tasks the trees were back. QUOTE I don't mean to suggest you remove the Tree and give up, but the device (not your Exchange account or desktop Outlook) provides the Task ID, so with 2 devices you will always have this problem. I'm not planning on using two different devices. I was getting rid of WM6 because it was destroying my battery life. Same device, new OS. I won't be repeating the process. What I'm proposing is a way to detect and fix a corrupted tree. QUOTE I was thinking about using something else to establish the lineage. Some combination of the Task subject and it's ID (that would make the nesting more useful in Outlook too). The trouble is I can't seem to rely on ANYTHING (except the Task ID) remaining constant. That's why you store the task ID and when you notice it doesn't match, you can search for the children and update them all. QUOTE Filter / Search I've been thinking of these as 2 functions, but perhaps they are one - a search being a text filter instead of a Priority filter. What might be nice (depending on how many "branches" your tree has) is to keep the tree structure, but only return "leaf" tasks (those with no children) that match that Priority. You'll still get the context that way. How important is that context? depends on how any of us names our tasks I guess. I think for now I'll get a simple Filter set up (only returning matching tasks, making them root tasks) and see how that works. Anything is good. Thanks for your efforts. |
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Apr 30 2008, 22:49
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#42
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 Did I say that out loud?  Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
QUOTE If you notice the ROOT tag of any to-do doesn't match the real record ID, all you have to do is search the to-dos for any occurrences of the ID number from the ROOT tag in the parent. All of the tasks that had the old task ID are the children of the task that doesn't match. Sorry, just not following you at all. Repairing nesting is something worth doing, so I'd like to pursue it At the moment each Task has the ID of it's "parent" stored in its Categories field. If the stored ID does not match the ID of another Task, then the Task is an "orphan", and gets added to the root. I think you are suggesting each "parent" also stores the ID numbers of its "children"? Because (potentially) all of the IDs have changed you'd have to show it, for each "parent" ID, what the new "parent" should be. I can't rely on enough consistency to auto-rebuild by deduction. I'm working on the filtering at the moment (tearing my hair out!) and some bug fixes. New version in a few days probably. |
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May 1 2008, 13:54
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#43
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
Just finished adding Filtering (by Priority) functions and some bug fixes. What a nightmare!
I'm going to test it for a few days before I release it |
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May 2 2008, 11:08
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#44
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
New version: 0.6
Version 0.6 Change Log: 1. ADDED: Filter by Priority (eg Include High, Normal and exclude Low) 2. ADDED: Collapse Others function - collapse all but the currently selected Node 3. ADDED: Moved menus (left = Refresh, right = menu) in line with standards 4. FIXED: Changing Priority sometimes altered the displayed Subject (but not the actual Subject) 5. FIXED: Checking boxes not always marking Task as complete 6. FIXED: Unhandled Error when adding Task if NOT showing Completed Tasks 7. FIXED: Child nodes not always re-drawn when pasting Parent 8. FIXED: Save button not always working in Task edit screen 9. FIXED: Option to "start collapsed" logic was reversed (selected resulted in expanded instead) Please note: Future releases will be done through AppToDate. The CAB file is now hosted on a mini site, so I don't really want to have to upload it here too. I will try to remember to post an update to this thread though. |
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May 4 2008, 20:07
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#45
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
New version 0.6.1
Version 0.6.1 Change Log: 1. ADDED: Option: Show Start Date on menu 2. FIXED: Selected node in view after Expand All 3. FIXED: Prefixes for Start, Due dates not loading 4. FIXED: Action button opening wrong Task after paste 5. FIXED: Unchecking box not updating Task Completed status Download available now through AppToDate |
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May 4 2008, 20:46
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#46
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 The Main Man Group: Admin Team Posts: 20,593 Joined: 6th November 2002 From: Norwich, UK Member No.: 1 Device(s): HTC Advantage |
Just grabbed it, nice use of description field in AppToDate
 P -------------------- Paul O'Brien - Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices, MoDaCo.network Founder. Check out my Blog! £10 off a £20 spend at eXpansys - click for details |
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May 6 2008, 10:03
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#47
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
Yeah, I read ninodelsol's post and it seemed logical, not sure why I hadn't done it before TBH
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May 6 2008, 17:08
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#48
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Newbie Group: Posters Posts: 6 Joined: 9th January 2008 Member No.: 342,471 Device(s): Cingular 2125 (HTC Faraday) |
QUOTE(chucky.egg @ Apr 30 2008, 15:49) Sorry, just not following you at all. Repairing nesting is something worth doing, so I'd like to pursue it. I think you are suggesting each "parent" also stores the ID numbers of its "children"? No. A root has a different ID number tag, with "ROOT" rather than "TASK" in it. When you see "ROOT" in a category you know it's a root task. The number of the tag is the ID number OF THAT TASK, not the children. If it matches, no problem, nothing to see here, you can ignore it. IF IT DOES NOT MATCH THE TASK ID, nesting is blown. The ROOT id will tell you the OLD task number, and the task number OF THAT TASK is the new number. When I get some time, I'll draw you a picture. I'm not explaining it well, sorry. |
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May 6 2008, 18:16
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#49
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
Ahh, I see what you mean.
It should apply to all Tasks, not just the root Tasks, as any of them could be changed (in fact, after a re-sync it's quite possible that ALL of them will have changed). So every Task has a note of it's "original" Task ID, stored in that Task itself. If that note no longer matches its current ID you can do a replace on the "original" ID, and substitute the current ID, to rebuild the structure. Potentially tricky to implement. I'll have a look into it. Thanks for the suggestion, I do like the idea. |
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May 6 2008, 19:32
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#50
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Newbie Group: Posters Posts: 6 Joined: 9th January 2008 Member No.: 342,471 Device(s): Cingular 2125 (HTC Faraday) |
Here's a quick script of what I was envisioning. Pardon the Royal references.
CODE Original Tree 123 Elizabeth ROOT-123 124 Charles TASK-123 ROOT-124 126 William TASK-124 127 Henry TASK-124 125 Andrew TASK-123 ROOT-125 128 Beatrice TASK-125 129 Eugenie TASK-125 Blown Tree 500 Elizabeth ROOT-123 // Note ROOT != taskid -> subtree is blown 501 Charles TASK-123 ROOT-124 502 William TASK-124 503 Henry TASK-124 504 Andrew TASK-123 ROOT-125 505 Beatrice TASK-125 506 Eugenie TASK-125 Reconstruction of Tree, first pass (look for TASK-123 (we get this number from the ROOT-123 tag in task 500) and update to TASK-500) 500 Elizabeth ROOT-123 501 Charles TASK-500 ROOT-124 // TASK updated 502 William TASK-124 503 Henry TASK-124 504 Andrew TASK-500 ROOT-125 // TASK updated 505 Beatrice TASK-125 506 Eugenie TASK-125 Reconstruction of Tree, update root, look for other blown subtrees 500 Elizabeth ROOT-500 // ROOT now updated, children are now reattached 501 Charles TASK-500 ROOT-124 // Note ROOT != taskid -> subtree is blown 502 William TASK-124 503 Henry TASK-124 504 Andrew TASK-500 ROOT-125 505 Beatrice TASK-125 506 Eugenie TASK-125 Reconstruction of Tree, second pass (look for TASK-124 and update to TASK-501) 500 Elizabeth ROOT-500 501 Charles TASK-500 ROOT-124 502 William TASK-501 // TASK updated 503 Henry TASK-501 // TASK updated 504 Andrew TASK-500 ROOT-125 505 Beatrice TASK-125 506 Eugenie TASK-125 Reconstruction of Tree, update root, look for other blown subtrees 500 Elizabeth ROOT-500 501 Charles TASK-500 ROOT-501 // ROOT now updated, children are now reattached 502 William TASK-501 503 Henry TASK-501 504 Andrew TASK-500 ROOT-125 // Note ROOT != taskid -> subtree is blown 505 Beatrice TASK-125 506 Eugenie TASK-125 Reconstruction of Tree, third pass (look for TASK-125 and update to TASK-504) 500 Elizabeth ROOT-500 501 Charles TASK-500 ROOT-501 502 William TASK-501 503 Henry TASK-501 504 Andrew TASK-500 ROOT-125 505 Beatrice TASK-504 // TASK updated 506 Eugenie TASK-504 // TASK updated Reconstruction of Tree, update root, look for other blown subtrees (none, finished) 500 Elizabeth ROOT-500 501 Charles TASK-500 ROOT-501 502 William TASK-501 503 Henry TASK-501 504 Andrew TASK-500 ROOT-504 // ROOT now updated, children are now reattached 505 Beatrice TASK-504 506 Eugenie TASK-504 This post has been edited by All-Purpose Guru: May 6 2008, 19:35 |
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May 6 2008, 19:37
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#51
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Newbie Group: Posters Posts: 6 Joined: 9th January 2008 Member No.: 342,471 Device(s): Cingular 2125 (HTC Faraday) |
BTW, I should reiterate-- this app ROCKS. It does EXACTLY what I need, and works almost flawlessly.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH. |
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May 6 2008, 20:05
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#52
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
Thanks for the sample, I see what you mean.
Let me have some time to play with it, but in principal it should work. I like the idea, and it is something I wanted (having reset my own device and had to re-nest everything) so I'll see what I can do. QUOTE this app ROCKS. It does EXACTLY what I need, and works almost flawlessly. Thanks for that, much appreciated, but what do you mean "almost" flawlessly? Aside from re-structuring have you had any issues/errors that I've missed? |
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Aug 8 2008, 21:23
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#53
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Newbie Group: Posters Posts: 19 Joined: 24th March 2006 Member No.: 179,148 Device(s): C600 and Vario II |
QUOTE(All-Purpose Guru @ Apr 29 2008, 09:02) Hopefully it's an easy fix. I love this app; it's a cornerstone of how I get things done. I use this app as a main part of my GTD (Getting Things Done) methodology-- I was bemoaning the fact that "all I want is my tasks to appear in a heirarchy" and poof, there your app was. (Actually, I heard about it on the Modaco podcast.) I use Nested Tasks to show the heirarchy of projects (in GTD, any task with more than one step is a "project", which I create in a heirarchy in Nested Tasks) and the "Next Task" (which is the one thing that you have to do next) is the ONLY task in that heirarchy that is set to "High Priority". Firstly, Chucky Egg, this application is superb, especially as it continues to work with Exchange. So thanks. Two points/suggestions 1. As mentioned in the quoted, making use of this app for GTD is really useful. I have an idea for another application which allows emails to be converted straight into tasks thus keeping the inbox free of tasks. Maybe this could be part of your further development!? Not going to double post so see http://www.modaco.com/content/pocket-pc-software/271123/gtd-idea-looking-for-software-to-convert-email-straight-to-task/ 2. Can the link that appears on the Windows Mobile homepage for 'Tasks' point straight at your app rather than the standard application? i suspect this needs a registry change but have been unable to find a generic method. Maybe it could be an option for your nested task?! Thanks again! |
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Oct 8 2008, 02:37
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#54
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Newbie Group: Posters Posts: 1 Joined: 8th October 2008 Member No.: 435,076 |
I have found this extremely useful since I found this application. Thanks very much for this. Just a few questions/comments:
1. Is there any way to order tasks other than alphabetically? I have ended up adding "1" "2" or "z" in front of tasks in order to provide this, but it is of course a hack. 2. It takes quite a few clicks in order to move a task into a "folder". Menu->Navigate to Cut->Enter->Navigate to Folder->Menu->Navigate to Paste->Enter->Navigate to "Here"->Enter. (There are six clicks with using the touch screen, but my fat thumbs always click the wrong thing on these small menus.) Maybe you could add a "Move to..." menu item that would have a list of all "folders" (tasks which already have sub-tasks). This could look like: Move to... -> Shopping -> Housework -> Books to Buy -> Root This optimizes the case of adding a new item to an existing "folder". The case of changing a Task into a Folder could use the existing method, but this is probably less common. 3. It would be nice if a Refresh happened after renaming an task, to re-sort the items based on the new name. 4. It would be very nice if it would remember which nested tasks were expanded versus collapsed on start and after refresh. The existing options allow all to be collapsed or all to be expanded, but remembering the previous state would be much better. Thanks for this great application! -Bruce |
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Oct 8 2008, 21:37
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#55
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Did I say that out loud? Group: News Team Posts: 4,527 Joined: 20th August 2003 From: Kent, England Member No.: 13,469 Device(s): Kaiser, Touch |
I'm afraid I'm not developing this app any more - I moved to Symbian a few weeks back, so I'm not using WM (for the moment at least), and I don't have any spare time to continue improving it.
I was given a licence for Visual Studio by Paul and MS, so Nested Tasks was something that I wanted but also a way of me putting something back into the community. What I'll do (when I get a chance) is ZIP up the code and post it here so anyone that wants to can continue developing it. You'll have to bear in mind that I'm a hobbyist developer, not a programmer by trade, so the code isn't too pretty! |
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