May 2005 23

Movies of new Ajax features

With revision 82, I’ve finally nearly finished the conversion of Tracks to use Ajax for creating, updating, deleting and marking actions done. I thought I’d put a couple of little movies up as a teaser.

The first shows me editing the list of projects [1 MB], and the second shows me adding and editing actions in a project [2 MB].

It’s still a bit rough around the edges; actions don’t sort properly, nor does the badge with the count of actions update until you refresh, and I haven’t quite sorted out the tab index on Safari. However, generally it’s coming along quite nicely grin

15 Comments

sweet!  can’t wait…

Looks exciting! I really like the datepicker as well. Tracks is a great program!

Have you seen tasktoy.com? It’s also a GTD webapp.

I think the biggest feature that tasktoy has that Tracks does not is that it has start-dates for tasks. Having a start date on a task lets you keep your task list clean—you only see the things you can act on at time. For example, tasks that can’t be started for a week don’t show up for a week.

With tasktoy, tasks be set to repeat a x number of days after you complete them, for example, if backing up your database is something you do manually (for some reason) and you want to remember to do it every three days, you can check the box when you do it and it will reappear in three days (even if it took you 5 days to do it the last time.)

Just suggestions. Great work on the new features smile

james: Me neither wink For one thing, I’m itching to actually use the new features in my proper working installation.

Marcus: I’ve heard about it, but haven’t had a chance to give it a look yet. Recurring tasks are on the list of things to do (perhaps not for the next release), and I talked about implementing a kind of ‘tickler’ (equivalent to having a start date) back in January. So both of those features are planned, I just don’t quite know when they will appear yet!

Also a calendar view where you can view specific tasks by date would be incredibaly useful.  Otherwise Wonderful.  Glad I found this in time for the new year.
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I’ve just installed ‘Tracks’ on ‘hostmonster’ - generally I like it, but I had a few quibbles, the major ones were things Marcus had already mentioned (start date and repeats).

To this I would add the ability to share an action, or a context. E.g. my wife and I might both share ‘Home’ - but keep other contexts seperate. (Other users on the system would not see the shared contexts).

I would also love to be able to add one action to multiple contexts (or projects).

Another project idea might be to add ‘order’ in projects. E.g. each action could (optionally) be given an order, with the default blank. Blanks would appear as now. Anything with an ‘order’ would only appear on ‘next action’ when things it depends upon have been completed.

A simple example:

1. Pour water into kettle
2. Plug in Kettle
2. Put teabag in cup.
3. Pour hot water onto teabag

Once item 1 was done, the items Plug In Kettle and Put teabag in cup would appear on the list.

Only when BOTH of these are done would ‘pour hot water onto teabag appear. There would have to be a method of ‘insert before item X’ to avoid having to renumber lots if lists got big. There would probably be a better way to do this, as it doesn’t allow for a situation where there are two parallel but independent chains of actions which come together… perhaps using ‘depends upon’.

Pour water into kettle (Depends upon nothing)
Plug in Kettle (depends upon ‘Pour Water into kettle’)
Put teabag in cup (depends upon ‘Pour Water into kettle’)
Pour hot water onto teabag (depends upon ‘Plug in Kettle’ and ‘Put teabag in cup’)

I think I’d prefer ‘depends upon’ as it’s a bit more flexible.

Other features: some user management for admin, the ability to delete users for example.

Another admin tool would be the ability to create my own ‘default account’ - so when I make a new user it’s done the way I want it.

Users should be prompted for a valid email address. This would allow them to reset their own passwords via an appropriate link (I dread digging into the sql if I ever have to do a password reset!)

Also, automating database backups would be great.

Generally though, very nice. The only real problems I’ve had with tracks to date have been with actually finding a host I could install it on (I wanted to run it on the web).

Good blog! You saved my time. Thanks!

Murk, could you give some details on installing Tracks on a hostmonster based site?  I am a complete newbie to Ruby (sorry for the rhyme), but I’m not at all afraid of the command line.

Thanks!

I would if I could remember them!

I think it was essentially the instructions found on this site, i.e. setup sql, rake and all that.

Sorry!

Do give it a try and note down what you do, I wish I had!

Good blog! intresting work.

i am just starting in ajax , hope your vdo s help
Thanks

I’ve been reading your site for quite a while. Keep up your great work! I quite new to Ajax but your movies may help alot.

very impressive blog. thanks. you save me a lot of time researching this. thanks

Ajax?

Ahh,, Ajax, a lot has changed since you wrote this article smile.

why i dont read this post earlier?

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