Calendar:Task View

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The following is a proposal for a new Task View, to supplament, and perhaps replace, the task lists currently implemented in Lightning and Sunbird. To add minor comments/feedback, please use the discussion page. More extensive discussion should be taken the newsgroup


Key Problems

  • Tasks can have subtasks
  • Tasks can repeat an infinite number of times
  • Tasks have an incredible amount of information associated with them

Proposal

The task list view will be a tree structure somewhat similar to the standard layout of email in Thunderbird. While the <richlistbox> currently used in Lightning does provide a sleaker look, a <tree> is the only widget capable of handling the large amounts of information we need to provide the user with.

ASCII Art

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         [ Standard View v]                             [ View Options v   ] |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  | | Title          | Start Date    | Due Date     | Percent | Status       |
|[]|!|-Write Task Plan| Today         | Tomorrow     | [----  ]| In Progress  |
|[]|!|  Wiki Page     | Today         | Today        | [--    ]| In Progress  |
|[]| |  Newsgroup Post| Tomorrow      | Tomorrow     | [      ]| Not Specified|
|[]| |Learn Latin     | Yesterday     | 25 Aug 2006  | [-     ]| In Progress  |
...

Note that this is the only view that allows hierarchical tasks.  This is because
other views either group tasks based on another method, or are date specific

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| [<][>]  [ Planning View v]                             [ View Options v   ] |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  | | Title          | Start Date    | Due Date     | Percent | Status       |
| -Overdue                                                                    |
|[]| | Review Bug 111 | 30 March 2006 | 10 April 2006| [--    ]| In Progress  |
| -Due This Week                                                              |
|[]|!| Wiki Page      | Today         | Today        | [--    ]| In Progress  |
|[]| | Newsgroup Post | Tomorrow      | Tomorrow     | [      ]| Not Specified|
| +Due Next Week                                                              |
| +Never Due                                                                  |

Suggestions for any other needed groupings?  Recently Completed?

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         [ All Tasks     v]                             [ View Options v   ] |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  | | Title          | Start Date    | Due Date     | Percent | Status       |
|[]|!| Write Task Plan| Today         | Tomorrow     | [----  ]| In Progress  |
|[]|!| Wiki Page      | Today         | Today        | [--    ]| In Progress  |
|[]| | Newsgroup Post | Tomorrow      | Tomorrow     | [      ]| Not Specified|
|[]| | Learn Latin    | Yesterday     | 25 Aug 2006  | [-     ]| In Progress  |
|[]| |-Take out trash | Today         | Today        | [      ]| Not Specified|
|[]| |  Take out trash| 25 April 2006 | 25 April 2006| [      ]| Not Specified|
|[]| |  Take out trash| 2 May 2006    | 2 May    2006| [      ]| Not Specified|
|  | | (Infintely More- _Show More_)                                          |
|[]| |-Math Homework  | 12 April 2006 | 19 April 2006| [      ]| Not Specified|
|[]| |  Math Homework | 19 April 2006 | 26 April 2006| [     ]| Not Specified|
|[]| |  Math Homework | 26 April 2006 | 3 May 2006   | [      ]| Not Specified|
|  | | (2 More- _Show More_)                                                  |
...

Note that recurring tasks are group and the handling of infinite/numerous recurrence.

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  [<][>] [ One Week      v]             Week 18         [ View Options v   ] |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|  | | Title          | Start Date    | Due Date     | Percent | Status       |
|[]|!| Write Task Plan| Today         | Tomorrow     | [----  ]| In Progress  |
|[]|!| Wiki Page      | Today         | Today        | [--    ]| In Progress  |
|[]| | Newsgroup Post | Tomorrow      | Tomorrow     | [      ]| Not Specified|
|[]| | Learn Latin    | Yesterday     | 25 Aug 2006  | [-     ]| In Progress  |
|[]| | Take out trash | Today         | Today        | [      ]| Not Specified|

We can also offer a One Month view, and probably a 'Custom' view.  Note the 
navigation buttons that have appeared.

General notes

  • View options include: Hide Completed Tasks and (for some views) Group By Sort
  • For consistency, we're probably going to drop the Red, Blue, Green, Grey color scheme used in 0.2 to indicate overdue, etc, and instead use calendar colors. My hope is that the Planning View can fill the role lost by the colors.
  • Note that because of the increased screen width available, we can use a progress bar for percent complete.
  • Do we need a Quick-Search (a la the unifinder)

Subtasks disclaimer

Subtasks seem to be fairly important to a decent portion of our user-base. This proposal only intends to address the issues related to the display of the Subtask relationhip. This proposal does not intend to address issues such as the way in which subtasks might be implemented in the New/Edit Task dialog, nor how things like Percent Complete ought to be calculated for tasks with subtasks.

See also

Retrieved from "https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=Calendar:Task_View&oldid=24153"