Thread

I’m probably wrong but I don’t think the user needs to have Air installed, so ‘user uptake’ isn’t really a question.  Air is basically a portable version of the webkit rendering/javascript engine and is included with your application.

I’m pretty sure you do…
I couldn’t use any AIR apps for some time on Linux until the AIR installer was available for Linux…

How much would an API differ from my models (I know you can give an exact answer as you don’t know what my models are like). Should there be much more then adding a wrapper which authenticates the user with an API key, calls the models and structures it however it should

That should more or less be it.  Depending on what formats you want to support, you may create API views (maybe for XML output) or the work could all be done in the models and controller (likely for JSON).

If you type something in there with a keyword, it does certain actions, eg:
[milestone] 23/5/09 Complete end user testing
This would then create the milestone instead of adding it to your scratchpad
This would obviously be veruy limited at first, and you’d have to get the right syntax, but it coould evolve into a very powerful feature

That would be great.  A few sites incorporate that to some extent (I think rememberthemilk does and even Google Calendar does to a limited extent), and I find it to be a nice feature.

Recurrence has been mentioned a bit in the thread now, and I think that would appeal to a lot of people, especially managers.  If you plan on adding it, you’ll probably want to study up on the iCal specs, so your organization can mimic an existing standard.  That will also make it possible for you to export events for people to add into other calendaring programs.

How much would an API differ from my models (I know you can give an exact answer as you don’t know what my models are like). Should there be much more then adding a wrapper which authenticates the user with an API key, calls the models and structures it however it should

That should more or less be it.  Depending on what formats you want to support, you may create API views (maybe for XML output) or the work could all be done in the models and controller (likely for JSON).

If that would be more or less it, then I can not worry about it in the immediate future 😊

If you type something in there with a keyword, it does certain actions, eg:
[milestone] 23/5/09 Complete end user testing
This would then create the milestone instead of adding it to your scratchpad
This would obviously be very limited at first, and you’d have to get the right syntax, but it could evolve into a very powerful feature

That would be great.  A few sites incorporate that to some extent (I think rememberthemilk does and even Google Calendar does to a limited extent), and I find it to be a nice feature.

I’ve used it in Gcal before, will have a look how RTM does it. I find it to be very useful in GCal, but it was still very limited when I first tried it 9when it first came out)
This coupled with a keyboard shortcut so you don’t even need the mouse (or endless tabs) to focus could make it a real time saver 😊

Recurrence has been mentioned a bit in the thread now, and I think that would appeal to a lot of people, especially managers.  If you plan on adding it, you’ll probably want to study up on the iCal specs, so your organization can mimic an existing standard.  That will also make it possible for you to export events for people to add into other calendaring programs.

Export in the iCal format is something I’ve thought of before… another thing to look into lol
I know most PMSs can exprt to iCal, do you know of any that can import from it? If not, that would ne a nice, unique addition

There has been great discussion here and great solutions and ideas shared. I don’t want to take away from any of that, but I feel like I’ve used a lot PM apps with all the bells and whistles, and I always come back to something like a simple wiki with todo list capability. But, then again, I’m mostly a one man show and just haven’t seen the light with giant PM apps to drive large teams…

Best of luck on this project.

There has been great discussion here and great solutions and ideas shared. I don’t want to take away from any of that, but I feel like I’ve used a lot PM apps with all the bells and whistles, and I always come back to something like a simple wiki with todo list capability. But, then again, I’m mostly a one man show and just haven’t seen the light with giant PM apps to drive large teams…

Best of luck on this project.

Although I will probably stick to aiming this at multi user environments, what features do you get in a simple wiki/todo list that you feel are lacking (or made overly complex) in other PMSs? It would be interesting to get a perspective from both individuals and people that work in a group

Well, because I’m not a project manager, I don’t really have time to spend setting up detailed milestones, complex todo lists, tasks with 20 possible fields of info, etc. Here’s what I want: To not forget important details (documentation-like wiki entries), to review the life of the project (diary-like wiki entries), and to have a todo list to glaze over. Admittedly, my requirements are light.

Yes, nothing beats the features of notepad for project management.  You’re just reinventing the wheel. 😜

I actually agree.  I don’t have much experience working with teams, so my needs are basically non-existent.  I mentioned the time tracking because it is something I lack.  I don’t even track the time I spend on projects.  I find it difficult as I don’t often focus on one thing, plus on design tasks I might spend hours on something that would take only minutes if I already knew what it should look like.  I prefer to bill clients flat rate, but it would be nice to at least get an idea of how much I make an hour (probably around $2.25 USD).

@Colin
Yeah they are pretty light requirements 😉 Although it gave me another idea to include
Some sort of progress log or journal, so you can write a summary of what you acheived that say, so you can easily review the day to day progress.
(And for the record, I only planned on having 19 required fields per todo, not 20 😛)

@Gary
Wow, you make on average $2.25/hour?!?!
Time tracking is definatly something most people want/need… Now to just make it a seemless part of the process instead of traditional time sheets
Also need to deal with the case when you have 400 things you’re doing at the same time

I actually tinkered with a time tracking app a while back created as an hta so it’s currently windows only (opens in IE, yuck).  It’s very unfinished, but may serve as a prototype.  I’ve dug it up and attached it if you’re curious.

EDIT:

Wow, you make on average $2.25/hour?!?!

That’s right, I’m in the money.  Don’t worry, someday you’ll make the big bucks too.

Thanks Gary, thats a pretty neat little app, once I get my API working, something like that would be very nice to have (maybe even without having to edit XML to add items 😛)
Something like that which would have all tasks assigned to you would be really good, because you’re more likely to use it, especially if it’s as simple as double clicking on the task to start/stop

Thanks.  I think it’d be way easier to have a little desktop widget like that instead of having to go login to the site.  A manager could add tasks on the site and they’d just appear on your list, maybe with a notification.  The site could also know when you’re ‘on the clock’ and which tasks you’re actively working on.  It would really give management a ‘big brother’ overview of who’s doing what.

I worked for a company where we had to use aceproject.com for PM and I hated it.  It took 5 page loads to get anywhere, the UI was clunky and difficult, and the idea of having yet another tab opened in my browser really irked me.  I do a lot of CTRL + TABing to switch between tabs so I hate to have a bunch of useless ones.

That widget is from before I really used jquery and I didn’t really think it all through, but I wouldn’t mind revisiting it and making a super new shiny version to interact with your API.

Few features that should be present are -

1. How to split activities between multiple team members
2. Inbuilt holiday calculation so that scheduling can be done accordingly.

This is the only idea I’ve come up with so far. Hopefully it will be integrated into the core once it’s fully operational. It’s still a work on progress…

<?php

class Cup_Of_Coffee
{
    var $contents = array();

    function add_coffee($teaspoons=0)
    {
        $this->add('teaspoon of coffee granules', $teaspoons);
    }
    
    function add_water($milliliters=0, $type="cold")
    {
        $this->add('milliliter of $type water', $milliliters);
    }
    
    function add_milk($milliliters=0)
    {
        $this->add('milliliter of milk', $milliliters);
    }
    
    function add($item="millilter of water", $amount=0)
    {
        for ($i=0; $i < (int)$amount; $i++)
        {
            $this->contents[] = $item;
        }
    }
    
    function stir()
    {
        shuffle($this->contents);
    }
    
    function materialize()
    {
        # TODO: Figure out how the hell to implement this method!
    }
    
    function __to_reality()
    {
        # When PHP finally implement this, we'll be laughing!
    }
    
    function make_it_how_i_like_it()
    {
        # This method can be overriden.
    }

}

# Need input from the community on this part.
$my_coffee = new Cup_Of_Coffee();
$my_coffee->add_coffee(1000);
$my_coffee->add_water(3, 'tepid');
$my_coffee->add_milk(1);
$my_coffee->stir();

# Never could make a decent cup…

cat Cup_Of_Coffee.php | sed '/s/coffee/tea/g' > Cup_Of_Tea.php

Now we’re talking (Can’t stand coffee)

Did you write that specifically for this post (in which case I’m honoured) or did you have that from some previous post when you got thirsty? 😛

And if you want the __to_reality function, try PHP6 😉