Calendar Plug-in for .dan.g.'s ToDoList - In 10 Easy Steps™

• Download demo - 139.03 KB
• Download DLL - 76.97 KB
• Download source - 62.08 KB

(Current version: 1.0 - released 6 Jun, 2008)

Introduction

This article is an attempt to describe how I created a Calendar plug-in for .dan.g.'s ToDoList. It may be useful to you for two reasons:

1. You might simply want to download the DLL and get a useful Calendar view of your task list.
2. You may want to go that one step further and write your own plug-in.

If you're here for reason #1 and scared of reason #2, please don't worry. Read on - it's easy!

Background

When I started using .dan.g.'s mighty ToDoList, it made me rethink the way I approached my tasks. Previously I had to try to actually remember (ugh) every minor thing that needed to be done before I could regard a task as fully completed. Now to be honest I have a memory worse than a goldfish, so finding the ToDoList was a godsend. I now break down all my tasks recursively into squillions of subtasks and my memory is no longer required (leaving it free to concentrate on other equally important things, such as my favourite Bill Hicks jokes, or the theme tune to the Mysterious Cities Of Gold. "Aaaaaah ahaa ahaaaaa someday we will find the cities of gold..." - quality!).

Having a large number of tasks and subtasks poses a problem because it is difficult to figure out how far ahead/behind of schedule you are (after all, these are what your boss cares about. Get 'em wrong and it could mean a visit to the Jobcentre. Again.). So, I started spending a lot of time setting the Start Date and Due Date for all my tasks, but this just wasn't enough. I couldn't visualize my progress in my head, no matter how accurate/up-to-date the Start/Due Dates were. What I wanted was a quick overview of my progress against the schedule, a visualization of my project.

What I needed was a calendar-type view within the ToDoList itself. Of course, I could have tried to export my data somehow and import it into another program, but where's the fun in that? This was already on .dan.g.'s own ToDoList, so I decided to help him out. It's the least I could do. And he gave me extensive advice on how to go about writing my own ToDoList Calendar plug-in.

Calendar Overview

The file CalendarExt.dll needs to be placed in the ToDoList directory.

The Calendar can be activated from ToDoList's [Tools->Calendar] menu item. This displays the modeless Calendar window for the active task list (switching task lists will hide/show the Calendar window appropriately). The Calendar window is split into two panes:

1. Left hand pane = MiniCalendar
2. Right hand pane = BigCalendar

MiniCalendar

• The MiniCalendar pane initially contains the current month and the next month. If the window is resized large enough, it will also contain the following month.
• Clicking the left/right scroll arrows on the first month will move to the previous/next month accordingly.
• Clicking on the title of a month will display a list of months, from which you can select a month to jump to.
• Clicking on a date in the MiniCalendar will jump to that date in the BigCalendar.
• Clicking the "Today" menuitem will jump to that date in both calendars.

BigCalendar

• The BigCalendar pane initially contains each date in the 6-week period surrounding today's date.
• A date in the BigCalendar contains all tasks in the active task list with a Start/Due Date equal to this date.
• Start Date Tasks are shown with a green marker.
• Due Date Tasks are shown with a red marker.
• Any dates containing one or more tasks will be highlighted in yellow, in both calendars.

User Actions

• The MiniCalendar pane can be hidden/shown using the [View->Mini Calendar] menu item.
• The BigCalendar can be manoeuvred using the scrollbars, mouse wheel, arrow keys and PageUp/PageDown.
• Clicking on a task in the BigCalendar (or selecting it using the arrow keys and pressing Return) will jump to that task in the active task list.
• Renaming a task in the active task list will automatically update the task's name in the BigCalendar.
• Changing a task's Start/Due Date in the active task list will automatically move the task in the BigCalendar.

The Technical Bit

The BigCalendar and MiniCalendar are third party classes which I most graciously "stole" (is that the right word?) from other articles at The Code Project. If I use someone else's class, I like to spend some time working out what it is doing and why it is doing it. I like to rewrite the code in my own style so I can (a) understand it better and (b) debug it easier. Any part of the class I don't need will be ripped out. This is what I've done with the following three classes that I used in the Calendar:

• The right hand pane (BigCalendar) is a beautiful custom-drawn calendar by Frederic Rezeau. The main change I made to this class was to use CListBoxes in each date instead of drawing the tasks as text directly.
• The left hand pane (MiniCalendar) is a cool Microsoft Outlook-style mini-calendar by Matt Gullett.
• The CListBoxes in the BigCalendar are CTransparentListBoxes by Ali Rafiee. I also added tooltip support to this class.

ToDoList's Plug-in Architecture

ToDoList uses plug-ins to provide a number of ways of achieving different customizations to the main application. There are several types of plug-ins already in use, including Encryption, Custom Comments, Task Importers/Exporters and UI Extensions. The benefits of using a plug-in architecture include:

• Keeping the implementations of different features distinct, making maintenance considerably easier for all parties.
• Avoiding increasing the size and complexity of the core application unnecessarily.
• Making it easier and more accessible for third parties to create their own plug-ins, rather than editing (and perhaps breaking) the code of the core application.
• Allowing an entire chunk of unneeded functionality to be removed just by deleting a DLL.

All of ToDoList's plug-ins are architected the same way: the plug-in resides in a DLL and exports one (or more) C functions (their names are unmangled/undecorated). One of these exported functions is typically a CreateXXX() function that returns a pointer to a pure virtual interface (class) that ToDoList then uses to communicate with the plug-in. In the case of UI Extension plug-ins, this function is called CreateUIExtensionInterface().

Whilst a full discussion of pure virtual interfaces is beyond the scope of this article, essentially they define a contract which the plug-in commits to supporting without requiring any explicit binding between the two components. You might say that they are the C++ equivalent of calling GetProcAddress on a loaded DLL. Pure virtual interfaces are at the heart of COM and are a proven method for decoupling the interface and implementation of a component.

• Note 1: ToDoList avoids using COM simply because of the registration requirements which would prevent plug-ins working off a USB stick.
• Note 2: ToDoList typically loads plug-ins at start-up and then holds onto the interface pointer for the duration of the session.

For UI Extension plug-ins, ToDoList provides two interfaces, both located in Shared\IUIExtension.h:

1. The IUIExtension interface is a high-level interface that allows ToDoList to create plug-in windows and also obtain menu-text and icon information from the plug-in so that a menu item can be added to the [Tools] menu for each plug-in.
2. The IUIExtensionWindow interface represents the window that the user will actually interact with. This is where the guts of the plug-in reside, responding to editing notifications from ToDoList and optionally sending selection events back to ToDoList when the user clicks on something.

Creating the Calendar Plug-in

Here are the 10 Easy Steps™ I used to create a basic working Calendar plug-in:

Stage 1: Create Project, Create Classes, Create Interface Stubs

1. Create a new C++ DLL project, called CalendarExt. Change the linker settings so that CalendarExt.dll is built to the same folder as ToDoList.exe.
2. Create two new classes, CCalendarExtApp and CCalendarFrameWnd, derived from IUIExtension and IUIExtensionWindow respectively, containing stubs for all the pure virtual functions.
3. Create an exported function called CreateUIExtensionInterface (also defined in Shared\IUIExtension.h) which simply returns a pointer to a newly created (or static) instance of CCalendarExtApp.
4. Implement the CCalendarExtApp::GetMenuText function to return "Calendar" and implement the CCalendarExtApp::GetIcon() function to return an appropriate icon.
5. Compile the project and restart ToDoList.exe. Check that ToDoList is finding the plug-in by examining the [Tools] menu for a menu item called [Calendar], with the correct icon. Note: at this point, selecting the menu item will have no effect because this has not been wired up yet.

Stage 2: Implement Interface Functions, Create Window

6. Implement CCalendarFrameWnd::Create() to create a suitable window for the user to interact with. I chose to derive CCalendarFrameWnd from CFrameWnd, but you could use a modeless CDialog, CPropertySheet, CView or whatever.
7. Implement CCalendarExtApp::CreateExtensionWindow() to return a pointer to a newly created instance of CCalendarFrameWnd and call this window's Create function.
8. Recompile the project and restart ToDoList.exe. Check that selecting the [Tools->Calendar] menu item displays an instance of the window. This is also a useful time to check that switching between multiple task lists correctly hides and displays the correct window, since each open task list gets its own instance of the plug-in window. Switching task lists should close the plug-in window of the current task list and open the plug-in window of the new task list (if it has one).

Note: ToDoList looks after all the display and hiding of plug-in windows; the plug-in's responsibility is simply to implement the pure virtual interface sensibly.

Stage 3: The Not-quite-so-easy Bit - Implement What will be Displayed in Your Window, Respond to Task List Update Events

9. Modify the CCalendarFrameWnd class to display the CBigCalendarCtrl and CMiniCalendarCtrl windows in its client area, and to respond to resizing events.
10. Implement two-way communication (if necessary) between your plug-in and the task list. This involves:
    1. Adding code to respond to editing events from the active task list. When a task's attributes are changed, CCalendarFrameWnd::Update() gets called. From here, I update my CCalendarData object (a class to cache all tasks for the active task list) with the updated information. I then call a TasklistUpdated function in both the CBigCalendarCtrl and CMiniCalendarCtrl objects, which tells them to update their views using the latest data.
    2. Add code to notify the active task list from the plug-in. In my case, when the user clicks on a task in the calendar, I send the WM_TDCM_TASKLINK message to the main ToDoList application window, along with the ID of the clicked task. ToDoList interprets this message and selects the specified task in the active task list.

That's it! I won't bore you with further details about how the Big/MiniCalendars work. You haven't got time for that! What are you waiting for? Go write a plug-in now!!

This version of the ToDoList Calendar plug-in is ready to go with version 5.4 or later. Please keep an eye on this page for updates. All comments, bugs, grumbles or suggestions are welcome.

Acknowledgements

Big thanks go to the writers of the three classes that I, erm... borrowed, namely:

• Frederic Rezeau
• Matt Gullett
• Ali Rafiee

A massive thanks also obviously to .dan.g., who in my opinion is an inspiration to open source coders. I don't think I've ever come across such a nice guy with such quick bug/request turnaround and dedication to his user-base. Dan has been very patient with me and helped me lots with his plug-in architecture and suggestions for the Calendar, helping me to fix some dodgy bugs, as well as giving me loads of information for this article!

Future Features

• Task colouring to match the colours in the active task list
• Drag and drop a task from one date into another
• Pop-up menu on a task
• Extra keyboard handling, such as the Delete key to remove a task
• Print window contents (to printer and to file)
• Add intermediate dates between Start and End (and Completed?)
• Add Due Time feature from TDL 5.5

History

• 1.0 alpha (12 Jan 2008)
• First version
• 1.0 alpha.2 (16 Jan 2008)
• New: Esc closes the Calendar window
• New: Tooltips for tasks
• New: Maximize button on title-bar
• Fixed: Non-ASCII character support in day cells
• 1.0 alpha.3 (12 Feb 2008)
• New: Show/Hide Weekends - use the [View->Weekends] menu
• New: Remembers [View->Weekends] and [View->Mini Calendar] settings (in the ToDoList.ini file)
• Fixed: Immediately after opening the Calendar window the second time, key presses do nothing
• Fixed: First day of the week is now set according to the current regional settings, in both MiniCalendar and BigCalendar
• 1.0 alpha.4 (9 Mar 2008)
• New: Save window position, including maximized state
• New: Select the number of weeks to display - use the [View->Number Of Weeks] menu
• New: Select the format of completed tasks - use the [View->Completed Tasks...] menu
• New: Add the name of the associated tasklist to the Calendar window titlebar (requires TDL version 5.4.9 or higher)
• Fixed: Calendar flicker when editing the comments pane of a task in the main tasklist
• 1.0 alpha.5 (30 Apr 2008)
• New: Added status-bar to show additional information for the selected task - use the [View->Status Bar] menu
• New: Tooltips now display full path of hovered item
• New: Changed task double-click behaviour to single-click - added hand-cursor to make it more obvious
• New: Days from previous/next months in MiniCalendar are now shown in grey
• New: Replaced the Today button with a Go To Today menuitem
• New: Mousewheeling over the MiniCalendar now scrolls the BigCalendar
• Fixed: Tooltips that disappeared after timeout did not reappear
• Fixed: Unified fonts across BigCalendar and MiniCalendar
• Fixed: Now displays correct days of week in non-English languages, in BigCalendar
• Fixed: Updating child tasks when marking parent task as complete
• Fixed: Could right-click to select multiple tasks across multiple cells, in BigCalendar
• 1.0 (6 Jun, 2008)
• New: Added auto-update functionality - use the [Check for Updates...] menu
• Fixed: GPF when displaying a very long tooltip
• Fixed: Focus lost after switching back to Calendar window from another app
• Fixed: Focus lost after using the MiniCalendar Month Picker
• Fixed: Month names in BigCalendar were not being displayed if the 1^st day of the month is hidden because it's on a weekend
• Fixed: Minor UI improvements

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fonts size is too small din the calendar plugin !!! ucd001 2:42 12 Jan '10   [url=http://tu.6.cn/pic/show-new/id/6128866][img]http://i3.6.cn/cvbnm/76/b2/0a/627a9b28251d6cd062d1585fff498edc.png[/img][/url] as you can c from the above screen capture the font is nearly impossible to read. actually, TO read any chinese character smaller than 9pix on screen is always a hard thing. can u kindly change the fonts size to 9 or 10 or just make the font size customizable anyway It will be great appreciated if you can help me with this. I have ever dreamed such an plugin for a long time. This plugin can not be better if u can get it's font size correct for chinese character. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 3.50/5 (2 votes) Print feature TySmith 9:31 5 Dec '09   I don't think daemon is updating this code anymore, but is anyone competent enough to add a print feature to his existing code? That is one critically lacking feature that would make is so much more useful. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Any chance to make auto export to google calendar ? talgalili 6:59 11 Nov '09   Thanks, Tal Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 4.00/5 (3 votes) same here Armin Gahse 9:00 5 Nov '09   hope it comes back up Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 (1 vote) ToDoList Project Page JacobDynne 4:43 5 Nov '09   Anyone know what happened to the project page for ToDoList 5.9.2? All I can find is a page stating the article has been deleted. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: ToDoList Project Page TySmith 8:37 5 Nov '09   i can't find it either, but you can go to www.abstractspoon.com Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: ToDoList Project Page nathantuggy 10:44 6 Nov '09   See also the general thread in the Lounge[^]. I think there are a lot of wonderings about that right now... apparently the article was up on the 4th, as there's a message in the search results on the page forum on that date. So what on earth happened in the last two days that knocked it offline? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Time Frame Armin Gahse 17:10 1 Nov '09   Hi, I know you're basically done with great plug-in for TDL. Since dan.g now added Start time and Due Time as well as Completed time in 6.0a2. Having the ability to see these times in the Calendar would've been fantastic. Would've been a great time management tool. Anyway.. just a thought. Thanks. Armin Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Tasks and calendar marilynedell 21:19 2 Sep '09   Hello, When I have discovered Todolist, I was really happy to see the calendar feature. But I realize that I don't really use it, because I have a lot of tasks, and in the calendar view there are too much tasks. It is often unreadable. In the GTD (Get Things Done) method, the calendar should shows only the real importants events/dates. And indeed, even if my tasks have start and/or due dates, some of them doesn't need to be displayed in the calendar. So would it possible to have in todolist a new column (or new task field ?) 'calendar flag task', which enable (or not) to see the task in the calendar ? Of course when a task is created this flag is on. What do you think about this idea ? I have ask to Dan, he agree with the priniple, but he don't want to add a specific plugin field, and he tolds me to post a message ont this forum. I think this new feature would help a lot in order to really use the calendar. Sorry for my english. Kind regards Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 (1 vote) Re: Tasks and calendar marilynedell 22:34 9 Sep '09   Anyone read this forum Finally, I use a workaround : flag the task (or use the category field, with a specific category name '@cal' for example) when I want to see it on the calendar, filter on it, then call the calendar... Kind regards Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink show task duration in calender ttestcode 2:30 11 Aug '09   Hi, I just shortly got to know TDL and the calender plugin. I like it alot, as I nearly perfectly serves my needs. However, there is one feature I am currently missing: Is there a way to show the estimated or actually used time of a task within the calender, meaning if I esimate a task with 3 day I would like to se 3 days ocupied in the calender. Best Regards Stephan Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Re: show task duration in calender ttestcode 23:09 11 Aug '09   Closed: The Gantt viever does exactly this. http://gantt.webest.net/[^] Would be nice to have it as a plugin though. Best Regards Stephan Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Feature Request - More than one project in a calendar Thiago Delgado Pinto 13:53 31 Jul '09   It would be very useful if TDL Calendar could show more than one project in a single calendar. For instance, i could see my tasks for this week without having to open a project a time. This way, i can plan tasks much better. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 4.00/5 (1 vote) Window positioning with multiple monitor setup [modified] fiskstolpe 3:17 16 Jul '09   I currently use 3 monitors with my main computer at home, and use a laptop for when I'm travelling. I just copy my .tdl files back and forth for synchronization. But this is proving to be problematic, since I have my ToDoList and calendar on my rightmost monitor at home. The calendar's window position seems to be saved in the .tdl file, so when I open the .tdl on my laptop, I can't get the calendar window to show, since it tries to open on coordinates corresponding to something like x = 1924, y =0, which is out of boundary on my 1280x800 laptop. And since the calendar isn't a separate window, I cannot press Alt+Space, M to move it manually either. Hence there is no way for me to see the calendar on my laptop at all. The only thing I can do is open the .tdl on my main PC at home, open the calendar, move it to my primary monitor, close the calendar window, save the .tdl and copy the new file to my laptop. Would it be possible to get the calendar window to be centered on the primary monitor if it is opened "out of boundary", like the main ToDoList window does? Or just some kind of hotkey for "Reset position" (so I can press that even though I can't see the actual window)? modified on Friday, July 17, 2009 12:40 AM Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Window positioning with multiple monitor setup Cayce.Pek 22:24 11 Aug '09   you can actually write a autohotkey script to set the windows position. something ilke below ; maximise the size of todolist window. +F2:: ;reset the screen to original position first. WinGetPos, , ,Width , Height , A MouseClickDrag, L, %mouseX%, (Height-sBarHeight), 345, (Height-sBarHeight) mouseX := 345 SetTitleMatchMode, 2 WinActivate, AbstractSpoon WinWaitActive, AbstractSpoon PositionTDL(AbstractSpoon) WinActivate, ToDoList Calendar WinWaitActive, ToDoList Calendar PositionTDLCalendar(Calendar) return PositionTDLCalendar(WinTitle) { WinGetPos,,, Width, Height, %WinTitle% ;tooltip, (A_ScreenHeight/2)-(Height/2) ; WinMove, %WinTitle%,, 0, 0,A_ScreenWidth, (A_ScreenHeight/1024.0*369.0) WinMove, %WinTitle%,, 0, 0,A_ScreenWidth, (A_ScreenHeight/4)-31+142 } PositionTDL(WinTitle) { WinGetPos,,, Width, Height, %WinTitle% ;tooltip, (A_ScreenHeight/2)-(Height/2) WinMove, %WinTitle%,, 0, (A_ScreenHeight/4)-31, A_ScreenWidth, (A_ScreenHeight/4*3) } Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Feature Request - date for displaying the todo entries Member 3415163 22:01 27 Apr '09   Please allow to select, if the creating date another date assigned to a project (e.g. due date or completed) will be chosen for displaying a todo entry. Michael Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Calendar does not work in TodoList 5.7.5 Martin Schröder 23:34 19 Apr '09   Hi there, the calendarplugin does not work in the latest version of TodoList. I extracted it into the Todolistdirectory, but it does not show up in the menu. I have already reinstalled TodoList from scratch, but that did not work either! Can you help to get it to work? Sincerely, Martin Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Re: Calendar does not work in TodoList 5.7.5 [d3m0n] 7:38 20 Apr '09   Hi It works fine for me in 5.7.5. You might want to check out this thread which could be the same issue... Cheers [d3m0n] Email (replace "***" with "key") Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink green and red. Feature request: configuration for the different date type colors germog 3:27 27 Mar '09   For some peoples (like me) it is difficult to see the difference between green and red. Feature request: give the user some options to configure different colors for different date types. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Week number Member 4222860 18:13 11 Feb '09   Hi, This view is agreat enhancement for teh To Do list which is a wonderfull tool. If you are still working on it, it would be great if you could integrate the week number as well as the following options : 1)StartFromMonday If set to 1 the week will start from Monday (otherwise it's started from Sunday). This is automatically set according to your locale when Rainlendar is started the first time. 2)Week1HasJanuary1st If set to 1 the week 1 is the one that has January 1st. Otherwise its the one that has the year's first Thursday. This is automatically set according to your locale when Rainlendar is started the first time. 3)WeekNumberDelta This is an offset value for the week numbers. You can adjust the week 1 with this. Also negative numbers can be used. Tks in advance for your help, Emat Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 (2 votes) Re: Week number landydoc 23:42 22 Sep '09   Hi all, I agree with your suggestion. The week number is an importand and usefull calendar information. So it will be very nice to see this number in the monthly table. thanks for the tool landydoc Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Feature request Nigel Anderson 7:12 29 Dec '08   Hi I know this is frozen, but if it ever thaws... It would be really helpful if it were possible to have the calendar display everything from ALL open projects and not just the current project as it does at the moment. I'm just starting to use todolist and I was going to set things up split into various projects but then realise if I want to use the calendar plug-in for an overview of what I have coming up, I have to put everything into a single project (or manually go through each project and open up the calendar view and check them one by one). Hope that makes sense and thanks for the work you've put in so far. Nigel Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Can create a C# plugin for ToDolist by doing as you say? Member 4617912 18:17 1 Nov '08   Can create a C# plugin for ToDoList? If yes, is that Ok with doing the same thing as you did in your article? Thank you very much! Bimawen Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Re: Can create a C# plugin for ToDolist by doing as you say? [d3m0n] 8:49 2 Nov '08   I don't think this is possible at the moment. Cheers [d3m0n] Email (replace "***" with "key") Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink New Feature clexidra 0:21 22 Oct '08   I like the calendar and in my opinion is essential in the ToDoList sw. I'm wonder if is possible to see in the week-view (or in a new day-view) the task with the "duration time": I'd like to see houres of the day and a bar with the time assigned to a task (see below an example of task: "06:30-08:00 web site refresh" 06:00 06:30 !-web site refresh-! 07:00 !.............................! 07:30 !.............................! 08:00 !-----------------------! 08:30 Thanks. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink

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