ToDoList 5.6.b3 - A simple but effective way to keep on top of your tasks

Downloads

• Latest Executable + Plugins (5.5.7) - 677 Kb (Includes help file and sample stylesheets)
• Application Source (5.5.7) - 1007 Kb (Includes all plugins)
• Web Update Wizard - 122 Kb (generously provided by PowerProgrammer)
• Calendar Plugin for ToDoList by d3m0n [^].

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• Beta Release (5.6.b3) - 646 Kb (Executable + Plugins)

Latest Update (5.6 Beta Release)

The big change in this version is the moving of sorting and filtering to another view (a flat list view). This means that filtering and/or sorting will no longer change the order of items in the tree view.

I realize that some users will not like this change but it was necessary to ensure the correct behaviour of ToDoList wrt *your* data.

In particular, there were combinations of filtering in conjunction with undo/redo which simply gave the wrong results (aka incorrectly modified user data) and which could not be made to work within the existing framework.

Adding to this was the inability to undo a sort which I could also not find a way to fix.

The benefits of having a list view are numerous:

1. Sort all your tasks in a single list without regard to a task's hierarchical position
2. Filter those tasks and re-sort
3. Export/print the listview as a list
4. Do all of this without actually modifying your data.
5. Tasklists no longer have to be resorted on loading (to restore the previous order).
6. It creates a template for having other views on the data, like d3m0n's Calendar Plugin[^].
7. I consider that it will help make ToDoList a more robust and reliable tool.

I have also added View menu keyboard shortcuts to switch back and forth between the views (F9/F10) as well as a shortcut to toggle the focus between the tasks and the comments (F11).

Please be aware that this has required structural (ie. not cosmetic) changes to ToDoList and you will need to backup your tasklists before trying it out.

Related Links

After finally compiling a FAQ of the most relevant questions asked about ToDoList I've moved all resources related to ToDoList to a new page on my website.

Introduction

You know how it is - you start work on one project and halfway through, you find one or two side-projects crop up that have to be solved before you can continue on the original project.

This is one such project with the added twist that it too started its life as a side-project. Here's what happened:

<Cue wavy screen effect>

I can only imagine that the planets must have been in (mis-)alignment or something, because at one point a few months ago, I was suddenly fielding emails on four or five separate articles I had previously submitted to CodeProject, some asking for features and others for bug fixes.

Foolishly or otherwise, I largely agreed with all the points raised, and subsequently found myself with fourteen or fifteen separate issues to resolve.

The situation was also made worse because I was trying to use CodeProject to keep track of all the things I had agreed to do, meaning that I had to continuously trawl the comments section of each article to remind myself of what I was supposed to be working on.

It even got to the stage where I was worrying that I'd fail to deliver on something - silly I know, but there you are!

Keeping a list on paper was a definite step in the right direction, but since I do all my coding on the same machine, it seemed somewhat inelegant, and anyway, we all know what happens to crucial bits of paper left lying around on desks and such.

The next step was to hunt around on the web for a tool to meet the following requirements:

• Simple interface
• Support for hierarchical data
• Numbered items/subitems
• Open file format
• Freeware

Simple, huh! not!

I will admit that I did not spend weeks searching, but I am still surprised at the general lack of software matching my needs.

On reflection, I think that the reason may be simple: people are so used to commercial software being 'feature-rich' that when they come to design software themselves, they (not unreasonably) think they too need to cram as much in as possible, often leading to software where a lot of essential functionality is hidden away in the menu bar.

So, surprise, surprise, I decided to write something myself.

However, it's fair to say that I did not originally intend to post it on CodeProject and am only really doing so because I had a heap of fun solving some very interesting problems and these are what I think make it worth it.

Using the Software

There's really very little I need to say here since every feature/function is explicitly visible in the interface.

Nevertheless, the following list of basic capabilities and omissions may go someway to answering any questions that arise:

• Files are stored in XML format with .xml file extension.
• Trying to load a non-tasklist file will generally fail (unless you read the code to see how to circumvent it).
• The number of items/subitems is limited only by memory (although performance may be the deciding factor before you exhaust memory).
• Marking a parent item as 'done' will also gray-out child items, but they are not disabled or automatically marked as 'done'.
• An ellipsis (...) indicates that an item has sub-items.
• All items can be expanded or collapsed (by double-clicking).
• Top-level items and sub-items are created using different toolbar buttons.
• There are task-specific context-menus.
• The previously open tasklists are re-opened on startup.
• The tasklist is automatically saved when closing the software or minimizing it to the system tray.
• The priority of a task is shown as a grayscale box to the left of the item.

Points of Interest

Here's where we come to the side-projects I was talking about, the first two of which I intend to work up into follow-up articles.

They are:

1. The 'ordered' tree control, which incorporates a non-client gutter for displaying the item numbers.

   The idea stemmed from research I did into alternative designs for a tree-list control, which did not solve it by creating a hybrid control incorporating a tree and a list.

   The hybrid control seems such an obvious solution that I suspect few people have stopped to question it, but it has still always struck me as looking far too much like hard work to be truly elegant ('square pegs' and 'round holes' spring to mind).

   One possible idea is to implement the 'list' portion entirely in the non-client area of the tree. I.e., shift the right hand client edge to the left and then render the list portion in the resulting non-client area.

   Whilst I've yet to get round to building a proof of concept, it was nevertheless this ongoing mental debate which prompted me to try to solve the requirement for numbered items and subitems by rendering the item/subitem numbers in the non-client area.

   Without going into too much detail (as this will subsequently be an article of its own), this is how I got it to work:

   • Handle TVM_INSERTITEM and TVM_DELETEITEM to know exactly when items are added and removed.
   • In these handlers recalculate the width of the gutter required to display the widest 'dotted' item/subitem number. (Note: this is not necessarily simply the deepest subitem.)
   • If the required gutter width changes, call SetWindowPos(NULL, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_FRAMECHANGED | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOZORDER) to force Windows to recalculate the non-client area of the control.
   • Handle WM_NCCALCSIZE when it does, and offset the left border by the required gutter width.
   • Handle WM_NCPAINT for painting the numbers.

   This is necessarily an over-simplification, but it captures the essence of the solution, and all that essentially remains is lots of fiddling about to ensure the non-client area gets redrawn at the the right times to stay synchronized with the client area.

2. Embedding .RC control definition data directly in a .cpp file to break the dependency on binary resources (a.k.a. 'Runtime Dialogs').

   This is an idea that has been floating about for quite some time and which has only recently gelled into a workable solution.

   The problem, put simply, is that if you want to take advantage of the resource editor in Visual Studio (and who doesn't), then you very quickly find yourself stuck with having to load dialog templates from resources compiled into the binary file.

   This further means that if you want to make use of a dialog across multiple projects, then either you need to copy and paste the dialog template between project .RC files, or you need to build the dialog into a DLL from which it can be accessed.

   'Runtime Dialogs' (a snappy title I coined myself) is a solution that neatly sidesteps both the nuisance of copying dialog resources between resource files and the extra work (and maintenance) involved in packaging dialogs in DLLs.

   And it works like this:

   • First, you design your dialog template in the resource editor, create a CDialog derived class using class wizard, and wire up all the controls just as you normally would.
   • Next, you #include "runtimedlg.h" and change all instances of CDialog to CRuntimeDlg.
   • Then, you cut and paste the control definition section from the appropriate section in the .RC file and embed it directly in the dialog's .cpp file as a static string (with a bit of tweaking to handle double quotes and such like).
   • Finally, in the constructor of your dialog, you simply call CRuntimeDlg::AddRCControls(...) passing the control definitions as a string.
   • And CRuntimeDlg takes care of the rest including, if required, auto-sizing the dialog to suit the control layout.

   I'm certainly not suggesting that this is a 'win-win' solution for all situations but it certainly has merits in its closer coupling of dialog template to dialog code which makes sharing dialogs across multiple projects a breeze.

   P.S.: In case it's not clear here, I used CRuntimeDlg to create CToDoCtrl which encapsulates the ordered tree together with the priority, date and comments controls as a single simple-to-instantiate control.

   I'm also proposing to use them in the .NET port of my ProjectZip add-in for VC6.

3. Embedding the XML file in a web page.

   This is possibly the most satisfying aspect of the whole project because it was completely unexpected.

   What I mean is that, until recently, my knowledge of DOM and XMLDOM was virtually non-existent, as it's only since I've become more interested in the presentation of AbstractSpoon that I've been forced to get to grips with the various implementations of DOM and XMLDOM out there.

   I'm pleased to say that the code on my site works under IE 6.0, Netscape 7.1, and Mozilla, although custom code was required to achieve this.

Generic MFC Classes that may prove Useful to You

The following table lists a wide range of utility classes written for this project. They can all be included in any MFC project provided you include any class dependencies too. Feel free to ask any questions relating to these specific classes and how to use them.

Class Name	Description	Class Dependencies (apart from MFC)
CAboutDlg	Customizable "About…' dialog not requiring a dialog resource. Supports html encoded text	CRuntimeDlg, CRCCtrlParser
CAutoComboBox	Adds only unique items to the drop list and shuffles the list so that the last added item is at the top	CHoldRedraw
CAutoFlag	Encapsulates the setting and unsetting of a boolean variable thru the lifetime of the class instance
CColorButton	Non-ownerdraw button that displays the selected colour on the button face and displays the colour dialog when clicked	CEnColorDialog
CColorComboBox	Owner-draw combobox for displaying and selecting user defined colours
CDateHelper	Encapsulation of various rountines for calculating date spans and for formatting
CDeferWndMove	Encapsulation of the Win32 API
CDialogHelper	Re-implementation of the CDialog DDX/DDV rountines to avoid the MFC error messages when the user clears a number edit (for instance)
CDlgUnits	Encapsulates the MapDialogRect Win32 API
CDockManager	Class for managing the docking of one popup window to another.	*CSubclassWnd, CHoldRedraw, CAutoFlag
CDriveInfo	Encapsulates various rountines for querying about drives, files and disk space
CEnBitmap	Adds support to CBitmap for loading non-bmp files and resources.
CEnBitmapEx, CColorReplacer, CImageBlurrer, CImageColorizer, CImageContraster, CImageEmbosser, CImageFlipper, CImageGrayer, CImageLightener, CImageNegator, CImageResizer, CImageRotator, CImageSharpener, CImageShearer, CImageSysColorMapper, CImageTinter	Adds image manipulation funationality to CEnBitmap	CEnBitmap
CEnColorDialog	Adds saving and restoring of custom colours to CColorDialog
CEnCommandLineInfo	Adds functions for extracting and querying commandline switches
CEnEdit	Adds user-defined button capabilities to CEdit	CMaskEdit, CThemed, CDlgUnits
CEnToolBar	Adds support for using alternative resource or file images
CFileEdit	Adds buttons for browsing and displaying the file represented by the text in the edit control. Also shows the file's small icon.	CEnEdit, CFolderDialog, CMaskEdit, CDlgUnits, CThemed, CSysImageList
CHoldRedraw	Encapsulates WM_SETREDRAW
CHotKeyCtrlEx	Fixes a number of behavioural problems including the handling of certain keypresses
CHotTracker	Tracks the cursor movement over user-defined windows and posts event messages as necessary	*CSubclassWnd,
CLimitSingleInstance	Provides simple method to detect if another instance of an app is running
CMaskEdit	Adds simple character masking to CEdit
CNcGutter	Allows the UI of standard windows controls to be extended by supporting any number of columns to be added to the non-client area of the window. Favours tabular controls like lists, trees, etc	*CSubclassWnd, CHoldRedraw, CThemed, CDlgUnits
COrderedTreeCtrl	CTreeCtrl implementation of CNcGutter displaying a single column showing the hierarchical position of each tree item in '1.2.3.4' notation.	CHoldRedraw, CThemed
CPasswordDialog	Very simple password dialog not requiring a dialog resource	CRuntimeDlg, CRCCtrlParser
CPropertyPageHost	Simpler replacement for CPropertySheet allowing easier creation as a child window
CRCCtrlParser	Used by CRuntimeDlg for parsing dialog resource-like text
CRuntimeDlg	Adds support to CDialog for building dialogs at runtime ie. dialogs do not require a dialog resource	CRCCtrlParser
CShortcutManager	Class for handling application keyboard shortcuts.	*CSubclassWnd, CWinClasses
CSpellCheckDlg	Spellcheck dialog not requiring a dialog resource, which interfaces with ISpellCheck (interface to Open Office dictionaries)	CRuntimeDlg, CRCCtrlParser, ISpellCheck
CSysImageList	Encapsulates the Windows system image list (file/folder images)
CTabCtrlEx	Adds post rendering callback for the tabs without using owner-draw
CThemed	Encapsulates themed (XP) and non-themed (the rest) drawing of windows controls
CTimeEdit	Adds a button for specifying time units and provided routines for converting time to and from different time units	CEnEdit, CMaskEdit, CThemed, CDlgUnits
CToolbarHelper	Adds support for dialog toolbar tooltips, multiline tooltips and dropbuttons with menus	*CSubclassWnd, CEnBitmap, CEnBitmapEx
CTrayIcon	Encapsulates the Shell_NotifyIcon Win32 API. Also provides balloon tips and animation	*CSubclassWnd,
CUrlRichEditCtrl	Adds support for recognizing urls, clicking them and setting custom url callbacks
CWinClasses	Encapsulates the ::GetClassName Win32 functions
CXmlFile, CXmlItem	Non-Unicode class for reading and writing xml files
CXmlFileEx	Adds encryption capabilities to CXmlFile	CXmlFile, IEncryption

* CSubclassWnd was originally written by Paul DiLascia for MSJ magazine. The version I use has been heavily extended to suit my specific needs. The classes that depend on it here need this extended version.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Further Work

Whilst this tool was originally intended for my personal use only, it is now a 'community' project, so if you find it useful and want to make suggestions for enhancements or bug fixes, then post below.

History

• 5.6.b3 (20 Jul 2008)
• Fixed toolbar resource leak
• Fixed '3rd party source control' preference initialization
• Fixed display bug when exporting '<None>' priorities.
• Fixed 'New Task' bug when filtering on flagged items in list view.
• 5.6.b2 (12 Jul 2008)
• Resorting bug fixed
• Preference added for users of 3rd part source control to aid in merging differences
• Time formatting changed so that 8 hours (or whatever you day length is) will appear as '1d' instead of '1d0h'. Likewise, 5 days will appear as '1w' not '1w0d'.
• 5.6 Beta Release (04 Jul 2008)
• List view added for filtering and sorting
• Improved performance when scrolling using the cursor keys
• Improved performance when editing comments containing images
• 5.5.7 (14 Jun 2008)
• Fixed crash when performing finds with '%'
• Fixed multibyte language cut/paste bug
• Prevent Windows beeping when cancelling a Find Tasks edit
• Fixed Find dialog clipping bug with Chinese input
• Hide/restore calendars when minimizing to the system tray
• Fixed occasional filter merge bug
• 5.5.6 (30 May 2008)
• Rolls back a change in 5.5.5 that prevents some encrypted tasklists being opened
• 5.5.5 (29 May 2008)
• Fixed bug where leading comments whitespace was being removed
• Fixed bug where the richedit comments scrollbar would appear disabled
• 5.5.4 (22 May 2008)
• Minor tweaks to source code to compile on VS2005
• 5.5.4 (19 May 2008)
• Fixed crash in 'File | Send To...'
• Fixed minor incompatibility with FolderView [^]
• Auto-complete rule edit when saving a search
• 5.5.3 (15 May 2008)
• Fixed crash when completing tasks with filtered out dependencies.
• Changes to default categories, etc are now reflected immediately in the filter bar
• Fixed broken comments spell-checking
• Fixed recurring tasks incorrectly acquiring a due task time
• Fixed various minor UI issues with auto-droplists (category, status, etc)
• 5.5.2 (09 May 2008)
• Find Tasks dialog displays completed task results using user preferences
• Fixed bug in text 'equals' rule in Find dialog
• Fixed About box for Asian users (and other minor font changes)
• 5.5.1 (02 May 2008)
• Fixed various font droplists issues
• Removed cancelled new task from undo history
• Fixed flicker when selecting task in calendar plugin
• 5.5 Feature Release (30 Apr 2008)
  • New Find Tasks dialog
  • Due Time field
  • Task colouring extends to attribute columns
  • Better control of what attributes get exported/printed/etc
  • Multiple task dependencies (delimited by your regional list delimiter)
  • Various minor UI 'improvements'
  • Undo/redo now concatenates edits of same type (within 5 second window)
  • Fixed multi-selected task display bug
  • Fixed filter bug
  • Fixed iCal exporter bugs
  • Fixed recurring task bug when completing via date or percent fields
• 5.4.11 (04 Apr 2008)
  • Fix for task multi-selection display bug
  • Fix for iCal exporter to support Google Calendars
• 5.4.10 (12 Mar 2008)
  • Fix for task selection bug when selected colour is black.
• 5.4.9 (10 Mar 2008)
  • Various fixed relating to the handling of UI extension plugins (eg. calendar)
  • Time spent now exported for completed tasks
• 5.4.8 (21 Feb 2008)
  • Various selection related fixes
• 5.4.7 (21 Feb 2008)
  • Fix for broken 5.4.6 (caused by the filter related fix).
• 5.4.6 (20 Feb 2008)
  • Fix for text and html exporters not exporting costs
  • Fix for completed parent tasks appearing in 'Due ...' filters
  • Selected tasks retain selected appearance when the focus is not on the task tree
• 5.4.5 (09 Feb 2008)
  • Fix for csv exporter not resetting columns
  • Fix for spurious content appearing in html due task notifications
  • Box drawn around selected tasks when the focus is not on the task tree
• 5.4.4 (01 Feb 2008)
  • Fix for auto-sorting new tasks above completed tasks
• 5.4.3 (31 Jan 2008)
  • Fix for Alloc-To column showing incorrect data
  • Fix for '&' in tasklist columns
  • Fix for non-working tabstops in rich text comments
• 5.4.2 (25 Jan 2008)
  • Fix for incorrect undo when focus is on certain edit fields
  • Fix for ToDoList not updating calendar after filter change
• 5.4.1 (23 Jan 2008)
  • Fix for ini file access when setting category colours
  • Drag'n'Drop honours user subtask placement settings
  • Fix for erroneous visibility of task position column
  • Fix for selection bug after drag'n'drop
  • Fix for erroneous downward scroll when moving tasks up
• 5.4 Feature Release (19 Jan 2008)
  • Undo/Redo
  • Unified Import/Export dialogs
  • Import tasks from clipboard
  • Simple backup
  • FreeMind import/export plugin (by Guru Ramnath Kathiresan)
  • Word wrap button on RTF comments toolbar
  • Plain text importer now remembers it's settings
  • Editing any other task attribute while the task title is being edited causes the title edit to end
  • When a task is completed, it's subtasks are no longer evaluated when calculated percentage completion
  • The colour field now displays its colour in its background when the preference to use a task's colour for it's background is set
  • Placeholder for the selected task's file link has been added to the 'Tools' preferences page
  • Fix for the background text colour not being cleared from the RTF comments field when switching to a (new) task with no comments
  • Improved UI clean-up after drag-drop aborted
  • Fix for handling the rendering of '&' correctly
  • Fix for the handling of non-integer numeric preferences (default cost, time estimate, etc)
  • Simple text comments now only copies simple text (if that makes sense)Fix for bug with inherited task attributes
• 1.1-5.3 (removed by .dan.g.)
• 1.0 (4 Nov 2003)
  • Initial release.