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Since the preferences are themselves stored in the ini, this would put another file on the local PC. I mentioned something similar in another post this week. But for what you're describing, how about creating a Shortcut that loads a specific in from a network share, and put that shortcut on the share. Users can then click that shortcut to open the common ini.
As to how to expose the shortcut, I don't know if we can create a shortcut to a shortcut, but if you can get a shortcut on the user desktop pointing to the shortcut on the share, then you've got a solution. If not, there's no harm in creating a shortcut to the shared folder. So the user clicks on the folder icon on their desktop, this opens the shared folder, where they find the TDL shortcut, and voilà! That just adds one click to the launch. It's not inelegant.
To do an auto-start, Windows should be set to open the shortcut on a delay after boot. You don't want it to attempt to launch a network shortcut when Windows hasn't completely booted yet.
What do you think?
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I agree, chainning the .ini files is complicated. One have to br sure there is no simpler way to get the result.
The only reason I see to put the .ini file on the network is because the tasklist settings are in the .ini.
Am I wrong ? Or what is your reason to share the .ini file ?
Patrice
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein
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That was my point. That is allow the .ini to be anywhere the user desires.
My thought was that if Dan could make the .ini have a user defined location, then I could set it to a location on a local drive that syncs across all my computers via a cloud service. For example, I have a Synology NAS with a cloud service and PCs located in different cities on different networks. If I put a file on PC1 in one city1 and then travel to city2 where I have another PC, the file shows up on the second PC on the same drive in the same directory. And if I change that file on that PC and travel back to the city1, the file has changed there too. You can do this same thing with Microsoft's OneDrive cloud service. This is standard cloud service stuff.
Here is a more specific example. I created drive J: on four PCs.
- PC1 & PC2 are desktop PCs on LAN1 in city1,
- PC3 is wireless tablet/laptop and connects to a LAN1 when I am in city1 and LAN2 when I am in city2.
- PC4 is a desktop that stays in city2 on LAN2.
Then:
1) I added PDF files, videos, or whatever file type to my drive J:. It does not matter which computer I use. When I add a file on any of my computers, it shows up on all the other computers in the same folder on drive J:.
2) I created a ToDoList file that has a task item entry for each PDF, video, or whatever file type I have with a file link to the corresponding file. Then I write comments about the file in the comments section. And finally, I organize and categorize all my PDF files, videos, and whatever by adding metadata to each file's task entry. That is I add categories and tags to the task item so that I can quickly find any PDF document or video with ToDoList's search and filter functons. So, now I have a personal information system (PIM) and can quickly find any document, video, image, or whatever across all my computers...and when I click on a link in ToDoList, it opens the file. The TDL file with all the metadata is on Drive J: too, so it goes along with me wherever I go. And, if I edit the TDL file on any of my PCs, it changes on all my other PCs too.
So, my theory is why couldn't you use the same concept with an .ini file. That is if Dan made a pointer to the .ini that can be set by the user, then each PC could access the same file that is synced across all computers.
Dave
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Ok, I see your problem. There no need of a secondary .ini file.
DT996 wrote: So, my theory is why couldn't you use the same concept with an .ini file. That is if Dan made a pointer to the .ini that can be set by the user, then each PC could access the same file that is synced across all computers.
My solution:
- Copy/install the ToDoList directory structure to J:\ToDoList
- make a shortcut on each computer.
it will launch j:\ToDoList\todolist.exe from j:\ToDoList\ directory
and all your computers will use the same exe abd the same ini.
Edit: Give a try to the -Z option on cammandline. It will embed the columns visibility settings in the tasklist file. It maay even remove the need of ini file on J:
Patrice
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein
modified 28-Feb-15 12:08pm.
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ppolymorphe wrote: My solution:
- Copy/install the ToDoList directory structure to J:\ToDoList
- make a shortcut on each computer.
it will launch j:\ToDoList\todolist.exe from j:\ToDoList\ directory
and all your computers will use the same exe and the same ini.
I thought about this. But am concerned about what would happen if I open TDL from a desktop...say PC1 and later open TDL on another PC...say PC3, and I have not closed TDL on PC1. It seems like TDL might get confused if I'm doing different things on different PCs using a bunch of synced files within TDL. That is why I haven't tried that. However, if each .exe file were sharing a synced .ini file, I don't think is would be a problem if you changed the file from different PCs.
If a synced .ini file were open on two PCs at the same time and I tried to save a change, my cloud service would save that file with a new name that contains the word "conflict", since there is no file check-in and check-out on the cloud service. I think it would be rare that I would edit a .ini on one PC, but not finish the edit, before I start editing the .ini on another PC. That is why I think the shared .ini might work, but I am less confident about sharing the whole TDL directory. I'm concerned that data corruption might occur if I were to try an run TDL from a synced directory. It would probably work okay if I remembered to close TDL on one PC before opening it on another PC, but I would forget to do at some point.
Dave
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Hi Dave,
Looks like you try to find a solution to a problem that you are affraid of but simply does not exist in first.
I can go technical, if you want.
Just remember that you can launch more than one instance of the same TDL at the same time on a single PC without data corruption.
You need to know that TDL NEVER write in any of the files delivered from this site. if you are a normal user, todolist.ini will be the only file ever written by the EXE. If you translate TDL in tou language, the translation file will be written too, it is the onky exeption.
The ini file can't be corrupted in the sync process because tdl read the ini once at opening and never after. Each time you change a setting, the ini is rewritten completely.
Patrice
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein
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Hi Dan,
I know that up to 7.0 you just wanted to improve the column re-sizign abilities etc. - and add new features only post 7.0.
So the question is - in 7.0+ would you consider adding a hierarchal tag pane (like what cntanotes offers)? Its faster to find/look through content that way...?
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Member 11471153 wrote: would you consider adding a hierarchal tag pane (like what cntanotes offers) If you can supply screenshots and an explanation of exactly how it would work within TDL then I am certainly prepared to consider it.
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Hi Dan,
I'm getting heavily into using TDL for as a Content Management System (CMS) for creating my Personal Information Management (PIM) system, and it's working pretty darn good. However, I think it would add immensely to TDL's CMS/PIM power if tags could be assigned to specific categories to give you tag hierarchies. This concept is generally called building taxonomies.
Drupal is a powerful, open source, website building tool and CMS used by the Whitehouse for creating whitehouse.gov. Drupal has taxonomy tools built in. Below are a couple of links that give information about building taxonomies in Drupal. What you call categories is what they call vocabularies in Drupal. In Drupal they assign tags to vocabularies (categories). The first link is a text description; the second is a screencast. I think these items might be useful for seeing conceptually what was done in Drupal.
About taxonomies
How do I add a new vocabulary to classify content on my Drupal site?
Also, Wikipedia has a good definition of "taxonomy" and how the term is used in classifying information.
I think the bottom line here is that if you create a large number of tags like I am beginning to do, then it would be very helpful in preventing information overload, if tags could be related to categories and then have a way to filter tags by category...this would give us the needed hierarchies to prevent brain overload.
Dave
modified 23-Feb-15 11:15am.
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I hate to say this but I think this is rather easy to do with a combination of the upcoming library, a UDT, custom attributes, and the command line to move focus to a specific list/task. Should I connect dots or do others see this too?
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The problem with pointing me to links is that it significantly increases my workload and therefore is likely to get lowly prioritised. That's why I ask for screenshots and a detailed explanation for how the asker would imagine it working in TDL.
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Okay...sorry about that.
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For columns such as start date, due date, etc, is it possible to customize the date syntax/format?
Reasons why:
I (usually) don't care much about the year of the task
I'd rather have a narrower column
I'd like to have option to include the day of the week (3 letter abbreviation)
So my start dates could be 2/19 or Thu 2/19... ?
Is this possible? If not, can it be added?
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xpct2wn wrote: is it possible to customize the date syntax/format? No. I've always adopted the policy that your Windows preferences are sufficient.
xpct2wn wrote: I'd like to have option to include the day of the week This is already available in the preferences.
xpct2wn wrote: If not, can it be added? Version 7.0 will allow you to manually resize columns so hopefully this will fulfill your needs.
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Time logging: We talk about enhancements to this a lot. I'm finding another usage pattern I'd like to discuss.
Let's say we work on something for a client for 1 hour and 53 minutes. That's 01:53. In order to log the time we need to think "how many minutes is that? 60 plus 53 is 113..." and then log 13 minutes which then gets saved as 1.88.
1) It would be helpful to be able to enter "1:53h".
In a similar scenario, we get on a Skype at 9am with the client who asks us to write code or a doc, etc. At 10:22 we're done with that second effort. How long did it take? Check Skype chat to see it logged 32 minutes on the call. Enter "32m" for discussion time, no problem. What about the rest? That's 10:22-9:32 = 50m.
2) It would be helpful to be able to enter the time and let the text box do the math: "10:32-9:32"
If the second part is greater than the first part then we've crossed passed midnight, so add 24 hours and then subtract. Similarly, a logical interpretation should be used to avoid confusion between 12 and 24 hour formats. For example 11:01-2:01 should be assumed as 3 hours, not 11am to 2am the next morning, and the result is the same as 11:01-14:01.
If this isn't approved for a TDL enhancement, I can write a little macro for this and maybe add it as a UDT.
Here's another situation that happens once in a while...
I get on the phone with someone and we start talking about a project. I create a new tasklist and start entering tasks. One of them is "Discussion" for which I want to log time. So I either clock that item or I add an adjustment when we're all done. Then I go to save the .tdl. (Can you see this coming?) The prompt displays for the filename and I enter "newcust.tdl". But where was the time logged? It's in a "_Log.csv" file, which is exactly right, it had no list name which it appended to the underscore. But now I need to rename the file to newcust_Log.csv or that first round of data will get lost. I know I need to do this. Someone else may not.
3) If the filename is null when time logging, prompt the user for a file name then, as if a Save operation was requested.
Thanks.
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I'm open to enhancing the 'Add Time' functionality in this way.
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I'm torn between the two.
History:
Been in long-term relationship with TDL, yet now strangely (reluctantly?) considering KB as alternative.
Can they live side by side, perhaps?
*difficult decision*
Others with experience in pairing TDL with another tool?
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These are different tools, and they can be used together. Kanban is more about How you work. TDL is more about what you're working on. While the KB people would differentiate themselves and say their solution is better than a todo list, this TDL application really goes beyond the standards and breaks the metric by which statements like that are made.
They both have rough interfaces which can be used to move data between them. So update your TDL and you'll see the update in KB, update KB and your TDL can get updated. As to HOW to do these things, that would require extensive detail, but if someone put a gun to my head or a few bucks in my pocket then I'm sure I could do it.
Without a quick way to actually move data between these environments, for right now you'd be stuck with double entry. That's no solution. Trying not to let a bias for TDL influence me here, KB has very few of the features available in TDL, so in a feature comparison, TDL wins out easily. KB is fairly pretty and does have some nice hooks that TDL does not.
If you can articulate what KB offers you that TDL does not, perhaps we can recommend solving That problem, rather than trying to make a decision simply based on a side by side comparison without discussing what's possible.
HTH for now.
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Double entry is a NO-GO zone.
There would be features in TDL I'd miss - (especially recurring and tags)
What looks "greener on the other side" is the open/shareable environment with possiblity to delegate / interaction and direct comments / file attachments with the others.
Right now I'm "closed off"/roaming lone wolf in TDL, while the others keep their own lists (some on paper & post-its).
Have previously attempted a roll-out of network setup with TDL with a shared .tdl, but some of the "slower sheep in the herd" couldn't handle TDL's interface / UI, hence the initiative crashed and everyone returned to old habits.
Guess perhaps I can see a dual system solution where delegating/distribution tasks (superstructure) can be run through KB (due to the simple interface, which all the sheep can handle) - while I stick around in TDL.
Thanks for the input.
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Member 11215525 wrote: Have previously attempted a roll-out of network setup with TDL with a shared .tdl, but some of the "slower sheep in the herd" couldn't handle TDL's interface / UI, hence the initiative crashed and everyone returned to old habits. Commenting on that one note...
It took me years to wrap my brain around TDL. Not that it's complex but that there is so much on the dashboard in front of us and it's tough to either work that into our workflow, or modify the workflow acceptably to work with the tool. I had a couple failed starts at doing this until it all started clicking. I could be one of those slower sheep in the herd. But I suspect ToDoList has lost a lot of people simply because it looks like it's a bit much. You start using it by sipping from a firehose of features.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have done everything they could to make user interfaces dirt-dumb-simple. And anything that doesn't have big text and buttons is off the radar for most people these days. That's a real pain for guys like me who write software that does much more than those dirt-dumb-simple popular apps. Microsoft has also been trying to simplify the UI for Office apps for years, but the more they hide in the menu system to make it look cleaner, the more people complain that they can't find things that used to be in front of them. They keep trying to find the sweet spot of making features available without clutter. ToDoList is the same.
Now that ToDoList is so feature-rich, I think it's well past time for better documentation. I don't mean an itemized list of the controls on the page. I mean a "How to use ToDoList" that takes a new user from installation through configs and on to maintaining tasks. Of course "someone" needs to write that, and there is a wiki just waiting for contributions. So it's up to the community to write the docs in order to get more people to use it. If there were any reward for writing books anymore I might take that up as a challenge later. But at the moment there's just not enough of a following around TDL to justify that. Compare with WordPress, EBay, PhotoShop, Excel, Facebook, and other popular services and applications for which there are a on of books.
I also think the UI could use a new set of defaults, to reduce what's visible until a user sets a preference to enable the functionality. This should help to eliminate losing people who can't deal with everything in their face all at once. Off-hand I can't suggest details. I'm just saying I think that long-lasting software usually goes through cycles from simple to complex, and then the better software needs to come back to simplicity in order to appeal to a broader audience. I think that's where TDL is now.
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Member 11215525 wrote: but some of the "slower sheep in the herd" couldn't handle TDL's interface / UI That's unfortunate because any new tool requires some new learning.
So they couldn't handle the check-in/out method?
And did you set TDL up to auto-check-in after a period of inactivity?
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Would it be difficult to implement the Kanboard in TDL?
I don't know the depth of that (kanban) system,
but it just seems like the 'status' column/data part arranged visually into column as per the status.
It seems like it will be just another way to represent pre-existing data. Seems even simpler to implement than the calander view or gannt view...?
Of course- I'm not a programmer. I don't really know anything about this.
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I have thought about this in the past.
It could be a visual way of representing/filtering tasks by status (and possibly changing that status). In other words, a pending, active, and completed status (or perhaps even user selectable - e.g. Status active, To do this week, to do today, done...).
This type of filtering can all be achieved with current functionality, it is just that the Kanban technique is more visual, for those people inclined that way.
Unsure whether this should be done in TDL, or could be achieved some other way.
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Member 11471153 wrote: Seems even simpler to implement than the calander view or gannt view...? Can you mock up how you would expect it to look within TDL so I can understand better what you mean?
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This is a common request in any workplace: How do we connect X to Y?
Both X and Y have some mechanisms for input and output. But they might not be directly compatible.
This is where middleware comes in. A program in the middle accepts output from X and converts it to a format that's suitable for input to Y. A non-elegant exchange means doing an export from X, running the middleware program, then doing an import to Y. A more elegant solution is to click a button in X, then when you look at Y it's there. The ideal solution is to have the middleware working in the background so that all X and Y data are transparently and immediately exchanged, making it look like they're not separate at all.
So that defines the challenge. Both TDL and KB have imports and exports, but at this moment there's probably no middleware for any type of direct exchange. Someone needs to write some code.
The tighter the integration, the more programmer time it takes. A solution is going to cost "someone" time and/or money. If you don't want to pay for a solution, you'll either need to spend time to learn the export and import mechanisms for TDL and KB, or you'll have to wait for someone else to put something together for you. I dare say you'll be waiting a long time. So it's DIY if you're looking for a free solution. As I said, solutions require time or money. If you don't want to spend time or wait a long period of time, you're going to need to motivate a programmer to do whatever part you decide not to do. Pay with coffee or widgets or cash but you'll need to motivate someone to provide a solution on your behalf. Dan's motivations include writing good software that he himself can use, and he's gracious enough to share it with others. You may be able to motivate him to write some KB connectivity for you for free. Or you'll need to find someone else.
To set you on a path toward doing this or finding someone, TDL files are easily viewable as text. Open the .tdl file and you'll see XML formatting which defines the data. That data can be transformed into something that KB can use, whether a database or another format called JSON. We'll soon have a code library which will allow programmers to write code which uses TDL data very easily, and hopefully we'll be able to integrate more easily with TDL as well - bringing us closer to that ideal transparent flow of data scenario. I'm writing this connectivity software, and it will already do what you want (on the TDL side anyway), but it's just not ready for use in the field yet, sorry.
So there are your options. It's "make or buy" where the more you make the more time it takes, and the more you buy the more time you save but your profit is less. Then again, buying gets you a solution soon where DIY or waiting may never yield a solution. This is the exact same answer for every problem of supply and demand, and pretty much the same answer for any "Can I integrate SomeSystemX with ToDoList?"
HTH
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