Open Bug 157270 Opened 21 years ago Updated 5 months ago

Year View

Categories

(Calendar :: Calendar Frontend, enhancement)

Product:
Calendar
Component:
Calendar Frontend
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: imran.geriskovan, Unassigned)

References

Details

Attachments

(3 files)

Screenshot of Lotus Organizer's Year View
115.80 KB, image/jpeg
Details
Screenshot of EssentialPIM year view
259.60 KB, image/jpeg
Details
multi month view (unfinished)
33.26 KB, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review 
Year view will be a very handy feature.
Any suggestions what *data* should be included in the year view? 

Or do you just want ther ability to "see" & "print" a yearly calendar (without
any data)?

Perhaps it would be useful if the user could "toggle" which data he wants included.
A yearly calendar should show only all-day events such as holidays and vacations
and similar.  Or, maybe it should just mark days with events on that day.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
OS: Windows 2000 → All
Hardware: PC → All
What I had in my mind was this:

Think about a time line with small points on it.
May be text-boxes may pop-up when user moves his mouse on a specific point.
Double clicking on will open the event/todo item.

Timeline approach may also provide a solution to adjustable timeframe to show
on calendar. The user may scroll along the time line.
I won't be doing this, but someone else can take it on if they want.
Assignee: mikep → nobody
How about just allowing multiple months to be visible on screen at once?  The only 
really annoying thing about the month view is when you're approaching the end of
the month and the next few days events aren't visible (they're on the next month).
Did you see http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157271 ?
It's about custom views.

For example a view with rolling horizon may be very handy.
(In reply to comment #1)
> Any suggestions what *data* should be included in the year view? 

First few words of tasks on each day. In my particular case, it is very rare if
I have more than one task a day. Then maybe a coloured line on one side (right?)
to indicate a holiday period?


> Or do you just want ther ability to "see" & "print" a yearly calendar (without
> any data)?

That would be nice as well. But should be an option.


> Perhaps it would be useful if the user could "toggle" which data he wants
included.

Indeed.
I think a year view should be very usefull when one is looking for a free time
slot and in general for having a more global/synthetic view of the calendar
events, for example in order to perform year planification.

The year view could look as follows, which also have the advantage of being
printable :

                         Monday             ||          Tuesday ...
            8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 || 8  9 10 ...
2004/11/01  |[XXXXXX]|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | || |  |  |
2004/11/08  |[XXXXXX]|  |  |  |[YYY]|  |  | || |  |  |
2004/11/15  |  |  |  |  |  |  |[YYY]|  |  | || |  |  |
2004/11/22  |  |  |  |  |  |  |[YYY]|  |  | || |  |  |
2004/11/29  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | || |  |  |
2004/12/06  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | || |  |  |
   ...               ............

(where X and Y are events of course)
>  Any suggestions what *data* should be included in the year view? 

Yes, must be indicated what days are busy and what are free.
May be a good choice will be the possibility to click over a day
to see the daily plannings.


I would like to suggest an overview to display a 'block' or box if you will for
each week, 52 blocks on the overview. Top left corner of the box, DDMM of the
first day of the week. Fill the box with DD+short description of events within
that week, also using the background-color of the calenderfile. Because of the
limitations of space one could consider displaying items, based on duration of
the  event. Longest duration first, until no more space is available. An other
suggestion would be to add a checkbox on the event-creationform to indicate
'print on annual overview' although that option has a bigger design-impact. 
*** Bug 285431 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
(In reply to comment #1)
> Any suggestions what *data* should be included in the year view? 

Perhaps the view could be similar that "Month View" is when resized to the
minimum size. It has little yellow dot's indicating something on that day, and
when mouse is moved over, a little "hover box" is shown indicating event's details.

All this functionality is already working, so my guess is that only thing that
is needed is to show multiple months instead of one ? Or perhaps I'm missing
some important point ?

There is still a serious lack of calendars that provide a "year view" for
calendars. How else can you get a good perspective on when you can plan leave or
a trip etc.This is possibly one of the main reasons why paper diaries still win
in this area.
A view that shows the entire year using the categories to colour events gives
you the ideal way to see when you're away on business, have sports events,
school outings etc. Seems so simple to implement, and the functionality
advantage is huge.
As an example "Outlook Year View" by "Planet Software Pty Ltd"
http://www.planetsoftware.com.au/images/year_view.gif
Lotus Organizer has had this for years. ;-)

The colored bars are all-/multi-day "Events" (vacation, business trips, sick
leave, etc.). The small black vertical bars are "Appointments" that were
created in the "Schedules" section.

A quarterly view showing only three month per page which lets the user see more
daily details (length and position of vertical black bars) is also available.
QA Contact: colint → general
*** Bug 346965 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
How about just a plain month per month calendar? As in the UNIX "cal" utility?

anarcat@orange:~$ cal 2006
                             2006

      janvier               février                 mars
di lu ma me je ve sa  di lu ma me je ve sa  di lu ma me je ve sa
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7            1  2  3  4            1  2  3  4
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14   5  6  7  8  9 10 11   5  6  7  8  9 10 11
15 16 17 18 19 20 21  12 13 14 15 16 17 18  12 13 14 15 16 17 18
22 23 24 25 26 27 28  19 20 21 22 23 24 25  19 20 21 22 23 24 25
29 30 31              26 27 28              26 27 28 29 30 31

...

Of course things can get a bit crowded, but it's always handy to have a yearly overview like this...
(In reply to comment #16)
> How about just a plain month per month calendar? As in the UNIX "cal" utility?
> 
<snip/>

I agree. And we would have different colors accordingly to what is defined on each day: one color for empty days and one for each category. 

> Of course things can get a bit crowded, but it's always handy to have a yearly
> overview like this...
> 

IMO there should be two variants of year view. The one you're suggesting, a more extended one, one row for each month, like the one suggested by  Mael Hilléreau, but more condensed. Another variant would be the one described by  Mael Hilléreau.

But all the variants, specially the two first, must be really condensed, Showing only the colors, for small displays/windows. On greater displays/windows, Sunbird would increase the amount of information being shown. Of course, this behaviour should be changeable in the options, e.g. enabling the user to force a minimal year view, even if (s)he uses a very big display.
I use Lotus Organizer and the year view is very usefull. The presentation is like this :

January :  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 ...... 30 31
           m  t  w  t  f  s  s  ......
zone1 ->   xx -- -- -- xx
zone2
...
zone6
February :  01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 ...... 30 31
           m  t  w  t  f  s  s  ......
zone1 ->   xx -- -- -- xx
zone2
...
zone6

It's possible to define 6 zone type (or category) Example : zone 1=holiday, zone2=business trip, zone3=training ...
All daily task are automatically report with a standard color in Year View and if you make a time zone in Year View (your holiday or training), this one is also report on daily or weekly view.
So, it's possible to see immediately what time is free or busy or book on all the year. Is not necessary to add too more détails on each task to avoid too complicate diagramm to see or avoid to use very large screen.


A year view would be definitely welcome :-)

Here is a nice looking one:
http://projects.o-hand.com/dates

Proposed features:
1.) public holidays (if available) should have a different color
2.) days with task should be bold
3.) 1.) and 2.) can occur at the same time
4.) calendar weeks should be optionally available / displayable
5.) hovering over the months name should give a monthly overview in a popup (similar to a tooltip which disappears by its own) if the month
 - has public holidays
 - has events
5a.) clicking in the popup should bring up the day or event
6.) hovering over a day should give an overview in a popup if the day
 - is a public holiday
 - has events
6a.) clicking in the popup should bring up the event

So this is more than four years old? :(
(In reply to comment #1)
> Any suggestions what *data* should be included in the year view? 
> 
> Or do you just want ther ability to "see" & "print" a yearly calendar (without
> any data)?
> 
> Perhaps it would be useful if the user could "toggle" which data he wants included.

I want to add my vote that this would be a very useful feature - it could be quite simple. Eg I organise a seminar series that always occurs on Tuesdays. This is a specific calendar, which happens to be blue. I would find it very handy to look across 6 or 12 months at a time to see which thuesdays have a blue spot on them. I'd happily zoom into a month or day for more detail. 
(In reply to comment #1)
> Any suggestions what *data* should be included in the year view? 
> 
> Or do you just want ther ability to "see" & "print" a yearly calendar (without
> any data)?
> 
> Perhaps it would be useful if the user could "toggle" which data he wants included.

I want to add my vote that this would be a very useful feature - it could be quite simple. Eg I organise a seminar series that always occurs on Tuesdays. This is a specific calendar, which happens to be blue. I would find it very handy to look across 6 or 12 months at a time to see which thuesdays have a blue spot on them. I'd happily zoom into a month or day for more detail. 

A bit fancier: It could be possible for each day to have multiple dots. Or to have coloured backgrounds where all day and or repeated events (like holidays) exist. This would still look quite simple and attractive. 


I think a year view is important for planning or checking events/tasks that are going to take months or are going to happen a far day.
A view like that one posted by Peter Lairo:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=199151

or better, the same view in a calendar with day numbers e.g., this one from EssentialPIM:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=297243

would be perfect but a bit complicated to have, I think, in particular with many short day events (their position inside the day I mean). 

In my opinion a day in year view should be like a day in month view with reduced dimension and, obviously, without text.
Every days should show at least a simple colored line (3-4 pixels thickness) for every event that occurs on that day, in order to see immediately what and when you have something to do.

With a such simple configuration, should be possible move, "reduce" or "enlarge" events by drag 'n drop or editing by double click as well.

Would be possible to see events' details, with a kind of tooltip or "mini window" showing a zoom of the day like a single day in month view (with text) or a kind of miniature of the day view.
Then events selection or editing should be possible inside the tooltip or the "mini window". But I'm not a programmer and maybe this isn't possible or should be do it in a different way, I don't know.

It would be also nice if mouse wheel could turn month by month instead year by year on year view. 

Cheers.
How about the year view like the one of the picsoft.de-planer.

http://www.cj-promotion.de/Privat/yearview.jpg
So finally, will the next release contain a year view ?

I think a Yera View :

1. is indispensable for navigation (try planning future meetings 2 years ahead, or going back to an event 3 years ago, with the current month view)

2. optionally could show data (ie highlight days with "All day events" as has been suggested - one can then dig down through other views)

So for me, at the very least, a unix cal-style view showing the entire year, with years navigable like months in the current Month view, should be included.

thanks
enkidu

(In reply to comment #31)
> 1. is indispensable for navigation (try planning future meetings 2 years
> ahead, or going back to an event 3 years ago, with the current month view)

Currently this takes just zero, one or two clicks: In Sunbird use the Go To Date feature (via menu, toolbar button or keyboard shortcut), in Lightning enter the date directly in the field in the left sidebar. Or use the dropwdown menus of the displayed minimonth control or the scrollwheel to quickly change month and years.

(In reply to comment #32)
Two mouse-clicks is a LOT!  *Nothing* beats an overview.  Here's my suggestion:
 http://www.sgc.ox.ac.uk/~loretta/calendar/year-overview.gif
Doesn't need more than all-day events, as bars down covering the days.  The per-week view is very handy as well, for orientation.
By the way, this is badly missing in the current (otherwise brilliant!) implementation.
Keywords: helpwanted
i prefer this one : http://www.almanach.free.fr/
remove the names and add events
This is now possible via extension, see dependant bug. Example extension at https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/addon/11608 (currently very basic!)
Clicking on the link says add-on not found. Could you please name the add-on so that we can at least do a search? Thanks.
The extension name is "Year View". The link is correct, its just very fresh and the amo cache needs to be updated. Please read bug 489590, this one needs to be fixed first before the extension can be used!
Is the screenshot accurate? (I've not installed yet).  Because if so, I'm afraid this Year View is not even vaguely useful (sorry).  It really does have to be an overview (several views posted above), because there are many ways (e.g. google) to pull down that sort of calendar.
My opinion of how year planning calendars are best laid out:

The entire view is scrollable with left and right horizons. X marks events, mouse-over shows title[/start/end].

You should be able to drag-select ranges of days to create long events.

  |2009                                                                   |2010
  |Jan  |Feb  |Mar  |Apr  |May  |Jun  |Jul  |Aug  |Sep  |Oct  |Nov  |Dec  |Jan  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1|     |*    |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
 2|     |A    |     |     |     |     |     |X    |     |     |     |     |     
 3|     |*    |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
 4|     |L    |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
 5|     |O    |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
 6|     |N    |     |     |     |     |-    |     |     |     |     |     |     
 7|     |G    |     |     |     |     |A    |     |     |     |     |     |     
 8|     |* -  |     |     |     |     |N    |     |X X  |     |     |     |     
 9|     |E A  |     |x    |     |     |D    |     |     |     |     |X    |x    
10|     |V N  |     |     |     |X    |*    |     |     |     |     |     |     
11|     |E D  |     |     |     |     |T    |     |     |     |     |     |     
12|     |N *  |     |     |     |     |H    |     |     |X    |     |     |     
13|X    |T T  |     |     |     |     |I    |     |     |     |     |     |     
14|     |- H  |     |     |     |     |S    |     |     |     |     |     |     
15|     |  I  |     |     |     |     |*    |     |     |     |     |     |     
16|     |  S  |     |     |     |     |I    |X    |     |     |     |     |     
17|     |  *  |     |     |     |     |S    |     |     |     |     |     |     
18|     |  I  |     |     |     |X X  |*    |     |     |     |     |     |     
19|     |  S  |     |     |     |     |A    |     |     |     |X    |     |     
20|     |  *  |     |     |     |     |N    |     |     |     |     |     |     
21|     |  A  |     |     |     |     |O    |     |     |     |     |     |     
22|     |  N  |     |     |     |     |T    |     |     |     |     |X    |     
23|     |  O  |     |     |     |     |H    |     |     |     |     |     |     
24|-    |  T  |     |     |     |     |E    |     |     |     |     |     |     
25|T    |  H  |     |X X  |     |     |R    |     |     |     |     |X    |    
26|H    |  E  |     |     |     |     |-    |     |X    |     |     |     |     
27|I    |  R  |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
28|S    |  -  |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
29|*    |-----|     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
30|I    |-----|     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     |     
31|S    |-----|     |-----|     |-----|     |     |-----|     |-----|X    |
Please keep in mind that the extension from comment #38 is more or less a proof of concept that shows the upcoming extensibility. You are free to create your own extensions that implements other kinds of views, e.g. a year view as described in comment #40.
As Stefan said, this was really just a proof of concept. If anyone is interested in creating a year view extension, I'm glad to support them. Also, if anyone would like to create a different extension, I could also imagine that the current extension could be morphed into an all-sorts-of-calendar-views-one-can-selectively-enable extension. Talk to me and we can set things up.
The extension is great initiative, but the bug really should focus on functionality for the core. Now we know that something can be done! Let's iron out what, so that the one who eventually decides to pick it up can get a good overview. I can only suppose that what is needed from core is refactoring interfaces that inputs/outputs out enough information so that a wide range of year view styles and behaviours can be easily created by extension devs. However, I think that core should include at least a basic year view. 

Most people do some kind of year planning, like 

"When can i squeeze in that two week trip to Thailand?", or

"Ouch, a few months from now seems a bit stuffed, might just try and reschedule before it's too late". 

Creating a standalone calendar application for people with a 'one month horizon' is undershooting the target - I think more is required for the masses to give up their paper calendars. So what's the best view to fill these elementary needs?
Component: General → Calendar Views
QA Contact: general → views
I think the Year View extension is a great start.  A few problems:

1) It only seems to show the current year. At least, the PageUp/PageDown keys and the mouse scrollwheel don't change years.

2) If I'm in month view in August, switch to year view then back to month view, the current month is January instead of August.

3) The current day is highlighted in the current month and in the previous month.

4) Although it works fine in XP, in Vista there's a pretty bad bug.  When I switch to the calendar tab (via the tiny icon on the tabbar), the status bar disappears.  Worse, though, is that when I return to the mail tab, I can't scroll down to the bottom-most folders.  I had to uninstall it on the Vista box.

Not sure if there's a better place to post these problems.
Take a look at "year view" from labs at Google Calendar.
I have testing and it has a good layout to begning.
Simple Year View should be integrated in TB and Sunbird. 
Days with events should be in bold and weekends in colour. 
Clicking a day with events should open NEW tab with this day.
Clicking a Month name should open a new tab with this month view. 
Used defined Holidays should be in different colour picked by user.

Just regular user 5cents. 

And THANKS - so far TB is very good replacement for Outlook etc.
(In reply to comment #46)
> Clicking a day with events should open NEW tab with this day.
> Clicking a Month name should open a new tab with this month view. 

Great idea. But it should be a double-click, so users can select/highlight a day and don't inadvertently get jarred out of their context (month view --> new tab & day view).
A quarterly view, like that of Lotus Organizer, would be exceedingly helpful.
I created this a while back, but I haven't really got time to finish it off. Feel free to take it and do so.
Attachment #599924 - Attachment is patch: true
In my opinion this add-on solves the problem:
https://addons.mozilla.org/it/thunderbird/addon/year-view-14467/?src=search

It needs some improvement, though. Maybe it can be used as a starting point?
Confirm. 
Year View PlugIn is working so far with 
  8 remote calendars, 
  SoGo Connector and 
  Birthday Adapter. 

Loading a year's data and/or rendering is very slow though.

Year View extension doesn't work any more and will likely not be updated to TB 68 (see https://github.com/fabrixxm/Year-View ). Are there plans to incorporate Year View directly in Lightning?

Severity: normal → S3
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