Open Bug 415548 Opened 16 years ago Updated 2 years ago

Support filtering of tasks in Today Pane (like in Task Mode)

Categories

(Calendar :: Tasks, enhancement)

enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: pavel.zahradnik, Unassigned)

References

Details

Attachments

(2 files, 1 obsolete file)

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008020404 Minefield/3.0b3pre
Build Identifier: Lightning 0.8pre (build 2008020318)

In agenda pane there are listed all tasks (so this task list could become very long), while there should be listed only tasks which somehow correspond to the current day (e.g. tasks without due day and tasks due in the next week).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
OS: Windows XP → All
Hardware: PC → All
Summary: task list scope in agenda pane → Scope of tasks shown in Today Pane
One proposal:
The simple checkbox can be replaced by a drop-down menu with (fixed or persisting) default. (Although this screenshot already contains my solution for bug 412962)

I expect 'r-' from Christian, because it's not really nice - but please post your own...
Attachment #303262 - Flags: ui-review?(christian.jansen)
According to Christian's design, I think there are supposed to be "Today/Tomorrow/Soon" sections in the task list in the today pane.

The wiki page is probably outdated, but here it is:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Mail_View_Integration
Attachment #303262 - Flags: ui-review?(christian.jansen) → ui-review-
Like Pete already mentioned, we should add a tree to the task list. The show "Next Seven Day, Not Started, Over Due, Completed" should be moved into the Context Menu. Selecting one of the options should display a flat prefiltered list of the tasks.

If no task is selected the context menu could be order like proposed below:

(E) New Task...
(D) Edit Task
(D) Delete Task
----------------
(D) Mark Completed
(D) Progress >
(D) Priority >
(D) Calendar >
(D) Convert to >
----------------
(E) Show >(O) All (-> Tree)
(E)       (O) Today (->Flat)
(E)       (O) N7Days(->Flat)
(E)       (O) Not Started Tasks (->Flat)
(E)       (O) Not Started Tasks (->Flat)
(E)       (O) Overdue Tasks (->Flat)
(E)       (O) Completed Tasks (->Flat)
			  ----------------
(E)       (C) Hide Completed Tasks
		  
E = Enabled
D = Disabled
O = Option
C = Checkbox
Summary: Scope of tasks shown in Today Pane → Support filtering of tasks in Today Pane (like in Task Mode)
For the Today pane this particularly includes showing only tasks that start or are due in a defined time frame starting now, comparable to the events in the Today pane.
Flags: wanted-calendar1.0?
As mentioned in (now duplicate/closed) Bug 543377 - it would be great to have a pref specifying how many days in advance to look ahead.  (7 days is a decent default, though.)

Basically, I think the nugget of the issue is allowing the user to dial up & down the amount of future info in the pane.  If most users are anything like me, they may start a task a couple of days early or late, but don't want to be reminded about stuff that is far enough off that nothing can be done about it yet.  

My personal preference is to keep only 0-5 items there at any given time.  I currently use Events for anything more than a couple of days in the future, to avoid seeing it every time I read email.  (Which is a bit of a pain.)
[copying my comment from duped bug 549227]

I'd like to hide tasks in the today pane when the Start date is in the future.

Example 1:  I wash my car every Saturday but I don't want to see this task in
the today pane all week.  So I set the Start date to Friday and the Due date to
Saturday.  The task never appears in the Soon section.  On Friday it appears in
"Tomorrow" and on Saturday it appears in "Today".

2) In addition to hiding tasks, the Start date could also force future tasks to
appear sooner.  According to Christian's specs, the today/tomorrow/soon
sections are based on due dates.  These sections only include one or two weeks
of the future so we wouldn't see a task that is due next month that we have to
start this month.

Example 2:  Assume today is 1 Nov 2008.  I set the Start date to 15 Nov 2008
and the Due date to 15 Dec 2008.  The task appears in the today pane on 15 Nov
2008 even though it's not due today/tomorrow/soon.

In the second example, I think it would be okay to list the task in the Soon
section.
The fix for bug 350174 creates a "current tasks" filter that shows future tasks only when a later date is selected, which will hide future tasks by default on the today pane. For example, if I want to see tasks starting within the next week in the today pane, I can set the date on today pane forward 7 days.
Assignee: nobody → matthew.mecca
I think this should be taken in 2 parts.

Part 1 is the filter context menu. There's been some negative user feedback on the date-bound filtering added to the Today Pane in Bug 350174 (ultimately I think the current behavior is the best to use by default, but it would be nice to give the option of the old "show everything" behavior for those who want that). I think it would be good to take this for 1.0.

Part 2 is the hierarchical task grouping like the event section has - I think the task grouping changes required would be better for a future release.
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Attached patch Part 1 - Filter Context Menu (obsolete) — — Splinter Review
Part 1 - Adds basic support for filtering the Today Pane task list by context menu
Attachment #555634 - Flags: review?(philipp)
Fixes whitespace issue in v1
Attachment #555634 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Attachment #555637 - Flags: review?(philipp)
Attachment #555634 - Flags: review?(philipp)
Comment on attachment 555637 [details] [diff] [review]
[checked-in]Part 1 - Filter Context Menu v2

Review of attachment 555637 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

From mere code inspection it looks good. Macports is upgrading so I can't test at the moment, but if you feel comfortable with this, go ahead and push it to: comm-central, comm-aurora and comm-beta. If you'd like me to take another look, then just comm-central.
Attachment #555637 - Flags: review?(philipp) → review+
Attachment #555637 - Attachment description: Part 1 - Filter Context Menu v2 → [checked-in]Part 1 - Filter Context Menu v2
There's no way to show all tasks except the ones that have been completed (i.e., what the old "hide completed tasks" used to do). Selecting "Show->Incomplete Tasks" only shows all incomplete tasks up to today (or whatever date is selected in the calendar.)  We need something that displays everything that's not complete: past, present or future.  Having to show "All" then skip pages after pages of completed tasks is too painful...so is having to select a far away date in the calendar just so future events show in the list.
(In reply to Nemo Inis from comment #19)
> There's no way to show all tasks except the ones that have been completed
> (i.e., what the old "hide completed tasks" used to do). Selecting
> "Show->Incomplete Tasks" only shows all incomplete tasks up to today (or
> whatever date is selected in the calendar.)  We need something that displays
> everything that's not complete: past, present or future.  Having to show
> "All" then skip pages after pages of completed tasks is too painful...so is
> having to select a far away date in the calendar just so future events show
> in the list.

For non-repeating tasks, you can still uncheck the "Show completed Tasks" checkbox in combination with the "All" filter.
(In reply to Matthew Mecca [:mmecca] from comment #20)
> For non-repeating tasks, you can still uncheck the "Show completed Tasks"
> checkbox in combination with the "All" filter.

You're right, of course. I got confused with the Task Mode view, where the Show->All filter does show all tasks without being able to hide the completed tasks, much to my chagrin. In the Calendar's Today Pane, as you mentioned, one can hide them by unchecking the "Show completed tasks". But then, most of my task titles are so long that I tend to only use the Task View to look at my tasks.
Isn't it a bit awkward to implement a task filter via a context menu in one view (Calendar Mode) and via a radio-button widget in the other (Task Mode)? Shouldn't we reconcile these methods in the interest of consistent UI?
(In reply to Nemo Inis from comment #21)

> Shouldn't we reconcile these methods in the interest of consistent UI?

I'm open to suggestions.
(In reply to Nemo Inis from comment #21)
> You're right, of course. I got confused with the Task Mode view, where the
> Show->All filter does show all tasks without being able to hide the
> completed tasks, much to my chagrin. In the Calendar's Today Pane, as you

See also bug 673751 regarding the filters on the Task view.
(In reply to Matthew Mecca [:mmecca] from comment #22)
> I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks for that, I appreciate it.
My main suggestion (the one I care about) is "keep it consistent": whatever method you use, make it the same everywhere. Beyond that, I'm not too worried but I do have some opinions (<objoke here>):

-If a filter is hiding/modifying some data I'm viewing, I would like that filter to display its presence somehow: hence I do not favor context-menu as the sole method (but it's perfectly fine as an extra method for us geeks). I'd rather have a left&right arrow pair with a label (like the folders display filter in Thunderbird mail mode), or a visible dropdown list, or radio buttons (though that's wasteful of screen space), or anything else that is visible. 

-Failing that, an entry in the "View" menu would be OK. It breaks the "keep it visible" rule and so is not my first choice, but most people know to go to the "View" menu of an application to change what they're looking at. Personally I'd vote for a View menu entry to be a secondary method to the primary visible method, whatever it is;

-Last, I think it's absolutely essential to have an easy (zero or one-click!) way to display all non-completed tasks, regardless of when/how they would occur (you can list repeating tasks at the date of the next occurrence.) After all, this is THE fundamental feature of Calendar: to remind you of what you need to do; if it fails at that it's of no use to anyone...  So I would make that the basic display, and apply optional filters to it (completed, next X days, by the end of the week, of category Y, today only, whatever... bonus points if the user can build custom filters)
I would like to add that showing only tasks when they hit the start date is also an important feature.  If I want to "pay bills" on the third of each month, I don't want that task showing up all the time, just when it comes due on the third.  I am currently using events for this as the tasks doesn't work properly in this way, but events do not stick until done like tasks do.  So this feature is also important.
(In reply to Doug O from comment #25)
> If I want to "pay bills" on the third of each
> month, I don't want that task showing up all the time, just when it comes
> due on the third.  I am currently using events for this as the tasks doesn't
> work properly in this way,
Tasks in the today pane remain hidden for me until the start date.  If it's not working for you I suggest you post an example task that shows the incorrect behavior.
For me tasks in the Today pane always show up whether the start date has been reached or not; however, once the start date is reached the Title text turns from black to green.  That is the only difference.  I don't see a way to post screen shots here.
(In reply to Doug O from comment #27)
> For me tasks in the Today pane always show up whether the start date has
> been reached or not; however, once the start date is reached the Title text
> turns from black to green.  That is the only difference.  I don't see a way
> to post screen shots here.

You can click the "add an attachment" link above to attach the screen shot image file.

The "pay bills" task you mentioned should work if you create a task that repeats monthly with a Start and Due date of the 3rd. In that case each occurrence should only show up when the start date has been reached, or a later date is selected in the Today Pane (the "Current Tasks" filter should also be selected in the context menu if using a Lightning version greater than 1.0b7).
The problem turned out that I was still on an older version of Lightning.  After upgrading I now see the correct behavior.  Automatic updates got accidentally turned off and I thought I was on the latest version.

As far a the "Current Tasks" filter, is that different from unchecking the "completed tasks" checkbox?  I don't see any other menu.

Sorry about the confusion.
Flags: wanted-calendar1.0?
Component: Lightning Only → General
Assignee: matthew.mecca → nobody
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
Component: General → Tasks

I recently went back to Thunderbird and wonder why, after over 10 years, it's still not working. Filtering is shown in the "Today pane" but is documented not to work. :(

FYI:

Finally it's fixed (Thunderbird v. 91.0.3):

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/91.0.3/releasenotes/

Severity: normal → S3
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