it would be very helpful to be able to quickly rearrange tasks by dragging.
i mostly use simpletask for really simple tasks which often change in relative priority which i am used to relate to top-down order.
thank you :)
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-10
Completed: 0

When adding tags / lists for an empty task, a whitespace will be placed just before the tag/list.

My suggestion is to auto-strip duplicate whitespace characters and remove leading and trailing whitespaces for every line in todo.txt that has been edited.
Reporter: Andi K
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-18
Completed: 0

For any task where the related line in todo.txt does not start with task body or date, but with a tag/list indicator, the task will contain an extra whitespace in the task list of Simpletask main window. You may just verify this with

test +mytag
+mytag test
test @myList
@myList test
Reporter: Andi K
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-18
Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-07-31 04:52:17:
Whenever I have a file conflict it happens after I've already entered a new Todo item. This usually happens because I've modified the file on a pc and the mobile version doesn't know it. Currently you have to download the file and then re-enter the item or items.

A better solution would be to merge, ie, download whatever is on the cloud and then add what you've just attempted to add. That would alleviate a big frustration with this app. Thank you!
mpcjanssen added on 2013-07-31 11:16:22:
I agree this should be implemented if slightly possible. I don't think syncing when adding a task is the best option though. Part of the reason is that you can also modify tasks in different ways (such as changing the tags from the main view).

What I would like to implement is an actual merge option where both files are merged and exact duplicates are removed.
anonymous added on 2013-08-01 15:37:11:
I guess an all encompassing merge would be difficult. How about an option to automatically refresh any time the app is opened after "x" minutes since last access. As well, (dreaming now), allow a refresh triggered by user specified events like unplug usb, reboot, bluetooth connect or disconnect, wireless connect /disconnect, notification event with specified word in it (so you can automatically send yourself a triggering email when you update from a pc), etc
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

Add the ability to themes for the widgets (default theme and per widget)

This engine should at least allow:

• Theming of header

  * Color
  * Transparency
  * Font

• Theming of background

  * Color
  * Transparency

• Theming of items

  * Font
  * Tag/List highlight
  * Extended or plain
  * Dates
  * Extension fields
  Reporter: Mark Janssen
  Assigned to: Mark Janssen
  Begin: 2014-01-07
  Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-11-19 00:31:43:
When grouped together by priority (for example) there should be a count of the displayed tasks.Possibky in the side drawers as well.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-11-19 12:20:01:
Interesting idea. It will require some reworking in the code, because currently the number of tasks in different groups are not easily available, but I will investigate this and see how it looks.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

Imported from fossil
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

Changing between todo files is currently rather cumbersome. Improve support for moving between predefined todo files.

One way to implement this would be to define "Workspaces" with appropriate files in settings and then switch between them via a radio button at the top of the left drawer, like with multiple accounts in the gmail client: http://myandroidchief.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/fc75gmail-android.jpg (top left)
Reporter: Alex A
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-10
Completed: 0

it would be amazing to be able to add/remove/rename tasks directly in a widget.

• add: enter text in empty row, enter goes to next empty row for quick adding
• remove: swipe
• rename: press and hold

i just thought i might add this feature to the tracker; i am not sure if this is easy to implement however... (therefore assigned low priority)

thank you :)
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-10
Completed: 0

Tapping on task selects it. The most often used action is tap on pencil icon to edit its details.

Please consider changing this to: tapping on a task would directly pop up a keyboard and put cursor to the end of the task name (not to the beginning of line as now) to allow immediately use backspace to edit task's name. Ideally even without leaving the main screen to keep mental focus on the whole task list, not on single task editing.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-12-07 12:20:15:
Interesting idea. Single click select, long click edit in place. This will require quite some redesign.

In the mean time I will change the functionality so that when editing a task the cursor is at the end. I thought it worked that way so that's a bug.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

I'd like to have a single widget which changes depending on my location. Tasker could send an intent to Simpletask similar to the existing START_WITH_FILTER intent, but which changes the filter of a widget instead.

It would get more complicated if there was more than one widget - probably the easiest thing would be for the intent to update all the widgets.
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-07
Completed: 0

Make it possible to disable creation of done.txt and disable Archiving functionallity.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-11-07 08:37:44:
Currently Simpletask initializes the needed files when starting. To fix this issue, this needs to be refactored. This will be done in some future version.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

The todo.txt 'repeat' add-on can differentiate between tasks which are scheduled from now and tasks which are scheduled from the due date. It would be useful if recur could do this too.

See https://github.com/ginatrapani/todo.txt-cli/wiki/Todo.sh-Add-on-Directory#wiki-repeat for details. Examples given

$ todo.sh repeat 3 7 # Marks item 3 as done and recreates it 7 days from now
$ todo.sh repeat 3 +7 # Marks item 3 as done and recreates it 7 days from the due date

So recur could use a similar syntax

rec:[0-9]+[dwmy] for tasks which are recreated from the due date
rec:[0-9][dwmy] for tasks which are recreated from now

Reason for request: Some of my tasks need doing every so often but it doesn't matter if I don't complete them on the due date. But other tasks are less flexible, e.g. take the rubbish out for collection every week. Currently I need to flip the 'recur tasks using original dates' preferences state before completing these tasks.
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

My todo.txt has blossomed (at least, that's one way of putting it) to just over 300 entries. As the file has grown larger, I've been experiencing some performance issues. The one that's very noticeable is when adding new entries: after I press the "Add" button, it takes 2-3 seconds to get back to the main list. It would be nice if this was snappier.

Any ideas?

(Granted, this might Simpletask's way of telling me to prune my lists. :)

FWIW, I think the performance hit was noticeable since about 200-250 entries, although it was not as pronounced.
Reporter: Alex A
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-17
Completed: 0

List, Tag are confusing terms. Replace by GTag, LTag to indicate greater & lesser contexts respectevely.
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-07
Completed: 0

Grouping by multiple levels would be possible in theory, however there are to things which make this unlikely to be added anytime soon.

It requires a lot of code duplication at the moment because Java limitations.

If you group by more levels, I think which sorts you want to group by should be configurable because I for instance only want grouping by one level otherwise I think the view will become to cluttered. So I will have to add a configuration screen for that too.

Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

Currently tasks get deselected after for instance changing their lists. This makes it difficult to perform multiple actions on a group of tasks.
Fixing this requires the selection to be based on task line (id) rather than task text as it is now.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-14
Completed: 0

It would be handy if you could click on one part of the widget to open a widget configuration screen to alter its appearance / filtering / sorting attributes etc.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-07
Completed: 0

Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-12-28 22:17:23:
I want to resurrect the issue of including notes with tasks.

A previous ticket (8f2fb0d320) regarding this issue was rejected due to breaking compatibility with todo.txt. I have a format to suggest:

2013-12-29 Call Bob // 555-09876 Remember to ask him about the +thing @@calls

The task that is visible on the list is "Call Bob" (along with the @lists and +tags, if chosen).

The double-slash (//) indicates where the note begins. This will be available as a pop-up when pressing a button on the list of tasks. The double-slash is easy to type (even on mobile phones) and is a venerable way to mark a comment.

This syntax keeps the task list clean and easy to scan, because you can "hide" supplementary information behind the note button. I used this format for some time with some custom rigging in Sublime Text 2. It's reasonably easy for humans to parse and it won't stump any other todo.txt apps.

What do you think?
mpcjanssen added on 2013-12-29 16:40:48:
I considered and tested using " note goes here " instead, which has the advantage of indicating both beginning and ending although // and optional terminating // would also work.

I am not so sure on popup when clicking, because clicking already selects the task. So my reservations of the initial ticket still stand, but I will keep this one open so I can revisit it and think about it.
anonymous added on 2013-12-30 09:16:42:
I have toyed with various formats. Admittely, the double-slash is a little geeky but it's more unambiguous than quotation marks. Imagine, for example, having to Call Bob re: his "sick" day.

Also, having to close the note via some markeup seems to me redundant, but perhaps I'm not thinking it through properly.

As for the UI, I was thinking of adding a button. It would visually indicate that the task has a note attached to it. Tapping the button (and only the button -- tapping the task would still function as selection) would present the note.

My ASCII art isn't that great, but here's a rendering of what I had in mind (continuing the example from my previous post):

| Call Bob +thing @@calls       [+]    |
| 3 days ago                           |

(The button should be larger to offer a nice target: I just couldn't figure out how to "draw" it.)

In terms of UX, my guess (and it's only that) is that it would only be as confusing as tapping the checkbox to complete the task.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and to consider this feature.

Alex
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

To make the UI more clean & reduce confusion it will be useful to have 6 tabs in 1 drawer only i.e., List (GT), Tag (LT), Priority (P), Show/Hide (V), Sort (S), Saved Filters (SF).

Replace names by symbols as mentioned in bracket to make small screen friendly. Saved Filters will be shown by default when the drawer is opened.
Reporter: Anonymous
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-07
Completed: 0

If you're using multiple todo files in the same folder, they all archive to done.txt. This may not be appropriate if, for example, you're using two todo files to separate personal and professional items. Or if you keep a separate todo file to Read/Review, etc.

Possible solution: append -done.txt to todo files that are not called todo.txt. Thus:

• work.txt -> work-done.txt
• reading.txt -> reading-done.txt

But there must be a more elegant solution :)

P.S. I don't think there is any consensus as to how to handle multiple todo files. I think it may even be frowned upon.
Reporter: Alex A
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-10
Completed: 0

When editing tasks you can add lists and tags via the menu but not remove them. Would it be possible to do so?

(I think I can see where the difficulty lies with this, but I thought I'd ask anyway.)
Reporter: Alex A
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-02-04
Completed: 100

anonymous added on 2013-11-10 15:30:03:
I feel like your app would sell a lot better if you uploaded a walkthrough video to gp that showed off simpletasks power.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-11-11 09:12:50:
I agree that this would help. This might be a good excuse to test the video recording that is introduced in KitKat.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-02-04
Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-10-31 02:27:32:
It would be helpful if the widget could be configured to show only tasks that are due "today", followed by other filters like list, tag..., . Currently I can only sort the tasks by the due date, but in many cases I would like to see only tasks that are due today.

Secondly, the current widget shows always the whole informatin like "@list" ,"+tag" ... , but it would improve the readability if only the important information, which means the "task description", is shown.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-11-01 17:38:03:
I really don't think there is such a thing as "today"'s tasks which are not items that should be on the calendar. Any task can be a today task. That aside I can imagine that for you it would be useful. I will consider adding a separate filter for filtering tasks which are due today.

Also I understand the point about "important" information. However, for me the actual list and tags are important. I often write things like @call +John about project +ProjectA. Without lists and tags displayed this will not make any sense.
This could be an option in the widget configuration, but don't hold your breath.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

I'm not sure if this is just a bug or an intended "safety feature", but if I select one or more tasks, press edit and then delete some or all of the tasks, they will not be deleted as expected.
Reporter: Andi K
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-18
Completed: 0

Some dicussion

Regarding the distribution method I see two ways:

1. In the application as you suggested

Pros:

• Documentation always matches application version because they are
  distributed together.

Removes a lot of user's headache & bug reports and thus developer's
headache. And bad reputation.

Agreed on this.

• Documentation is available even when offline.

You can not reach where you app can reach :)
Internet is not that easily available everywhere, everytime, for everyone :(

I sometimes forget not everyone has internet everywhere, always.

• I can't track people visiting the documentation based on IP for
  instance.

Is that required?

No that's why it is in the Pros :) With in app based help there is no way for me (or anyone) to track Simpletask users, which is good.

Cons:

• Requires coding for the tutorial part risking bugs in the app.

Do you mean the Help Dialog?
But this in-app help is essential for this complex job using a simple
app. Otherwise, users will have to choose one of the two ways: 1.
false feature requests, 2. move away from the app!

True, in app help is best

Our brain is more complex & does more complex jobs easily (very
rarely we feel it) than human invented Computer.

I don't know about the coding, but what I'm suggesting is to add a
dialog similar to what we now get for Settings. Is that to difficult
job.

• Increases size of app (especially if I include screenshots which I
  want)

I don't think including screenshot in the app is that good decision.
It will not adapt/scale well with different screen sizes. Remember,
here reading the text (task, tag) is most important.
Also, so far atleast for this app, I am not seeing any necessity of graphics.

I am starting to think towards, manual in app, walkthrough / tutorial linked from app on web.

• More difficult to update quickly (linked to app distribution)

Yeah, this is a point.
Crowdsourcing is an option. Or, release update, after updating the
document, I mean a little delay. Release without the tutorial itself
may be considered a bug :)

Yes and when the content stabalizes, new releases of Simpletask should not need big doc changes.

2. On the web

Pros:

• Much easier to publish and discuss. I can put a draft version up on
  the web and we can discuss it in minutes.
• Easier to include screenshots.

A separate page can be maintaind as "Quick start guide" or "Visual
tour", and including as much screenshots & video tutorials as
possible.

You can provide a hyperlink to that page from the Help Dialog.

You can depend on crowdsourcing, I mean user/developer community.

Agreed, I don't think croudsourcing would be needed

• No real limit to size. Including plenty of screenshots doesn't
  increase the app size.

Cons:

• Documentation can be out of sync with user version.

Great unsatisfaction for opensource/free programs!!

Yes I agree this is very bad.

• Documentation not available offline (although I will probably publish
  it as a single html file).

A long one page document is boring due to navigation problem. Also
tortures computer as well as our brain & eyes. Anyway, you can split
it and distribute as archive. What about the previous point!

• I could track users visiting my website (I don't but I could).

Unable to find the justification. Your bug tracker already says how
vital this app is.

It's not a justification that's why it is in the cons. I can imagine if you are very privacy conscious, you will not like it if you have to go to a website for just understanding how to use the app.

Because of the ease of publishing and the size consideration I would

prefer option 2. What do you think?

For option 2 no more great work is required, for the offline tutorial
you need to start thinking now.
I would suggest to go with the first option, if that become
problematic in future, you can think about the 2nd option.

Within that time I hope, already there will be good knowledgable
community arround this project. And users will know how to work with
this app & what to expect, from the very beginning, and bigger the
community bigger the chance of getting help from someone close to you.

Will you please paste this discussion at the tutorial ticket at
redmine to help decision making in future, (removing private/sensitive
portions obviously).

Done

Or, better summarise it at the Design Decisions list (without
referring to our discussion).

Will do this later.

Thanks,
Mark
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-12-06 22:46:42:
Many task-management systems use different priority names than A-Z.
Most usually 1-5.

While it is possible to creat own @list and +tag, using (1) in the task text is not recognized as a new priority. I see Gina's rules expect only A-Z in the parentheses but please consider supporting other single-character priorities.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-12-07 12:38:10:
Will require the priority handling to be inline with list and tag handling (as requested in another ticket). I do not see a problem with this. I don't like the special status priority has anyway. I would love to remove it all together. Same can be achieved with tags.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-12-06 22:17:46:
Especially in the widget, the due dates are hard to read.

Year is taking first 5 digits and only seldom changes. I believe that month and day (ideally respecting the locales, MM.DD. in my case) could be enough to display (I understand you still require it to be entered in including the year).

Dates around Today should be displayed textually "Today", "Tomorrow", maybe also "Thu"=this Thursday?

Also please consider displaying the due date visually farther from the task name (right-aligned? or with additional space?).
mpcjanssen added on 2013-12-07 12:36:26:
All good points, I am not completely happy with the dates bar anyway, will rethink it taking you points into account.
anonymous added on 2013-12-12 15:33:38:
Another idea would be to show the due dates which are not all that many days away as the number of days from now (+1d, +5d etc).

How long away? A month perhaps, or maybe a week (configurable?)
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

In an "Upcoming" view that I use, items with No Threshold clump right in the middle. Under "Show" in the filter screen, there should be a way to exclude tasks without a threshold date, or push them to the bottom.

The setup for this filter is (all sorts are ascending):

Completed
Threshold date in future
By Threshold Date
By Due Date
By Priority
By Creation Date
Alphabetical
FIle Order (unsorted)
By List
By Tag
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

anonymous added on 2013-11-24 16:15:38:
Finding myself using on my phone and tablet more, so a view/way to see upcoming task in a 7-14-21 day view would be fantastic. Future relative dates up to 30 days out could also help.
mpcjanssen added on 2013-11-25 10:54:23:
Interesting idea. I am not sure exactly how to add this to the UI without complicating it too much. Will think about this.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0

At the moment, the only way to complete a task is to hit the small checkbox infront of it (well, of course a second, more cumbersome way is to edit the task and insert an x ;))

Now, having only a small screen and wurstfingers, I'd like to have two more possibilities:

1.) complete a task by swiping it

2.) ability to complete multiple tasks by selecting them hit 'Complete' in the menu.
Reporter: Andi K
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-18
Completed: 0

So filter items which are and @home and @computer. This should also be included in the navigation drawer UI.
Reporter: Mark Janssen
Assigned to: Mark Janssen
Begin: 2014-01-08
Completed: 0