InfoQube IM - Community

Submitted by davet on 2011/04/15 09:52

Pierre,

I tested 25Q1 and still have the problem that NextTaskID (renamed to Successor) will not generate a number when creating a task dependency. So, I did some more investigation and found if I change the Name (not caption) of Successor back to NextTaskID, then the NextTaskID works okay. So, the question becomes how do you prevent the user from doing what I did?

Also, If I enter an End date < Start date, IQ allows this. I thought that was fixed once...but now not sure. See screen capture below.

BTW, I created a 4.8 MB video of these problems and could not upload it. I tried several times. In the past I have had upload problems here, but after two or three tries it worked. This time it did not. I don't know if this is a because you have limited the upload size in Drupal or it is a server problem. What is your upload file size limit?

Dave

Comments

[quote=davet]

Pierre,

Also, If I enter an End date < Start date, IQ allows this. I thought that was fixed once...but now not sure. See screen capture below.

[/quote]

1. I think this has to do with a formula that references NextTaskID will not do anything if that reference is removed. An alternative for you would be to replace NextTaskID in the formula with Successor.

2. Pierre said that this condition would no longer produce a bar, but will produce a milestone. This is OK with me.

Jon

Jon,

I have no problem with an End < Start producing a milestone. However, in this case the Start date should be change to be the same as the End date.

Dave

Jon,

I have no problem with an End < Start producing a milestone. However, in this case the Start date should be changed to be the same as the End date. You don't want a End date showing that is earlier than a Start date.

Dave

Pierre,

Could you relate NextTaskID to Item ID and eliminate the need for TaskID? That way a user can always see an ID...not just when there is a dependency? I find blanks TaskIDs confusing. In my mind, I'm thinking these are all tasks why don't they have TaskIDs?

See examples below...they don't seem to use TaskID...they seem to just reference the Item ID. Maybe TaskID is needed for your code to work in some other place. If so, could you just hide it? I don't know if any of this would work due to IQ's unique design? I'm just throwing out some ideas not really knowing your requirements and restrictions.

Hi Dave,

The problem with using ItemID is that these numbers can be quite large, so it is not convenient to use and to see dependancies. (They'll be even larger when disconnected mode is enabled)

One way around this is to set Grid >> Properties >> Auto assign the following fields: TaskID

That should assign an ID to all items entered in your Gantt

HTH !

Pierre

Okay,

I assume the user is going to have to be smart enough about IQ to do this. It is not going to happen automatically is it? I don't think the average Joe is going to want to get that technical to use the product. I'm pretty damn technical and don't know if I'd want to bother figuring all this out and remembering all this stuff.

Dave

It could be part of the initial Gantt setup. You have a point !

Pierre,

Thanks...I like that.

Dave

Pierre,

I have a couple ideas to propose:

When I first started playing around with the IQ Gantt function, I was confused by NextTaskID. I am familiar with a few different project management apps, and they all use the terms Predecessor and Successor to show dependent tasks. So, NextTaskID threw me for a loop. One reason was that all the other Task related terms show up together in Field Properties because the all start with the word Task. So I was thinking if you changed NextTaskID to TaskDependency that it would then alphabetically fall in the same relative position as TaskID, TaskStart, TaskEnd, etc.
Couldn't you make a canned template for a Projects grid and put it into the blank database. Then if the user does not want a Project grid, you just have a way for them to turn it off, which hides the Project grid but does not delete it...in case they want to turn it on again later. Then instead of calling a new database a Blank Database, you would call it a New Database. The default Project grid might look something like the screen capture below. I think the new average user needs something like this. In GTD everything more than one task is called a project, so I certainly think a built in Projects grid would be justified. Currently your Blank database has a Calendar built in...so why not a Projects grid too?

Dave

Dave

Oops! I spoke too soon about renaming NextTaskID as TaskDependency. I looked at Dependency as a column name again today, and it is confusing. I will use Successors. That makes things clear.

Dave

Dave