Submitted by ericka on 2008/12/01 04:24
I think the best way of describing what I would like to accomplish is this:
- Let's suppose I own 3 buildings each with 6 apartments.
- I create an inventory grid, listing the buildings and their apartments like this
Building A
   Apt 1
   Apt 2
   ...
Building B
   Apt 1
   Apt 2
   ......
- I want to be able to create a contact in my address book for Joe's Plumber (no pun intended). He would have wikitags of {contractor} and {plumber}
- Then I want to be able to create a contact for Electra the Electrician. She would have wikitags of {contractor} {electrician}
- I create a contact in the address book for each of my tenants.
- Here, I need to link each tenant to the respective apartment for a duration or lease period.
- Two of my tenants call me at 1am and say they are having plumbing problems with the kitchen sink (Building A / Apt 1} and dishwasher {Building A / Apt 2)
 
OK. So then I want to be able to:
~ create two to-dos ... one for each incident - under a Project named "Maintenance"
~ link each todo with the respective tenant and apartment
(to keep track of tenant requests and work done in each apartment since tenants leave)
(however, I may not have to link both, as I think I can do a cross search according to date of the tenant lease)
~ search for {contractor} {plumber} OR {contractor} and filter on {plumber}
~ associate (link) each todo with Joe the Plumber
~ have a "call" todo show up for 9a in my calendar
~ Joe takes the job and I want to follow up with him to make sure it was done and keep track of how much he charged me for each unit.
 
In the future, I want to be able to look at the history and see:
* All the work that was done to each apartment and when.
* All the work Joe (and Electra) performed on each building and apartment (when and how much it cost)
* All the calls I made that day (to whomever I created a "call" todo)
(Perhaps this is all cross-linking and that is where I am having a problem?)
 
In more basic terms:

> How can I create a Project that requires phone calls and people and scanned receipts and scheduling and be able to see that from one place? There are so many situations where a person (Joe the Plumber) will work on more than one task, or maybe a project if I build a new building. And other situations where a task can be a pre-req to more than one Project (i.e., "buy new suit" could be a task for projects "find new job" and "update image")
> If I want to create a project that has a task that has a person to call as part of that task... I want to be able to schedule it, have it show in my calendar at a scheduled time and timer/duration that call.
> Then, when I look at the task, I want to be able to see the person I called and when I look at the person, I want to be able to see the task/call I made to them. I do not necessarily mean the details, but at least a visible, clickable reference. 
 
Sorry this is so long, but if anyone knows how I can accomplish this everyday organization of what to do with whom and when and track it, it would be much appreciated.
 
Thanks!

Comments

I'll try to write a description of a similar case in the manual in the future... But can't now... too busy.
 
I'd really like to help. It's not complicated... but a bit long to explain, and I don't know your level of understanding of InfoQube's features and functioning.
 
In the mean time, here are some quick advices :
 
 
1- What I'd suggest is to first think in terms of fields (the item’s properties, attribute…) -- you can of course use wikitags if you want, but it seems a but unintuitive to me.
 
There are a number of already available fields (view menu -> manage fields, or right click on a grid column header, and select "manage fields", etc.). You could also add your own and make a special form corresponding to your needs (in the properties pane).
 
try to get as much info as possible in what's already available in the manual
 
An item can have many different fields assigned to it, and fields can contain various type of data.
 
fields are show as columns in grids.

 
2- Then you could link items in terms of parent/children relationship. Ctrl+click+ drag an item (under parent), in the same grid, or from one grid to another (when tiled vertically, or even by hovering your mouse over other grid's tabs to allo UI switch)  then use alt arrows to put item at the right place (if it's not). Ctrl+click+ drag an item creates links with multiple parents (you'll have the impression that your item is cloned -- it's the same item with multiple parents, so it appears at different places at the same time). Experiment with it. You can also use other types of linking, but IMO, it's a bit less flexible and transparent (InfoQube is really built to play well with hierarchical structures and multiple parents).

 
3- Show items the way you want using filters in different grids.
 
Grids will show a specific set of items depending on the chosen filters (in the source bar : alt-s... See getting started in the "manual").
 
There are many ways to display items in grids, depending on the filters, source, hierarchy on/off, etc. Play with it a bit. Usually need to press F5 (refresh) to see the changes.
 
Calendar is not fully functional yet. Next version is coming soon.
 

Armando

2008/12/01 22:44

In reply to by Armando

previous post slightly edited -- was too incomprehensible...

ericka

2008/12/02 01:26

In reply to by Armando

Thanks for the response and I appreciate such detail because I know everyone on the forum is busy.
 
(1) I understand that each item is any (or all) types of items depending on what properties are selected. Then each item has fields/attributes that can each be of a different type (text,  number, drop-down). I can create a form that will show only those fields I need for a certain type of item. 
 
Then, each side tab is really a kind of view/filter on the data and there is only one set of data for everything. This why the same item may show in multiple places - depending on the selected fields. (This is why the field "Project" attribute must have a project selected and have the "Projects" attribute check box selected in order for the item to show up in the Project tab view. 
 
(2) I don't really understanding linking yet, and it seems rather cumbersome. I also still don't understand how to view the links... but I have to spend more time on this tomorrow and I will respond again. 
 
For now... it's late and again, I thank you for response.  
 
 

Armando

2008/12/02 12:40

In reply to by ericka

2)  (answer)

(for information purpose only) to make an item a subitem of another item or just move it you can either :

1.    click drag & drop it wherever you want, OR on top of an other item to make it a subitem (the easiest way -- but not necessarily the only one -- is to drag drop by using the "#"  column. This works all the time.)
2.    move it in the grid using alt-arrows
 
 
to make an item/subitem an subitem of yet another parent (item will then have multiple parents):

1.    ctrl + drag & drop on another Item : this will create the impression that the item has been duplicated because it now has another parent. However, it really is the same item, but with more than one parent (you can see that in the properties pane under item Info-->parents
Parents can be removed by right-clicking on a parent and click on the "remove parent link" option


then there are other ways of linking as shown in the "linking" section of the manual.