Android app needs desperate catchup

[M H]

I've just come to MLO from over a decade of Palm/Bonsai.  I've been trying to work out some reliable system of Tasks on the Android for almost the past year and finally found MLO.   This looks very promising.  BUT...

The Android app is missing some serious functionality.  None of the To-do list views are available.  This is a HUGE disappointment.  The only two buttons that are really usable on the Android are Inbox and Outline.  They both open instantly.  Touching any other button initiates a massive wait time.  Granted, I'm migrating two of my main Bonsai files into one MLO profile and have over 3500 items.  Opening Active by Context view takes 42 seconds!  I'm not going to stand in the grocery store isle holding my Android staring at nothing for over half a minute waiting for it to show me my 3 things I'm trying not to forget.

Please - Bring the saved views from the PC app across to the Android device.  This would be great if they could be programmed to buttons on the main screen, to replace the factory buttons that I don't use.

If that is not going to come soon, please give us some way of opening an Active by Context view that allows us to open only one context. When I am looking for 3 items, I don't want a filtered view of all 3500 items saying that 3450 of them don't have any context.  Perhaps a long press on the Active by Context should bring up a list of contexts, and pressing a context would bring up that context's list.

Right now the way the Android app sits, it is really only optimized for adding items in Inbox and modifying the Outline.  What I need when I am on the go is quick reference to specific tasks as I have tagged them, by virtue of the elaborate tagging and filtering system on the PC.

I understand that the PC version is on its way to an update.  I do look forward to that, but for my situation, and I don't see how it cannot be the same for all PC/Android users, the Android version is the weak link in the system right now.  Significantly weak enough, that I think it requires at least a small upgrade to bring it up to speed with the power of the desktop.

[Lisa Stroyan]

I'm sorry you are experiencing performance issues. I don't think they are typical.

Perhaps you should see if your experience is common and if there is anything you can do before your write it off or say that there aren't any views available, which really isn't true (at least for almost all of the users, though I do understand your frustration with the performance lag)

I have 1600 tasks and mine is quite snappy, and even was on the original Droid (not a very fast machine by any means).  I know others here have much bigger databases and haven't been complaining of performance so perhaps it is something you could mitigate by trimming your database (at least temporarily to see if that is the issue, perhaps in a test DB), or by sending logs/info to the developers.

I do like the idea of saved views coming over to Android, I think that would be fantastic, but I also realize it's quite a challenge to do and if that were the only way it could be used they would be getting major complaints about that too.

Lisa

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Lisa Stroyan, mailto: lstr...@gmail.com

[bird...@gmail.com]

Hi Lisa:

I agree with much of what MH is saying. Or let's put it this way, my experience is similar. I have an Samsung Infuse and which is snappy with most apps. Interestingly enough, I also come from having used Bonsai with Palm, as well as Ecco with Windows 95 (that's eons ago). 

With the Android version of MLO, here's what I'm noticing:

1. No To-Do views
   
   
2. Pulling up tasks by Context is very slow. Not really practical to use. 

Neither is deal killer, as I have many things I use MLO for on my Android which do not require Context or To-Do views.

TO MH: 

I do have somewhat of a workaround. While I normally use Context, if there are tasks I want to use focus on, on my Android, I use Stars. 

When you Star tasks, they seem to come up really fast in Android. 

Eddie

[M H]

Thanks for the Stars idea.  I haven't really seriously considered it.  I haven't used that idea in the past.  I used categories and keywords in Bonsai along with saved filters (comparable to MLO's PC To-do views) and don't have those in MLO now.  MLO Flags don't transfer to the Android yet.

I guess what I balk at, is that it requires me to pre-star the events based on what I'm going to use next on the PC, manualy sync the PC, manually sync my droid (I have two, 7" Galaxy Tab and 4" Galaxy Captivate) and then once they are done, un-star them.  It seems a bit counterproductive to be touching these events just before I do them, when I'm trying hard to get to a system where I set each event  only once, hoping that I've given enough information that it will show up at the right time/place in the future.  I don't want to review my list when a filter of some sort should be giving me only the info that I need at the moment.

I am quite impressed with the product and I'm not even close to giving up on it.  It is the best replacement I've found so far for what I had in the Palm world.  There are a few things that require significant adjustment, but there are already quite a number of advantages to this app.  I'm really looking forward to continued MLO development.

Marvin

[BOC]

You could try the active by context widget. Still not perfect but you
tap on the context name and it brings up the list. I wonder if it
would eliminate the wait time.

When I started with the new versions I had about 2,700 tasks and
didn't experience any serious lag.

As Lisa said, you may need to test your outline. I had a problem
nobody else could reproduce (even with my supplied data file) after a
few weeks of carefully cutting data over to a new desktop file, I
finally got around a corrupt task/branch. It was a unique hardware /
software combination.

I too am waiting for certain items to be implemented (good project
encoding, today only view for widget) but with each release I'm
finding the mobile program more useful.

[Andres]

Yes, my experience is similar. There is some lag in most views,
although its not a big deal (having about 500 tasks).
MH is right: what is really missing on android: the quick reference
look-up.

Good task programs on mobile phones should offer very quick filter.
Nowadays we have the possibility to filter, but its not "saveable".
Therefore thats very hard to achieve. Especially when you switch to
different views.

I like the idea, to have the very capable PC-MLO to work on my task
list, and have the tasks with me on mobile. We know, that changing of
context, of due date, and so on, is needing many touches on android,
so entering on PC is great.

The very best- and the killer argument for the PC version - would be
having the customizeable views from PC on android. Well, this could be
on a basis "those who want can get it, those who are happy with the
buttons like now, have their version".

But in the meantime we really need saveable filtered views, please.
Its ok by now, if I need one extra touch to get a list of filtered
views, then press the view I want.
Thats customization I really hope for.
Regards,
Andres

On 29 Mai, 18:39, "birdv...@gmail.com" <birdv...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Lisa:
>
> I agree with much of what MH is saying. Or let's put it this way, my
> experience is similar. I have an Samsung Infuse and which is snappy with
> most apps. Interestingly enough, I also come from having used Bonsai with
> Palm, as well as Ecco with Windows 95 (that's eons ago).
>
> With the Android version of MLO, here's what I'm noticing:
>

>    1. No To-Do views
>
>    2. Pulling up tasks by Context is very slow. Not really practical to

> > ------------------------------
> > Lisa Stroyan, mailto: lstro...@gmail.com <lstro...@gmail.com>

[Lisa Stroyan]

Can you elaborate on "No To - Do" views? Do you mean that there are not fully customizable views?  That's true. There are quite a few views that are ToDo views, though, and they are partially customizable via sort, global zoom, global filtering. (I wish each view could have it's own filter though).

There are no flags either which was a big change for me. I find using Goals helpful as well; they have replaced my use of flags. And since I wasn't using Projects I've kind of mangled it's use into giving me "Life Areas" views.

Lisa

[Lisa Stroyan]

Do you know about the Active Starred view and the other various views in the pulldown menu from another view?

I don't understand why you would need to add the star on a particular platform, if that is what you are saying, or right before you do the task?

 Here's my use model:

- I use goals to roughly define my work horizons, "approximately in the next week", etc, usually using Active Actions on whatever machine I'm using. I have them set up to sort exactly the same way. I review this ideally, weekly. Active actions sorts Starred first, then Goal, then title (my recurring tasks have () in the beginning of the title because I kept deleting them by mistake :)

- I use start dates to move tasks into the future so they don't show up when I don't want them to

- Each morning I look through Active actions to tweak my Goal assignments then Star any new tasks I choose for the day (many are still Starred as they are recurring or haven't gotten done

- I use Starred to mean "what I would like to accomplish today", with a divider task (text "------------------------------") that divides "must do" and "would like to do" . 

- I go to Active Starred and use "Move" to order my daily list

- I have MLO Android set to automatically sync its changes on exit/background

- I do sync the PC manually first thing when I arrive and leave but have plans to set it up in the Windows Scheduler as has been discussed before

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 1:08 PM, M H <mar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I guess what I balk at, is that it requires me to pre-star the events based on what I'm going to use next on the PC, manualy sync the PC, manually sync my droid (I have two, 7" Galaxy Tab and 4" Galaxy Captivate) and then once they are done, un-star them.  It seems a bit counterproductive to be touching these events just before I do them, when I'm trying hard to get to a system where I set each event  only once, hoping that I've given enough information that it will show up at the right time/place in the future.  I don't want to review my list when a filter of some sort should be giving me only the info that I need at the moment.

 

[Lisa Stroyan]

On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 1:22 AM, Andres <and...@stieger.net> wrote:

Good task programs on mobile phones should offer very quick filter.
Nowadays we have the possibility to filter, but its not "saveable".
Therefore thats very hard to achieve. Especially when you switch to
different views.

I do agree that customizable views are really important as development proceeds. I argued for basic ones in the first version and we did get sort, but I wish we had at least gotten view-specific filters instead of global filters, since I find global filtering to not be helpful in my system. 

I wonder if it would be easier to allow save (and name) of a search as an interim solution to desktop-defined views.  I do think previous searches come up, but it's nice to be able to save only a few key ones into a separate menu, somewhere, and then be able to work out of that list.  The advantage of that would be that it would benefit all Android users, not just those with the desktop. 

I think once MLO-Android is seen as a premiere solution for Android task management, then desktop-defined views will bring many customers over to the (more expensive) PC version, but I also see why it's not in the first release as we PC users are a bit of a "niche".

[Marvin Hamm]

Yes, I use the Due next 7 days view, it seems the fastest and since I work primarily with due dates, it is the most informative.  Just a bummer that it takes so many touches to get there from a cold start:  open MLO/More Views/Due 7 days/swipe to current day and maybe open branch.

It is not that I need to star on a particular platform, but rather that I'm planning on the PC and acting with the Android.  I got introduced to GTD just as I was moving out of Palm.  So I've been quite interested in moving to a bit more of a context idea.  MLO allows it.  BUT, my PC only exists in 'two' contexts, work and home.  It is my Android that exists in many contexts.  It on the Android that the whole filtering by context need makes the most sense.

I'm trying to get to a system where I can filter things off my todo list by virtue of time and location.  If I mark something as happening tonight at home, I don't want to see it again till tonight at home.  I don't want to have moved it on the PC so that it will show up only in another view, then go back to the droid and have to do the mental 'filtering' of the item because it is still on the 'today' view or stared list.

I just set up PC MLO to sync in the background with Windows 7 task manager.  Works well so far as I can tell.  This is just the morning after. <grin>  One issue I had, was Task manager service wasn't started on my machine for some reason, so I had to manually start it.  Control Panel/Adminstrative Tools/Services...  This was my executable command, your paths will differ: "C:\_PA2\MLO\mlo.exe" "C:\_Data\MLOData\MH.ml" -quicksync -console   The trick is to open a command window on top of an MLO screen, so you can still see the MLO status bar.   Then tweak your command line until you can see MLO say that it is running a sync.  Once you have that working manually on a command line, you know your command is good, then you can plug that command into a Windows Task Manager Task.