Outline filtering - user stories please

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Outline filtering is a popular feature suggestion on MLO UserVoice:
http://mlo.uservoice.com/forums/9235-general/suggestions/1044979-outline-filtering?ref=title

You can find the links to the group discussions in the reesd's post
there.



To All: Could you please post in this group thread the real user
stories for Outline filtering so that I am sure it is designed
properly.

Example of user stories:

1) I want to see tasks assigned to specific contexts together with all
their parents in hierarchy.

2) I want to see all projects with "In Progress" status only, moved to
the root from their places in hierarchy. Each project should contain
all subtasks. This is the same as Projects view in outline now but not
all projects included to the view.

3) I want to see tasks with due date=today shown together with all
parents up to the root and all child tasks in hierarchy.


What are your user stories? I will try to make sure that the most
popular requests are supported by the new filtering system.

The main problem is how filtering should be used together with
hierarchy. Right now each individual task is filtered by complex
criteria and placed to the plain list which could be grouped then. If
you have good example of the hierarchy filtering implementation - let
me know.

Thanks,
Andrey.

[David Rees]

I am using InfoQube now which, while complicated and lacking a lot of
the to do stuff MLO has, has very powerful filtering and custom
columns. Before that I used Bonsai with my own XSL for recurrence
which had good filtering. Before that I used MLO, but left because of
my need for filtering.

FIltering in the outline view is essential for me, here are my main
use cases (for todos):

planning day - show everything that is above priority 2 OR is due
within 3 days
reviewing week - show everything that is above priority 3 OR is due
within 7 days
reviewing area (subtree) - show everything, I only look at one subtree
(sometimes I use hoist, but don't need it)
executing day as outline - stuff I have marked for today grouped by
area (outline), colored by priority
executing day as list - equivalent of MLO's list view - flat list of
stuff I have marked for today or soon ordered by timeframe (today,
week, soon), colored by priority

In addition, I use the idea of "show children" to show subitems when
appropriate in the execute mode. That allows me to see a parent task,
then view/expand it's details/children when I start on that task.

Hope that is a good start, I do miss MLO :).


On Jul 28, 8:11 am, "Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)"
<for...@myLifeOrganized.net> wrote:
> Outline filtering is a popular feature suggestion on MLO UserVoice:http://mlo.uservoice.com/forums/9235-general/suggestions/1044979-outl...

[Neal]

Well this one is simple for me.  My Boss says "What are you working on right now?"

I want my outline view of only my current Projects and tasks.  So I don't want to see recurring tasks that have a start date in the future.  I don't want it to show anything "hidden in the ToDo view."  I do want it to include completed subtasks of any multitask that has an active task in the tree.

I need the outline view for this to show what subtasks are done, active or not started yet.

You can give me my folder tree and any task tree with an active task in it.  Don't show task trees or single tasks without an active task.

[daneb]

How I would use it:
- view all the tasks of the project which is "in progress", (incl. all
parents of these projects)
- view all the tasks of the project which has certain context (incl.
all parents of these projects)
- view all goals (year, month, week) together with their parents and
with their subtasks
- view only starred tasks and all their parents

Generally, I think there should be search option to show/not show also
all children of found tasks.

E.g. if I am searching for context "A" with this option turned on, I
will see all tasks with "A" context together with all their children
(irrespective of their context) and naturally all parent hierarchy of
"A" tasks. But if I am searching with this option turned off, I will
see only all tasks with "A" context and with their parent hierarchy
(and possible only those children of "A" tasks, which also has "A"
context).

Best

Daneb


On Jul 28, 2:11 pm, "Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)"
<for...@myLifeOrganized.net> wrote:
> Outline filtering is a popular feature suggestion on MLO UserVoice:http://mlo.uservoice.com/forums/9235-general/suggestions/1044979-outl...

[Lisa Stroyan]

Here's my brainstorm on what Outline filtering might look like:

I would ideally like to have multiple tabs with a fixed "master outline" that stays as-is (it's the master, after all, and I want to be able to see it as needed), and my choice of additional Todo and Outline Views, which would be static (stay open until I close them).  

I would imagine opening the list of views, and somehow specifying "open in new tab". The definition of the view would determine whether it was a Todo View or an Outline view.  I would keep 2-4 of my views open at a time, depending on what I was working on.

I picture the Outline view as similar to Todo but hierarchical instead of grouped. When I create a new view, I would imagine a toggle for Todo view and Outline view, and if it were an Outline view, I would not expect to see "Group by", but would want to see advanced criteria if possible. 

I'm on the fence about sort. On one hand it doesn't seem to conceptually match an Outline view, but on the other, it seems like it would be very useful.

--
Lisa Stroyan
www.empathic-parenting.com

[Eli]

I would use it the same way I use the todo list now, but would be
REALLY happy that it could show the tree too.

One thing I would do is to filter the outline by Flag, which is
currently how I track tasks for my various businesses (I like to use
the business logos as the flag icons, so I can tell at a glance which
of my businesses a thing pertains to, and I don't want to use contexts
for this, because they mean other things to me, and sometimes I want
to show the todo grouped by business, and then context. If I could
filter the outline by flag, I could keep my usual outline, but only
show for one business, or filter out one, which would be very useful.

In general, I just think it would great if I could keep an organized
view like a tree, and be able to expand/contract items, while still
having the ability to filter. One thing I don't like about the
tasklist, is that other than sorting and grouping, I can only really
view it as one long list, and much of the context of a task is lost
sometimes. If I could at least see the folders above it (and I know I
can use the path column, but it's just not the same), that would
really help with keeping my head organized.

I think it comes down to this - the outline is where I do my thinking,
planning, and organizing, and the todo list is where I do my "action"
tracking what I'm doing as I'm working, checking things off, etc.

Sometimes, it would help a lot if I could do the planning and
organizing part without having to see the whole outline, and while I
know I can fold some areas away, sometimes that doesn't work, if I
want to view some contexts, flags, etc. Or I want to plan and
organize my next two weeks, and it would be really useful to only show
tasks that have no due date, or are due in the next two weeks, but
still have them organized.

I don't know how you would handle folders / projects in filters.
Perhaps only show folders that contain items after the filter, or show
the others, but assign a style to them (like grey them out). I would,
of course, want to be able to create folders and they may not match
the filter until I add something to them.

I hope this ramble helps.


On Jul 28, 5:11 am, "Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)"
<for...@myLifeOrganized.net> wrote:
> Outline filtering is a popular feature suggestion on MLO UserVoice:http://mlo.uservoice.com/forums/9235-general/suggestions/1044979-outl...

[pottster]

Outline view should have identical filter panel as To-Do view (except no group/sort option necessary). Filtered outline to show parents and children of filtered tasks. Filtered tasks to be highlighted in some way to show they have met filter criteria. Zoom option to be retained on filtered outline.

[David Rees]

The reverse is typical when including parents/children. The venerable
Ecco Pro and others show added parents in blue.

d

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[Philb]

Andrey,

My scenarios:

(I would like the result for all these suggestions to be the Projects
which meet the filter criteria, to be moved to the root. Projects
that do not meet the criteria would not be shown).

1. I currently flag projects in the Outline. I have to search for
them manually today. I would like the ability to filter the Outline
to show Projects that I have flagged. So I could see the project
Title (that would have the flag against it), and the sub item tree
beneath it.
2. The ability to See any Projects with sub items that are goals. I
would like to see the Project, and the specific item that has the goal
assigned to it. I would like those to be grouped by Goal time
period. Week, month etc.
3. Same as item 2. but for any Task with Due Date or Start date set
for today. Ability to customize dates would be nice, (next xx days).
I would like to have these grouped using the current method you use
for the by Due Date view in the Outline.

Thanks.

On Jul 28, 8:11 am, "Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)"
<for...@myLifeOrganized.net> wrote:
> Outline filtering is a popular feature suggestion on MLO UserVoice:http://mlo.uservoice.com/forums/9235-general/suggestions/1044979-outl...

[Dwight]

I would like to be able to filter the outline to show only active
tasks, and perhaps only tasks with a certain context (or multiple
contexts), but show the result in tree structure. I would not want
any sorting or grouping, I would want to keep everything in tree
structure. However, empty folders or folders containing only tasks
which failed the filter would be hidden. I might filter on goal
status,

A slightly different use would be to use filtering as a kind of find/
search. Show me all tasks with the phrase "letter of inquiry" but not
the word "rejected" in notes, and show the result in outline tree
structure. This is a lower priority.

[Richard Collings]

I agree about seeing the filtered tasks in the context of the tree - the
items meeting the filter criteria being highlighted in some way (or the
parents greyed). I would also probably want to see the children of the
filtered tasks (perhaps automatically collapse these or have a tickbox to
show/hide)

Newly added items should stay on view even if they don't meet the criteria
(perhaps greyed or something) and should items whose attributes have changed
such that they don't meet the filter criteria any longer (again greyed).
Hitting F5 refreshes the filter

The filtering criteria that are available in the ToDo view would be a good
starting point for me.

However, I would make a (repeated) plea for adding a parameter facility to
the filtering in both views such that one can expose filtering parameters at
the top of the view and change these without having to open up the whole
filtering panel. For example, one could then build a filter 'Filter by
flag' which prompts for the flag (or flags) to be applied to the filter and
allows this to be quicky changed. This would reduce the number of view
filters needed significantly.

Richard (in hope)

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[pottster]

You're right Richard. The filter panel is the result of "cumulative" design. Perhaps, if Andrey is currently looking at the UI, then he might look at this.