Cloning / multiple parants per task

[johns1...@gmail.com]

Is there any chance for it to happen?

Next year?

Next 3 years?..

It was mantioned in few posts over the last years but never heard any response from the team

I whould personally like to know if MLO hadding to there or not

This app is more than amazing to me (I've tried hundreds of different information, task and project managment apps and MLO is the best in my opinion) how ever this feature is required to me

And maybe I'm wrong about that, but this feature can actually double this app (mobile and pc) active users

Again - it's just my opinion

Appreciate your comments

John

[Alyona (MLO Support)]

We are always open for feedback and suggestions and will be glad to consider this one. Could you provide an example or use case when you would need this feature and how should it work? Maybe, a workaround is available in MLO now.

[robisme (Olivier R)]

Hi,
I have one exemple of use.
Imagine you are to register at the university (project 1) and you must also redo your identity papers (project 2). In both cases, you will need to have identity photos taken (task).
Presently, you have to duplicate this task. If the feature is developped, once you complete the task in on of the projects, it appears as completed in the other one too, allowing to display the next next action fir both projects.
It is just a simplified theoric use case, real potential of such a feature is promising.

Olivier

[johns1...@gmail.com]

On Friday, October 27, 2017 at 8:12:08 AM UTC-5, Alyona (MLO Support) wrote:

We are always open for feedback and suggestions and will be glad to consider this one. Could you provide an example or use case when you would need this feature and how should it work? Maybe, a workaround is available in MLO now.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Many tasks can belong to different parents naturally.

I will use this feature all the time.

I walk the neighbor's dog (task) in order to help the neighbor, but also in order to consider to adopt a dog, also in order to make my weekly sport routine.

I organize my desk (task) inorder to find my car wash business card (task / note)  so I can wash my car (depented task) inorder to publish a good picture of the car (parent task) inorder to sell the car (project). so far so good. I also organize my desk because I prepare the office for meeting with the insurence guy (parent task, note: good impression is important) inorder to insure the company's imployees and get the best deal (project). I also organize my desk in order to clear my head in order to be more productive (goal / folder). I will need to do it with the Secretary becuse she knows best what goes where (context).

so it's gonna look like that:

• sell the car (project)

• check out the craigslist website 

• publish a good picture of the car (sinquential parent)

• find my car wash beisnes card (parent task) 

• organize my desk (note: maybe the car wash business card is there) (@Secretary)

• organize my home desk (maybe the card is there)

• wash my car

• take a picture of the car

• upload the car picture to craigslist 

• task X

• task Y

• task Z

• ensure the company's imployees and get the best deal (project)

• prepare the office for meeting with the ensurence guy (parent task, note: good impression is important)

• organize my desk (note: maybe the car wash business card is there) (@Secretary)

• task A

• task B

• task C

• be more productive  (folder/goal, note: being more productive will allow me to clear my head and will bring me more success in all areas of life)

• organize my desk (note: maybe the car wash business card is there) (@Secretary)

btw, maybe I want to go to that specific car wash because of different reasons which can be represent by the tree as multiple parent tasks as well.

I can't represent these connections with dependencies alone. organize my desk is an unbreakable part of more than one parent task or project. sure, I can workaround it, put this task under "organization" folder and make dependencies to the other tasks, but it's not the natural way. the relationship between the tasks, if it's any dependencies - it's FF dependencies  and not FS dependencies. 

contexts are not part of the tasks tree, are not hierarchical and cannot have their own fields like completion box, dates etc..

still, workaround is possible if there is only one case. Dependencies, links, contexts, views, duplicates, subtasks of subtasks., notes... etc ... Workaround around a 100 cases or more is not reasonable. 

I want to see everything that need to be in hierarchical tree - in hierarchical tree.

It won't be to cluttered

The tree can only become more clear as each task can belong to more than one parent 

This feature will allow me to review my work (task, projects, goals etc) in a much more effective way and to execute my actions based on ten times more effective natural priority system. my life will be organized.

it comes handy even more when one defines a lot of "general goals" like: be a good grandson, be healthy, always learn more...

"walk to the library with your grandmother" can fit to each goal as a sub task. Completing this task will fill more percentages in the progress bars of the goals (if they been set as projects) for better trucking. Goals and projects can be subtasks of multiple parents as well. folders can belong to multiple folder parents. a lot of projects and group of tasks can belong to multiple areas of life as well.

Me personally - I will use this feature a lot. in a lot of ways.

I will group all tasks from different roots that share the same finish to start dependency chain  (with the already exist dependency feature in MLO) under the same parent task.

I will attach all my contexts to folders and will organize them in a tree, then will include tasks on those context folders so it will inherit the same context.

It will also allow me to add more contexts and use them as tags as well, without overwhelming.

how should this feature work?

general 

1. in the settings there will be an option to open the app for the cloning feature, by ticking the option on and off. this will allow poeple to be aware of the feature and use it smartly.

2. by ticking the "on" option, each user will be able to include each task in any other root without any limitation, (including top root). 

3. except one limitation: a task cannot belong to another task from the exact same root, example: if task a is the parent and task b is the sub task and task c is the sub sub task - task a or task b cannot be included as subtasks of task c, as a task cannot be a parent and a child of a another task in the same time

4. The option to have a "natural" parent will remain. each task can have an "original" parent and "tags" parents. if one goes to settings and turn the clone option off - he can see the typical hierarchy again, without no "clone tasks". personally I will probably not use this option, but it's good to have "back up" plan for those people who may need it

5. basically each task can belong to multiple parents. clone / link, the idea is the same - it's the same task! if I change the task fields - the "cloned" tasks are changed as well. if I add or delete subtasks of the tasks - so are the subtasks of "cloned" tasks, because it's the same task only belong to multiple parents. all the "cloned" tasks even share the same creation date.

the way we clone tasks

1. on both mobile and desktop: the "move task" option will be still exist aside with the new option "include task" (just like we can do now with dependencies pop up, just tick as many tasks as we want in one time) 

2. on desktop: task can be included as a sub task of other task with drag and drop with right click on the mouse will open a pop up with the possibilities: link / dependency / clone (just like now but with clone possibility as well) 

3. on mobile: the task long-pressing is loading a small tool bar that from there we can copy/paste. 2 new options will set - "clone" and "paste clone"

search&path

1. If I search a task which belong to multiple parents - I will get only one result - as it's not really a clone, it's the same task! ( its parents function as tags... )

2. path of the "cloned" task - . the path per task (which we can see under the tool bar on the windows version and in the task description on the mobile version) can show only the "original" path (option #1)

3. even better than that (or on top of that) will be to be able to view a list of the direct parents of the task, just like we can view a list of the assigned contexts for each task (option #2)

4. if it's possible to implement it - I would like to suggest to be able to view the whole path from the task description or from under the tool bar - instead of showing the "original" path, one will be able to view a list of the direct parents of the task. another click and a new window will be opened where the whole path is shown, starting with the direct parents on the top of the list and organized in opposite hierarchical tree, this tree can be exist for a read-only mode for reference of the whole task path. (option #3)

• 
  

task inherit behavior 

1. dates - Dates of the cloned task will remain the same dates as before and will not inherit their parents as each parent can have different set of dates or another option will be to inherit the earliest start date and the latest due date

2. context - the user can decide if inheriting the new contexts or ignoring them. just like now. no change here

3. computed score - the computed score of the cloned task can inherit the score of the "original" parent or another option will be to inherit the highest computed score and ignore the "lower computed score" parents

4. Hidden todo - if one of the cloned tasks belongs to a hidden branch - then the task will be hidden everywhere or a popup window will appear and let us decide what to do with the cloned task - *leave it hidden or *stay visible even inside the hidden branch.

5. Project status - if one parent has 'complete' status, and the other parent has 'in progress' status - the task will inherit the 'in progress' status

6. visibility in the todo list - if a task belong to one parent that is "locked" (completed or has uncompleted dependencies) and to a second parent that is "not locked" - then the task will show up in the todo list as it is an active action 

Project completion bar&time required 

Projects will be 'fed' from their "cloned" subtasks as the cloned subtasks are real subtasks! 

I hope I made my point clear enough as I'm writing this from my tablet on the go and english is not my mother tongue.

 

all the best

John

[Wallace Gilbraith]

Hmm, could this be three separate tasks?

Say, you tidy the desk top and find the card under a pile of paper - first instance is complete but not the other two

Say, insurance guy says, let's meet in cafe instead, so tidying of desk is no longer required to impress him - second instance is complete but not the other two

Say, you partially tidy the desk in a way that really works for your productivity and for your secretary but it still looks bad for visitors, and you're not sure if that card might still be there - third instance is complete but not the other two

- sent from my phone,  please excuse brevity  -

- always mail me at ho...@gilbraith.co.uk -

Sent from BlueMail

[johns1...@gmail.com]

Hello Wallace

I organize my desk (task) inorder to find my car wash business card (task / note) so I can wash my car (depented task)

I did count it as saperate tasks. With notes to link them together.
OR - only one task with note.

You are right. It wasn't clear enough.
I was thinking of "organize the desk" as a 3 min task (with the help of the seceretery) and not as a 15+ min task. It's a small desk. this way even if I get loucky and find the card after 1 min I'll probably finish the task because only 2 min left. But also because have other reasons to do it.

Let's say its a 15+ min task. So "find the card" will be a saperate task for sure.

but these tasks are still linked together in a way that makes me want to represent that link in a clear way

I can "represent" the "finding the card" as a seperate task which comes as sibiling (without dependencies) of "organize the sesk" but still they have visible connection it's not easy to find the card as it can be anywhere in one of two desks and I don't want to make more mess by looking just for the card without organising the desk.( so I can put notes with referrence in each task). and still the reason that I do it is because I want to wash my car inorder to sell my car.

So if I find the card after 5 min and still have 10 min more (or one hour more) I mark this task as complete. Then I can decide I don't need this task asap and defer it OR delete it/cancel it. OR I can see my other priority and the other parents of the the task in a glance and decide to do it any way or defer it. Since in this case I have more reasons to do it I will probably finish the task. Then I can defer the "home desk" task and move it to another parent, exa: to the folder / goal: clear my head / productivity folder. Or maybe it has already been there all the time.

If I wouldn't find the card in my office I would "catch" this opportunity to organize the home desk. Since I already find the card, my priority has changed.

Sure, maybe the productivity folder is enough by itself to organize the desk. But maybe not. Just an example :)

What happens if the insurance guy meets me in a coffee shop instead of the office? In this case, I would quickly look at the insurence task / project, looking at the "organize" task and exclude it from this project as I don't need my desk to be organized any more. Not for that reason, at list.

Then the "productivity clear my head folder" will be the only parent because I found the card and the insurance guy don't meet me at the office.

Maybe the "clear my head" parent is important enough to do it anyway asap and maybe not. It's easy to prioritize and reprioritize in this way.

[Laurence Glazier]

This is a very good idea. I once wrote an app which enabled the same task to be in different places of the hierarchy, but while this worked I did not complete other functionality. I do not know if anyone has made this happen in released software, and would love to see it in MLO.

[robisme (Olivier R)]

Freeplane, a mindmap application, allows (at least in the last beta version) this cloning feature.
The behavior is, if a child item is added or deleted to/from one of the cloned item, the other one also get/loose its children. I suppose children of a clone becomes a clone itself.

[johns1...@gmail.com]

These are three main programs with this functionality

1. TheBrain
2. Wrike
3. UltraRecall

Each one of these saftwares handle this well.

How ever MLO is the only software (in my opinion) that is powerful enough to deal with that feature, due to its helpfull endless (todo list and outline) filtering options as well as dependencies & active action filter option (and more).

The other softwares don't come near it in any way that is required to me, exept the multiparents idea.

On short, TheBrain is a sophisticated information & mind map software without any task trucking features.
UltraRecall is mainly an information & notes software, is not an active software, doesn't have a mobile app.
Wrike is a project management software, one who wants a full feature package for personal use has to pay 1,400$ a year.

On top of that none of the above knows how to deal with 200+ tasks like MLO. Because of the reasons I mentioned above (highly advanced filters, active actions, etc).




John