Outline filtering does not seem to work correctly

[kjell moens]

Hi,

I have a predefined structure in MLO (see screenshot 1), but when in the todo view, I set "Show Hierarchy" to yes and set a parent filter (screen shot 2), the folders are no longer shown but neither is the root task (screen shot 3). The other structures, like goals are shown

Can someone help me 

Thx

[pottster]

Try changing Show Actions from Available to All

[kjell moens]

Thanks, but it does not change anything

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Kjell.

This goes back quite a while and I may not be recalling it 100% correctly but I will do my best.
I believe that when you have a filtered list of tasks and also have "include parents" turned on, that a task that passes the main filter but that does not have any parent is not included. I seem to recall one person a couple of years ago who reported this. I believe that there was some discussion, the final outcome of which was that this was by design and that the user should create a parent for the task in question.

Would this response help you? If not, we could work together to report this as a bug to the developers, and see if the result is any different this time around - maybe they would fix it. Let me know if you want to take this forward.

-Dwight
MLO Betazoid on Windows, Cloud and Android SGN2

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[funjul...@gmail.com]

I am struggling with this bug as well and hope that we can get this fixed. Parent and child filters should work in a clear, consistent way, not sometimes randomly decide to exclude tasks that pass the main filters.

Happy to help report this.

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Julie (Sorry if you are not Julie, you didn't sign your post and that's the closest I could find to a name)

You have submitted four posts talking about an issue with a filtered hierarchy. It's clear that you are trying to accomplish something that you consider simple and that you are extraordinarily frustrated about the difficulties you have encountered. I'm pretty good at this and I can not quite figure out what went wrong, or what you are trying to do. Your emails have some discussions of your own issue, some quotes from old emails I have sent to several other people and my examples, and some of the problem statements from the other users I was writing to. Put it all together and it's too confusing for me to figure out. Maybe a different reader gets it, but if not I will try to work it through with you if you like.

First, let me try and guess what your actual issue is. My guess is:

When you have a filtered list of tasks and also have "include parents" turned on, that a task that passes the main filter but that does not have any parent is not included.

If this is the issue, let me know and I will help you report it. If fixing this would not be enough to fix your problem, then please write a new email that demonstrates the problem. Leave out all the references to previous conversations and theories about the cause, just provide these four things:

• A small hierarchy, as simple as you can make it but still sufficient to show the problem. If task properties that play a role are not visible (context, deadline, goal, etc) include them in your message
• A description of a view/filter that illustrates the issue. The view should be as simple as possible. Please describe ALL filters and specifications that you are setting in the view
• A sample of the listing you want to get
• A sample of the listing that you actually get

OK?

-Dwight

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/703b8613-8b1d-4bd1-94d9-5f4b9a874fcdn%40googlegroups.com.

[funjul...@gmail.com]

Thanks! Here's the email I sent to support. I'll probably make yet another post for it, asking people if they can reproduce it and if they agree it's a bug.

- - -

I love MLO, but I am having trouble because there are several bugs with the hierarchy displays, which makes it hard for me to use the full power of the software. 

The following example shows the bugs clearly: 

red top (text tag: x) 

 red middle 

  red bottom

blue top (text tag: z) 

 blue middle (text tag: xy) 

  blue bottom

green top (text tag: z) 

 green middle 

  green bottom (text tag: xy)  

1. With advanced filter for text tag x, hierarchy on, parent and child off:  

What you should get: 

red top

blue middle

green bottom 

What you do get: 

red top   

2. With advanced filter for text tag y, hierarchy on, parent and child off: 

What you should get: 

blue middle

green bottom 

What you do get: nothing   

3. With advanced filter for text tag y, hierarchy on, parent on, child off, parent filter "text tag does not contain z" 

What you should get: 

blue middle

green middle

green bottom  

What you do get: 

green middle

green bottom 

Thank you so much! I really hope this can be fixed soon because the program is amazing and it would be just what I needed with this bug fixed

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Julie(?)

Re the third example, I do not have time to reproduce and explore this right now. Maybe one of the other users will, or maybe Support will explain it to us.

For the other two examples, my comment is that if you replaced "hierarchy on with parent and child off" with "hierarchy off" it looks to me as though you would get the desired results. Could you enhance your example to show what you expect from "hierarchy on with parent and child off" that's different from "hierarchy off"?

-Dwight

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/c7738fd1-2c20-48ff-948e-fbf729572e47n%40googlegroups.com.

[funjul...@gmail.com]

For those specific examples, I would expect the same thing with "hierarchy off" and "hierarchy on with parent and child off". Sometimes different combinations of settings will happen to give you the same results.

You are correct that the bug disappears with hierarchy off - but the bug is still there with "hierarchy on with parent and child off" and it's still a problem.

If your point is that my expectations of "hierarchy on with parent and child off" are wrong, I would just say that this isn't clearly documented, and what you do in fact see with "hierarchy on with parent and child off" is very strange.

For instance, in case 1, why does "red top" remain but "blue middle" and "green bottom" go away? There does not seem to be any good explanation for this, and I don't believe anyone would expect this outcome. Can you describe a simple rule that would explain it?

> Could you enhance your example to show what you expect from "hierarchy on with parent and child off" that's different from "hierarchy off"?

Sure, here you go:

Hierarchy:

outside (text tag: abcd) 

one (text tag: ac) 

 two (text tag: ad) 

  three (text tag: bd) 

   four (text tag: bc) 

Case 4: With advanced filter for text tag b, hierarchy on, parent and child off: 

What you should get: 

outside

three

 four

What you do get: 

outside

Case 5: With advanced filter for text tag c, hierarchy on, parent and child off: 

What you should get: 

outside

one

 two

  three

   four

What you do get: 

outside

one

Case 6: With advanced filter for text tag d, hierarchy on, parent and child off: 

What you should get: 

 

outside

two

 three

What you do get: 

outside

Case 7: With advanced filter for text tag a, hierarchy on, parent ON, child off, parent filter by text containing 'x':

What you should get: 

 

outside

one

 two

What you do get: nothing

Case 8: With advanced filter for text tag b, hierarchy on, parent ON, child off, parent filter by text containing 'x':

What you should get: 

 

outside

one

 two

What you do get: nothing

Case 9: With advanced filter for text tag c, hierarchy on, parent ON, child off, parent filter by text containing 'x':

What you should get: 

 

outside

one

 two

  three

   four

What you do get: nothing

Case 10: With advanced filter for text tag d, hierarchy on, parent ON, child off, parent filter by text containing 'x':

What you should get: 

 

outside

three

 four

What you do get: nothing

[Dwight Arthur]

I agree that documentation should be better.

I agree that I cannot cite any logical interpretation or interpolation of the filtering rules that would explain what you cite as actual behavior

I'm also not certain that I can follow what you cite as expected behavior

For example in your case five. My understanding, up until now, was that the primary filter would pass tasks outside, one and four, which are the only tasks with text tag including "c". Because parent and child are off, no additional tasks would be included. There are no immediate hierarchical relations between outside, one or four so they would each be treated as a root, and the result would be

outside
one
four

I do not understand why you would expect two and three to be displayed.

Let me go back to what I thought before I started reading your emails. Consider that many people have trouble understanding advanced filters because they think of them as a list of things to be excluded when they are in fact a list of things to be included. Similarly, I thought of a default for hierarchies as having children and parents included and unfiltered, and that any change you make from that point is for the purpose of excluding something. That way, if you excluded both parents and children, the result would be the same as turning off hierarchy. It's kind of a meaningless "exclude everything" command, akin to when the teacher taking attendance says "everyone who is absent today please raise your hand". I see from your work that there is a purpose to excluding both but I do not yet have a clear vision of what that would be, so I will step back and wait for a response from support.

-Dwight

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/d91a809f-4889-4a7c-ac9f-3a91310b6be6n%40googlegroups.com.

[funjul...@gmail.com]

I was thinking hierarchy on meant that you would see all hierarchical relations between the items shown, not just immediate ones. That is, everything "in between" the items that pass through the primary filter.

But I see your point about turning off both children and parents being the same as turning off hierarchy, in which case there shouldn't even be a separate option for it. And I can understand the interpretation of case 5 where you get the result:

outside
one

four

Right now, turning off both children and parents while leaving hierarchy on does something else, and I'm not sure what that is or whether that was intended. The actual results of doing this seem bizarre.

I'm really less concerned with that issue and more concerned with the issue of parent filters, which is a very frustrating bug.