How to create a view for the following?

[Rich Gallagher]

Given two consecutive days (called "Day 1" and "Day 2") and a task ("Task") with due date and time ("Due") -- how do I create a view ("View") that works in relation to the current time ("Current Time") as follows?

Current Time is on Day 1 before 8am;  Due is before Day 1 at 8am  >>>>  Task appears in View
Current Time is on Day 1 before 8am;  Due is on or after Day 1 at 8am  >>>>  Task does not appear in View

Current Time is on Day 1 at or after 8am;  Due is before Day 2 at 8am  >>>>  Task appears in View
Current Time is on Day 1 at or after 8am;  Due is on or after Day 2 at 8am  >>>>  Task does not appear in View

I understand how the advanced setup filter works in terms of its structure for expressing boolean logic.  I also understand that there are variables and expressions available such as "Today," "Now", "DueDateTime", "Today + 0.3333333333", etc.

I use MLO on both Windows and Android.

Thanks very much for your help.

[Rich Gallagher]

Original poster here.  After posting my question here, as well as sending an e-mail directly to MLO support, there has been no response from the makers of MLO.

I understand that what I'm asking may not be possible.  If so, I'd like to know that.

What I do not understand is the complete lack of response from the makers of MLO.  I originally paid $9.95 for the Android app, then paid another $14.95 less than six months later for the MLO2 update. The total of $24.90 is far more than I have ever paid for an app before.  I also paid $59.95 for the Windows version of MLO.  Again, not a trivial sum.  I am also paying for cloud support.

At these prices, all paid within the last nine months, I believe that one might reasonably expect a response to my relatively simple question.

I'd like to ask the more frequent posters on this Google group...Do you think I'm wrong to expect an answer to my question from MLO?  Also, if you can answer my original question, I'd be very grateful for that as well.  Thanks very much.

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Rich. I'm a frequent poster on this forum and I'm an MLO beta tester on Windows and Android. My opinions are my own,  I don't speak for the developers.

I try to respond to forum discussions about creating custom views. Your original post is in my queue of things to study when I  have time.  After a preliminary look, it seemed to me to be impossible to meet your request. I usually don't respond on this basis - I prefer to try and develop a workaround and test my suggestions to ensure that they are correct. But you are in a hurry and I understand that,  so I will just say that I cannot find any realistically usable solutions.

To address your other question, my personal opinion is that the MLO staff do *not* owe you an answer to this post. You are owed an answer if you experience crashes, or data loss, or inappropriately altered data, or functionality that does not work as documented. But the MLO staff have not promised to develop custom views for any customer who wants one. That kind of support is generally provided through the forum.

Lots of people have written to the forum asking for help with their views. Most of them have gotten help. People with easy requests tend to get help faster than people with difficult requests; impossible requests take even longer.

From your question it's obvious that you have a very good understanding of custom view development. The fact that you would mention "Today + 0.3333333333" shows that you have already worked your way through some of the complexities in your request. With this much insight into the tech, I'm sure you see that it would be helpful to construct a narrative version of the desired filter; something that says, "Include all tasks where [property] is [condition] [value] and (etc)". You didn't provide such a narrative; instead you provided four data points that I was unable to transform to a narrative.

My inability to create a narrative requirements statement was perhaps the strongest indicator that this request cannot be implemented.

Although I could not find a usable solution I got sort of close with two solutions that were clearly unusable. If you are able to create a narrative requirements statement, please let me know.

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[Rich Gallagher]

Thanks very much for your response, Dwight.  Your posts have been very helpful in teaching me how to use MLO--so thanks for all you do for the forum.

In essence, I'm trying to create a view for a personalized definition of "Today."  Instead of 12:00am - 11:59pm, "My Today" is better defined as 8:00am - 7:59am (because I'm usually working on my day's tasks until well after midnight before going to sleep around sunrise).  For example, if it's 2:00am, I want to see the things I need to do before I go to sleep--but I don't want to see all the tasks that aren't due until after I wake up.

If the view filter had a "Now" expression available on the *left* side of the relational operator, then creating a view for "My Today" would be pretty straightforward, I think.  Something like...

Include Task in "My Today" if:   ( (Now >= Today + .33333333) AND (DueDateTime >= Today + .333333333) AND (DueDateTime < Today + 1.33333333) ) OR ( (Now < Today +.333333333) AND (DueDateTime >= Today - .6666666667) AND (DueDateTime < Today + .33333333333) )

I don't know if there's a different way to create such a view--either using the GUI or maybe somehow editing a view outside the GUI.

Thanks also for your comments regarding MLO's response.  I might be old-fashioned, but when a company sells a product while advertising a customer support e-mail address for when the customer is "[n]ot sure about how things work" ( http://www.mylifeorganized.net/contact-us.shtml ), then I do believe it's not right for the company to entirely ignore a paying customer's reasonable query to that support address. It's their failure to respond at all--not even "sorry, we don't answer this kind of question" or "it can't be done" or "we're too busy now, but we'll try to get back to you"--that I think is not right.

Thanks again, Dwight.  The generous and thoughtful help you give to MLO users is truly fantastic.

[george]

Dwight (I address him Sir Dwight sometimes  like soccer coach Sir Aex) is the human face of  MLO for me. There are a few other veteran users also who are active sometimes and helps.(Sorry,didn't mean to hijack the thread)

On Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 12:05:50 AM UTC-8, Rich Gallagher wrote:

Thanks very much for your response, Dwight.  Your posts have been very helpful in teaching me how to use MLO--so thanks for all you do for the forum.

[Rich Gallagher]

I think / hope I have a simple solution for creating the kind of "Now"-dependent view I'm looking for.  I haven't tested extensively yet, but....

...It looks like a "Rule Field" in an exported .xml (.mfv) view file can be changed to "Now".   For example...

<Rule Field="DueDateTime" ConditionName="before" DataValue="Today + 0.5" DataType="TDateTime" ConditionID="412"/>

...can be changed to...

<Rule Field="Now" ConditionName="before" DataValue="Today + 0.5" DataType="TDateTime" ConditionID="412"/>

Then, once re-imported, MLO will correctly evaluate and apply the "Now" rule field variable in rendering the view (at least so far in my limited testing).  As to editing, while the GUI will correctly show the view's definition, it doesn't appear that the GUI allows for editing such a view.  Editing needs to be done on an .xml export of the view before re-importing.

When I have time to test further (hopefully soon), I'll report back.

[Rich Gallagher]

OP reporting back on using "NOW" in the rule field per my post above.  It seems to be working perfectly in Windows MLO.

For Android v2 MLO, however, I can't seem to import a view that uses "NOW" in the rule field (just called "FIELD" in the Android .mfv).  If another poster has a suggestion for editing an Android view using a means other than the GUI or importing a .mfv, I'd love to hear about it.

If the developers happen to be listening, I think this functionality (i.e. making "NOW" available in the rule field) would be really terrific as a workaround for those of us for whom "TODAY" is not accurately captured by the standard 12am - 11:59pm definition.  I can imagine other uses for this functionality as well.

[Dwight Arthur]

Rich, you reported that you "can't seem to import a view that uses "NOW" ..."

What happens when you try? Does the Android import crash? Does it terminate successfully but not produce an imported view? Does it produce a view that doesn't work?

[Rich Gallagher]

For Android v2 MLO, after I select a .mfv file with a single view containing "NOW" as the value for "FIELD", the dialog says something like, "You are about to import the following 0 views..." -- then MLO goes on normally without importing the view.

If I try to import a .mfv with multiple views, MLO ignores views that contain a "NOW" value for "FIELD"--and successfully imports the other views.

The behavior is the same whether I try to import a .mfv originally created by Windows MLO or originally created by Android v2 MLO.

In short, Android v2 MLO apparently ignores any view in a .mfv with a "NOW" value for "FIELD" -- and keeps operating normally.

Thanks for putting your brain to this, Dwight!

[Dwight Arthur]

Hi, Rich.

begin off-topic
Thanks for your kind words. You too, George.
I'm a retired guy and I see many of my contemporaries spending untold hours struggling over "brain teasers for old codgers" or something similar, in a vain attempt to keep their brains from aging. My hobby is MLO debugging and view development - it's more challenging and also more fun. So thanks to you guys for saving me from the find-a-word puzzles.
end off-topic

First, let me say that you have a remarkable workaround, it is seldom that you find someone willing to dive in to the extent that you have. Admirable work, well done.

Second, I was hoping for some way to show that there is a supported feature of Windows view construction that's not supported on Android - this would have provided a basis for requesting Android support. But given the extent to which you hacked the Windows system to get it to do what you want, I do not think that argument would stick. Instead, I think that the opening argument should be that allowing constants such as Now and Today (are there other constants?) in the Field section of a rule would provide significant benefit for little development (given that you have already demonstrated that it executes correctly). If that recommendation would be accepted then the next step would be to look for Android support.

Third, this is the part where I tell you that there is some clever way to get what you want out of the Android system until and unless the new feature you want arrives. Sorry, no clever solutions suggest themselves. The only thing I can suggest is that you build a Today-early view that shows tasks due after 8am today but before 8am tomorrow, and also a today-late view that shows tasks due between 8am yesterday and 8am today. Then, start each day using the late view, and at midnight switch to  the early view. You can set a reminder for midnight to help you make the switch. That's all I've got. In fact, I was hoping that you might be out running around doing phone MLO during mainstream daytime and on Windows by the time you reach your extended daytime after midnight. In this case you could just use a standard day view on Android, and use your timeshifted view on Windows during the small hours.

Fourth and last, given your success at hacking .mfv, do you have any suggestions on how to create a location rule, something like (CurrentLocation IsNearLocation @Context, 2000 meters)?

[Rich Gallagher]

Thanks for all of that, Dwight.  Fortunately, I mainly use Windows MLO after midnight, so I'm glad to have an option available there.  As to Android, I agree that the best course would be in line with your suggestion for "early" and "late" views.  That was a really good suggestion.

As to your location rule, I'm afraid I'm unlikely to be helpful.  I don't personally do anything with MLO's location-based functionality.

Keep enjoying your retirement, Dwight.  The MLO community is really benefiting from the way you apply your talents.  -R