How to do round-trip from MLO -> Mindjet Mindmanager -> MLO to refactor entire MLO database?

[Dan J Clark]

I wanted to re-factor the structure of my MLO tasks in Mindjet Mindmanager, and then move those changes back to MLO.

I was very happy when export to Mindmanager format from MLO actually just opened up Mindmamager immediately with the file, and I did the re-factoring.

I then saved the file from Mindmanager and did the import of that file from MLO. Perhaps lulled into a false sense of security by the ease of export, I was assuming that the import would go just as smoothly - however what did happen is that I ended up with hundreds of duplicate tasks, and no obvious way to remove them (see other post for this query).

So now I want to know if there is actually a way to do a point-in-time edit of an entire MLO database in Mindmanager. I'd assume the following would work, but would like this to be confirmed.

1. Make sure all of your instances of MLO on all of your devices are synced up with each other. Make sure all instances of Outlook are synced up with MLO. Everything should be in a consistent state.

2. Make a backup of the MLO database.

3. Export the database to Mindmapper format; Mindmapper should open automatically.

4. Do your work in Mindmapper, then save the file somewhere.

5. In MLO, go to the"Outline -> All tasks" view, press Ctrl-A, and then press Delete, to delete everything.

6. Import the Mindmanager .xml file.

7. Open Outlook, delete all tasks

8. Do a one-time MLO -> Outlook sync, and then set to normal bidirectional sync

9. Initiate a cloud sync; turn automatic cloud sync back on

10. Try to not have to refactor again for a while :-)

The big question if the above would, in general, work: Would there be any loss of information (such as the many MLO task properties) in the round trip from MLO to Mindmanager and back to MLO?

[robisme (Olivier R)]

I'd rather dream about a actual sync betwen MLO and MindManager just like the way it syncs with Outlook.

[Dan J Clark]

On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 5:14:21 AM UTC-4, robisme (Olivier R) wrote:

I'd rather dream about a actual sync betwen MLO and MindManager just like the way it syncs with Outlook.

Well dreaming is all well and good, but I'd like something that works now, even if it is hackish and/or not appropriate for continual use :-)

I looked into it by using WinMerge (as a diff tool) to compare an MLO-format XML export with another MLO-format XML export after an export to Mindmanager-format XML and then import of that into a new MLO database (I also had to manually move all the items from the "MLO" base node created by Mindmanager to the root node, and then delete the MLO base node). Details below, but the answer to my question seems to be "no, you can not round-trip without being sad". 

So actually I'm going to try setting up having both MLO and Mindmanager sync to Outlook 2010; maybe that will maintain fidelity of the MLO database, as I believe MLO tracks the UUID of Outlook Task documents / doesn't try to save all the state in them but instead just correlates with MLO database items; so if Outlook items are moved, the MLO database should move them while maintaining the MLO-specific data. Or at least that's my current dream!

Below are my findings. I think Mindmanager supports arbitrary (in name, data, and number) extra fields for each item, so in theory these are I think all bugs that should be fixable. I'll go figure out the right way to do bug reports if none of the MLO developer(s) chime in here. I'm guessing there are more problems, esp. with Properties not being round-tripped; I certainly don't use every single feature of MLO.

1. "Created" changed on everything to date of mindmanager file save date / time. Same for "CompletionDateTime" and "i0".

2. <Note> Nodes get a newline in front of them. This does show up in the UI. In the UI there is a newline in the note field before the [note# XXX] where there wasn't one before. In the XML it moves from this:

 <Note>[note #38640994]

 To this:

<Note>

[note #38640994]

3. DueDateTime changes in a way I can't quickly figure out the logic of, e.g.:

<DueDateTime>2014-01-05T00:00:00</DueDateTime>

to:

<DueDateTime>2014-01-03T00:00:00</DueDateTime>  

That's 2014-01-05 to 2014-01-03. Another example, 2013-10-02T17:33:53 to 2014-04-29T08:15:36

4. Lines like these disappear:

<Starred>-1</Starred>

<StarToggleDateTime>2014-04-26T22:35:01</StarToggleDateTime>

<HideInToDoThisTask>-1</HideInToDoThisTask>

<HideInToDo>-1</HideInToDo>

<LeadTime>0</LeadTime>

<ScheduleType>1</ScheduleType>

<LeadTime>0</LeadTime>

<ScheduleType>1</ScheduleType>

<Importance>200</Importance>

<Urgency>200</Urgency>

<TheGoal>1</TheGoal>

<LeadTime>0</LeadTime>

<Recurrence LOTS OF STUFF HERE />

<IsProject>-1</IsProject>

<ProjectStatus>2</ProjectStatus>

<Effort>0</Effort>

<IsProject>-1</IsProject>

<ProjectStatus>1</ProjectStatus>

(sometimes, not always) <StartDateTime>2012-04-24T00:00:00</StartDateTime>

<CompleteSubTasksInOrder>-1</CompleteSubTasksInOrder>

<i1>ENCPROJ=0</i1>

<i2>EPTOPLEV=0</i2>

<i3>EPPREFIXNOT=0</i3>

<Flag Caption="SOMETHING" [...]

5. New lines like these are inserted:

<EstimateMin>0.333333333</EstimateMin>

<EstimateMax>0.666666667</EstimateMax>

6. Most but not all of these disappear:

<TaskPlace Caption="SOMETHING"/> 

7. Instance of thing like:

<Column ID="0" Pos="0" Width="494"/>

becomes:

<Column ID="0" Pos="0" Width="481"/>

8. This:

<UI DTmax="41728" DTmaxS="Today + 30" HideUndated="true">

became this:

<UI DTmaxS="Today + 30" HideUndated="true">

9. This:

    <Column ID="0" Pos="0" Width="494"/>

    <Column ID="4" Pos="4" Width="100"/>

    <Column ID="7" Pos="7" Width="79"/>

    <Column ID="27" Pos="27" Width="22"/>

  </Columns>

  <IcoData Caption="All tasks-24x24">LOTS OF CHARACTERS</IcoData>

</ToDoView>

<ToDoView Name="To Delete">

  <UI ActionFlt="4" UseAdvFlt="true" UseHierarchy="true">

    <HightlightFormat bold="1" inherit="0" options="0"/>

  </UI>

  <Group/>

  <Sort Srt1="1" Srt2="1" Srt3="1" Srt4="1" Manual="false"/>

  <AdvFlt>

    <RootRule>

    </RootRule>

  </AdvFlt>

  <AdvFltParent/>

  <AdvFltChild/>

  <Columns>

    <Column ID="0" Pos="0" Width="494"/>

became this:

<Column ID="0" Pos="0" Width="510"/>

[Dan J Clark]

MLO <-> Outlook 2010 <-> Mindmanager does work (didn't test all that much), but of course you only get the two levels of structure from Outlook (Categories and Tasks), and Contexts and Projects get mixed in (or you only get Contexts), so it's pretty useless from a re-factoring POV.

For including some tasks in a mindmap that get dynamically updated in MLO (and vice versa), unless you already own Mindmanager, it'd be a lot cheaper to use XMind + XMind Sync for Outlook - http://xmind-extensions.net/products/xmind-sync-for-outlook instead of Mindmanager  (e.g. $49 vs. $349).

BTW for an example of what I'd be able to do (statically would be fine, but this is dynamic), take a look at http://mindontrack.com/