Planning the next calendar release
Matthew Willis
from 0.3 that were postponed" into the "grey list" from Toronto, and
have posted that on the wiki[2].
I'll continue to try to distill the later parts of our discussion into
items for that list, while attempting to keep most of the "bug level"
detail out.
I believe we were able to complete both "Core" and "Views" in the
meeting, but if anyone has further contributions or clarifications for
those areas, please post them here.
The next area is "Item Creation/Modification", and has the following
sub-areas (all scheduled for the next release):
P2 0.5 Event vs. Task semantics (design)
P2 0.5 Autocompletion
P1 0.5 From external sources
I am not really clear on the first or third items, but I'm not feeling
really confident on being able to complete the second in the timeframe
we've discussed. I welcome discussion on all three of these items.
-lilmatt
[1] Meeting notes available at:
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Status_Meetings:2006-10-18#Next_Version_Discussion
Michiel van Leeuwen
> P2 0.5 Event vs. Task semantics (design)
The discussion on that was already started in this newsgroup (but seems
to have stalled) We need to finish that discussion.
> P2 0.5 Autocompletion
If that is what I think it is (autocomplete the fields in the
eventdialog) i'm not sure why it is P2 and 0.5. I tihnk that would be
somewhat nice to have, but nothing more.
> P1 0.5 From external sources
That's allowing other apps to add a new item to your calendar. That
would be good to have.
Michiel
Clint Talbert
> Matthew Willis wrote:
>> P2 0.5 Event vs. Task semantics (design)
>
> The discussion on that was already started in this newsgroup (but seems
> to have stalled) We need to finish that discussion.
>
>> P2 0.5 Autocompletion
>
> If that is what I think it is (autocomplete the fields in the
> eventdialog) i'm not sure why it is P2 and 0.5. I tihnk that would be
> somewhat nice to have, but nothing more.
>
here (especially for Sunbird - i.e. using system addressbook to look up
attendees). We should possibly look into designing the groundwork for
this in 0.5, but push the complete feature out to 0.7.
>> P1 0.5 From external sources
>
> That's allowing other apps to add a new item to your calendar. That
> would be good to have.
think in order to make it do-able, though, we'll have to pick what data
from which applications we want to allow to add data to our calendar. We
should probably narrow this down to just one or two things, for example,
make Sunbird/Lightning the default handler for *.ICS files on the
machine, and/or make Sunbird/Lightning able to understand text/calendar
data from the system clipboard.
Clint
Clint Talbert
>
> [1] Meeting notes available at:
> http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Status_Meetings:2006-10-18#Next_Version_Discussion
>
>
> [2] http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Next_Release
From here, I notice that the "theme" of the next release is
Collaboration. I also think that the theme of this release should be to
create a solid, workable foundation from which we can polish into a 1.0
release. So, in that light, I'm going to go through the list and give my
opinion on it. I am only going to address the items from Matt's list
that I think need to be in the next Calendar Version. I invite
discussion and comments.
--Core--
P1 Editing/Viewing of Events -- I think we need to complete this item to
eliminate bugs and improve maintainability.
--Views--
P2 Performance - This is worth looking into, and I agree that it is a P2
P2 Investigate Zoom Scroll - This may improve usability, but it may not.
For example, Outlook 2003 has this, and more often than not I lose
myself in the interface and find that I am looking at a different month
than I think I'm looking at. Of course that is just one technical
problem that can easily be addressed in our implementation. However, I
think that this should be a lower priority for this release, unless
there is a clear user need for it.
SUGGESTION: P3
P1 Navigation - we need it, it was incomplete in 0.3
P1 Work-flow (user experience) - This should definitely be addressed in
0.5. I think that Christian is correct in his post that the best place
to start with this seems to be the left pane of Lightning. We have had
lots of feedback on that UI, and most people find it problematic.
P2 Agenda View - This goes along with the work-flow changes above.
--Item Creation/Modification--
P2 0.5 Event/Task Design - I think this should be bumped to a P1. This
design decision has several implications for how Tasks will be handled
in the UI. Therefore, it will block many of the UI enhancements that we
might want to do in order to polish for 1.0. The sooner this question is
answered, the better our situation will be.
SUGGESTION: Include in 0.5 and make a P1.
P2 0.5 Autocompletion - This should be added in where necessary. There
are several ways to do this, and even a simple implementation for it
would be useful to users. I recommend it goes in at least in the simple
case (allowing Lightning to use the Thunderbird addressbook to lookup
Attendee emails, for instance). For Sunbird, there may be infrastructure
work needed, and that may push this feature out to 0.7.
SUGGESTION: Split into two tasks: Actual autocompletion of fields and
infrastructure improvements to make this possible. For 0.5, focus on the
infrastructure improvements required to make this a reality.
P1 From External Sources - Should be included, as I noted in my other post.
SUGGESTION: Include in 0.5. To me this means solving the last of our
interoperability bugs, such as the Foreign Timezone issue and other
import/export bugs.
--Alarms--
P2 Email - SUGGESTION: Make this a P3 for 0.5 or push to 0.7. I believe
that this feature does not require much (or any) infrastructure, and
therefore it would be easy to add later.
--Get Data Out--
P1 ICS - MUST be completed
P2 0.5 Sync - SUGGESTION: Add to 0.5. This requires some infrastructure
changes and it would be best to get those in soon. If we cannot get
these changes in soon, it would be best to move this feature to a post
1.0 release.
P1 Printing - SUGGESTION: This must be completed and added to Lightning.
Many users have asked for it.
P2 Publish - SUGGESTION: Complete in 0.5 to the best of our ability
(because things like CalDav will continue to change as we develop,
making completing this feature a little difficult.)
P2 Public Holidays - SUGGESTION: Add to 0.5 and complete feature
P1 Subscribe: SUGGESTION: Complete in 0.5 to the best we can (see my
note above).
P3 Sync from device: SUGGESTION: I argue that this is inherently tied to
the "Sync" functionality above. I suggest working on the sync
infrastructure in general is more important. If we have that
infrastructure, then we can accept extensions that would perform sync
with devices. I suggest cutting this support until post 1.0 and relying
on extensions for this.
P1 From existing calendar applications - definitely should be included
--Email Integration--
P1 Tighter Integration of Lightning into Thunderbird - This must be done
and will be somewhat addressed by Christian's new UI.
P2 0.7 Sending email from Sunbird - In order to have just "polish" work
to do after the 0.5 release, I think we need to focus on the low-level
infrastructure to make this possible right now. That means getting the
proper interfaces designed and checked into the product. They may
continue to be stubs for Sunbird, but they should exist before 0.7
SUGGESTION: Do the infrastructure work for 0.5
--Calendar Interoperation--
P1 Able to invite people -- For 0.5 we should have the ability to do a
simple "round trip" of an iMIP/iTIP item. This means, we should be able
to send a REQUEST email invitation to an attendee and that attendee
(also using Lightning/Thunderbird) should be able to send a RESPONSE
iTIP message back to us indicating whether they accept or decline the
invitation.
SUGGESTION: Do this for 0.5
P2 Sharing - Need more information. Do we intend to include "Discovery"
as part of sharing? If so, that should be two different items. Simple
sharing, such as ensuring users do not overwrite each other's changes is
a difficult enough problem to solve. This should be included for 0.5.
SUGGESTION: Include for 0.5, at least the ability to share a ReadOnly
calendar.
P2 Address Book Integration - I think this will be addressed with the
infrastructure part of the autocomplete above and I do not believe that
it requires its own line item.
SUGGESTION: Include as subtask of autocomplete
--Sync Device--
This is already addressed above - it's duplicated on the list, please
remove this instance of it.
--Web Service Inegration--
SUGGESTION: Please consider adding the Google Calendar Provider to this
listing. I believe there is quite a demand for this webservice. I think
the target for the Google Provider should be 0.5, but we will have to
clearly define what functionality we want to expose in it for 0.5 so
that it is a do-able task.
Holidays - these are addressed above.
For items not completed in 0.3, I think we should make every effort to
get them addressed in 0.5.
--User Pain Points--
Please add:
Printing from Lightning
Lightning Left hand pane UI issues
The quoted/non-quoted timezone identifier issue (aka the Microsoft ICS
issue)
The foreign timezone support
Timezone database update (a pain point that all US users will have if we
don't get this into 0.5).
That's my review of everything. Comments are welcome.
Clint
Jonathan Pritchard
I agree that Synch is going to be a hard thing to tackle, a feasibility
study needs to take place as major changes may have to happen.
--
Reclaim Your Inbox! http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird
Sebastian Schwieger
>
> P1 Work-flow (user experience) - This should definitely be addressed in
> 0.5. I think that Christian is correct in his post that the best place
> to start with this seems to be the left pane of Lightning. We have had
> lots of feedback on that UI, and most people find it problematic.
>
One thing, that needs improvement is error handling.
There should be no silent failures of import or while subscribing to non
existing calendars or whatsoever.
I'm not sure if it is considered as Work-flow or if that should be a
separate item.
/Sebo
Martin Srebotnjak
wonder if Autocompletion, Zoom Scroll etc. are more important, but am
aware as to all the work needed to be done to get device support working.
Thank God that you will postpone it to after 1.0, probably meaning after
2008...
Maybe PDA users should be advised to use Google Calendar or Outlook
until 2008 to avoid all-time questions of this kind on the list?
Or would it be better publish a guide how to use Sunbird/Ligthning
together with Google Calendar to sync to devices as a workaround - after
Google Calendar will be supported?
Thanks, m.
Jonathan Pritchard pravi:
Michiel van Leeuwen
> Thank God that you will postpone it to after 1.0, probably meaning after
> 2008...
Ehm, why do you think that? The roadmap lists it for 0.7.
Jonathan Pritchard
I think any lack of basic synch support will mean that Lightning/Sunbird
are not strong competitors. To me there is no use for calendar apps
unless I can have one copy of my schedule, on my mobile, laptop and desktop.
Matthew Willis
> I think any lack of basic synch support will mean that Lightning/Sunbird
> are not strong competitors. To me there is no use for calendar apps
> unless I can have one copy of my schedule, on my mobile, laptop and desktop.
I don't think anyone is trying to debate the usefulness of having sync
and being able to have your schedule on all your devices.
I'll assert that we're not attempting to be a "strong competitor" with
other calendaring apps (Outlook, iCal.app, Evolution) with our next
release. Those apps have been out for a while, and given our more
limited resources, we're just not going to win if we go up against them
in a feature-by-feature comparison.
What's more important for the next release is building a solid enough
base app so that sync and other solutions can be written by others as
extensions.
-lilmatt