ForumsQuestionsKeep Folders When Assigning/Reassigning, PLease
Keep Folders When Assigning/Reassigning, PLease
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kleerkoat |
A long time ago I brought this up.
If I reassign a task to a coworker, and mine is in a folder called "Project X", why when it gets to the collaborater it comes in without a folder, even when the person has a folder called "Project X". Then when they reassign it back to me, it's lost "Project X" all together? Should we use context or tags instead of Folders? What can we do? Thanks. |
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Anders |
I know that contexts are not retained when reassigning in the same way folder-associations are lost. I believe tags may be retained, so that might be the way to go.
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
Folders, contexts and goals are not transferred when reassigning a task. Even though they may have the same name, the system still tracks them as separate folders. We hope to fix this in a future update. In the meantime, tags will work.
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kleerkoat |
ok, thank you for the workaround.
i know there are a lot of requests on your plate, but I imagine this would be a pretty popular one. It probably makes it even worse when you have such an open system for us users to enter tasks, that some use folders when they should use tags, etc. |
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kleerkoat |
I just started using contexts as the name of the person submitting an ECO, this not transfering on an, assign, reassign like you already mentioned.
Why do tags transfer and these don't? These two issues break collaboration in my opinion, and make it more of a hassle than a good working feature. |
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Anders |
I believe that folders and contexts are not retained because they work a little differently than tags. Tags can be anything, and it doesn't matter if you have previously used that tag or not. With Contexts and Folders, each account has it's own list that must be managed independently of the tasks (you can't add a new folder or context when creating a new task). This doesn't change the fact that it would help for collaboration if those fields could be kept, but I believe it is why they are not. Tags are pretty flexible, and until there is an improvement in context or folder retention, you can probably find a way to do it with them, or in the notes field just write context=whoever, etc. It isn't ideal, but then whoever receives the task could actually set it as a context after getting it.
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HansD |
Just my 2 cts - the toodledo setup is quite personal, so for me it is obvious that folders and contexts are not shared. Your @work might be my @onsite etc. If I allow you to set these values for me, it might result in me not trusting my system anymore.
however, the concept of a shared folder might be usefull indeed, or the system indicating what the original values where (where you can easily take these as input) |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
There are three reasons why folders and contexts do not transfer when reassigning a task.
1) Like HansD said, if someone's "work" context was your "onsite" context. When it got reassigned to you, it might be located in the wrong context which could make you miss it. 2) If you had a private folder called "Project" and a collaborator had a public folder called "Project", they would be able to reassign a task to your private folder, which you wouldn't want. 3) Small spelling differences would cause Toodledo to be unable to match up folders. "Project A" and "Project-A" would be different. Of course, we could resolve most of these issues by having some sort of configuration page where you could manually link up a collaborator's folders and contexts with your folders and context, but this seems cumbersome and we are trying to come up with a better option. |
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kleerkoat |
OK, now I can see the problems this can cause.
However, respectfully, I think you are both assuming that the person assigning the task and the person receiving the task are not collaborating at all to begin with. Context I can understand, traditionally they are used for the location at which the task needs to be done. When I sign up a new account for a person in house, I make them the same 4 folders that I have, each one representing one of the product lines our company makes, make each one sharable between everyone. I also make one more called Personal and mark it as private. In this environment, when everyone has the same Folders setup, some of the reasons for not being able to do it aren't a problem anymore. I do the same thing for contexts now that I am using that as a field to enter the person requesting a drawing so people that aren't using Toodledo can use my public viewing page and sort by their name to check on the status of their request. Now if all the collaborators in the company have the same folder names, same contexts, why can't their be a check to see when a task is assigned or reassigned if the person has a folder or context with the same value and set it when it comes to them so it follows from person to person. I'm sure it is much more complicated on the backend than I perceive. But it also still makes me question why can't it wok in a situation like I described above. |
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Anders |
Posted by Ryan:
OK, now I can see the problems this can cause. However, respectfully, I think you are both assuming that the person assigning the task and the person receiving the task are not collaborating at all to begin with. I would guess the issue was more that when Toodledo started working collaboration into the website, they had to go one way or the other, keep the fields or drop them. I agree that for people working closely together, it probably wouldn't be difficult to ensure that all Folder and Context names are identical. However, for many people who are not in that situation, it might have caused problems. It may be that Toodledo just opted for the safer route. The private folder issue seems like a legitimate concern as well. Whatever the case, it appears Toodledo is working on finding a solution for this issue, and I absolutely agree that when they create one, it will be dramatic improvement to the collaboration features. Context I can understand, traditionally they are used for the location at which the task needs to be done. This seems to be a hotly contended issue. My contexts are more like resources needed to complete certain types of tasks. I have read that this is more in line with the by-the-book approach, but I am no GTD guru, and I am really not worried about it. I just do what works for me. :) |
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HansD |
context can be anything, depends on your state of mind, if you read the gtd book and how your interpreted it. For me it is a combo of what i need and where it is (and sometime only one of them).
If you work closely together I can imaging you can have some synce/linked contexts and/or folders. even then, I would prefer to receive the stuff via my inbox so I can process it when and how I want. An action that is clear for one might be to high level for another. (what is your definition of task?) I'm a consultant and collaborate with a lot of people. But their @work could be my @onsite (and thus refer to the same) |
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Anders |
Good stuff, HansD. You seem like a bit of a philosopher if I may say so. Now I will be pondering the definition of task all night.
I have not read the book yet, but it's on my To Do list. Although, by the time I read it, there may be nothing I haven't heard before thanks to the many knowledgeable folks who share their insights into the system. |
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kleerkoat |
Posted by HansD:
I would prefer to receive the stuff via my inbox so I can process it when and how I want. An action that is clear for one might be to high level for another. (what is your definition of task?) Inbox? Hmm, what is that, I can't seem to find it? How do you use it? I see your point, and assume that your question about what my definition of a task as being rhetorical. Everyone has their own way of interpreting GTD, and even without reading the book, generate their own system of organizing. I'll answer the question anyway, so maybe you can help me workaround this, because, like I said before, if I assign a task and it doesn't go into the same folder as the recepient, it isn't really collaboration, and am always afraid that the person will miss it so after assigning the task, I got into theirs and change the "no folder" to match whatever folder it is in mine. I work in the CAD/Engineering department, so tasks for me are ECO's and RFD's, which are turned into me via a printed out PDF form. Each of my folders are filing areas for whatever productline the ECO/RFD is for. If it's for our product "XYZ Filler Stuff" it goes in that folder. If it's an ECO/RFD for "ABC Product Stuff", it goes into it. I realize that it's on the Dev's radar and I don't want to beat a dead horse because I could go on for hours pleading my case. But if it's something that is a flaw in "my" organizing system I'd like to know how to correct it. Thanks for the replies, it's helped relieve the frustration of why it doesn't behave like I think it should. |
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HansD |
My inbox is quite virtual. For toodledo, it is made up of the tasks without folder/context, otherwise it's my email box etc from where I create my todos in toodledo. It's how I can easy distinguish tasks that I need to integrate into my own system.
In case of collaboration, it could be some other status or so in case of shared folders/contacts. And yes, it was rhetorical (Anders, did you get some sleep at last?). Did you also talk with your coworkers about this? I can only write about my personal situation, and it could be perfectly ok how you think it should be in your case. |
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Anders |
Not much HansD, but I'm that much closer to knowing what a task truly is. :)
I have not discussed it with my coworkers but I'm not sure who they are. I'm a student and a researcher, so I suppose my research associates/collaborators. I have been planning on promoting Toodledo in my lab. If I could get everyone to sign up for Pro Plus, it would certainly simplify the overwhelming exchange of PDFs relating to different projects. |
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kleerkoat |
I just realized that when I create a task I have the ability to set the folder that it will go in on my collaborator's list.
So there must be a link there already? If I can see their folders, and assign the folder only when creating the task, why not when reassigning? |
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Jake Toodledo Founder |
Thats because when you are adding a task, you fill in all the information ahead of time and then press the "Add" button when everything is ready, so you have the chance to select the folder from a list of your collaborator's folders.
When reassigning a task, you select the person from the drop down menu, and then task is immediately reassigned, so you don't have the chance to change the folder from one of yours to one of theirs. In order for this to work, reassigning a task would need to become a two step process. You would first push the "reassign" button, and then Toodledo would need to popup another window and ask you to select the new folder/context/goal. We may do this in a future update. |
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kleerkoat |
That sounds like a brilliant plan!
I know some would complain about the popup but, please don't listen to them! ;-) I really hope you implement this. |
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tbaker |
Hey all,
I know this is an older thread, but figured I'd drag it up again. I've been using Toodledo for about a year, and just got a co-worker I work closely with on it. Both of our methods for using folders are the same, though like the examples provided above, spelling and notation of listing the Customers names for the folders vary a little bit. All in all, I'd love to see a Folders/Contexts Mapping per Collaborator basis. I can envision a link and a page where My folders are listed, and it gives me an opportunity to select a folder from my collaborators list that is it's counterpart. Doing this would give everyone here the ability to customize how it works. In HansD's example stated above where @work would match his @onsite, he could configure this specifically with this collaborator. |
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