I started experimenting yesterday with using Tinderbox to create a calendar that would help me schedule and manage various projects I'm working on. Here's a basic view of how the calendar looks:



(The layout above is automatically generated with agents.)

I'm also using agents to automatically schedule and track work on projects. For instance, work on "Write Research Proposal" was scheduled with the agent:

Query: $Prototype=="Task Session or Event" & descendedFrom("July") & $Name.contains("am -") & !$SessionTask & $SessionDate.weekday<6

Action: $SessionTask="Write Research Proposal"

This means that every hour-block that begins in the morning, is on a weekday in July, and doesn't already have a task associated with it, gets the "Write Research Proposal" task associated with it. Meanwhile, the separate task item called "Write Research Proposal" keeps track of how many hours have been scheduled to work on it with the following rule:

Rule: $TaskHoursScheduled=sum_if(all,(($SessionTask=="Write Research Proposal") & ($IsAlias=false)),1)

Have others done this sort of thing? If so, perhaps we could exchange tips. (I did discover another nice calendar example in the forums here.)

Lucas, that looks interesting. Would you consider sharing the source file?

I've tried exporting tasks into iCal in the past, but didn't get to assigning them to specific timeslots.

Thanks for the positive feedback! I've only just begun this so it's very rough and there's lots of room for tweaking.

I definitely like the idea of a larger condensed font, but I haven't gotten around to it yet (I don't own Tungsten).

Most of the work has been with behind-the-scenes data manipulations for the scheduling stuff, but eventually I'd like to improve the visual.

Anyway, the latest screenshot is below, followed by a link for the TBX (which is very rough and perhaps inscrutable, as none of it was intended for presentation). Perhaps eventually I could create an easier-to-understand template, but that probably won't be soon.

(Note: if you open the TBX, there should be two windows, one with a map view and one with an outline view. In the outline view, you may need to manually widen the left-most (main) column in order for text to display properly.)



http://www.mediafire.com/file/stdbb6bxgsmaqym/lucasCalendar-export.tbx

Hi Selrak,

That's a great question. Sadly, I am without my Mac for a few days and I haven't tinkered with the file recently, so I can't really give you a good answer right now.

When I posted the file, it was quite raw and merely the result of some experimentation. I remember I faced the question of creating new months, and came up with a semi-automated way of doing it (involving some cut and paste), but more recently my time for tinkering has been limited and my needs for scheduling have changed (I'm doing fieldwork now), so I have not refined the system further.

If I get back to it, I'll let you know if I come up with any further tips, and do let us know if you come with anything on your end. I think there's certainly lots of potential here, although a ready-made template could also be nice.

All the best,
Lucas

A few thoughts.  Make a Year prototype and make that 's $OnAdd set the Month prototype. the latter already seeds the prototype chain on downwards.

Consider this $OnAdd for the Month prototype:

$DisplayExpression = '(date($Name(grandparent),($Name(parent)).month,$SiblingOrder)).format("W, MM m")';

The code assumes granparent note's name is a 4-digit year and the parent's $Name is a month name in your locale's language (January/Janvier/etc.). Also the month name must have an initial captial letter or the code won't work as expected (January not january).

An OnAdd can probably be created for the Day prototype to auto-label day notes. An alternate approach is to give the day prototype a full set of 'hour' notes so these are bequeathed. Beware of bequeathing notes and not making a prototype a bequeathed child. Thus if you have prototypes A and B and you want A to bequeath a child of prototype B, do not make B the child of A. Instead make A and B siblings and set A's child use prototype B.