Work Log

How about making a work log?

Small Database of things you have done at work.
Will keep the information like: Date, Time Started, Time Finished, Small Description, who asked you to do that, whom you've reported when done and a note etc.

With a nice reporting system.

Those who work will find a way to quickly answer questions like:

"What did you do today?"

"What did you do in the last week?"

"Who asked you to do that?"

"How long did it take to finish?"

I don't know about others, but it will help me a lot.

Interested?

Sounds a good idea to me, any idea how to make it yet?

A Very Simple Database Application.
If some of you are interested, we can distribute different parts of it among us. I can define the Architecture and Design.

But I don't want to do the entire project alone. I know there are great people on this forum. Lets see if at least 2 or 3 of them want to contribute.

Nobody cares?

Somebody always cares, they just haven't looked at the tread yet....
How many people are you looking for anyway?

Just saw the post. I am interested. What exactly do you have in mind?

I think 3 to 4, if Harini joins us, and you Jez1, we may get started.

What part of the development are you interested in?
Let me list the basic parts:
1. Product Manager (I guess we don't need any, utill it goes commercial)
2. Program Manager (The co-ordinator, I may take this place)
3. Developer
4. Tester
5. User Education (Help file writer)
6. Logistics (We don't need now)


Which part, or parts of the team are you interested in?
We will make it worthwhile, I promise.

Ok,
Now if you are interested. We can develop a Desktop Application initially, that will use a small Database (Jet, possibly) to store all the information. There is nothing complex in this, fairly straight forward. The key points should be user friendlyness and Flexible Reporting system. And when it is a team, I would prefer to follow a Development Model (I prefer Microsoft Solutions Framework) to do it in an organized manner.

This should take about a week to develop, if we use our leisure time.

Consider this:
There are applications that manages 'Things to do' & 'Appointments'. This is an extension of such an Application. Instead of what to do, this will empasize on what has been done.

Say, for example.

In the Application, you give your personal information, like name etc. which will be used on the Reports. Then store the Name of the people whom you closely work with. Then the projects you work on.

When you are about to do something, or just finished doing something, make an entry in the system which will tell the system you have done 'This' on 'This Project' that you were asked to do by 'This Person' (or nobody) and it took 'This much Time' on 'This particular Day', and a comment if you have any.

A very user friendly interface will allow you to enter these information in a minute.

Now when you have your database up to date, you can retrieve information like,

'What are the "things" that you have done on this "project"?' '
'What are the "things" that you have done was asked by a particular co worker or boss?
'What are the "things" that you have done in the last one week, or yesterday, or any duration of time, for that matter?'

You know... things like that.

Now take it one step further, and make it multi user and distributed. Have the information about all of the employees in a central location. A company can keep track of the work done by all its employees, along with the projects they are working on.

This may also be used by support people or receptionists to log the phone calls they handle.

Does it sound like stupid?

I could develop some of it and do some testing if u like.
Also, if you need any artwork or asthetics doing (including an icon) I can take care of that.

Are you thinking of fleecing the users for all they are worth, or is this going to be freeware/adware etc..?

Well, its a common question every time we start a new project. Really, is it going to be a freeware or shareware? adware?

This is not probably a good cadidate of adware. However I would rater like to list the objectives as follows:

1. The joy of creation
2. The joy of working together being apart.
3. Get it do someting for us.
4. Give it away to people for free, or sell it for a reasonable price.

This is the last part. And let us define it this way, it our work is good enough to be a commercial quality product, we will ask what it deserves.

Now I hope we will not start arguing on how we will distribute the revenue at this moment. Shall we?

Well, if not. then lets introduce each other.
Jez1?

I have made one little woth a listview to plan my homework :) I think it's a nice project :)

Well, would you like to improve that further?
Or let us see what you have? Or contribute?

I know Harini is also working on something somewhat similar.

I would like to take up some of the development work. But right now, I have no RDBMS. I have only MS Access. So hope you use Jet.
You know, this is very similar to my Time Management idea. May be this will make my work simpler.

give me a task :)

Jez1 designs Icons, it is a good thing. He will also develop he said.
Harini Develops as well, and then there is peet and me (no confirmation from Daok).

Coding won't be a problem. But we will talk about a lot of things before we start coding. This will be a more talk, less work project. Reason? Well, it is natural that a coder will be tempted to code, but proper design, and decision is very important.

We have already defined the Vision of the project to some extent. Now lets define the scope.

1. The first version of the Application will not be distributed and multiuser. It will be a single user desktop application.
2. It will use Jet as the Database. I would prefer MSDE, which will allow porting the application to SQL Server without any modification, but I suppose all of us do not have MSDE on their systems. So Jet it is.
3. For Reporting, we will use DataReport, Reporting tools like crystal reports will be considered for the future (distributed) versions.
4. Although we will use Jet, we will be very generic in accessing data (using ADO), and will not use any Jet specific feature that might cause trouble while porting the application to another RDBMS.
5. We will not use any third party UserInterface Control to keep the development cost minimal, and also to make sure that all of us have what we need. However, free controls can be exceptions.
6. The first version will not have any application level security and user management system (since it is a single user application)

I guess that is enough to get started. However, please come forward and let us know what you think. If you have a better suggestion, that will be gladly accepted.

This draft was to define the scope, which describes what we will NOT do in the first version.

Who wants to create the Data Model now? Somebody please suggest the tables and relationships we will need. Either the names, or a Schema Diagram, whichever you prefer.

Also if somebody else is willing to suggest the Interface design, that will be nice.

Are we clear on what the application is about?

I'll do the interface if u like, but I need some info:

• What needs to be entered by the user?
• What commands will be needed?
• Menu's and/or buttons?
• Traditional Windows style, or some interesting colours?

Does anyone have any idea what this will be called, or what the icon should look like?

Also, I have a ZIP program that will create a really professional package.

It zips all the files into an EXE, then when it is run it automaticaly unzips and starts the installation, without the user having to OK anything or specify places to unzip to etc.

It would be good to use when we distribute the program.

TraceWorks

How is that? Well, I agree, not very nice. Any body with a better name?

Suggest on the User Interface.
[list=a][*]MDI or SDI?[*]Traditional Menu Based?[*]With a tool bar?[*]A treeview on left?[*]With a dockable Form?[*]Use Grid or Form in the Entry Forms?[*]Any other ideas?[/list=a]

We will need Icons not only for the Application, but also for the toolbar, treeview nodes, if we use, buttons, and listview.

You have a lot of things to do Jez1 :)
But lets decide on the Interface first.

That packaging application might be of good help. We will take a look when we reach the internal alpha release.

Abu, can I join or do u have the people needed for this project?

Welcome peet,
we still need people.
Well, are you good in Data Modeling?
Or which part of the design are you interested in?
You know somebody to take care of UserEducation?
Whatever it is, you are most welcome.

I prefer MDI. How about the rest of you?

I am sending a rough DB design. See if this will do. Tell me what you people think. Let me know even if you think if it is stupid. just tell me why.

You are good...
Guys take a look at the design, peet, Jez are you still there?


I will discuss this later... For now, it is good, good enough.

Thanks Harini...
Jez could you start designing some Icons? For example, generic Icons for adding, editing, deleting Records? Icons representing Project, members, modules etc.?

Hi there Harini,
looks well structured.

Only thing I don't like is the primary keys being text and not autonumber and longs.

but this is just my opinion, and probl also just a habbit I have :)

one more thing,
are the fields PTotModules, PTotMembers and PMTotMembers needed? This info will change all the time, and can just as well be calculated using sql ?

If I missed something here, let me know :)

I agree, but will talk in details in the evening. Jez?

hehe... depends when evening is ?? :)

we are probl on different time zones :)

I'm here, don't worry...

I'll start work on those icons now.

Hello peet, which time zone are you on? I am GMT.

Abu is in the US and Harini is in India, so we might have some time trouble...

Since no-one seems to want to do User Ed. I'll write the words, but I don't have any way of making them into a help file - any suggestions?

The time zone issue...
We have to adjust ourselves with this. There is nothing to hurry though...

Don't worry about compiling the help files, I think peet can take care of that...

Yes Peet?
:D

Do any of you have MSN Messenger or ICQ or something, so we talk a but quicker?

ID: [email protected]
yours?

Here is some icons I was working on. U already got these Abu.

If anyone's got MSN Hotmail i am at [email protected]

Here is a better version of the icons, plus some more.

If you have a better suggestion for the background colour, let me know.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Abu haider
Don't worry about compiling the help files, I think peet can take care of that...

Yes Peet?
:D

---

hmm.. what... u'v seen some posts ? :)

well yes, I'l be glad to do helpfiles. But I'd like u all to come with input, just writing it in word, and I'll make a helpfile outof it.

I assume html-help (.chm) is ok?
That will make it possible to distribute it directly to web pages as well... pretty cool :)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Jez1
Do any of you have MSN Messenger or ICQ or something, so we talk a but quicker?

---

ICQ : 3248004

I'll install MSN tomorrow :)

I don't mind writing the help, peet, but I need you to compile it.

If I was to write it in html, could you turn that into a chm file?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Jez1
Hello peet, which time zone are you on? I am GMT.

Abu is in the US and Harini is in India, so we might have some time trouble...

---

I'm on GMT + 1 so u and I are pretty much the same :)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Jez1
I don't mind writing the help, peet, but I need you to compile it.

If I was to write it in html, could you turn that into a chm file?

---

sure thing Jez1, that will be just fine :)

My apologies to Jez, for I was not able to talk to him when he was on MSN this afternoon. I was at work and at that moment I was doing some very important design. My boss was with me. This might happen some time. And this is my advance apology to all of you, should this happen again.

I know Jez must have felt bad. :(
I am really sorry.

As you know, I am at about GMT-8 I think, so by the time it is morning for me, it is already afternoon for you. We can set up a conference on MSN in the first hour of my Job, thats 9:00 to 10:00am of my time. If it is possible for you people, usually I am free during that hour. I will be available at 10:00 to 12:00pm of my time as well, but I understand that for you peet and Jez, it won't be much convenient.

For Harini being online for long time might be a problem.
Thats it, peet you know our MSN IDs, if you can be there, we'll talk then.

Thanks for the Icons Jez.
I think transparent Icons are best.
Could you make the arrows something similar to the windows explorer back and forward buttons?
On the Edit Record Icon, could you put a Pen or Pencil pointing towards the Record?

I think they will look better that way...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Abu haider
My apologies to Jez, for I was not able to talk to him when he was on MSN this afternoon. I was at work and at that moment I was doing some very important design. My boss was with me. This might happen some time. And this is my advance apology to all of you, should this happen again.

I know Jez must have felt bad. :(
I am really sorry.

As you know, I am at about GMT-8 I think, so by the time it is morning for me, it is already afternoon for you. We can set up a conference on MSN in the first hour of my Job, thats 9:00 to 10:00am of my time. If it is possible for you people, usually I am free during that hour. I will be available at 10:00 to 12:00pm of my time as well, but I understand that for you peet and Jez, it won't be much convenient.

For Harini being online for long time might be a problem.
Thats it, peet you know our MSN IDs, if you can be there, we'll talk then.

---

MSN up and running in a couple of hours from now :)

see u there ;)

i would be interested in USING this program
put me in for beta testing

[email protected] (MSN messanger)

Welcome Kovan, spare some time to offer your suggestions too.

I am off the shoe design; at least for the day (would you believe I get to do that? Argh).

Let’s have a serious talk now.
It is about the Data Model. As you all know, initially, the idea was to have a work log basically. Since the works are likely to be related to some project, projects came into the scene. I thought we would keep minimal information about a project, just as much as is necessary. However, Harini has designed a Data Model that keeps elaborate information about the projects too.

There is nothing wrong if we keep all relevant information about projects. However, the project extends from Work Log to a Project Management System in that case. Better.

This is a good example of how plans expand. And it is very important therefore, to define the scope of the project, so that it doesn't go out of control. Now let me show how things grow.

• Should we have a system that would manage multiple Version of a project?
• Should the Project Modules Table also store file(s) associated with the module? .frm and .frx files for a Form Module, for example
• If so, should we compress the files before we store? to Save space?
• Should we have a Bug Tracking System for the Projects?
• To what level of Analysis we will provide in the System in that case?

As you see, we can get lost pretty soon. These features look really important isn't it? Let me know what you people think.

I am ready to spare as much time as I can afford. Hope you will be with me till the end.

Did you think about the name of the project by the way? Any better suggestion than TraceWorks? Please?


Let me say a few things about Harini’s Design. Primary Keys should be Numeric, for they are better faster and efficient. They will be AutoIncrement Field in most cases.

The ‘Total’ fields could be omitted. It is fairly simple to calculate the fields dynamically, and this will also save us from updating the fields whenever an entry is made or deleted in the corresponding tables.

It is enough for the Progress Log table to have a reference to the Project Module, which is linked to the Project. We can retrieve the Information at the Project Level using Join. Or should we keep the reference to the Project as well?

I insist that we change the *Code Fields to *ID, for they will be actually identity. But this is a minor issue.

We would also have a Reports Table with a structure similar to this:

VB Code:

TableReports
    ReportID    Identity Auto Increment
    MemberID    Long        'User who created the Report
    Date    DateTime    'Date Created
    ReportType    Text    'Which type of Report it is? Project summary? Progress Details?
    ReportSql    Text    'All Report Boils down to some sql command
    LastPrinted    DateTime    'hen the Report was printed last
End Table

Now Peet would you solve how to manage multiple versions of a project? With a ProjectVersions Table may be?
If we were to store the files as well, how would we go about that?

Minor issues...

• Project Title - Unique
• All *Code (*ID) References Corresponding Tables

Do we need those *Completed boolean fields? The status of the Project, Modules, Work Progress Log etc... should have values like, OnHold, YetToStart, InProcess, Completed etc...
When a project is complete, the status is set to 'Completed' automatically...

The Members Table should have UserID(Unique) and Password (Encrypted) to add Application level security to the application.
It should also have a supervisorID I suppose. To designate a supervisor of the Member. This is a classic example of self referencing. The SupervisorID will reference the Supervisor's MemberID in the same table.

At this level, I think Harini may start implementing these features in her design.

I look forward to peet, for a solution of managing multiple versions of a project, and to Harini for the improved version of the DataModel.

Mean while Jez is working on the icons...

Glad you like my DB Design.:) And as I have mentioned in the Doc itself, making primary keys a text field is just my preference, as I think it gives a bit more flexibility. You can easily extract the number part, convert it into numeric values and perform calculations like generating auto numbers. (I have been doing this in my projects.) But with a numeric field you are limited
just to numbers and cannot have a charecter suffix or anything like that. As for the calculated fields, yes it need not be a field of course, just put it in to show the idea.

I will start implementing your suggestions and send you a revised version, may be tomorrow.

suggestion:

keep all boolean fields as integers
and use 0 and 1 for true and false
this will make sure the program can be ported to sql server and other db's

someon send me the data model?
what modeling system are you guys using?

UML or something older?

Quote:

---

Originally posted by kovan
suggestion:

keep all boolean fields as integers
and use 0 and 1 for true and false
this will make sure the program can be ported to sql server and other db's

someon send me the data model?
what modeling system are you guys using?

UML or something older?

---

sql server supports boolean fields, isn't it? I don't know about oracle. The data model is posted earlier (first version) by Harini. We don't have any modeling tool still, if you know of any free (or affordable) modeling tool, plz let us know. Currently, Harini used Tables in Word Document for the Table Structure.

Don't worry about not being able to talk abu, I understand about your boss, we wouldn't want u getting fired would we?

OK, so:

Transparent backgrounds on the icons,
Make them look nice,
Any ideas I'd like to hear them.

Once you've got the basic program together, send me a copy and I'll start work on the help files.

How close are we to putting something together now?

Don't worry about not being able to talk abu, I understand about your boss, we wouldn't want u getting fired would we?

OK, so:

Transparent backgrounds on the icons,
Make them look nice,
Any ideas I'd like to hear them.

Once you've got the basic program together, send me a copy and I'll start work on the help files.

How close are we to putting something together now?

Also, I think we should aim low for version 1, then build it up later.

Two messages almost the same there. Whoopsie.....

Please create two versions of each Icon, one for the the normal, and other for the active (mouse over) state.

hi all.

i am really happy finding you people doing this project. i think it'll surely be a useful one. i appretiate you all. :)

I am sending a revised version of the Data Model. If I have left out any of your suggestions, or if you want any changes let me know.

As Abu pointed out, it will be a problem for me to remain online for long. But I will keep checking this thread as frequently as possible.
I have MSN messenger and I have in id at MSN.com. Created it when we installed MSN Explorer.
Would this MSN ID do, or do I have to create a Hotmail ID? Just downloaded MSN messenger, so don't know. Haven't tried it yet.

Hey why has there been no activity in this thread today? are you all chatting:)