ForumsQuestionsWhat is direction of near-term TD development

What is direction of near-term TD development

Author	Message
Salgud	Posted: Jun 23, 2013 Score: 1 Reference Salgud Posted: Jun 23, 2013 Score: 1 Reference It seems that since the big webapp redesign, TD webapp development has been more horizontal than vertical. Features like bookmarklet and outlines and social network connections as opposed to Saved Views (capability to save not just search criteria, but sort order and filter settings) and dependencies have been implemented. I admit to being somewhat frustrated with the general direction of your development, Jake, over the past 2 years. I would like to know what the plan is for the near future. Is there going to be more new, largely unrequested features, or is there going to be more "working on the list" kind of stuff (the stuff your users have been requesting for years in many cases)? I'm not asking for a detailed list, only some indication of the general direction in the next 6 months to a year. Should I hold out hope for some of these basic features, or are you going to continue to add more unconnected "stuff"? Or maybe work on getting outlines more in concert with tasks?
Jake Toodledo Founder	Posted: Jun 23, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Jake (Founder) Posted: Jun 23, 2013 Score: 0 Reference We do not comment on our future directions, but as always we will continue to work hard on Toodledo and in the direction that we believe is the best for customers. I know that you (and a few others) have been asking for saved sort/filters for years. We have not done it yet because it is a lot of work for relatively little gain, since this feature would only save a few clicks here and there. We have been trying to focus more on things that can't be done than on optimizing clicks, not to say that isn't important too, just that we haven't been focusing on it lately. We'll come around to it.
shelbyp	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference shelbyp Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Please add me to the list of people who request "saved searches". Jake: I have to disagree that saved searches on the ipad/iphone is a feature which "saves a few clicks". The saved search is extremely important for those of us which large task lists. In the absence of a saved search, I now have to remember which combination of tags/folders need to be searched to find a given set of tasks. So the saved search is not just a time saver, critical feature for locating sets of tasks consistently. I know this feature exists on the web, but the issue for me is I use toodledo mostly offline, and try to take care of my task management offline on the way in to work where I have no internet connection... I would agree however that storing the sort etc per folder saves a few clicks and is a minor time saver. But I don't think this should be amalgamated with the saved search which for me (and I am sure many others), would be a game changer on the iphone/ipad.
chr.ver	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference chr.ver Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Jake, I'd like to make a suggestion (for the regular web interface): why do you not allow for extra parameters to be passed via the url iso via javascript calls. This would allow for some more advanced use cases for those few who need it. For instance, why not have a url like "toodledo.com/index.php?sort1=1&sort2=12&subf1=1" where - sort1=1 means first sorting order on folder - sort2=12 means second sorting order on goal - subf1=1 means subtasks hidden All these url parameters (sort1, subf1) are your internal parameters anyway that are passed via javascript. To me it seems like you would just need to write an additional url parser. This doesn't seem too much work and would allow for advanced functionality if one requires it. Of course I could be wrong :-) This message was edited Jun 24, 2013.
Salgud	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Salgud Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Thanks for your reply, Jake, though not what I wanted to hear.
Purveyor	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 1 Reference Purveyor Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 1 Reference Posted by Salgud: I admit to being somewhat frustrated with the general direction of your development, Jake, over the past 2 years. It has taken me a long time to accept the fact that Jake's direction will be whatever it will be. Toodledo is a business and, as long as the business meets Jake's expectations, then whatever he is doing is fine. He can't do everything so he has to choose. As for the users, we also have choices ...
Salgud	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 2 Reference Salgud Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 2 Reference Posted by Jake: We do not comment on our future directions, but as always we will continue to work hard on Toodledo and in the direction that we believe is the best for customers. I know that you (and a few others) have been asking for saved sort/filters for years. We have not done it yet because it is a lot of work for relatively little gain, since this feature would only save a few clicks here and there. We have been trying to focus more on things that can't be done than on optimizing clicks, not to say that isn't important too, just that we haven't been focusing on it lately. We'll come around to it. Jake, I would like to suggest that it's more than just optimizing clicks. I, and many other TD power users virtually live in Saved Searches, and frequently switch between them during the day. Dozens of times. And each time, we either have to think about how to reset the sort order and the filters, or, choose one setting that works "most of the time", which is what I and many others, I suspect, do. This is more than just clicks, it's sub-optimal use of the tool because of this limitation. I would get a much clearer and more accurate representation of my task list if I had each Saved Search sorted and filtered all the time to fit the purpose of that search. So, to me at least, it is somewhat more than just optimizing clicks, it's about optimizing TD. Thanks for your understanding.
chr.ver	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference chr.ver Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Salgud, You might give iMacros a try ( https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/imacros-for-firefox/ ). It allows to record repetitve actions and replay from a bookmark. It works quite well. Most likely something similar exists for other platforms.
pjlewis	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference pjlewis Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference The search feature is a unique and very powerful feature for the web solution and one which a number of people have exploited to make their system work for them. Not having the functionality on the iOS version means that the same system cannot always be used on the ipad - a major issue. I'm somewhat surprised that this isn't a high priority enhancement to the iOS interface as it would be such a powerful and logical addition and a differentiator for the solution. This really isn't about saving a few clicks.....
Jake Toodledo Founder	Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Jake (Founder) Posted: Jun 24, 2013 Score: 0 Reference We are working on saved searches for iOS right now. I don't have an ETA, but it is in active development.
shelbyp	Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: 0 Reference shelbyp Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Just a followup point on saved searches,in fact with saved searches, in addition to the advantages already mentioned, it also allows us to fully leverage tags and the fact that multiple tags can be assigned to a task. From what I see, stuff like stars, folders,contexts, goals and locations can basically be modelled as tags, but this requires powerful saved searches. the advantage of having everything under tags is that I find (and others in the forums have mentioned this) it is easy to lose track of whether something was classified under a folder, context, goal or location...
Purveyor	Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: -3 Reference Purveyor Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: -3 Reference Posted by Salgud: I, and many other TD power users virtually live in Saved Searches, and frequently switch between them during the day. Dozens of times. And each time, we either have to think about how to reset the sort order and the filters, or, choose one setting that works "most of the time", which is what I and many others, I suspect, do. It is clear to me now that Jake is not interested in what "power users" want. Jake wants paid subscribers and purchasers of his iOS app and that's not going to happen by appeasing the power users. BTW, whatever happened to some of the most helpful users on these forums: Proximo, TheGriff, PeterW, Vin Thomas and ...? Anyway, implementing custom sort order in Saved Searches would involve re-structuring the underlying database and Jake is not going to do it, which is why he keeps minimizing the importance of it by saying that it's a matter of saving a few keystrokes. And, it's clear that the "next big thing" is Outlines ...
Purveyor	Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Purveyor Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Posted by shelby.pereira: Just a followup point on saved searches,in fact with saved searches, in addition to the advantages already mentioned, it also allows us to fully leverage tags and the fact that multiple tags can be assigned to a task. It allows "us"??? If you mean power users, see my post above. This message was edited Jun 25, 2013.
Purveyor	Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: -3 Reference Purveyor Posted: Jun 25, 2013 Score: -3 Reference Posted by pjlewis: The search feature is a unique and very powerful feature for the web solution and one which a number of people have exploited to make their system work for them. Not having the functionality on the iOS version means that the same system cannot always be used on the ipad - a major issue. I'm somewhat surprised that this isn't a high priority enhancement to the iOS interface as it would be such a powerful and logical addition and a differentiator for the solution. More than four years ago, Jake said this: Saved search is on our to-do list for the iPhone. From https://www.toodledo.com/forums/1/718/-8045/read.html.
shelbyp	Posted: Jun 26, 2013 Score: 0 Reference shelbyp Posted: Jun 26, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Posted by Purveyor: Anyway, implementing custom sort order in Saved Searches would involve re-structuring the underlying database I disagree, there should be no restructuring needed,since Toodledo is already be able to store the searches for the online version. The sync would have to be added to copy the searches to the local DB, and an IOS interface is then needed for the app. Note that I would be really happy as a starting point to just have the searches I created online available in the offline app. This should be quite easy and would add substantial value to the app. I can see that recreating the interface to create a custom search would take some time, but it should not be so hard to reuse existing searches. For me the whole point of the saved search is that it does not change (or only very rarely) , so I am quite happy to create them once online ... Having the complete interface for creating searches offline is much less important.
Purveyor	Posted: Jun 26, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Purveyor Posted: Jun 26, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Posted by shelby.pereira: I disagree, there should be no restructuring needed,since Toodledo is already be able to store the searches for the online version. You are talking about Saved Searches on iOS devices. Salgud is talking about having the Sort Order and Filters saved along with the search criteria for each Saved Search on the website. I was addressing Salgud's points.
Salgud	Posted: Jun 26, 2013 Score: -1 Reference Salgud Posted: Jun 26, 2013 Score: -1 Reference I would like to request that people's opinions, even if seen as negative, not be down-voted in these forums. As I understand it, down-voting is for inappropriate posts with such things as ad-hominems or cursing or spam. None of the posts here are of that nature, and should not be down-voted. For years, these forums have been open to relevant comments on TD's application and development, and I hope will continue to do so. I would hate to see these forums content be reduced to only "popular" opinions.
Peter Scott	Posted: Sep 17, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Peter Scott Posted: Sep 17, 2013 Score: 0 Reference I also want filters and sorting saved with the searches, and have been asking for years. I do all my work from a set of 9 saved searches that I click back and forth between very frequently. When I go to each one I have to change the sort order. It would make a great difference to me.
marius.eggerud	Posted: Sep 17, 2013 Score: 0 Reference marius.eggerud Posted: Sep 17, 2013 Score: 0 Reference In my opinion it is only one thing to focus on right now, and it is development of an Android app. It is a shame that Toodledo doesn`t support the most used OS!
Jake Toodledo Founder	Posted: Sep 17, 2013 Score: 0 Reference Jake (Founder) Posted: Sep 17, 2013 Score: 0 Reference We have made progress with the Android app, but we are trying to hire an Android developer to help us finish. http://www.toodledo.com/info/jobs.php Any Android developers out there want to help?