Quick Item Entry

Introduction

The project is about using the text widget in the Toolbar of Chandler for both quick item entry and as a search box.

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People

• Jeffrey Harris(Mentor)
• Darshana Chhajed

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Original Project Proposal

http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Journal/QuickItemEntry

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Related Bugs

• Bug 6470

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Implementation

• The text entered in the text widget is parsed and the corresponding command is executed.
  See "Working of the Quick Item Entry" below

• Stamping of items to multiple kinds is allowed.

• New items are always put into the Dashboard collection; UNLESS the new item created matches the Kind of the App area Chandler is in. In that case, the new item is placed in the currently selected user Collection.

• If the user enters text in the command line which has a start date/time and a end date/time, the item is automatically stamped as a Calendar event, whether the user explicitly says "/Event" or not. Eg: "/Msg Meeting from 2-4pm " will create an item which is stamped as msg and event both.

• If the user creates an item (other than a event) with a single date/time, the reminder/alarm is set at that date/time. If the date is mentioned and no time is specified, the reminder/alarm is set at the custom time of 5pm. If the user enters "/Event" with a single date/time, an at-time event is created.

• Autocompletion support is provided when the user types in command ('/') in the text widget.

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Working of the Quick Item Entry

The following commands are available :

• /Note : Creates a note
• /Msg or /Message : Creates an email message
• /Task : Creates a task
• /Event : Creates a Calendar event
• /Invite : Creates an item which is stamped as a message and an event
• /Request : Created an item which is stamped as a message and a task
• /Search : Searches for the text following the command
• /(Invalid cmd) : "/(Invalid cmd) ? " appears in the text widget
• (Some text) : The default item of the current view is created and added to the currently selected user Collection.
• Multiple commands also can be entered. For eg: "/Msg /Task foo" will create an item which is stamped as both message and task.

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Issues

The text widget in the toolbar does not support autocompletion of commands. Currently, the toolbar cannot have anything other than a wx widget to be its child. Also, the toolbar cannot communicate with the rest of the UI to get the information about the current view of Chandler. So, I have created a text entry widget which acts like our command line and is an Attribute Editor Block (supports autocompletion) in the Detail view of Chandler just above the Location widget. THIS IS JUST FOR TESTING. As soon as the structure of the toolbar is changed, the auto-completion part of this text widget will be moved to the text widget in the toolbar.

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Related Documentation links

• More Specs for the working of the quick item entry http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Projects/JottingNewItemsWorkflow