I’ve been working on this tool for the past three or four months now in my spare time and it’s to the point where I feel comfortable sharing it. I’ve published my code repository to Subversion if you want to check it out. And here’s a summary of what Qublog actually is…
Summary
Qublog is a tool for journaling about your work. It is a tool I have developed to help me keep track of what I do each day for later reference. I hope to use to track my own productivity and help improve my work style and provide a way to keep useful notes I can refer back to later.
Journal
The primary tool it provides is a journal. Each journal entry contains a list of comments. The entry is broken into segments that are grouped together for a common purpose. These segments are timed and the entry itself has a timer that is added up from time taken on all the segments.
Each entry also has a project and a link used with it.
Task List
In addition to a journal, it will keep track of a hierarchical list of tasks. Tasks are grouped into projects and can be grouped further within projects. Every comment made in the journal is generally attached to the project and may be attached to an individual task within that project (or with a completely unrelated task).
Putting It Together
From the journal, you can add and update your task list by using a special text format that is read by Qublog and turned into a task item. For example, to create some new tasks I might type a journal entry like:
I need to remember to buy some things at the store later:
[ ] #shopping: Go to the store later
-[ ] Cottage Cheese
-[ ] Diapers
-[ ] Stuff for party
—[ ] Paper plates
—[ ] Party poppers
The top of the entry is just part of the comment that will be attached to the current project and to all the new and updated projects. The next line tells it to find or assign the nickname “shopping” to my top task for easy reference. The next three lines will create sub-tasks of the “shopping” task and the following two will be sub-tasks of the new one named “Stuff for party”.
What Doesn’t Work
Installation is not for the feint of heart. It is difficult to install and much of it doesn’t look very pretty yet. I’d love some help. I don’t maintain this for my “real job,” but I do use it on a daily basis to keep my notes. I have a long list of tasks that need to get done (kept in Qublog, in fact) and I’ve only just started making this thing available for others to take a look at.
If you have some time, find it interesting, and would like to help out. Please contact me and let me know what you can do. I can use help with finding bugs, writing tests, coding, writing documentation, or just about anything.
Cheers.
