The goal is to make any reference like “#foo” a tag. A tag may refer to a particular task (as has been the case already) or it may refer to a general “topic tag.” For example, I might create a task like this:

[ ] #fancy: Fancy Project #work

Now, any time I refer to #fancy, I’m referring to the project named “Fancy Project.” This project has also been tagged as being a “#work” task. Once I get fancy tagging further along, I will be able to assign properties to a tag, such as a color that anything associated it should be highlighted with, or a specific timer group it should belong to, or special triggers that should be run whenever something is tagged with that particular tag.

I’m hoping to start hosting Qublog on qublog.net sometime before the year is out, but I stil want to be able to sync my local copy with the qublog.net copy (in case I want to journal while on a plane or something). I might do this by creating a #sync tag or add a #private tag to indicate that anything marked #private should be encrypted on the qublog.net server.

Another plan is to have tags work with importing and exporting data from non-Qublog sites. For example, I might use a #twitter tag to cause a comment to be posted to Twitter automagically. Or have some sort of import tool that grabs my Twitter posts and then tags them as #twitter as a reference to the fact it came from there. I can think of lots of possibilities in this regard and all based upon tagging.

I don’t know when all these will find time for implementation, but since I hadn’t made any changes in awhile, I did want to go ahead and report them in case someone out there is listening.

Cheers.

• Qublog @ GitHub

Here are the slides from the presentation.

And if you want to checkout the source code of the sample application, you can use:

svn checkout http://qublog.net/svn/QublogMini/trunk

Cheers.

The screencaps will be (are) taken from Qublog for the initial introduction, but the rest will be a mini-Qublog wannabe that is more about how to use Jifty than what Qublog is really capable of. In my defence, this isn’t entirely hubris on my part since Jesse Vincent recommended I do something like this after he was kind enough to let me use slides he/Audrey Tang put together for the recent Jifty Now talk at YAPC in Tokyo.

Cheers.

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.