Introduce range and progress for dates/numbers

🌟Features
#1

Problem
From time to time I need to create two types of tasks:

  • Task that include a number of repetitive action that had to be done. Simple example would be “do 10 pending tasks per week that is in pending category for more than 3 month”. To keep track how far I progressed during the week I can of course mark how many tasks I did. But it’s NOT visually representative.
  • Tasks that require date range with clear start and finish. Like “do something from 10.06.18 to 28.06.18”. So there are no easy way to see the progress from start date to finish date.

So the problem is a lack of visually understandable way to represent ranges and progress throughout some activity.

Solution
Introduce simple syntax and functionality for “range” and “progress” visual representation with possible values being numbers or dates.

Syntax examples:
- Number range would look like “<<1, 11, 7” meaning show a range from “1” to “11” with current progress being “7”. Visual representation would look something like image
- Date range would look like “<<!(2018-06-14), !(2018-06-28), !(2018-06-23)”. Wich means range from “2018-06-14” to “2018-06-28” with current value being “2018-06-23”. Also importantly allow to omit third param for date range and use current date as a value for it.

Result
In this way person would be able to easily track range and progress. And in case of multiple tasks in one document user will have simple to understand visual indicator that is easy to find. Also it would be really handy on dates since it will allow to track progress of time from start of the task to finish.

Bonuses :grin:

  • Actually should be very simple to implement since you already have similar “visual indicators” like dates and document links.
  • Big benefit is that range mechanics is needed if you intent to implement any kind of Scrum/Kanban representation of your lists in the future.
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Inserting date ranges
#2

Link to an earlier date range feature request post: Inserting date ranges

#3

Hi

Thank you for the link. Though the topic in the link is concentrated on syncing dates only with GCal and search. My request is more about range presentation as a whole since I’m talking about dates and also about numerical progress (and I think other types could be added). So it’s a somewhat more Dynalist-only, yes. but generally broader feature.

#4

Getting it to work with Google Calendar is just one of the benefits. If Dynalist supports date ranges, you can be sure there’s a representation for it in Dynalist, even if you don’t use Google Calendar.

So my intention to group similar requests together is to gauge interest more precisely. When a feature request receives enough attention and discussions, we move it to the roadmap (https://trello.com/b/z0HxDPNo/dynalist-roadmap) for people to vote on. Naturally, when we think about what to spend our time implementing next, we’ll prioritize the feature requests with high votes, if that’s possible.

If we don’t group aggressively like this, as you can see, many feature requests receive little to no attention and never make it to the roadmap, because others do not share you exact use case. This issue also happens when you put more than one thing in one post, as people might sympathize with one of the use cases, but not all of them.

Of course it’s not against any forum guidelines, but you should see where I’m coming from. If you goal is to maximize the possibility of actually getting it implemented, grouping is better. If your goal is to echo this use case to us, and make us consider it, we have received it, thanks.

#5

Thank you for your time and your explanation. Makes sense. All I wanted to point out is that it would be a good idea to think ranges as more than just dates, but also ranges that use numbers, percents or even colors as a presentation of your progress.

But anyway, you do great work! Your product increased my productivity beyond my expectations. :slight_smile:

#6

Thanks for the explanation! I see what you mean. In that case, you can consider linking to the other feature requests and mention their relationship.

And thanks for your kind words! Glad to know Dynalist is helping your productivity.

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