| Observations, annoyances and requests, in Feature Requests |
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gladjohn
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 Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:42 pm Post subject: Observations, annoyances and requests |
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Hello. We’ve been rocking copper project for a few months now. Its definetly robust with a great feature set.
If I may, I’d like to address some annoyances and pretty pleases.
- The hours drop down is no bueno. Often I need to log time like 2.5 hours, 4.75 hours, etc. etc. Not alot of fun having to enter the log twice. The “Hours Worked” select box should really just be an input box.
- Task email notifications are not detailed enough.
Right now, I recieve a “task notification” email and just delete it because it doesn’t offer me any pertinent information. I rarely recieve tasks that have to be addresses at that very moment.
The subject line needs to include the Project Name and Task Name. Then the email body should reiterate the task name and also include the task details.
- When a task is updated, I’d rather not re-recieve the “task notification” email. There should be an option when updating a task whether or not to email the task owner.
- It’d be nice if when a task was marked as 100% complete, the task owner recieved an email stating that the task is now complete.
- The springboard page does not remember sorting order. For instance, I like to keep my springboard ordered by Project. When a leave the springboard to view a task and then come back, I expect it to still be ordered by Project, isntead of defaulting back.
- Looking at your markup, its a table-based layout with ALOT of tables. Have you thought of converting to a more standards compliant layout? The bandwidth alone you will save will be substantial.
- If I’m not assigned to a task, I don’t want to see it in my calendar.
- It’d be great if there was a third (and default) calendar view. The view showed the next 4 weeks. So, it’d be similar to the month view, except it starts on the current week.
Lastly, a feature request. It’d be neat if each project had a “notes” section. Basically, it would be used to jot anything related to a project. This could include phone transcripts, decisions, etc. Each note should be free-taggable to make sorting and searching easier. Free-taggable just means you can select from pre-used tags or create a new one.
Keep up the good work. We look forward to whats next! |
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Ben
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| Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 1:52 am Post subject: Re: Observations, annoyances and requests |
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- The hours drop down is no bueno. Often I need to log time like 2.5 hours, 4.75 hours, etc. etc. Not alot of fun having to enter the log twice. The “Hours Worked” select box should really just be an input box.
In the next update we've added extra increments, and if you need more finite control you can edit the template to make this a free text field.
- Task email notifications are not detailed enough.
The original idea was to ensure the user clicked on the task email to check the last update and any since then, we'll be adding project/client name and an excerpt of the update in a future release.
- When a task is updated, I’d rather not re-recieve the “task notification” email. There should be an option when updating a task whether or not to email the task owner.
This can be turned off in the admin section.
- It’d be nice if when a task was marked as 100% complete, the task owner recieved an email stating that the task is now complete.
As per task updates, if this is turned on then this will happen.
- The springboard page does not remember sorting order. For instance, I like to keep my springboard ordered by Project. When a leave the springboard to view a task and then come back, I expect it to still be ordered by Project, isntead of defaulting back.
We'll look at this in a future update. The Enterprise edition in particular will include more finite control over how tabs appear, and user settings will be retained.
- Looking at your markup, its a table-based layout with ALOT of tables. Have you thought of converting to a more standards compliant layout? The bandwidth alone you will save will be substantial.
Bandwidth isn't really an issue (the entire product is around 400k, although granted there are multiple page loads), to date our budget has been spread across more important (as dictated by our users) functions. We'll look at CSS/AJAX efficiencies in the Enterprise edition though.
- If I’m not assigned to a task, I don’t want to see it in my calendar.
You won't, unless you're the task owner or have been allocated to the project. If you're allocated to the project and still don't want to see tasks, then we could customize something for you.
- It’d be great if there was a third (and default) calendar view. The view showed the next 4 weeks. So, it’d be similar to the month view, except it starts on the current week.
I'll add this to the candidate roster and if it gets requested often enough it sorts to the top and gets added 
- Lastly, a feature request. It’d be neat if each project had a “notes” section. Basically, it would be used to jot anything related to a project. This could include phone transcripts, decisions, etc. Each note should be free-taggable to make sorting and searching easier. Free-taggable just means you can select from pre-used tags or create a new one.
Like a whiteboard/wiki? This is definitely something that has been on the drawing board for a while. One workaround is to create a 'housekeeping' task for each project and have users post comments in this, however we just haven't had time to tackle the issue of an important task-related comment being lost in a miscellaneous bucket. We have something in mind, but its two releases away (and is more around a whiteboard style free-form tool).
- Keep up the good work. We look forward to whats next!
Thanks gladjohn, the more organizations who come on board the more budget we have to play with |
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gladjohn
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 12:09 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the reply Ben.
| Quote: |
- It’d be great if there was a third (and default) calendar view. The view showed the next 4 weeks. So, it’d be similar to the month view, except it starts on the current week.
I'll add this to the candidate roster and if it gets requested often enough it sorts to the top and gets added Smile |
Where is this candidate roster you speak of?
| Quote: |
- Lastly, a feature request. It’d be neat if each project had a “notes” section. Basically, it would be used to jot anything related to a project. This could include phone transcripts, decisions, etc. Each note should be free-taggable to make sorting and searching easier. Free-taggable just means you can select from pre-used tags or create a new one.
Like a whiteboard/wiki? This is definitely something that has been on the drawing board for a while. One workaround is to create a 'housekeeping' task for each project and have users post comments in this, however we just haven't had time to tackle the issue of an important task-related comment being lost in a miscellaneous bucket. We have something in mind, but its two releases away (and is more around a whiteboard style free-form tool). |
I was thinking more of just a collection bin of notes... so it'd be most similar to a wiki I guess. The whiteboard is a neat idea though.
What is your release schedule like?
Thanks again
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Ben
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| Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 1:21 am Post subject: |
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The candidate roster is on my hard drive (and in our Copper!) Its a list of all the requests since November 2002, and as we progress through the versions its usually the top 10 requests that make it through to development.
We recommend customization for those requests that aren't likely to be added (although some singular requests are so intuitive we make a judgement call that they'd be beneficial for everyone).
The only 'problem' with a bin of notes, is it means that if the note relates to a task then reviewing that task won't show that note and the integrity of the commentary is compromised (we all know how lazy some users get).
With the whiteboard, it provides both a brainstorming tool, and a general notes tool, but won't log any time and won't flag something as an
'issue' (issues should be attached to a task comment so that all the allocated members see the issue in their springboard).
I hope this helps! Email me directly if you want to chat further. |
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