Based on some pretty awesome feedback that I've received from people who apparently find Time Tracker v1.0 very useful, I'm adding a few new features and improvements to the user interface.

For my Lotus-themed works...

My development deep-dives are going to go into the appropriate product wiki.

My editorials are going to go into LotusJournal.com.

So it only makes sense that my open source applications and utilities go into our community's open source catalog: OpenNTF.org!

Thus, I've create Project: Time Tracker, which will now be run out of OpenNTF.org. So you can either submit feedback, request features and functionality here or over in the OpenNTF.org product page.

If you have an application that helps you get through the day - and both own the IP and are okay with the GNU or Apache licensing model - put it online and help your fellow yellowbleeders!

Time Management experts will tell you an individual only has 24 hours in a single day; proper time management isn't finding time in your day, but rather discovering and dealing with inefficiencies in your day. The best way to discover those inefficiencies - at least as recommended to me as part of the AMA Time Management Strategies seminar which I recently attended - is to document how you spend your day.

With that, I introduce Time Tracker, an Open Source Efficiency Tracking Utility for the Lotus Notes Client.

The idea is simple. At the start of your day - upon completion of your first task - create an entry highlighting what you did and whether you feel it was an efficient or inefficient use of your time. Based on several requests, you can also select the priority, apply categories, or even align your time against a project.

For Lotus Notes Client v8.0 and above, you can use the Time Tracker Widget to make this process even easier!

Based on the feedback I got from here, on Twitter, and on Facebook regarding my upcoming Time Tracker application, I've made a few simple changes:

Priorities, Categories, and Projects

So you not only want to know how efficient your time is, but also what it's spent on?! Yeah -- that actually makes sense. So I've added Priorities, Categories, and Projects to not only the Lotus Notes Client UI document Form Design Element, but also the widget Form Design Element which can be loaded in the Lotus Notes Client Sidebar and allow for always-on, quick entries in the Time Tracker.

After all - and speaking for myself here - if it's not easy, it won't get used.

Configuration-based widget

Not wanting to have form-bloat should you not want to track Priorities, Categories, or Projects -- I've given you the ability to disable/enable those fields from the application Preferences.

So, if you don't want to track anything but the description, timestamps, and the status (efficient/inefficient), you can "remove" everything else at will.

More Views...

This was kind of a given: adding more categorization options (Priority, Category, and Project), I needed to add more views.

... upcoming changes and publication!

There are a few things that I want to add in here, at least for version 1.0.

The biggest one is adding Readers fields to the entries and having them defined by the application Preferences. Nothing major, but this will allow you to deploy a single instance in a project team, group, business unit, etc. and allow everyone to track their time against a common instance of the Lotus Notes Application.

Eventually, I'd like to create a mobile device client - which I'm thinking will be a version 2.0 feature - and am shooting for a Blackberry device Java client.

I'm shooting for a Monday - October 12th, 2009 - release of version 1.0, so if you have any suggestions for features and functionality that you'd like to see in this release, please let me know ASAP!

I was asked the other day by a fellow developer if I had an example of a really solid Web UI for creating, reading, updateding, and deleting (notice the order) NotesDocuments in a target NotesDatabase.

My immediate thought was to create a simple NotesDatabase example and download that did just this... but I wanted to make sure that it was something that anyone could apply and see immediate results with... so here's the idea:

• I'll create a really solid Web UI for a data proxy that will handle all creates, reads, updates, and deletes of NotesDocuments for any target NotesDatabase (HTTP-accessible or not) on any Server (HTTP-accessible or not).
• This data proxy will use a series of configuration-styled NotesDocuments to set not only the target NotesDatabase, but what is returned on Read requests, what data is submitted for Create and Update requests, and what should be done with Delete requests.
• As I'm basically re-creating the Domino CRUD API with my own custom CRUD API - I'd do it right: I will allow total separation of UI and NotesData; I will support any and all content types HTTP responses; I will allow for custom HTTP Header responses, including etag support.

This all sounded great. In fact, it sounded like something I had done before... in fact, I had... although it was never officially released.

So before I pour hours into a version 2.0 of Yellowcake - a configuration-based Domino NotesData REST CRUD Engine - I wanted to make sure that there was both an interest and an need in such a solution.

The pitch is this: BYO-UI. I don't care what the front end is; this is an engine that will proxy (and logic-defined handle) requests for NotesData Creates, Reads, Updates, and Deletes. Yellowcake will be more of a Cloud proxy - taking Lotus Notes Client applications to the web within minutes and via configuration versus the need to secure and enable a single Lotus Notes-accessible Only to be accessible not only via any front-end UI, but also from any device and client type that can interact with CRUD API calls.

Thoughts? The more I talk about it, the more interested I am in putting this as the next project on my list - I just want to make sure that there's an interest before doing so...