Templates
Submitted by Lincoln Phipps
Link to original bug (#339368)
Description
Be nice to have the idea of a Template in Planner. Here is my possible design.
NOTE: This ISNT a project "wizard" that would prompt you for new tasks/resources according to some process methodology. This templating idea is to mangle existing projects to make them more generic.
The idea is to turn a project into a template for other projects.
On opening a template the following is done to turn the template into a usable project,
Step 1 : the project start date gets reset to either todays date or some other date via a date picker (user prompt),
Step 2 : a DELTA in days between the (older) template date and the new set date is created automatically,
Step 3 : all Fixed Date tasks (MSO) are then incremented by this delta time (user prompt to confirm this),
Step 4: the user is then presented with a dialog that allows them to tweak the new project,
This dialog has the following suggested options:
+===========================================+
| Project Start = ?? [Edit] |
| Schedule Type = ?? [Edit] |
| Other Project Details. [Edit] |
| Number of Phase = ?? [Erase] |
| Number of Fixed Date Tasks = ?? [Nudge] |
| Number of Task Notes = ?? [Clear] |
| Non-zero Task Compl. = ?? [Zero] |
| Resource Personal Data [Erase] |
+-------------------------------------------+
|[Finish] [Cancel] |
+===========================================+
(Some of these options would also be directly available
in e.g. a File->Template->Tools menu
The user thus goes through the options, tweaking them
and then finally hits Finish. This kind of starts the
project running.
The options above are kind of obvious;
Altering the project start: given that you would be able
to open ANY project file as a template then this allows
you to alter the start of the project to what you wanted.
The schedule type is anticipating the SIMPLE scheduling
(planner v0.14 onwards).
Nudge for Fixed Date (Must Start On) tasks is to shift the
dates of any templated project date forward by the delta
between the template start and the new start date. You
ideally need to do this after you alter the start date !.
Non-zero task compl. is used to zero any currently
started tasks and the Number of Task Notes is used to
clear these notes. Use these if you are cloning an
existing project as a template and want to re-use its
task descriptions but obviously NOT the completion details
(or maybe any task notes).
The resource personal data erase option zaps any phone
number and email and turns any name into either Work_?
or Material_? and shortname of RW_? and RM_?
To Save as a Template.
To save as a template there isn't much to do other than set a attribute that is a flag e.g. <project template="TRUE" ...>. All the project data mangling should be done on open as opposed to doing stuff on save. There will be some File->Template->Tools->??? options though that you would be able to use before you saved the file as a template.
Thus File ->Template->Save As Template would be identical in operation as File -> Save As except for the addition of the template flag mentioned above.
There would be no such option as "Open a Template". You simply open a file. The flag triggers the Steps 1,2,3,4 above, though by using the (suggested) File -> Template options you could open an existing project file (say any of your previous projects), and then run the Steps 1,2,3,4 on that old project file to turn it into a clone of your previous project but with NEW start dates and everything zapped back to new and shiny tasks.
We thus don't really need to have a new file extention but we can just stay with .planner
Note on my File ->Template... options. I'm suggesting we have under here,
File->Template->Tools->.....
Reset Dates
Zero Task Completions
Erase Task Notes
Erase Personal Data
------------------
Run All
----------------
File->Template->Save As Template
Hopefully that'll be sufficiently logical. It is really File operations as opposed to "Project" stuff as its where we sort of zap things. Stick File->Template after File->Import.
Rational
Templates for planner would make planner easier to use once someone is using planner for more than one project of the same type i.e. repeat projects.
The ability to template project plans can help drive project manager consultancy work to build these up for a customer i.e. transform the customers processes into Planner templates.
It also allows any of us to publish sample projects which could be as complicated or as simple as we want as part of Planner advocacy.
It also allows you to bring back to life an old project plan e.g. for a project that was mothballed. You would open your file and then optionally use the File->Template tools to reset selected project details.
Any comments back to me (Lincoln).