Shiftplan widget released
 

Hi folks,
I just installed and purged again all the calendar apps I could find trying to find one which will allow me to easily do the following.

I'd like to be able to predefine any number of different shifts, which i can then choose from upon tapping an day in a calendar like view. Then an desktop widget would show me what is my next shift, when it starts and time left to it's start. quite like the next alarm widget.

The thing is, we have 14 different shifts and I'm not on any given rotation. I'm only given shift plan one month ahead and so remembering what shift I have is quite tricky. I always need to have the printout around.

Can someone point me in the right direction if there already is such app, or maybe if some of you developers would like to give it a go, please?

Thanks for reading.


EDIT:
Thanks to nicolai, this has come true. It's 98% perfect. 1% being slight cosmetic issues I'd like to have a little differently and the other 1% is a little bug with editing/deleting shifts.

you can get it here in this post

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Anyone? Please, it would be really helpful to me...

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

+1 for this,

I also do shifts so this could come in quite handy.

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

This would be impossible, as the Calendar application is a closed source app.
What about using the next alarm widget for this.

Can you give me an example how this shift entries would look like,
(start time end time) and how you would like to see them.
Maybe you can make a mockup for the desktop widget.

Nicolai

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Hey Nicolai, glad you're considering to help us.

I don't really need to have it connected to the original Calendar. Basically what I thought is that upon clicking the widget on desktop. An shift overview would open which would look like and calendar...

But well, I just got another idea. will do a picture. see below...

Next alarm brought me to this idea. But the problem is, I need to set it up each day for the next. Not really that practical.

here comes the picture. Quite self explaining i guess...

you can scroll though weeks with the arrows. In an settings menu, i would be able to define any number of shifts.



Thanks again for looking into this...

Cheers Karel!


*edit* actually an minimalistic look might be more prefered where we'll only see the top part about the next shift and the weekly view would only open on demand.

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

*BUMP which I'm sorry about*

Nicolai, you didn' forget me did you??? :D

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Hi,

no I didn't forget you, I looked around how other shift remainder
apps are looking.

This would be the difficult part. Making a calendar UI or a UI that
looks like a calendar is difficult. It would be easier if the
calendar app handles the times and you enter your
shifts as regular events. And I can make a widget which
just shows this events.

Or are the shifts simpler than regular calendar events, do they
all have the same start end end time and you only need to
enter the day or recurrences?
Can you give me an example of a shift plan.

Nicolai

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Oh good. I was worried :)


Entering the shifts into the calendar is the pain which made me ask for this thing in the first place. If there would be a way to predefine the shifts as events and then only quickly choose between them it might work.

But then something like the picture I made might be easier then full calendar?


Nope, my shifts are definitely not simpler and there are no recurrences worth mentioning.

We have:
7 early shifts: S3, S4, S5, E4, E5, E6, EZ
5 late shifts: Q5, L4, L5, L6, LZ
3 night shifts: N2, NS, NQ
(wow it looks scary even for me, when it's writen down like this)

not all has different starting times, but mght be different workload.
like S4 has the same times as E4, but you're doing different stuff.

and as an example my plan for february.
NS, NS, NS, NQ, -, -,Q5, Q5, L4, L6, -, NQ, NQ, NQ, NS, NS, -, -, S4, E4, E5, E5, -, -, L4, L4, L4, L4


Thanks again for looking into this.

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Uhm. Just giving it another try.... :D

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Interesting... Maybe this concept can be expanded into seperate app and widget.

App: Based on a csv/txt file, we should be able to chose the shift name for dates in a month and the events would be automatically created in the calender. The event names should follow a simple and uniform pattern.

Widget: Only event names in particular regex format will be displayed.

NOTE: the csv/txt file will be something like

Name,start,end
S3,1000,1500
S4,1500,2000


The advantage would be the reusability. The shift timings, names, etc can easily be modified by the user by modifying the txt/csv file. Also, instead of shifts, it can be used to define anything else, like show timings (if you're a performer), class timings (for students), etc.

What do you think?

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Yep, of course it depends on how user friendly would be to change the file. I mean an GUI would be a big plus.

So maybe what we really need is only an GUI to edit such file which will then "synchronise" the file with calendar. And then widget like nextalarm do the rest?

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Shiftplan
A first version.
It contains a desktop widget and an application
The desktop widget has two view modes.
Tap on the shift icon (colored icon or empty gray icon)
to change to the week view mode.

Tap on any other region in order to open the shiftplan application.
The shiftplan application stores the shift items in the
calendar db, first of all you should create a new calendar from
the calendar application, name it "shiftplan" for example.

On the right side is a list of work shifts, tap the "Edit shift" button
for adding or deleting a shift element. A shift element has
a name (2 or 3 chars) a color and a start/end time.
Use the selected work shifts as a stamp and
add a shift element in the months plan.
(Use the gray icon for deleting an element).
The widget shows the date for the next upcoming shift
and a time (-Hour:Min).
Or (Hour:Min), the time until the current shift ends.

This is only a simple shiftplan application, feedback and suggestions are welcome.

Nicolai

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Thanks nicolai! I will try this as soon as I get home. But one doubt- is it necessary to add a new calendar?

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

@Nicolai: You Sir are my new personal HERO. I feel terribly ashamed, because I lost my faith in you, while you were still hard working on it.

:D

On a more serious note (mind you, the above is still completely true)...
It's great. Better that I thought possible. THANK YOU!

Only suggestions I have are purely cosmetic and feel free to disregard them.
1) any chance to make the widget look customizable? I'd like to make it fit my theme better.
2) usage of icons for the shifts?
3) direction of the weekly view expansion? I'd like to have the widget on the right and it's opening out of the screen.

I'll test it some and will get back to you. Thanks

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

there is a little bug. it does not update the remaining
time right after it is visible, but only at the next full minute.
This is easy to fix.
Expanding the widget to the left is somewhere between difficult
and impossible. the upper left widget corner defines the
widget position on the screen, and as far as I know
the widget position can not be changed from
within the widget .(this is controlled by hildon-home).
Feel free to make any suggestions about the
widget and app-ui. And if you can, help me
with creating better icons or a background image.

It is not necessary to create a new calendar,
but it helps a lot while testing the app, as
you can simply remove the whole calendar if something went
wrong with the shift events.

nicolai

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Can you actually call that a bug? :D

If the expantion is not possible, just scrach that. I'll find different position for it.

Only suggestion I have is for the application layout. Can you move the dates closer up and center them to the respective "boxes". I got used to it already, but at the beginning I was a little confused and thought it's actually the box below which belongs to the date.

Also in the application view. I would change the order of the buttons at the bottom. Month selection > calendar > clear all > save. The month selectin below the calendar and the save at bottom right.

As for the background and icons. I think as you have is ok for general purpose. Only make it customizable, if possible. Like choosing a pic for shift while editting and background for the widget and thats it.

Cheers.

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

this is great and will really help me out! many thanks!!

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

BUG report: Can't delete/edit name of shifts. Editing time and color is ok, but changing name results in new shift being created. The old one is recreated upon closing and opening the app. Removing shifts is the same


Cheers

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

i didnt have any problem renaming a shift...

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Oh well, I just found out, that this thing is terribly depressing. I'm still on vacation for few days and watching the countdown... Pfff.

Anyway. After few days playing with it, just wanna tell you it's almost perfect. The glitch with the persistent shifts still remains though. Can't get rid of the testing shift I made. Also, any progress on the possible customization?

Thanks again and cheers!

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

After few days of live handling (vacation ended :/ ) I just want to thank you again. Apart from the little bug of being unable to delete once created shifts, this works perfectly.

One more thing I noticed and would like to change if possible is, that the month overview the week starts with Sunday. Is it possible to change for Monday?

So, any chance for a small update?

Cheers and THANKS a bunch.

Re: Question: Working shift "reminder" widget
 

Just to add my thanks for this extremely useful widget

My working week starts on a Sunday, so it is perfect for me as is.

Therefore, could the w/c day be configurable please?

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Hi Nicolai,
after using this for some months now, I just want to share few issues and summarize few things I'd like to change if possible at all.

First, after the issue I had with it due to DST time change it works almost flawlessly and I just love it. The only thing I'm having at the moment is, that the widget in week view only updates after reboot. If I do not reboot within the week, than the widget stops showing next shift. It's not a big deal as I do reboot once a week most of the time anyway.

The bug with being unable to delete single shift still persists.
the workaround with removing all shifts using
works though, so that is okay for me.


Now for the possible changes I would love to see (mostly cosmetic).
- Ability to configure 1st week day for the app view. Currently the first day in the view is Sunday, which is confusing for me, although good for others.
- Adjustable background opacity for the widget.
- In app view, move the numbers a little up, closer to the corresponding line and center below the icon.
- The right side with shifts. Making it 3 or even 4 columns wide would be extremely helpful for me. I have 16 shifts ATM. Or at least sort the list by name or time.

That's about it right now. Please, please, take a look at at least some of it. Thanks again for this. I really love it.

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Hi Tinukedaya,
thank you for this reminder.
This week I have some time for working on this widget
again.

regards
Nicolai

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Yay! Looking forward to it!

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

new version:
Transparency setting for the widget background
Fixed bug (widget didn't update upcoming shift
label)

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Great. I'll install it staight away and let you know.
Thanks!

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Hey Nicolai.,
I still have issues with the updating. The weekly overview now moves as intended, but no new shift appears on the last day. I still have to close/re-add the widget to desktop or reboot to see it correctly.

Transparency works great. Thank you!

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

To Nicolai:

Can you make a Annual Leave , 1 more option?
because Annual leave is whole day, no time period, can it 1 more option to set the time to whole day??

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

You can just set it as shift with time for 00:00 - 23:59. At least that's what I did. Works good

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Should work now.

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Installed. Lets see how it goes. I'll let you know.

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Hey Nicolai, just wanna tell you it's working great now.
The only functional flaw ATM is the inability to delete shifts. But I have that workaround you gave me for that so that not a big deal.

So thank you very much once more and if you'd have time and itch to work on it again, please consider some of the design changes I suggested earlier in this post.

Cheers Karel.

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

@nicolai

When I set the shiftplan (the square), I set "D", time is 7:30am to 8:00pm, "N", time is 7:30pm to 8:00am, then save the shiftplan

I found the Calendar Home Widget , the time is not match to the one set in shiftplan. N time become other time and they are dupicate in a event.

Re: Shiftplan widget released
 

Dupicate of "N"