leftcolumn.net

…yes, I’ve added a new feature that lets you create a ‘package’ (like an archive) of one or more projects, including any actions contained in those projects. Once you’ve created a package (it’s easy) you can choose to hide it or share it with anyone! Other people can view the shared packages you’ve made available, preview their contents and then import the package into their own account. 

The potential uses for this are fairly open, but there are two major ways it could be used:

1. By teams of people to share copies of arbitrary project and task information, for example teachers sharing task lists with students. 
2. By individuals wanting to share useful stuff with pretty much anyone, for example sharing recipes or how-to guides. 

You can be selective about who you share your packages with, too: there’s an option to set a password for a package. Packages with passwords set are hidden by default but can be accessed via a special URL. Anyone with an Undone account who knows the URL and the password will be able to import the package, so I’m calling these ‘Semi-private packages.’ Semi-private packages are a bit different to normal packages in that it’s not possible to preview the contents before you import one.

Note that if you’ve made your profile private, no-one will be able to access your packages at all! You can still use packages if you have common repeating mini-projects - say for example ‘Steps for making a web-site live.’ 

When you browse other people’s profiles now, there’s a new sidebar item called ‘Packaged projects’ that shows an indicator of how many public packages the person is sharing. Semi-private packages are not included in this count. This is a link to their shared packages page, which is where you can preview and import their packages.

Packages can contain multiple projects, each with many actions. Note that only a couple of fields are transmitted in packages - action names, project names and description. So packages do not contain tags, start times, or any of the other data. Once you import a package, you have your own copy of the projects and actions it contains, and can edit them as you like.

I’ve also added support for Gravatars. For the uninitiated, Gravatars are Globally Recognised Avatars. You register a gravatar once and then any supports gravatars can display it! The way this works in Undone is that you enable it on your ’settings’ page, and Undone tries to load a gravatar based on the email address you registered with. The Gravatar is displayed on your profile when you are logged in, and will be displayed when anyone else views your profile (your undone profile must be public obviously).

Note that creating packages is currently limited to people with browsers that support jQuery. You need Javascript switched on, and you can check the browser compatibility list for more information. Sorry about the limitation, I’m planning to support other browsers soon. 

Thanks to Paul Left for the original idea of packaged projects! 

on Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day! Thanks to Jane and welcome to everyone who has set up an account. If you have any feedback on how we can better support learning, learners, or LMS, let us know. Cheers!

There’s a nice blog post by Paul at verso.co.nz that covers how to publish project task lists on your website using Undone widgets. Some great feedback here, it’s good to hear people are using Undone. A request came up for custom css styling of your Undone widgets, something I’ll have to get onto now!

Another point in Paul’s post worth following up is that of Undone integration with LMS or otherwise supporting learning. I want to make Undone a tool that can support different uses without sacrificing simplicity, so feedback (what would you like to be able to do?) is welcome.

And Undone can obviously be used for any list, not just task lists. So you can use it to publish a list of books you want to read, films to see, best bands of the eighties, who has the worst facial hair on campus, or whatever you like!

We’re adding new stuff all the time! Now there’s a  new page in the mini menu at the top  right called reports. From there you can view monthly reports on your actions, and export them as a csv. This means that if you add  hours to your actions, you can use it as a lightweight time tracking system, downloading stats at the end of the month for billing*. Note that the reports page is not available publicly, it’s just for your use.

Another new feature: you can now add a blurb that is visible to anyone who has access to your profile. Go to the settings page and say something clever about yourself! There are some more things on the way in connection with this: profile images are next.

*As ever, Undone is still being developed and so you are using it at your own risk… check the figures before you send off any invoices!

Undone has been mostly rewritten and has a new home at undone.leftcolumn.net. Old links should all redirect transparently, but let us know if anything’s not working.

The system has some cool new features including:

• Tags for actions, which is a much more flexible way of describing actions than the old system of contexts. SO the GTD aspect has been toned down, apologies to anyone who misses it. You can still use tags to assign contexts, so don’t panic.
• A Dropbox feature that lets you assign named people the right to add actions for your profile. This means you can build virtual teams, help desks, etc. We envisage this being useful for anyone needing lightweight workflow features on the web, mainly for people who work together but aren’t in the same building. You can also use it for ad hoc information sharing - for example a shopping list shared by a couple.
• We had to implement email address verification to support the team features, so sign-up now takes 33 seconds instead of 27 seconds. Hope you can cope with that!
• Many small enhancements, and there are more on the way. See our features wanted list, and use the contact form or leave a comment to suggest features etc
• Go create an account now and see what all the fuss is about!

Undone now has a nicer (not exactly nice, but nicer than it was!) print css, which you’ll appreciate if you like to print out your actions and work off hard copy. I removed much extraneous stuff and improved the layout for readibility and paper economy.

There’s also a new RSS feed option, which is a Project Summary for any projects not marked as private. Check it out! Should be handy for including in blogs, CMSes etc in a sidebar RSS widget.

Also you can mark individual projects as private and they will now be hidden, even if the rest of your profile is public.

Projects can also have descriptions now. Yes, it seems so obvious.

There’s a new page called ’share’ that shows you what you’ve chosen to make public and has handy links so you can share them.
That’s about it. Create an account and go for it!