Author Topic: Improve predefined date spans in reports  (Read 3356 times)

robrob

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
Improve predefined date spans in reports
« on: March 12, 2009, 01:53:15 pm »
Hi,
A suggestion that I believe would be easy to implement, but will improve and speed up the workflow, is adding a couple predefined date spans to the "date" dropdown field on the reporting page.

Currently exist: Today, this week, last week, this month, last month.

I often need to generate reports for the complete project/workspace, and to do that, I have to select "select dates" in the dropdown and then click back a few months in the date field and select a random date in the past as starting date. This is a bit tedious, as some workspaces do go back in time for months :)

How about adding at least an "all time" option, and then maybe:
- "current quarter" and "last quarter",
- "current year" and "last year"?

Alternatively (but this would take a bit more work), why not enable custom setup of these date spans in the administration of this module?

Thanks!

conrado

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 998
  • Conrado
    • View Profile
    • Feng Office
    • Email
Re: Improve predefined date spans in reports
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2009, 12:46:23 pm »
Agreed on it being a good idea and a potential improvement.

Not so much on the 'easy to implement' part.  ::)
Get Official Support for your Feng Office. Support the development team. Sign up for a Free Trial here.

robrob

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 6
    • View Profile
Re: Improve predefined date spans in reports
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2009, 09:55:52 pm »
Really? Without having looked at the code - and I apologize for that - wouldn't it only be a matter of querying all entries in a table instead of a select range? I.e. simply dropping the WHERE argument when building the query.

Same for quarters - determine the start and end dates of quarters first, then determine in which quarter you currently are.

I may be mistaken and if so, would love to be enlightened :) If there isn't something I have overlooked, I may just try coding it up myself and putting it on here (if anyone is interested, lol).

conrado

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 998
  • Conrado
    • View Profile
    • Feng Office
    • Email
Re: Improve predefined date spans in reports
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2009, 02:58:31 pm »
Really? Without having looked at the code - and I apologize for that - wouldn't it only be a matter of querying all entries in a table instead of a select range? I.e. simply dropping the WHERE argument when building the query.

Same for quarters - determine the start and end dates of quarters first, then determine in which quarter you currently are.

The development process we follow is a bit more complicated, as it requires more steps. We first analyze the use cases we find most commonly requested. Then we do a draft of the GUI, then design the changes to the code and schema (we use a MVC architecture, so several classes need to be modified), and only then we do the coding.

There are quicker development methodologies, but we believe this one produces better apps.

In particular, the calendar app is still lacking some essential performance fixes that right now are most relevant in my view.

I may be mistaken and if so, would love to be enlightened :) If there isn't something I have overlooked, I may just try coding it up myself and putting it on here (if anyone is interested, lol).

"...enlightened..." Ha! Come on!  ::)

Seriously, if you want to code it up and throw it here to get the ball rolling on this modifications, it would be a pleasure to give you a hand!
Get Official Support for your Feng Office. Support the development team. Sign up for a Free Trial here.