Author Topic: Templates are confusing.  (Read 5126 times)

mpolichette

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Templates are confusing.
« on: July 27, 2010, 05:50:01 pm »
Hi, I'm new and excited about Feng office, it seems really neat.  However, I'm terribly confused by the template system. ???  I did some searching in the forum and there seemed to be similar confusion, but no clear answers.

For now it seems like you can create templates for milestones and tasks, which is fine.  But how come when I want to create a template I need to 'copy' pre-created milestones and tasks from a workspace?  I would think I could just create them, or not even "create" anything, since its a template, it should just specify what types of objects will be created.  (not actually reference any real objects...)

I tried to create a workspace called 'template' and add milestones and tasks to it and then use those to create a template.   However, every time I applied the template to a new workspace the milestones would all have references to the original template workspace (as well as the new workspace). 

Also the milestone would bring its own tasks along, and then the tasks would be duplicated and not assigned to any milestone.

So I guess what I really would like to know is, how do I create (and use) a template which acts as essentially a stamp.   I stamp a workspace with the template and it creates brand new milestones and tasks (which are applied to the milestones).   

If someone could explain to me the workflow of the template system that would be very helpful.

Thanks for your time in responding to my question,
- Matt

cabeza

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2010, 04:47:10 pm »
When you add a milestone to a template and then instantiate it, all tasks inside the template are replicated.

However, you found a bug that make those tasks inside a milestone assigned to two workspaces: the original one where it was taken from and the one where you instantiate the template.
We'll fix this

mpolichette

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2010, 05:09:46 pm »
Wonderful, I'm glad that I could help and that I wasn't just completely confused.
I look forward to using Feng Office and will continue to ask questions if I run into problems.

I still wonder though if there would be a way to create a template without copying items from a pre-created workspace.  If not, it is not too much of a problem.

Thanks again,
-Matt

cabeza

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2010, 05:13:50 pm »
There is no way to create templates without copying.
Best

steveuj

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2010, 02:43:48 am »
Can I create templates for workspaces?

eg: each time I create one type of workspace I want to create several sub-workspaces with specific permissions

how can this be done?
thanks

cabeza

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2010, 10:07:39 am »
Currently it is not. Do you want to help us specify the feature?

1luca

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #6 on: August 14, 2010, 07:49:50 am »
Hi, I'll help you spec it if you like. Doesn't sound as though it would be too hard.

It depends on the level you want of course. If you wanted it low-low, like psedo code or code modules I might have to make assumptions about the data model which I'm not familiar with at this point (I use feng sky). Then again there's only a certain number of ways you could represent Feng Office objects in a DB.

Let me know.

cabeza

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2010, 10:28:38 am »
I guess that I would  start by the top: Knowing your "real case" scenario. This will help us know we are talking about the same things.

It's about answering the following questions:

Why do you need this?
What is it for?
How would an ideal solution work?

How can we make it fit into Feng Office?

1luca

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2010, 10:17:01 am »
Why do you need this?

 - In my business (and any business) there are certain groups of actions I need to repeat, over and over. Therefore, I want to have certain Feng Office projects repeated in my business.

 - The current template method will not be suitable because projects will be broken into sub-projects (using sub workspaces). I want to maintain the sub-project arrangement in cloned projects. (Also I want to copy assignments and am not sure that templates will copy those?)

What is it for?

  - The copying of workspaces/child workspaces is for automating the repetition of groups of tasks.

How would an ideal solution work?

  - Go the top left navigation and click the Copy Workspaces(s) button
  - A workspace hierarchy dialog appears. You can select 1 parent only. You can select any child workspaces of that parent.
  - Click a button that initiates the process
  - A new workspaces is created at the same level as the original tree. Named "Copy of X workspace", it contains identically named sub workspaces, projects, tasks and task assignments.

How can we make it fit into Feng Office?

   - As described, have a function button in the top left navigation area for workspace copying.

--
Hope that helps. If there's anything else let me know.

1luca

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2010, 07:19:31 am »
Well, it seems I no longer have this requirement. I've found some good workarounds.

This is my generic "Use Case"

1) Avoid overwhelm:
- group tasks so that you focus on a small sub section of your project
- see just the heading for a groups of tasks, not a list which contains every task in your entire project

2) Automate repeated projects. Avoid having to manually re-create tasks for all identical projects, including the task assigments.

I'm now able to do all the above.

To Group Tasks and See Just Group Headings, not a detailed list

Use Parent/Child tasks. This works quite awesomely. The reason it's awesome is that there's a tree control in the interface which hides all sub tasks (until you click to open).

That replaces my need to use a Workspace for task grouping and it's far more elegant.

To Automate Creation Of Identical Projects, Using Templates

You only have to save the parent tasks as templates and all the children will be recreated automatically.

To save parent tasks as templates:
- click on the task name (NOT the Edit icon) which takes you into the edit screen.
- In that screen click More... (on the right) and choose Add to Template.
This takes you to the template screen.
- In that screen enter the name of a new template and click Add template

To recreate tasks from a template: In the task tab, Click New. Mouse down to "All" and click your template name. That's it.

Make a template with multiple task groups

You can go further and add multiple Parent tasks to a template. To do that pick a new parent task, follow the steps above for creating a template but don't enter a new template name; instead click on an existing template name. That's it!

Task assignments are saved/recreated in templates.

=======

For now I prefer parent/child tasks to creating new workspaces for sub projects with a small number of tasks.

I prefer parent tasks to milestones (The quick edit feature for editing tasks without leaving the list view is SO much quicker to work with. And sometimes also, I have trouble seeing the milestones I've just created.)

I'm happy that I can template these task groups including the task assigments.

« Last Edit: August 20, 2010, 12:46:02 pm by 1luca »

cabeza

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2010, 12:57:33 pm »
Hi Luca,

thanks for sharing this with us. I'm sure this information will be very valuable for other users.

Just as a quick tip that you might find useful:
You can assign templates to workspaces. When you do it, it's easier to create a new template, as the template name appears below the "new task" button (no need to go to All and then select the name).

Best,
Marcos

1luca

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Re: Templates are confusing.
« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2010, 11:03:10 am »
Hi Luca,

thanks for sharing this with us. I'm sure this information will be very valuable for other users.

Just as a quick tip that you might find useful:
You can assign templates to workspaces. When you do it, it's easier to create a new template, as the template name appears below the "new task" button (no need to go to All and then select the name).

Best,
Marcos

Marcos, thanks for that! That's a good tip I will use.