TaskArena

A tool adding collaborative functionality to TaskWarrior.

Project status: broken

Warning: Before trying out TaskArena it is strongly suggested that you create a backup of your TaskWarrior database.

Installation

• Clone this repo:

  git clone https://github.com/niknow/TaskArena.git
  

• Switch into TaskArena and install the python library:

  cd TaskArena
  python setup.py install
  

• Move the arenacmd.py into your local bin folder and rename it to tarena:

  mv arenacmd.py usr/bin/tarena
  

• Now, TaskArena can install itself by:

  tarena install
  

This creates some entries in the taskrc of your TaskWarrior, which are neccessary so that TaskArena can interact with TaskWarrior.

List of Commands

A list of possible commands can be generated via tarena cmdlist:

install      installs TaskArena
uninstall    uninstalls TaskArena
create       creates a new arena
delete       deletes an arena
list         lists all arenas
add          adds a task to an arena
remove       removes a task from an
local        lists all local task of an arena
remote       lists all remote tasks of an arena
sync         syncs an arena
cmdlist      creates a list of all commands

A more detailled explaination of the various commands can be found in the following tutorial.

Tutorial

The general syntax of tarena can be read by typing:

tarena -h

We will walk you through it in the following.

Creating a new arena

To start working on tasks collaboratively, you first have to create an arena, in which you can put them:

tarena create

You will be asked for a name for your arena. The name should be the common theme of the tasks you want to work on together, for instance the name of a project. Next you will be asked for a local and a remote folder. The local folder should be the path of your usual local TaskWarrior database. The remote folder should be a new folder that you can share with your collaborators, for instance a folder in your Dropbox.

Warning: By giving tarena the path to your local TaskWarrior database, you automatically give it read and write permissions to this database. Since this project is in an experimental state, we again strongly advise you to make a backup of this folder first.

Managing arenas

You can create as many arenas as you like (as long as their names are unique). A list of all arenas can be produced via:

tarena list

You could delete your arena by:

tarena delete <arena>

Putting tasks into an arena

You can put tasks from your TaskWarrior into your arena:

tarena add <arena> <filter>

Here <arena> should be the name of your arena and <filter> can be any TaskWarrior filter. For instance, if you have tasks like this:

ID DESCRIPTION
 1 cut the lawn
 2 tidy up cellar

You can add the first one to your housework arena via:

tarena add housework 1

If they are part of a project, i.e. if your task report looks like this:

ID DESCRIPTION    PROJECT
 1 cut the lawn   housework
 2 tidy up cellar housework

You can also add them via:

tarena add housework project:housework

The filter can be as complex as you like:

tarena add housework project:housework +garden due.before:1month

Managing tasks in an arena

You can remove tasks from an arena in the same fashion. For instance:

tarena remove housework 1

would remove the task with ID 1.

You can see a list of all local tasks in your arena via:

tarena local housework

You can see a list of all remote tasks in your arena via:

tarena remote housework

Syncinc tasks

So far, everything we did happened in your local TaskWarrior database. To actually share it, you use:

tarena sync <arena>

So, to synchronize your housework:

tarena sync housework

A dialog will walk you through the synchronization. In the end, only the tasks belonging to your arena will be synchronized with the remote folder.

Actually working together

To actually work together, you have to give your collaborator access to your remote folder, for instance by sharing that folder via Dropbox. Your collaborator has to create an arena with the same name and specify his local TaskWarrior folder as well as his remote folder in his Dropbox. In order for him to get your tasks, he has to perform an ordinary sync:

tarena sync houework

A technical hint

Technically, the installation of TaskArena adds some User Defined Attributes (UDA) to your TaskWarrior. After you have added a task to an arena you can see them via:

task 1 info

assuming that the task with ID 1 has been added. TaskWarrior will display all information it has on the task and (among other things):

...
Arena         housework
ArenaTaskID   156139121905747781424456029047977931020

The UDAs Arena and ArenaTaskID are used by tarena to interact with TaskWarrior.

Uninstallation

To remove TaskArena one has to undo all the steps of the installation in reverse order.

• Remove the entries in the taskrc via:

  tarena uninstall
  

• Remove the command line interface by deleting tarena from your local bin folder:

  rm tarena
  

• Uninstall the python library by deleting all its files. You can get a list of these via:

  python setup.py install --record files.txt
  cat files.txt