Hello,
I have been using Kanboard to great success, however the only place where it falls short is time tracking. Due to my requirements I need to have a separate time tracking software. The subtasks already have a timer (start/pause/stop) which is exactly what I need, but on a task level.
I have been debating creating a plugin to add the required functionality, but I don’t exactly know where to begin. Because this feature is already implemented on a subtask level I feel like I might be missing something? Should this be an application level feature or a plugin feature? Any thoughts or suggestions?
Pretty sure time_spent is actually at the task level. Been awhile since I logged any time or used it, but it does exist at the task level. Also pretty sure I remember a simple plug in that would increment the time. Natively, I believe it is calculated as a culmination of subtasks time spent. I’d have to actually look at it to say for sure…but, that being the case, would probably be simple enough to make it do what you want how you want it.
Hello, Julian!
Kanboard calculates the “time spent” field of a task based on the "duration"of all the subtasks.
I don’t know if that’s what you want, but I once needed to easily see how much time the task was “in progress”. It was a short project with very short tasks that were done within the same day, so we didn’t have the problem of the task being “in progress” overnigh. I did this by using 2 automatic actions:
- Add a subtask and activate the timer when moving a task to another column
- Stop the timer of all subtasks when moving a task to another column
I’ve added one “add subtask…” action with the “work in progress” column, and one “stop the timer…” task for each other column of my board.
Example:
This way, everytime a task goes to “work in progress column” a subtask named “work” is added to it and the timer is stared. When this tash goes to any other column, this timer will be stopped and the time spent of all subtasks will be added to the main task.
When a task is moved a lot between “work in progress” and other columns, many subtasks will appear, but I don’t use subtasks, and only needed the time spent, this wasn’t an issue to me.
There are also two plugins available at the Plugin Directory that may help you:
-
TimeTrackingEditor - adds a button on subtasks so you can add as much time as you want directly to the subtask
-
Task Interval Button - adds a “add time interval” at the sidebar of the task view that adds 30 minutes to the task’s time spent without the use of a subtask. The problem is that the interval is fixed (30 minutes) and if you stop a subtask, the task’s time spent value is overwritten with the sum of the time spent of all subtasks.
If you edit the time spent from a task, it will be overwritten when a subtask is stopped. With the first pugin, you can add custom interval to subtasks and you never lose this time.
Hope I could help you!
1 Like
Hi Rafael,
Due to the requirements at my place of work we need to be able to not only see how long a task has been in a specific column but also the time spent actually working on it. This is why I was looking for a way to start and stop timing a task rather than a subtask.
That being said, I believe your idea to add an automatic action is exactly what I am looking for.
It didn’t even occur to me to add an automatic action. I had given some thought to the idea of adding a subtask to all of our tasks but that seemed to be more work that I was willing to take on, as well as enforcing it. That is why I was looking for possibly a plugin and yet, as you suggest an automatic action would solve both of those issues. What a great solution!
I really appreciate the help!
1 Like
Hi Rafael,
I also think your explanation is very useful. In my case the timer is just not starting automatically if I move the task. The subtask is created autmoatically but the timer does not start. Am I missing something?
EDIT: Sorry I just found out that I had the checkbox unset in preferences “Start Subtask automatically”
