Consolidated Todo List including configurable alerts

Question

This might be out of scope for dbFront, but it would be a really useful feature to be able to alert users when something needs to be done in the system. A small message box, similar to the one that appears when the session is about to expire would be perfect, one scenario would be;

Reminder to fill in/check some records based on the system datetime.

AnthonyV: Updated Title

Comments

Let me know if I captured what you were aiming at.  If so then I might change the title of your feature request.

Answer 1

A Custom Todo-list represents an exciting and valuable feature request.

Databases don't just represent data, they represent outstanding work: Customers to contact, Invoices to ship, Vendors to pay, Inventory to replenish, Computers to patch, Passwords to change, etc, etc, etc..

25% of the tables in a database contain outstanding work.

With the exception of log tables, many database tables directly represent objects that business and organizations care about. Objects that need work: auditing, cleaning, maintenance, resupply, completion, etc.. Based on my experience this number can easily hit 25% or more of the existing tables.

The concept is to allow Admins to specify a simple SQL where clause for each table that selects the Todo items from that table. dbFront would consolidate all of the tables that need work and create a focused Todo List for the current user.

​For each table, the Admin would also specify: Due Date, Priority, and Caption columns. The where clause would be responsible for any user-specific filtering and/or will respect the existing SELECT row-level security.
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​The Todo List view would have its own layout and caption configuration similar to the table preferences.
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​The Todo List would also be selectable as the Startup view for a database.

Users could click on the todo list items and be able to edit the appropriate record with its specific structure in place or jump to the appropriate table and record.

A ToDo List would represent a very powerful addition to dbFront but will require consolidating and working through the layout and security needs of multiple different tables on the fly. I am confident that dbFront can handle the complexity and expect the result to be seamless, intuitive and powerful.

NOTE: Please vote on and help fund this Feature Request if it interests you.

Comments

This would achieve what I mentioned perfectly I think, and is an even better idea. Fully support this Anthony.

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I've been thinking about this feature request and I wonder if a different approach would be simpler and easier to build while still filling most if not all use cases.

Instead of separate WHERE clauses on each table, have one query (or selectable view) per connection that can render as a table on the Home screen. The view would handle all logic, captions, due dates, priority etc.

Admin can set:
- User column: limit rows to logged in user, (i.e. %username%)
- URL column: if set, each row renders an "Open" link or button. URL can be built in the view to the relevant table/record.
- URL destination: dialog, new tab etc
- Sort order
- Refresh timer

When on the home screen, the query could refresh based on the timer.
For alerting, dbFront can run the query on the same timer and popup a notification for any new rows, on whatever screen the user is on.
This could also double as a system notification channel, for messages like "Server restart in 5 minutes, save all your dbFront work and logoff"