Submitted by Pierre_Admin on 2023/08/31 15:14

Hi IQ Users!

A long standing issue with repeating events and tasks was how to handle them outside of the Calendar.  That is, what event date should be used? 

The easy and common choice is to use the first instance and this is what IQ did. Ecco also did it that way. Google Tasks generates new items a few days prior to the next instance date.

The proposed change would be to compute the next event instance when the item is marked done. More precisely, when a change is made to the Done field, the value would be modified to be the next instance after the Done date. 

  1. On the first instance, Ctrl+M would assign a Done value (today) which would compute the next event instance
  2. On subsequent instances, pressing Ctrl+M would replace the previous Done value with today's date and compute the next event instance

Grids would then show the relevant instance and support date filters and the Date filter toolbar. It seems to handle most situations.

Of course, if an item has more than one repeating event, it could cause other dates to change. Should a dialog be shown in these (rare) cases?

Pierre_Admin
IQ Designer

Comments

I think this would be a great idea!!! Currently, when I check the item/event as done, all the events are marked as done.

  1. On the first instance, Ctrl+D would assign a Done value (today) which would compute the next event instance
  2. On subsequent instances, pressing Ctrl+D twice would replace the previous Done value with today's date and compute the next event instance

I am not sure what you mean by "pressing Ctrl+D twice"? Maybe  "On subsequent instances, pressing Ctrl+D again would replace the previous Done value with today's date and compute the next event instance"?

Of course, if an item has more than one repeating event, it could cause other dates to change. Should a dialog be shown in these (rare) cases?

I have tried to create items with more than one repeating event, but have not succeeded. I didn't think it was possible?

For example, I have a meeting the 2nd and the 4th Saturday of every month. I had to create two items with repeating monthly events: every 2nd Saturday of the month and every 4th Saturday of the month.  Is it somehow possible to have both these repeating events in one item?
(If I select the item that already has a repeating event and click create Event nothing happens).

  1. Ctrl+M : yes that is basically it (my mistake, I wrote Ctrl+D but meant Ctrl+M)
  2. Multiple events: As with Ecco, in IQ, items can have any number of events (each with or without repeat patterns), exactly 1 event per date field value
  3. Complicated repeat patterns: Most Calendar system are based on the ICal standard, which does support such repeat patterns. In practice though they do not as the UI would be too complicated. This is a serious limitation for other apps where 1 item = 1 event, but not a problem for IQ. Just use 2 date fields, one for 2nd Saturdays and one for the 4th. See 2. IQ Calendar (updated with such an example)

p.s. please number the subjects as it makes referencing easier

1. I followed the instructions in the revised calendar page and it worked. I guess to see the event properties for this single item, I need to check each event separately in the Calendar (i.e. one of the 2nd week event ones and one of the 4th week event ones)?

2. I have an Appointment field and a ToDo field.  I also have an auto-assign rule that sets the ToDo field to the value of the Appointment field. In this way, I can have a grid with Appointments and the Appointments also show up with my other ToDo items in my ToDo Grid.

If you implement your excellent idea of showing repeating events, e.g. Appointments in the Appointment Grid:
2a. I assume that they would also show in the ToDo Grid when the Appointments are created "on-the-fly" (in other words, the rule would still trigger)?

2b. If I create dual repeating events, as in your example, using the Appointment field and the Todo field would that still work to show both Events in the ToDo Grid?
(If not, I would just create two items instead).

(2c. If it would work, I would probably create two new date fields, Appt1 & Appt2 for these dual repeating events, with rules to set the values of the Appointments and ToDo fields)

 

p.s. I have several independent twice/month repeating events with different days.

 

I have two Grids with Sources ToDo and Appointments respectively. I want the Appointments to shows in the Appointment Grid and in the ToDo Grid. The  Appointment grid only has appointments; the ToDo Grid has ToDo's and Appointments.

I spend most my day working with the ToDo list and I also want to see my Appointments there. However, I also want to have all the Appointments listed in the Appointment grid.
(the Appointments are distinguishable by green color highlight)

OK. Got it.
One of the reasons that I use Auto-Assign to set the ToDo date based on the Appointment date is that I am also using an Auto-Assign to set the ToDo date when I add a follow up date to the Appointment item. In this way, I still have the original Appointment date unchanged and I have a new ToDo date to follow up on the Appointment (while only having one item date in the ToDo Grid)

p.s. I have several independent twice/month repeating events with different days.

And these are not simply "every two weeks"? This is very similar to 2nd and 4th. IQ supports "Every 2 weeks of course 

Currently, I have
one meeting every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month;
a 2nd meeting every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month;
a 3rd meeting every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month;
a 4th meeting every 2nd Saturday of the month;
(subject to change)

These are all supported by IQ in the Calendar following your new calendar example. My question was how it would work if you implement your excellent idea of showing the "Appointments" in a grid.

 

 

A bit late to the party...

This is something I have also requested. I see no obvious downside to the approach you have suggested, Pierre, and all that marking stuff done should be great (always gives me a feeling of satisfaction somehow).

My rather elaborate workaround in the meantime is shown in the attached screenshot: Have all weekdays in the grid and have IQ calculate the date of the day's next occurrence. Then rather than show a date for grid items with repeating events, move them under the weekday as children.

With the proposed change, everything should be much handier and cleaner!

PS: Don't you just love my folded / unfolded icons?

PPS: The 'unfolded' arrow on 7 / Mittwoch actually shows an IQ bug that I can never quite reproduce - at regular intervals, the open arrow is not exchanged for closed even though the parent no longer has children.

PPPS: Christ alive, I'm coming up on five years of membership on this forum. Golly, how time flies!

Repeat events in grid scheme

Hi viking,

You can replace any of the files

IQ_program\AppFiles\open*.ico and

IQ_program\AppFiles\close*.ico with your own for that purpose, then select the corresponding icons via the options dialog.

To change the colour, merely draw colors in the .ico file.

I changed both open1.ico and close1.ico to my liking, then set the read-only flags for both files in the file system. Now, when I overwrite the AppFiles folder with a major new IQ release, my file manager prompts me and I can choose not to overwrite those two particular files. Beats having to replace them manually each time.

Viel Spaß damit!

Hi  Left,

I figured out how to change the open/closed icon. However, I cannot figure out how you get the color of the number icon of the selected item; e.g. the green "4" for Samstag?

 

Sorry, apparently I hadn't read your question properly and thought you were asking about the color of the open icon.

 

To get the extra highlight on the selected row with the header column showing, check the 'Highlight row headers' option and set the 'Selected items back color' to your preferred color.

 

 Options for row headers highlight

Suggestions