TaskLister 1.0a

Praveen Nair (NinethSense)

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25 May 20061 min read

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An article about builing a task tracker software.

Introduction

This piece of software can be used for the following:

Tracking the project work flow - a Task Lister.
Track the issues reported by the client.
Project estimation etc.

The features I have integrated, presently, are:

Export to HTML and Excel Worksheet.
Simple interface.
No database used - XML file for storing data.
Always-on-top feature.

Background

I was using an Excel sheet for a long time for tracking issues reported by the client. Once I got some free time, I made a small utility for this purpose. That means, I made this tool as per my requirements. Not sure how much this will be useful for you. Well, you can create more fields, features etc., if you wish. Also, if you suggest, I can make it for you.

Using the code

First, the application reads the TaskLister.xml file to a DataSet, and then it fills a DataGridView. The DataGridview gives the users option to add, remove, edit, set priority, set status etc.

ds.ReadXml(XMLfile);

dataGridView1.DataSource = ds.Tables["table1"];

For saving the data, a simple line is used:

ds.WriteXml(XMLfile, XmlWriteMode.WriteSchema);

Exporting to HTML and Excel Worksheets uses the below code - you can see here that the export to Excel is a trick...

private void exportToHTMLToolStripMenuItem_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    saveFileDialog1.Filter = 
      "HTML Files|*.htm*|Excel Worksheet files|*.xls";
    if (saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
      FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(saveFileDialog1.FileName);
      StreamWriter sw = fi.CreateText();
      sw.WriteLine("<html><head><title>" + 
                   "TaskLister Export</title>"); 
      sw.WriteLine("<style>th, td {border-bottom:solid 1px" + 
                   " brown;border-right:solid 1px brown;}" + 
                   " table {font:normal 12px arial}" + 
                   "</style></head><body>");
      sw.WriteLine("<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 " + 
                   "style='border:solid 1px brown'>");
      sw.Write("<tr bgcolor='#FF9933'><th align='center' " + 
               "width='30px'>No.</th><th align='center' " + 
               "width='50px'>Priority</th><th align='center' " + 
               "width='100px'>Ref.</th><th align='center'" + 
               " width='250px'>Task</th><th align='center' " + 
               "width='70px'>Status</th><th align='center' " + 
               "width='30px'>Hrs.</th><th align='center' " + 
               "width='200px'>Comments</th></tr>");
      foreach (DataRow dr in ds.Tables["table1"].Rows)
      {
          sw.Write("<tr><td align='center'>&nbsp;" + dr[0] + 
                   "</td><td align='center'>&nbsp;" + dr[1] + 
                   "</td><td>&nbsp;" + dr[2] + 
                   "</td><td width='250px'>&nbsp;" + dr[3] + 
                   "</td><td align='center'>&nbsp;" + dr[4] + 
                   "</td><td width='30px'>&nbsp;" + dr[5] + 
                   "</td><td width='200px'>&nbsp;" + dr[6] + 
                   "</td></tr>");
      }
      sw.WriteLine("</table>");
      sw.WriteLine("<span style='font:italic 8px times new roman'>" + 
                   "Created with TaskLister1.0 from Praveen." + 
                   "</span></body></html>");
      sw.Close();
    }
}

History

This is the first version of my code.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

Written By

Praveen Nair (NinethSense)

Architect ORION INDIA SYSTEMS

India

Praveen.V.Nair - aka NinethSense - PMP, Microsoft MVP - is working as a Head of Technology and Architecture at Orion India Systems, Kochi, India. He has been playing with electronics from the age of 10 and with computers from the age of 14. He usually blogs at http://blog.ninethsense.com/.

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