activeCollab Timer for Windows

Plans for a OSX version?

Great news to see this timer application ! Thanks ;)

Is it the place to have support / feature suggestion for this tool ?
Regards,
Antoine

at last, a timer that works and not using AIR!
thanks….
a Linux version will be great :)

Standing by for Mac version…

Waiting for the Mac app, too.

Why build a standalone app? Why not make this a feature of AC time tracking?

Nice work! I would LOVE to see an osx version for this – perhaps a cross platform using Adobe AIR

Looking forward to Mac version!

I like the idea of this tool.
Unfortunately it does not work for us. Our aC runs on https, maybe this is the problem (as some other comments say here).

Just installed it and it seems to work fine. I did not expect this to be a native application, I’d have expected a widget combined with a plugin on the server side.

+1 for OS X version.

I know aC users in our office would find this a huge asset, and I know that my accounting department would love it if staff had an convenient way to track and record time.

Hi Ilija,

i have Problems with the “billable” checkbox: Cant see if it is checked or not, maybe a disply bug.

Looking forward to Mac version, too!

+1 for Linux version!

Please Mac OS X Version!

When OS X version comes out then active collab would be perfect for our organisation.

Wainting for the OSX version. When are you guys done polishing it

It would be great to have a total of all unsubmitted time on display somewhere. I’d use this to see how well I’m tracking my time over the course of a day for example. Any chance of getting this?

I also noticed that if I edit a timer while it is running, I lose the time that was recorded up to the moment I edited it.

Is there an option for this to track Billing Time (with the installed activeCollab Billing Module found here: http://www.activecollab.com/downloads/category/4/package/42) or does this only track Time?

Not only are we hoping to tie this to billing, but also using more of the information (Items, Customers, etc.) from our linked Quick Books information. Do you have any plans to make this open, where we might be able to tweak this already awesome application to fit our specific needs?

hello,

thank you for this nice free tool!

i have a little bug report and some feedback for your nice app:

= bug report
activecollab timer doesn't work with SNI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication). tested with nginx 0.7.65-2~bpo50+1 on debian lenny

= usability feedback:
i miss the perfect an clean userinterface design from your activeCollab in your timer. i tried to promote the activecollab timer in my company, but my colleagues stick with their time tracking apps (http://www.toggl.com/ http://www.kimai.org/ http://makesometime.com/). but it would be great if ac timer evolve so far, that they want to switch.
– project data refreshing is really to slow (maybe enhance your api with a “getalldataziped” to minimize the request and query overhead).
– specific refreshing for a single ticket. if i add a new ticket in ac, i don’t want to refresh all the data, i know the ticket is there, i just want to add a timer for a specific ticket. would be great to make it possible to retrieve a ticket by id or name
– selct task enhancement (new timer > select task)
if you have a lot of projects with a lot of tickets, the current task selection is suboptimal

* window should be resizeable (why scroll down though all tasks on a mini window on a 30” monitor)
* callapse all / open all buttons missing
* search / filter would really help (string, milestone, date, person, ...)
* custom order (alpha, by date, by milestone, ...)
* option / checkbox “only show my tasks”
– auto create timers for all my tickets
– add a filter for the timers
– default description for a selected task should be the taskname
– local autosave (don’t know if it is allready implemented), a crashing computer must not lead to a complete data loss. local autosave every x minutes/second.
– submit all timers. local saved timers can be submitted with one click to ac.

greets
julian

Couple suggestions.

1. No way to submit details, without changing the timer title. The timer title should stay fixed, and you can append details to it.

2. Sort the timers, or auto sort based on title – we have many ongoing projects – so finding the right timer is a chore.

3. Group timers based on Client.

4. Reset a timer to zero option.

5. Second the ‘auto create’ timer for (client, project, task etc.)

Cheers,

Steve

Each day when I use the timer, I have to update the API key?! Why does my profile API key change every day in active collab? This is nuts!

Im looking forward the Mac-version!

Ilija,

Is it possible to add “Project name / Ticket name / Task name” to each Timer. For description we use abbreviations to put in different types of hours (e.g.: D for design hour). And if you are using more timers at the same time, you really don’t know to which project, ticket or task they belong to. You can only see description you put in (in our case only D).

Since there is more than enough space and this shouldn’t take too much time to add it would be really useful for us. You can even make it an option in config (show project, ticket and task name in timer) just in case somebody doesn’t want it.

Thank you in advance.

Hi,

Is there any reason why it takes +/- 2 – 5 minutes to refresh ? Surely it shouldn’t be that slow? Even considering my activecollab installation is on a server on my local network and not over the internet.

Any idea what the problem is ?

Hi,

1) Thanks for the awesome app!
2) Some suggestions:
a) Would be great to improve filtering of projects, tickets, tasks.
i) Show projects/tickets/tasks assigned to me / I am responsible for.
ii) Hide completed tasks etc.
b) Would be great to be able to drag and drop timers to sort the list
c) Would save time if the default description was simply the task, ticket or project description.
Thanks again.

OK so I see you’re a few days ahead and have you’ve just release v1.1 RC Nice1!

The filter to show only objects assigned to me is cool and because closed tasks, tickets etc. are considered no longer assigned to me this achieves my 2ai and 2aii above – Fantastic!
The total time and start timer on save are also great new features.

I’d still like to be able to drag and drop timers to sort the list.
Setting the default description per 2c would be great.
And another cool feature would be if my timers could be somehow shared between different PCs…

Hi Aleksandar,

Thanks for your response. When I leave the description empty it displays blank.
Are you sure this functionality is still working or has it been lost / broken at some point?

Cheers,

Tim.

Follow-up: On my collegues PC it functions as you describe – on mine it does not.
Both using 1.1 RC – Same AC Installation – ACBuild 1.60 Both Win 7 Ultimate – 64bit.
Any suggestions?

BTW: Ability to sort the timers alphabetically would be a good interim step if drag and drop’s too much to ask for.

A very small always on top thing that shows what clock is running would be cool too.

Hi Again,

Since the refresh is so slow, would it not be nice to have an option in the “settings” to set an “auto-update” interval, so that I can set mine to automatically update every X minutes/hours so that I don’t need to, when there’s new tickets, click refresh and wait to select the new tickets… then it can happen in the background.

Obviously keeping the option to manually refresh.

Thanks!

Awesome, thanks. Will check that out.

Is days the only increment I can specify? I would have loved to have it sync hourly or even half-hourly…

Hi Aleksandar,

OK so the issue was that in fact – whilst I had installed ACTimer 1.1 on the PC on which the default value was not being automatically populated. I was actually still running v1.02beta. For me, the shortcut pinned to my task bar and the shortcut in the start menu did not update – only by using the “new” shortcut on the desktop did I cause ACTimer to upgrade correctly. Having done so, default value is set correctly so my wishlist remains as:
+Sorting of timers (Alphabetically/Drag+drop
+Syncing between PCs
+Mini app always on top a la winamp

Thanks for your help.

p.s. Does days increment require an integer value? Can I not just use 0.0416 for hourly updates etc.? Haven’t tried this – just a though…

Awesome, thanks!

Sorry for all the Q’s, but when do you estimate the next release will be publicly available ?

Hi Aleksandar,

Was this functionality deliberately depreciated or will it be back in the 1.1 stable / at some future point? It was good!

DoubleClick any Timer causes timer to be active and started

Cheers,

Tim.

Hi Aleksandar,

That works a treat – nice1. It’s probably self evident but:
1) The path is in fact c:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\a51\activeCollabTimer\actimer.ini
Local and AppData are reversed compared to the path you posted.
2) ACTimer needs to be restarted for this to take effect.

Now, I can double click to change timer and start the clock whenever I feel like it :-)

Cheers,

Tim.

Looks like a fantastic addition. Just one question, are you planning on included a screen capture feature with the timer app?

That way we could capture the screen activity of our staff and have them viewed from within active collab.

Please let me know if this is a possibility. Thanks!

Well, downloaded 1.1.1 – the upgrade process was much smoother this time! – Nice1.
Bit disappointed not to have alphabetical ordering of timers! – Surely that’s a simple change and would save so much frustration here – looking through the list of timers to find the one you need.

Well, the code upgrade process was great. But, the database upgrade process was messy. It picked up my old 1.0.2 database… Obviously it was a bit too brave to upgrade with unsubmitted time logs. Not a problem – recovered the data from the database and cleared up my timers while I was at it ;-)

Got around to wondering if refreshing a local copy of the AC object hierarchy is necessary or if it would be possible to query the AC DB directly for a more real time experience…

Today I wanted to change my minimum time log to 5 minutes, my rounding to 5 minutes and my max idle time to 2 hours – I regularly attend meetings that last 60-90 minutes. All seemed to go very smoothly via the .ini – I also added the AutorefreshPeriod=1 for the most real time experience currently available. Let’s see how that all goes tomorrow ;-)

Once you’ve figured out the best ways for your working environment to use this tool with Active Collab it saves soooooo much time logging time and lets you focus on getting stuff done instead!

Doesn’t work, as soon as I start a timer I get the following ( very odd ) error message:

“Nije uspeo da ucita pages”

Any help ?

( PC, windows 7 )

I have connection, but when I submit my time:

“Posting time to active Collab server.

There was error 203.

Time module probably not installed on server.”

Actually I’ve time modul in my system.

Any help?

@Aleksandar.

1. Yes, the pages module is installed
2. the connection message says, “Connection established”, so that looks good.

Also, why are the error messages in Serbian ?

I am also getting following error on desktop application.
==================
Posting time to activeCollab server.
There was error 203
Time module probably not installed on server.
==================

Time is posted CORRECTLY but desktop shows above error.

It would be good if ACTimer would check if another instance of ACTimer is already running or if this would be controlable via the configuration file… I suppose there are some people who might want to time more than one thing at once but ACTimer seems to go a bit flakey when more than one instance is running and in my own circumstance 2 timers running simultaneously is not allowed!

Happy New Year!

OK – good to know that you have no plans to allow 2 timers running simultaneously. I think you’re right about that.

So, when ACTimer starts it should check that another instance of ACTimer is not already running and if there is already an instance of ACTimer running it should not just open another instance… It should stop, report the error or ideally give focus to the existing instance.

Mac version here, don’t forget about me guys =) http://timer.refreshdigital.com

Hey, if you have used QT it shouldn’t be that hard to compile linux version. Windows version seems to work under wine, but that an ugly solution :-\

Hi llija and team,

I could not get away from the error that MP101 reports, MP101 collaborates on the same AC installation fyi. Downgrading to 1.1.0 solved the issue for me. The duplicate instances of actimer problem seems not to happen on 1.1.0 either.

We have started noticing occasional duplicate submissions of time logs from various versions – I’ll try to give more feedback soon.

Ability to order timers A-Z is still top of our wish list.

Thanks for developing this product – in general it’s superb.

Cheers,

Tim.

I see you have a new release out! Should have checked that before my previous post – Looking forward to checking it out.

Cheers,

Tim.

OK, firstly for the record – MP101 is not on the same AC installation – my error.
Secondly – the bug in 1.10, 1.11 that MP101 reported and that I previously had is caused when you hit submit but haven’t set any ticket for the timer. Let’s see if that is prevented in 1.20 – I’ve done it again now so I guess upgrading is as good a solution as any :-)

Cheers,

Tim.

Installed it this afternoon :)

Loving the alphabetical ordering – thanks for that.
The timer colour in the tray is cool. Although 1 click to show summary and 2 to open the window is more normal – a la skype. In the summary info when clicking the tray icon – showing what the current timer is might also be helpful.
Again, my upgrade from 1.1.0 to 1.2.0.3 resulted in the app loading an out of db of timers… bit irritating but more than compensated for by the alphabetical ordering which is soooo much better.

Nice1.

Tim.

For “out of db of timers” please read “out of date db of timers.”

Trying out. thanks!

Hi ! Thanks for this nice application. Im using it regularly and submitting my time to our activecollab account. But I got this error two days ago saying “Posting time to activeCollab server. There was error 202. Probably read only API settings on server. Check API status.” I do checked my API setting and it looks fine. API key is enable and read and write. I can established connection when trying to connect but I received that error once I submit the time.

Looking forward to solve or any fix for this issue. Thanks!

I’ve noticed duplicate time entries while using this app. I did some testing and see that it only occurs if you submit one time entry then quickly submit another one. Would this have something to do with an API callback not occurring in time so the timer app retries the submission? When it does occur it seems like the entry is duplicated 3 times to a total of 4 entries consistently.

For those of you that have experienced it, if you wait 5 seconds between time submissions it seems to fix it.

Is there a limit to the number of projects or tasks that the time can retrieve? I’m finding that sometimes it is not picking up new tickets when I refresh.

I’m running 1.2.0.3

Thank you.

simon

+1 for a Linux version!

Hi,

1. I’m currently running 1.2.0.3. Should I be able to upgrade to 1.2.1 without losing my database of timers?
2. Is there an official upgrade process?
3. Some suggestions:
a) It would help if when nothing is entered in the description field for the timer and hence the label is populated from the assigned to field if the text were copied automatically to the description so that if you want to add detail to the time log you can do so without changing the position of the timer within the alphabetical list.
b) When you restart a timer it would be handy to be able to see in addition to the total timer time the time since the latest restart – it would help when you realise you’ve changed task without changing timer and need to edit the timers.

Thanks,

Tim

Hi,

And one more thing…
Please can we have a “Submit All” button?

Thanks,

Tim.

I hear you. How about “Submit All Valid” then?
Every day I have to click and submit perhaps 15 or 20 timers before I leave the office – whilst I love you guys for producing Active Collab timer – you can imagine I don’t view you so favourably when you’re delaying me getting to my sofa ;-)

Hi there,
Which is the unit or conversion rate for time tracked that Timer used and post into ActiveCollab?
Ex. If I track 10 minutes and then submit, in AC shows 0.17.-

Thanks,

Thanks a lot Ilija!

+1 for Linux version :)
Works okay under WINE. So far only found one flaw, I’m unable to check the billable check box in timers. Really would appreciate a native version.

I do like the look of the features list on 1.3 beta, in honesty, I haven’t tried it yet as at the moment I’m really flat out so I’ll have to wait for stable releases for the time being… As always I have more ideas for you though…

1.) Would be great to know how long a timer has been active not just in total but also since the last time you pressed start

2.) Killer feature :-) – When a timer is linked to an object – how about shift+click to open time records on that object in a new tab in the default browser!

Search feature? :-)

Thanks Aleksander – great to see 1.3’s gone stable – I’ve downloaded today.

Yeah, I probably have too many timers >50.

Long term, think a search feature would probably be helpful but appreciate you’ll need to consider your whole userbase and may have other priorities.

These 2011-05-20 6:27 feature requests definitely more interesting.

Kudos to you guys – ACTimer now seems like stable and mature software and you’re only at 1.3 – impressive!

Feature suggestion: Ability to synchronise timers (not their present time values) just the timer database itself between workstations somehow.

We’ve been using the AC Timer for awhile now and really like it. The newest version (1.3.4.6) allows you to create new Tickets directly through the Timer, which is great in theory, but there’s one glaring omission ~ you can’t assign a Ticket to a specific person.

That makes it basically useless for anybody using AC in a group setting. We still have to go into AC itself to assign the task.

Will you be adding the ability to assign to a specific person in the future?

FYI: This application caused errors in our “Time Records +” Module:

ERROR: Route “project_timerecord” not mapped.

this did not trigger a fatal error (no error report)

I assume this is due to a route not exposed to “Time Records +” module, I had to remove the rows in the database in order for this module to work again.

I understand that this was not likely written with add on modules in mind but thought it may be worth reporting (had I not known which set of time records caused the issue it would have been very hard to debug)