ForumsTips & TricksOutlook Integration Client in Beta
Outlook Integration Client in Beta
| Author | Message |
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keef |
Hi,
I am regular user of this site. I really wanted an Outlook integration client for Toodledo so I have decided to develop one. If anyone is interested it is ready for beta testing. You can download it from my web site at http://www.chromadrake.com Please note that this is beta software - use it at your own risk. I'd back your tasks up first to be on the safe side. Any feedback is welcome. You can reach me at developer(AT)chromadrake.com Cheers Keith |
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guy |
Hi,
Can you please give a little more info on how it works? There is no support documentation. Thanks Guy |
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keef |
Hi Guy,
Thanks for trying it out. I'll look at adding some documentation in the near future. Once you install the application it will create an link in your start menu. This will start the application automatically when you next log in. The first time it runs you will need to set up any required proxy settings and enter your toodledo unique id and password and verify the authentication. You can find your unique ID on the account settings page. Once you get past this stage the application will live in your task bar. You can right click to change the options or to run the synchronization process. In the options you can choose if you want to synchronize automatically or not and you can choose whether you want to synchronize from Toodledo to Outlook only, from Outlook to Toodledo only or synchronize in both directions. For extra safety you can choose to disable deletes so the tool will never delete a task, just add new ones. Hope that helps. Let me know if you need any more detail. Cheers Keith |
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Roman |
It does not seem to work with the proxy we have. i checked all settings including password and unique id, but i keep getting authentication errors. Any ideas on what might go wrong?
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keef |
Hi Roman,
My guess is that your proxy is using some sort of windows integrated authentication. Have you tried adding a domain to your user name ie 'mydomain\myname'? The other thing to check is that you are using the correct port for HTTP for your proxy. I also need to point out the obvious. You can't use your Toodledo email login to authenticate with Toodledo using this application, you need to use the Unique ID that is found on the account settings page. This message was edited Apr 04, 2008. |
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Roman |
hi keef,
thanks for handing over some ideas. i used the correct port for the proxy, and i used the unique id, not my email login. our proxy is a linux based squid not using any authentication at all, so i guess nt-domain-issues shouldn´t be a problem either. i wonder, what might be the problem. is there any way to debug this? like logs or anything? |
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kkitchin |
If your proxy does not need a username or password you can try using manual credentials and setting the username and password to empty strings. I'd check in your browser to see how it is set up.
Alternatively, you could try downloading an Ethernet sniffer such as Wireshark or a web traffic analyzer such as Fiddler. These are reasonably technical to use but would let you see what is being sent to your proxy from the client and from other applications. |
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Roman |
i´ll give it a shot on monday and let you know. thanks for helping. :-)
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guy |
Hi Keith,
Problems occuring today...have be receiving "Error during syncronization". Program worked flawlessly yesterday, was very impressed. Guy |
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keef |
Hi Guy,
Have you tried reentering your userid and password and retesting the authentication? Also, I updated the version over the weekend. You might want to try reinstalling. Cheers Keith |
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keef |
I have updated this application to allow you to restrict the synchronization process to a specific list of Contexts. You can download the latest version from my web site (http://www.chromadrake.com). Please let me know if you have any problems with this software.
Cheers Keith |
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TonyB |
This looks very interesting Keith. I'm new to Toodledo and was looking for a way to use at least some of the facilities when I'm offline. Synching to Outlook seems like a good idea.
Presumably Outlook could then synch these tasks to a Windows Pocket PC so you'd have the option of accessing them when on the road and without needing an Internet connection? Much as I'm impressed with Toodledo the one thing holding me back from using it full time is that you need an internet connection to use it and you're relying on Toodledo's servers always being online. Through bitter experience I'm a great believer in the phrase "What can go wrong will go wrong" so I'm still preferring the idea of offline based systems which ideally would synch to a mobile phone. I've spent a few days reviewing various apps and ironically it seems to be the web-based apps such as Toodledo that are the most advanced and user-friendly. What do others think? |
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Qrystal |
I think that David Allen has a good thought on this: you have just one place to STORE all your PROCESSED tasks, a place you can trust to know that all your ideas are going to be there for you to review easily at your weekly review.
Several places can be Inboxes to COLLECT tasks for processing (entering into Toodledo), just make sure to empty your Inboxes daily so everything is in the "trusted system"! Toodledo makes a great backbone to my system. I'm still working on the habits of cleaning my inboxes and doing my review, but it's still really helping me keep track of my tasks extremely well. What helps me is that I print out my day's tasks on index cards and carry it with me. Voila, an offline interface! ;) I also use the index cards as my portable inbox, or I'll use twitter to add directly to my Toodledo inbox. I like knowing that my task list is safely stored on something other than my home PC, because if what can go wrong will...well, let's just say I'm counting the days until I spill one too many drinks on my desk, and my computer gets fried. :P |
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keef |
If you are worried about losing your tasks due to a disaster, you can always export them from this site to a flat file. There is an Import & Export Item on the left menu bar (although this might just be for Pro accounts).
I _can_ confirm that tasks you sync to Outlook wil also sync to a Windows Mobile phone. I am trying to get this application ready for 'prime time' so it can eventually be listed on the Widgets page, so please let me know about any bugs that need fixing :) Cheers Keef |
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TonyB |
Hi Keith,
I got your widget up and running fine! Well done, it's a great asset to Toodledo. As I'm not yet a Pro user I can't use sub tasks so I just wondered what happens to them when you synch to Outlook - do they just get listed separately on Outlook according to their due dates? Qrystal - thanks for the advice, it all makes sense. I'm learning about GTD at the same time as I'm learning about all these software systems, so it's an interesting time for me! |
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keef |
tonyboyle:
Thanks for the feeback and I am glad it is working well for you! At the moment subtasks just get fed into Outlook as normal task items - there is no attempt to preserve the task/subtask relationship as Outlook doesn't really support nested tasks. I guess I could try and use a user defined field to store the parent task, but this could require some fiddling about in Outlook to see. I'll have a look into this when I get a chance. Cheers Keith |
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alx |
Hi Keith,
in spite of having accessed Toodledo for the first time in quite a while and not having seen your app yet, I'd like to add my comment on that. Everything I've seen that tries to work around Outlook's worst flaw (the lack of subtasks), always looked like an ugly hack to me. IMO it's best to leave the planning of master and subtasks to the app that can do it (i.e.: Toodledo, in this case), and only sync the child tasks. Or at least offer a filter that only lets tasks pass through that have no children. It's much more important to sync to Outlook categories or user-defined fields (to be able to set up GTD-like context filters in Outlook) than to sync those master tasks, which are only distracting in a flat list like Outlook's. Syncing to a customizable user-defined field would be much better, since it would enable further synching to the Palm via Pocket Mirror, in my case. I've tried several workarounds for Outlook's subtask inability, like MLO synching or the contacts-as-projects hack, it's not worth it IMHO. My $0.02. |
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keef |
Hi alx,
Thanks for the feedback. I think I agree that trying to simulate nested tasks in Outlook is probably not worth attempting. I was toying with the idea of injecting some user properties into the Outlook tasks to let you set up custom views, but at the moment I am rewriting the application to more efficiently use the TD API so there probably won't be any additional features for the next week or so. |
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keef |
I've finished updating the application to make more efficient use of the API and fixed a couple of bugs.
As usual, I'd appreciate any feedback or bug reports that you might have Cheers Keith |
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eric.shotwell_1418060616 |
Posted: Apr 30, 2008
Score: 0
Reference
I can't seem to get my system set up right. I used the unique code, and my password, but trying the default proxy setting, no proxy, and manual proxy (but default info) doesn't work. And I really have no idea how to use proxies or anything like that, so I need a step-by-step guide. I cannot find any way to make this work, and have no idea what URL I would use for a proxy, or any stuff like that. Too technical. With Blackberry synch, I don't need to do any of that... just select Outlook as my synch program. Can't this be any easier? Can you offer any advice for me to make it work... from a non-Microsoft-certified everyday guy's perspective?
Eric |
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