This program helps you keep a log of how much time you spend on specific projects.
The program displays a small window with a tree of projects and sub-projects at regular intervals. Each root node should correspond to a specific project that [your supervisors want] you want to track. You can create any number of sub-projects by either editing the project file (see section 3.1) and reloading the program, or right-clicking a node in the user interface. Use middle-click to expand/collapse a parent node.
Once a node is pressed (left click), the window is minimised (alternative
behaviour is possible --- see below). The window re-appears at the specified
interval (intervalInSeconds) in a semi-active state (default colour: blue). If
a node is pressed (left click) within another specified interval
(waitInSeconds), the time elapsed since the window appeared will be counted
towards the previous entry (unless specified otherwise with autoCountTowards).
If the task should be stopped or changed before the end of the interval, you can maximise the program (if minimised), and click on the STOP button or a different task, respectively.
The program generates a simple CSV log, where each entry roughly corresponds to each node clicked. The order used is:
<start-time>,<end-time>,<main-project>,<sub-project>,<sub-sub-project>,...
The times are currently displayed using the date format dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss.
Software required:
openjdk-6-jdk),ant).The program can be compiled with
ant compile
Since the program is written in Java, it should compile and run on many platforms.
The configuration for the program is located in the config.txt file. (If
config.txt does not exist when the program is started, it is copied from
config.txt.default.) In there, you can specify various options.
activeColor (default: 255,0,0): The Red-Green-Blue specification for the
active colour of the project nodes.
alwaysOnTop (default: true): Determines whether the window should be
always on top of other windows.
autoCountTowards (default: previous): See option waitInSeconds. The
previous option counts towards the last selected project. The unknown
option counts towards the "unknown" root project. The nothing option does
not count towards anything.
behaviour (default: minimise): The window state to go to after the user
has selected a project. Option hide removes the program even from the
taskbar, while show keeps the window visible.
defaultColor (default: 0,255,0): The Red-Green-Blue specification for the
default colour of the project nodes.
height (default: 480): The starting height of the window.
intervalInSeconds (default: 3600): The period (in seconds) after which the
program will prompt you again.
locX (default: 600): The horizontal starting coordinate of the window.
locY (default: 400): The vertical starting coordinate of the window.
logFilename (default: log.txt): The filename of the log file.
projectsFilename (default: projects.txt): The filename of the projects
file. (If the specified file does not exist once the program starts, it is
copied from projects.txt.default.)
semiActiveColor (default: 100,100,200): The Red-Green-Blue specification
for the semi-active colour of the project nodes, i.e. the colour for a
previously active node within the waiting period.
waitInSeconds (default: 3600): The period (in seconds) after the prompt in
which any user interaction will result in automatically counting the time from
the prompt to the user interaction towards whatever is specified for the
autoCountTowards option.
width (default: 170): The starting width of the window.
writeTimeouts (default: false): If set to true, the program writes a log
entry whenever the end of a wait period is reached without being interrupted
by the user. The log entry consists of the start time and the end time equal
to the end time of the previous log entry, and is titled (timed out).
The projects are specified in the projects file (its path is specified within the configuration file). The syntax for specifying projects is:
main_project[{tooltip}]
sub_project[{tooltip}]
sub_sub_project[{tooltip}]
The top-level projects should be your main projects (projects that project
administration care about). Each name can have its tooltip appended in curly
brackets. See projects.txt.default for an example.
The program can be run either by compiling the source code yourself, or by running a JAR (a pre-compiled package).
Software required:
openjdk-6-jre),ant).The program can be run with
ant run
or just
ant
since run the the default target. Both of these options also compile the
program if required.
You can run the program in non-daemon mode using
ant no-daemon
This will block ant while the program runs, so you can close it with CTRL-C.
Software required:
openjdk-6-jre).On Windows, run
./run.bat
On Linux, run
./run.sh
The two scripts are identical, and contain a single command
java -jar RokClock.jar
The logs can be analysed either using a spreadsheet, or with the provided analyser.
The following instructions work for Excel 2007.
dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss for Type;=A2-A1;hh:mm:ss for Type;The source code and the pre-compiled JAR both contain the class
rokclock.Analyser. If you have a pre-compiled JAR available, you can start it
with
java -cp RokClock.jar rokclock.Analyser <logFilename> [<start date inclusive> <stop date exclusive>]
If you have the source code available, you can start it with
ant compile
java -cp bin rokclock.Analyser <logFilename> [<start date inclusive> <stop date exclusive>]
The main window of the program now has a "Review & Save" button, which opens up a new window where the sums for the top-level projects are displayed for any specified time period. The computed values can be manually modified within the program. The output file has the CSV format, and contains a line for each top-project name, together with the fraction of time spent on it.
All feedback is much appreciated. Please send it to my email, or simply post it on Ohloh.
If you would like to report an issue, or make a feature request, please do so here.
Thanks.