What's coming in ClearContext v5.2

[deva]

Hi everyone! This post is quite a bit overdue, but I've been holding off until we had a relatively good idea of features and timeline before posting. Our goal w/ 5.2 is to finish off the last chunk of 5.x core functionality and address a few bugs and feature requests from the 5.1 release. We're going to keep this release pretty small so we can get it out quickly and move forward on some bigger picture enhancements for our next major release.

First, timeline: We're aiming for a short beta in late August. This might slip a little bit, but we're working very hard to hit that date or soon after (first couple weeks of September). We'll contact our 5.1 beta list when we're ready to start testing the 5.2 release. If you're interested and weren't on that, send beta at clearcontext an email.

Next, features. I'll break it into a few areas:

Outlook 2010 64-bit support: 5.2 will support 2010 64-bit! See this thread for more details.

AutoAssign/Filing enhancements: This is the main area of new functionality in the 5.2 release, and completes our core v5.x development plan. We'll be making a number of enhancements to make AutoAssign rules creation and management simpler. But more importantly, we'll be adding infrastructure to automatically manage the ever-growing stream of automated emails sent by social networks, e-commerce sites, and all manner of other websites and companies. We're taking everything we learned from our first attempt at addressing that problem with Notification Managers and making the whole process much simpler and more automated. Lots more detail on this coming in the next couple of weeks.

More flexible date management: In both the Dashboard and Organizer, we're going to add more flexibility for viewing and manipulating both start dates and end dates. This will allow people to manage in ClearContext based on start dates while also moving us closer to more complete project management capabilities.

Organizer and Dashboard filters: We're still finalizing this, but we'll be adding more filters to the Organizer so you can view the data in a more flexible manner, whether you manage primarily by dates, projects, categories, etc. We're also working on ways to make it easier for people to view the exact tasks, appointments, and sub-project data they need to see.

Bugs: We've had a few startup and other performance issues in certain configurations in the 5.1 release, including some issues when other programs access Outlook when it's closed. We've also identified a few bugs with single folder filing (for people who don't use a folder structure for organization). We're working on these issues, as well as continuing to improve general performance, threading, and suggestion accuracy.

That's not an exhaustive list, but it's the core set of functionality we're working on for 5.2. Like the 5.1 thread, we'll be posting more detail on each of the sections as well as posting some screenshots in the coming weeks. Please feel free to ask any questions here, and of course any suggestions regarding specific functionality that you would love to see in this or upcoming releases.

[Djblois2]

So Deva,

are you saying that 5.2 will be the last of version 5.xx? Then it is on to 6.xx? I do not mind just wondering.

[deva]

That's correct, we currently don't have plans for any additional 5.x builds beyond this. I'd expect there to be some minor updates and fixes along the way, but at present we don't have any plans for big chunks of feature enhancements after 5.2 until the next major release.

[quochbt]

Hi Deva,
It seems the Scorecard area got missed somewhere as we moving toward v5.2. Just thinking that we should stick to the roadmap.

http://blog.clearcontext.com/2009/07

Statistics & Effectiveness Measurement

Our initial release of statistics and effectiveness measurement focuses very heavily on email – volumes, response times, and performance. We’re continuing to gather feedback on the data you find most useful in understanding your email activity, as well as continuing to refine the ways we measure your email management effectiveness. If you haven’t already, please visit ClearContext Online and let us know what you would like to see there.

In addition to email, ClearContext v5 will expand elements of the statistics and effectiveness modules into areas such as tasks, appointments, and project-focused measurement.

It seems Sue Mosher got an useful Sub....

Listing 15.10 Create a report in Excel on message response times
Sub ReportResponses(fld As Outlook.Folder)
Dim objTable As Outlook.Table
Dim objRow As Outlook.Row
' requires a reference to the
' Microsoft Office Excel library
Dim objEX As Excel.Application
Dim objWB As Excel.Workbook
Dim objWS As Excel.Worksheet
Dim intR As Integer
Dim val()
Const PR_LAST_VERB_EXECUTION_TIME = _
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10820040"
Const PR_LAST_VERB_EXECUTED = _
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x10810003"
On Error Resume Next
...............

[deva]

quochbt,

Thanks for the comment. The Scorecard hasn't been missed, it's just been moved so we can have more flexibility moving forward. The stats have been moved from the ClearContext Outlook app onto ClearContext Online so we can improve the stats capabilities independent of the actual software release cycle. We've been making some small enhancements behind the scenes and will continue to expand into other areas to better measure effectiveness beyond just email measurement. Our primary focus recently has been on making sure the 5.1 project dashboards and task organizer have the right set of functionality to help people manage their projects within Outlook, and we continue to improve that. As we get a better understanding of what exactly people want to track and analyze around task and project statistics, we'll be able to expand into those areas.

[quochbt]

Hi Deva,
Got you. So for project management, will there be any plan to add simple Gantt Chart capabilities? Thanks.

[rfage]

Thanks for the 64-bit support. I installed Outlook 64-bit before I found out about the current limitation. I just upgraded my support to lifetime and it is already paying off!

[Theo]

Hi ya,

Just wondering how 5.2 is coming along?

Theo

[deva]

Theo (and everyone else interested),

It took a little longer than expected to get 2010 x64 working, but we've now tested that with an alpha group and it's looking pretty good. And we have made a few more bug fixes and general performance improvements in addition to those in 5.1.1.

We are currently testing the new autofiling capabilities and hope to address a few dashboard and organizer suggestions. Once we're done with that we'll be ready to open up external beta testing.

So, we're a little bit behind schedule right now, but we're rapidly approaching feature complete. As we progress in our internal testing we'll update here over the next couple of weeks.

[Theo]

Cheers for the update, always prefer better than rushed :-)

[Leonadial]

Please can you let me know which of the following features are planned for the the Organiser view in 5.2?

1. Include Sub-Projects option when filtering for Pending tasks on Review tab
2. Ability to filter using more than one category. I use the !Next category to signify Next Actions as opposed to other project actions I choose to capture (not strictly GTD, I know), so it would be nice to be able to filter first by !Next and then by a context such as @Calls or @Email etc. This would be great!
3. Automatic count of tasks displayed for any given filter. I seem to recall we had this in the 5.0 ActionView
4. Saved filters, including combinations of project and category, like we had in ActionView.
5. Option to view only Tasks or only Appointment, again like was possible in ActionView
6. Option to create new tasks within Organiser view. For example, I would like to be able to select a project on the Project tab and create tasks which will automatically be assigned to that project
7. Option to remove or re-order columns in all organizer tabs. Personally I don't use the status column and would like to take it away or move it to the far right
8. Ability to filter for Priority tasks only in Review tab, still with Category filter

The ActionView in 5.0 had many of these features. I've been trying to get used to the Dashboard in 5.1 but I would still much prefer to have a separate window open all the time.

Thanks!

[gsutcliffe]

Been a long user of ClearContext and when I got my new machine last week I happily installed Office 2010 x64 when my Action Pack D&D was approved. Woops!! Add me to the list of beta testers when it comes out of Alpha (I'm a previous beta tester), I'm getting lost in all my emails.

Graham

[Scott - CC Support]

Graham - check your inbox.

[gsutcliffe]

Graham - check your inbox.

Thank you very much! Installed and good to go.

[Djblois2]

I would love to continue as a Beta Tester if you will permit.