A Change of Direction for the Time Being

I’ve been focusing on new development and JavaScript for quite a while but need to spend more time grinding through books and online courses. I’ve been extending a PHP/MySQL/Bootstrap project for a while and need to get it finished so I can use it.

The problem with projects like this is that, since I can’t practicably maintain different versions of back end software, I can’t post active examples that demo a given day’s code updates. I guess we’ll have to live with code listings and, poooooossibly, working examples of changes made to the front end. That said, changes to back end software can easily break older front end examples, so I may choose to stick with listings and static screen captures.

In the meantime I’ll be updating the project I started as part of the The Complete MySQL Developer Course by Rob Percival on Udemy.com. It’s a simple To Do List application and since the emphasis is on MySQL the UI is pretty basic. I wanted to spruce up the UI to make it responsive using Bootstrap and add features from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. That part wasn’t difficult but I’m currently working through something a bit more complex (to me, at this time…).

I am adding the ability to track multiple time slices for different activities. This requires the addition of a new database table and some new UI functionality and interactivity. Here are the two important screenshots:

I’m not worrying about the Main screen for now (the upper one), I’m working through additions to the lower screen for individual activities. You can see an ugly-looking menu in the upper right corner, some random debugging information in the upper whitespace, and the section of interest shown with different colored regions. I colored the regions so I can see how the responsive sections realign as the screen or window changes size.

The header and footer regions are straightforward. The left section in light blue contains some basic information in the upper part and some 7 Habits information as a radio button selector in the lower part. The idea behind the latter item is to ensure you’re generating activities that address all areas of your life. Right right section in light red includes a few items from top to bottom. At the top is another radio button selector that characterizes the activity in terms of urgency and importance (most people tend to neglect class II activities and allow too much time to bleed away in class IV activities). The next item is the subject of my current efforts, the list of time slices so far devoted to the activity in question. Below that is a summation of total elapsed time and below that is a means to define the time to be allotted to the activity. Finally there’s a checkbox to indicate that the item has been completed.

Most of the time slice display is generated using a separate PHP file that includes a separate MySQL query. The trick it to be able to keep updating that part of the display while the screen is still visible. This involves adding entries to the database and modifying the information in the table cells, or adding new table rows entirely.

There are loads of additional concerns but for right now these are the basics.

Last but not least I’ve been doing the development in Cloud9, but I’ll eventually install it somewhere on my site as it gets closer to being done.

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