Task Tracking

Following the large amount of requests from the VFX and animation studios, a new tab – “Task Tracking” – has been created. It is designed for more intuitive “matrix” displaying the current situation on the project, divided into standard process steps.

In order that this tab function properly, the project must have a tree-like structure with a depth of at least three levels, for example: “Sequence” -> “Shot” -> “Task”. In this case, when “Sequence” is selected in Navigator, then the rows of the table will show “Shots”, and columns – “Tasks” (note: it is not a “Task” name that is used as a column heading but a task-related “Activity” name).

At the bottom of the window task progress statistics can be displayed on the Activities within the observed threads of the project and also the number of tasks that are marked with some tag.
For a correct collection of these statistics it is required that tags must be appointed at the “Shot” level, and “activities” – at the “Task” level. Statistics display is switched on / off by the button.

The button is to pin down the current thread displayed in Task Tracking window, i.e.,  when the button is turned on, the transition to the other task threads in the Navigator does not affect the contents of the Task Tracking window.

The button switches the type of data displayed in the cells: when it is turned on, the cells display the names of allocated users, with off – the numeric value of the progress of the task. By default, the button is on.

Same as the Navigator, the Task Tracking window supports inline-editing of table cells.

A double left-click will select the same cell (task) in the Navigator.

New Notification Types

With the introduction of a new task displaying filter in the users ToDo lists(see below), similar filters are introduced also to the e-mail notification system. The configuration is done in the user profile properties window. For this to happen, two new fields are introduced: “E-mail Notification Settings on new assignments available” and “E-mail Notification Settings on upcoming assignment start time”.

Thus, the user can choose the most convenient mode of getting notifications that new tasks are available to him, as well as warnings for the approaching start of the planned tasks.

Assigned Tasks Filtering

On the “To Do List” tab, a new filter has appeared to hide the assigned tasks, which are currently unavailable to start working on.

The logic behind the filter function is as follows: if a task is connected to the predecessors tasks, and currently they are not finished / not closed, then, it is considered that it is impossible to take over the task and start working on it. If all the predecessor tasks are completed (closed) or non-existent, then the task is available for execution and does not get hidden by the filter.

The filter is useful when a user is working on a long-time project with a large number of interconnected tasks.

Documentation Updates

Two new sections are published in the technical documentation for Cerebro SDK, namely:

• Python API to the Memoria database and to the Cargador service,
• XML-RPC API to the Cargador service.

For the next release the following chapters are being prepared:

• SQL API to the Memoria database,
• HTML API to the Cargador service.

Besides, the new Cerebro Installation Guide has been issued.