Feng Forum

Announcements => Announcements => : melky July 07, 2011, 08:58:18 PM

: Feng Office Mobile!
: melky July 07, 2011, 08:58:18 PM
Feng Mobile Brainstorming, post your ideas, join the project, collaborate...
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: fengy July 11, 2011, 03:18:57 PM
hi there! a few ideas from my side:

I would like to have a native iPhone application that allows me to browse my tasks and see what can I do when I'm on the way.

For me it is important to be able to filter tasks easely, because I'm trying to organize my work according to David Allen's GTD and that's why I'm using tags to mark my contexts: @Home, @Work, @City, @Agenda, @Phone

I would like to access my list of tasks tagged @City when I'm on the way, away from my Desktop machine.

One of the most popular GTD apps for the iPhone is Things: hxxp://culturedcode.com/things/iphone/. ...It provides only tasks management.

Another good-to-have feature would be to sync fengoffice contacts with my iPhone's contacts.


Greetz!  :)


: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: fengy July 11, 2011, 03:24:59 PM
I would like to see an elegant design solution...something like:

- actionmethod.com/
- basecamp

Cheers !
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: Mateus July 11, 2011, 05:32:44 PM
Such a mobile app is something i REALY need.
And i would like to see there my translations, and timeslots :)
i am using Fengoffice for registering my freelance jobs. And mobile app will be helpfull.

But the most needed feature is Google contacts/docs/calendar sync... but thats for Fengoffice @all not just Mobile
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: melky July 12, 2011, 12:23:55 AM
Hi there, thanks for collaborate!
I think that either a google or an iphone sync is a great idea, a nice feature for Feng if I may say :D.
   -    You mentioned tasks and timeslots, which other feature would you like Feng mobile to have?
   -    Would you prefer  a native or a mobile web app?
   -    Facebook, linkedin, twitter integraton?

Hehe it may sound like an interrogation but we really appreciate your feedback and we want everyone to participate!
Keep it up
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: Murz July 12, 2011, 11:49:20 AM
I think that mobile version must not repeat full version with full fengoffice functional. It must give only minumum functional that you can need in mobile:
1. View tasks by url from email (with comments), notes, contacts.
2. Add comments to current task, open-close task
3. Search within tasks, notes and contacts.
4. Small widget for time tracking: We has write for our neads already separate widget in jquery, that works directly with database, so users can see his current tasks, start, pause and stop tasks, here is screenshot: http://wstaw.org/m/2011/07/12/plasma-desktopTx2464.jpg After some bug-fixing we will post source in this forum.

And very useful for mobile users are exporting and syncing contacts, events, tasks via public interfaces:

Contacts: VCARD file (already exists), CardDAV (like vcard with small changes and 2-way sync), SyncML (will be good to do the 2-way sync),
Calendar and Tasks: iCal (already exists, but need improvements), SyncML.


: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: elbouillon July 12, 2011, 12:12:15 PM
I think feng moobile must be as simple as possible and as compatible toi. So nô native apps, but html5 and little use of Javascript would fit m'y needs (has in my company www have both, iPad, iPhone, android pad and phones)

To have contact access, and file (document)
Calendar could be sync native phone app via an URL and open protocol.
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: karlstatt July 12, 2011, 01:00:33 PM
At first I thought that a simple solution would be sufficient. But that's not very reasonable, because I don't want to have a look on my data, I want to synchronize to use my smartphone with full functionally support.

If you could do in a first step, the full synchronization for contacts, appointments and tasks, that would be a great asset.

Have a look at www.tine20.org, the sync is working very well on Android, in cooperation with RoadSync.

It would be best, of course, if a relationship with the workbenches would be possible. I would be happy if these basic functions would be available soon - preferably an Android app, I would pay of course.
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: karlstatt July 13, 2011, 02:36:05 PM
Today I tested GroupOffice. Sync is working very well with ActiveSync and z-push.

I have no more needs than synchronizing dates, contacts and tasks like GroupOffice and Tine20 do.
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: tomopix July 14, 2011, 11:01:38 AM
Hello,
a long awaited feature, I'm very excited about it.

Web based mobile site would be the best approach for the first release as you probably won't be able to provide native apps for iPhone / iPad / Blackberry / Android / Nokia / Palm etc... platforms at the same time.
Mobile website would be a GREAT enhancement anyway compared to what we have right now.
Essential functions for mobile site:
 - Allow direct link open to follow email notifications coming from the system
 - View / add comments
 - View / download files
 - View / sort / edit / complete tasks
 - View contacts
 - View / add / edit notes calendar events

Sync features are another story which would also be much appreciated! SyncML is quite uniform and can be adopted on all mobile/desktop platform.
Syncing calendar, tasks, notes, contacts, docs would be great.

A desktop gadget or even a windows integration for save dialog for adding files to the system quickly would bring us the heaven to the earth. :-)
 
Anyway, go on FengOffice, we love you!  :)

Tamás
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: kaje July 14, 2011, 06:24:07 PM
I would suggest a navigation like this:

Beginning from the home screen (H) you can swipe vertically to switch between the workspaces and horizontally to reach the specific pages like mail, documents etc.

H  a  b

1 a1 b1

2 a2 b2

When you are at documents within your own workspace u can easily switch between all other documents pages. with the zoom gesture you could reach a screen with two drop-down menus to select the specific page you are looking for.
Don't forget to add a breadcrumb : )

To avoid a conflict between switching pages vertically and scrolling you might have to enter a page you selected with the zoom gesture or a double tab.

On the home screen I'd display recent milestones, activities, emails, added/ changed notes, etc.. and on top my tasks and to dos.
Each one is represented with an icon and the typical notifications circle in the upper right corner.

The view mode within might be lists. When editing a text the options are only visible when not displaying the keyboard.

What do you think?

In any case I am sure, that you will develop a great mobile solution.

: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: melky July 15, 2011, 03:25:40 PM
WELL thanks all for the great IDEAS!
Keep it up we wanna now what you need
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: yannick-guerin July 17, 2011, 10:02:44 AM
Hello everybody,

As karlstatt said, I think first of all we need full synchronisation with other PIM applications,PDAs, smartphones, etc...

And then, on top of that, why not build native applications, with all the project, docs, management side.

That's because smartphones already have calendars,tasks management and contact management, and IMHO,  we just need this to synchronised and immediately usable in other applications or in our phones.

To achieve this, I suggest looking to ActiveSync or SyncML, or both at same time. I'm not an expert at all and rathert a newbie when it comes to sync, but with these two technologies there's a great chance to cover 90% of cases (thunderbird still doesn't support both, but phones supports at least one of them).

You can start working with two libraries that proved they work:

z-push.sourceforge.net/soswp/ that is used with Zarafa for ActiveSync

wiki.horde.org/SyncMLCustomBackend?referrer=SyncML that is developed for Horde Project, download from Horde Pear : pear.horde.org/, search for package Horde_SyncMl

This pear repository contains other libraries that can be useful when it comes to sync.

I use php at work but only works on backends (no GUI or so), if help is needed, I have some time until September.

Of course, it will be better if the solution could handle with the workspace concept. My idea is that PIM is managed on a personal basis. Then one could register to some workspace sync. Later on, when synchronising his phone for example, fengoffice looks after each registration for sync and send/recieve informations based on this workspaces. That's easy in Fengoffice -> phone way, but could be tricky in the phone -> Fengoffice way.


Could you give some news on the progress of this project?

Yannick

ps: I had some problem with inserting links (not allowed to post links said the board...) so I edited this quite a lot and then deleted it. To moderators: If there are double post, feel free to delete them
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: Anders E July 18, 2011, 10:44:04 PM
If I may wish for free, it would be that all the Fengoffice functions were in one app.
But focus on mail, task, calendar, workspace.

Must be able to search on the tags so you can find for example all call or shopping to do.

Would also be greet whit task and Event Location Mapping so you can get a reminder when you are at such customer or the bank.

Today I use informants who are fantastic, as are GTD and calendar.
(.webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=pocketinformant_iphone)
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: pranger July 19, 2011, 12:38:04 PM
I think everyone agrees that the first step is to sync calandar, contacts and tasks. And by syncing, I mean two way sync. One way sync would allow us to carry our personal information everywhere, but two way sync would be a huge time saver. Especially when considering applications like the Business Card Reader to create contact and then share it with the team using Feng Office.

An important precision on syncing is that tasks and calendar sync should be on a user basis. It's usefull to be able to check the calendars of others for their availabilities, but when syncing, getting their calendar along with mine, even on a workspace basis, makes the actual calendar syncing feature totally useless to me. 

As for the next priority, I think creating an interface adapted to mobile phones should be done quickly. It's the only way to get access to the entire application with the full features without re-writing the whole application.

Finally a feature I could use is the ability to manage pictures easily from my mobile phone. Of course this might require additionnal functionalities like a gallery within the Web app, or maybe a "drop box" on the phone. Mobile phones now have decent cameras and allow sharing pictures on social media, and Feng Office could take care of the team collaboration features associated with pictures in a working environment, like field inspection (ex : for building designers and builders), sharing design ideas, taking a picture of notes or drawings on a whiteboard used at a meeting, etc.

Hope this helps. Thanks for the great app.

Patrick
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: melky July 19, 2011, 07:01:03 PM
FROM "yannick-guerin"


Hello everybody,

As karlstatt said, I think first of all we need full synchronisation with other PIM applications,PDAs, smartphones, etc...

And then, on top of that, why not build native applications, with all the project, docs, management side.

That's because smartphones already have calendars,tasks management and contact management, and IMHO,  we just need this to synchronised and immediately usable in other applications or in our phones.

To achieve this, I suggest looking to ActiveSync or SyncML, or both at same time. I'm not an expert at all and rathert a newbie when it comes to sync, but with these two technologies there's a great chance to cover 90% of cases (thunderbird still doesn't support both, but phones supports at least one of them).

You can start working with two libraries that proved they work:

z-push.sourceforge.net/soswp/ that is used with Zarafa for ActiveSync

wiki.horde.org/SyncMLCustomBackend?referrer=SyncML that is developed for Horde Project, download from Horde Pear : pear.horde.org/, search for package Horde_SyncMl

This pear repository contains other libraries that can be useful when it comes to sync.

I use php at work but only works on backends (no GUI or so), if help is needed, I have some time until September.

Of course, it will be better if the solution could handle with the workspace concept. My idea is that PIM is managed on a personal basis. Then one could register to some workspace sync. Later on, when synchronising his phone for example, fengoffice looks after each registration for sync and send/recieve informations based on this workspaces. That's easy in Fengoffice -> phone way, but could be tricky in the phone -> Fengoffice way.


Could you give some news on the progress of this project?

Yannick

ps: I had some problem with inserting links (not allowed to post links said the board...) so I edited this quite a lot and then deleted it. To moderators: If there are double post, feel free to delete them

Regards,

Yannick

: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: melky July 19, 2011, 07:02:59 PM
FROM: yannick-guerin
Hello everybody,

As karlstatt said, I think first of all we need full synchronisation with other PIM applications,PDAs, smartphones, etc...

And then, on top of that, why not build native applications, with all the project, docs, management side.

That's because smartphones already have calendars,tasks management and contact management, and IMHO,  we just need this to synchronised and immediately usable in other applications or in our phones.

To achieve this, I suggest looking to ActiveSync or SyncML, or both at same time. I'm not an expert at all and rathert a newbie when it comes to sync, but with these two technologies there's a great chance to cover 90% of cases (thunderbird still doesn't support both, but phones supports at least one of them).

You can start working with two libraries that proved they work:

z-push.sourceforge.net/soswp/ that is used with Zarafa for ActiveSync

wiki.horde.org/SyncMLCustomBackend?referrer=SyncML that is developed for Horde Project, download from Horde Pear : pear.horde.org/, search for package Horde_SyncMl

This pear repository contains other libraries that can be useful when it comes to sync.

I use php at work but only works on backends (no GUI or so), if help is needed, I have some time until September.

Of course, it will be better if the solution could handle with the workspace concept. My idea is that PIM is managed on a personal basis. Then one could register to some workspace sync. Later on, when synchronising his phone for example, fengoffice looks after each registration for sync and send/recieve informations based on this workspaces. That's easy in Fengoffice -> phone way, but could be tricky in the phone -> Fengoffice way.


Could you give some news on the progress of this project?

Yannick

ps: I had some problem with inserting links (not allowed to post links said the board...) so I edited this quite a lot and then deleted it. To moderators: If there are double post, feel free to delete them

Regards,

Yannick

: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: Rendrix July 25, 2011, 11:04:08 AM
+1 for strong focus on 2-way sync of:

1. Calendar
2. Tasks (including filters similar to webapp)
3. Contacts

Yay... so happy to hear this has made it to the near-future-todo. I love feng but hey... the things we endure do to get mobile support makes any progress much appreciated ;) (E.g. my poor mans sync described in forum post "Update local Android calendar from feng calendar feed (one way )" 

Thanks feng team for your excellent work... now go go go :)

P.S. I'm on Android & Feng 1.72
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: fengy August 04, 2011, 06:39:36 AM
I have a dream:

native Fengoffice for iPhone and iPad + cloud sync :)

I know that currently only a mobile version is developed, but it would be great to have a native version of Fengoffice for iPhone and iPad!  This will enhance the user experience and will work faster than an online mobile version.
Such a solution can store task data locally and sync with the online system via the cloud, so that even if there's no internet connection, one can still use fengoffice locally and sync it later.



Greetz
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: fengy August 07, 2011, 05:02:02 AM
btw I think that you shoul think about optmizing fengoffice for tablets along smartphones.

There are more and more tablets sold everyday
I've tried fengoffice on an iPad and althought it can be used, it does not provide a good user experience: you have to scroll with two fingers over the task window(because of the inner div); have to click several times on an item, etc.

You can have a a look at the omniFocus for iPad for ex. It has a nice interface(I'm not affiliate in any way with omnigroup):
youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zpYW2TX7U



Best
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: cluge August 08, 2011, 10:30:43 PM
Have a way to automate connecting a workspace to an imap folder.

Lots of mobile apps have imap clients that work well. Some of the data is even stored in imap (see address book on nokia, or notes ah la apple ipad). Having the application be able to tie a folder to a workspace allows folks to use their mobile mail client and have their information show up in feng office in the correct workspaces.

Currently you can almost hack this functionality by creating several email accounts that are all the same except that each will ignore all folders but one and then that dumps to a workspace (kludge).  The big problem is that the kludge is only one direction and isn't well integrated (many folders = messy). Ideally if I assign an email to a workspace that I have associated with an imap folder, Feng needs to move the mail message to that folder on the IMAP server.

Respectfully,

: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: fengy August 09, 2011, 02:08:30 AM
one more thing concerning the interface of Feng Mobile:

Maybe you can reuse some of the ideas found in Springpad(springpadit.com), because It provides notes, tasks and contacts.

Hope that helps.
Best
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: msuzenne August 22, 2011, 04:54:09 PM
Hi,

that would really be a must to have fengoffice on smartphone with a good user experience in mind !

aiming this, I think the KISS (keep It Simple Stupid) would go as the credo here : so, as @tomopix said here before, why not begin with no native version at all, but just with a really good ergonomic web one.
Speaking about ergonomy, the proposition written here before by @kaje is very interesting : switching workspaces by vertical glide, and switching apps (mail, tasks, docs, ... ) via lateral glide, seems to be a good approach. I think this would be really feasible in the same ways AJaX is used in the desktop flavor (wouldn't be ignacio, conrado ?).

Speaking about features now, here is what I think as a minimum :

- events (calendar), contacts, tasks, notes, mail, docs, the first four being absolutely the bare minimum for a good integrated PIM.

- all these being advertised in a (default first view/screen) "today" overview.

Just enabling this would recall the forgotten good integrated PIM of the "palmpilot" (I never saw such a good PIM on pockets since ! IPhone ? Android ? Others ? None of them was able to accomplish the simple but efficient and polish way palm done it IMHO !)

After this first goal is reached, it would be necessary to focus on syncing : import/export to popular (and standard !) format like vCard, vCalendar, at the first time (since it is already quite implemented). And then, real syncing (two-way syncing at best) using popular and standard ways again (i.e. SyncML).

Hey, guys, this night I had a dream : this was tomorrow ... I was getting on the net, on the fengoffice site ... and ... WOW ! INCREDIBLE : OpenGoo was back again as a reminiscence in the form of an application (and the associated widget) for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Maemo, Symbian, Bada, WinMobile ! This was yet a couple of days the web version optimised for smartphones was available for download (and I needed it), and these natives ones were the final point I wished secretly ...
What a lovely dream, isn't it ? Yes the ultimate dream is peace and abondance everywere for everyone ... but that's not all bad for a start, no ?  ;)
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: velociraptor September 05, 2011, 07:32:56 PM
A small task widget would be great, in addition to the full app.

I'm currently using the Task List Android app with a small widget on my homepage showing me things I need to do that day, and I store other tasks within other tabs in the Task List app (it has tabs for different 'lists', and you can choose which lists appear in the widget) temporarily before I transfer them to Feng Office.

So it would be awesome to have a tasks widget with a filter that lets you choose what tasks to show (by due date, urgency, tag, workspace etc).

Also what would be useful - customizable phone desktop icons that allow you to skip directly to a particular set of tasks (for example, all tasks tagged 'shopping') so you don't have to navigate through the entire app when you want a quick reminder of what food you were supposed to buy.

That would be awesome, and I appreciate the Feng team going directly to users for feature requests.  Thanks guys!
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: franponce87 September 16, 2011, 11:56:57 AM
Thank you all for your interesting feedback and inputs!

By the way, we are still working on this. Once we are over with it, you all will be aware!

Keep it up!

Best regards,
Francisco
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: keithcarl October 25, 2011, 02:28:23 PM
Feng Office Mobile.  Yeah... That would make it complete for me.  Alright, so let's get to work...

Google synchronization -  I badly want synchronization with my contacts (Google Contacts, as I use the Android OS) and Google Documents, but even more importantly I need synchronization with Google Calendar.  My needs require that I use the alarm that is always with me, in my phone, for appointments.   Currently I can’t use Feng Office for my calender because it won’t alert me to a meetings with an active alarm.  Better yet, include an alarm with the Feng Mobile app. 

Synchronization with Feng Office -  Please make Feng Mobile a stand-alone application that synchronizes with Feng Office.  Ideally, it would be a stand alone app that would “stay” synchronized with Feng Office, keeping everything live and current.  When communication with the server is broken, it should go unnoticed by the user except for maybe a pop-up announcing it.  Then, when communication returns, synchronization would take place in the background, again unnoticed by the user. 

Customization -   With such a small screen, customizing of views seems important to me.  Scrolling up and down is still the most efficient way of accessing off-screen information when viewing logical data.  Please expand up and down and not out the sides of the screen.

Landing Page -   Some landing pages are obvious to include: Overview, Email, Tasks, Calendar, or any module or combination of modules.  I would also like to see a landing page of customizable buttons that would include information and take you directly to a specific view.  Maybe the size of the buttons could be customizable as well along with the module summary information.  The header bar of each could be sectioned to offer space that would go directly to that module and a space to minimize the module.

Workspace Window (and Tags) - I would like to customize whether or not the Workspace Window is on-screen or whether it is accessible via the menu button only, or both.  Another possibility is the “faded see-thru button” on screen that would open the window. 

Module Tabs - I also want to customize the Module tabs and choose whether or not they are on-screen or accessible only through the menu button, or both.  I would also like to choose whether the Module tabs are fixed on-screen or whether they would scroll away when scrolling.

Miscellaneous -  *Include in the Notes Module a place for GPS co-ordinance.  *I would like to see Feng Mobile show up in my “Send-To” options in different applications.  It would be nice to go directly from the camera, web browser, or any other application, straight to Feng Mobile.  *I would like to see Widgets full of Module summary information, all customizable of course.  *I would also like to see single-icon-size, widgets or shortcuts that would take you directly to a specific module.   I want to be able to go directly to my calendar for contacts from my desktop.  *I would also like to see Feng Mobile include a Module for Lists, but then I'd like to see that in Feng Office, also. 

That’s all.  Is next week good for you? ;D

By the way, I forgot to mention, I am new to Feng Office and I love what you've created.  Great work!  Thanks so much.
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: franponce87 October 31, 2011, 11:39:21 AM
Hi there, welcome to Feng Office Forums!

Next week sounds awesome!! Would you be able to have it done by then? :P


Feng Mobile is still being worked on, and some of those features would be included, and some others not.. at least not yet, but who knows in the future ;) Thanks a lot for your input!

Best regards,
Francisco
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: simonwenger December 05, 2011, 04:46:09 PM
I would very much appreciate, to have the possibility to use even when offline. I keep adding tasks while on the go... :-)
So  +1 for the sync votes above!

thanks, this sounds terrific! sw
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: notifiedme February 04, 2012, 01:39:16 PM
I do agree for the synchronization. This must be useful and efficient resources.
Another think, if may request, will be good if it can be a native apps.
I really like when I have a schedule for what ever, it reminds  me with a pop-up on my phone screen.
And if there is new assign task, or updates, it could be cool if it can be pop-up to the screen.

This will be very usefull application in term of the way to be productive.

Best Regards..
: Re: Feng Office Mobile!
: lexoyo April 24, 2012, 07:56:12 PM
Hello
I have found this thread from last year
I wanted to tell you that I have a very simple web app which displays the content of feng office
Next step is to add edit capabilities
And to release it as open source of course :) At least if some people are interested in it
Let me know if you want to help for some tests