Can AwareIM allow users to create tree hierarchies on the fly – which is the foundation of all project management applications?
The AwareIM demo application for Project Management is strangely missing one key component of project management: a hierarchical task list.
AwareIM can display recursive information in a tree as demonstrated in the Tree tutorial where a parent record is created and then children associated with that parent are created.
AwareIM allows new items to be added for its menus tree just by right clicking: Add item.
But can AwareIM combine these capabilities in a really useful way: Allow the creation of hierarchical trees on the fly? In tree mode, can a parent be added, and then his children created under his record, and their children under them, etc. without doing this piecemeal which is what the Tree video demonstrates?
Most project plans are built up in outline form first, then fleshed out with details. Can this be done with AwareIM? In other words, create the hierarchy of people first, then click on a record to maintain other details such as sex, age, hobbies, etc.
I’ve accomplished this using MS Access with a hierarchical grid control from Exontrol,com, so it can be done for the desktop, but what about the web?
Two display approaches are possible:
The first column is displayed in hierarchical fashion, with appropriate numbering and indenting, and all other columns (start date, end date, responsible person)as a traditional list, a horizontal grid. This is the approach taken by a killed by Symantec, but cult-followed product called ECCO, http://www.compusol.org/ecco/outlining.html
Other hierarchical lists permit the first column of information to be displayed in hierarchical fashion, with the details of the selected hierarchy line displayed in a vertical grid, with start date, end date, and responsible person on three lines instead of one.
Microsoft’s Lightswitch product takes this approach as shown here: [click view large button]
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/ca292c74-661c-48ba-8262-d79a2671c33f
The Ecco approach and the AwareIM menu approaches do not require specification of a parent record. It is implicit when the user right clicks and Adds item.
Ideally, I would like to be able to use both approaches in an application.
The fact that AwareIM has a built in calendar is a good sign. But can hierarchical project task lists be built, and can those task lists be displayed in Gantt chart form based on start and end dates, as is possible with FileMaker Pro?
If none of this is natively possible with AwareIM, can the product use third party controls when there is no programming language? Specifically the kinds of controls sold be Exontrol.com and Codejock.com?
Thanks,
Bob McGaffic
PS: Sorry for the lack of images. I can't figure how to attach them. Where is the paperclip icon?
