Any plans for a web based application to support iPhone?

[jdesouza]

Hello,

I've been using OmniFocus for a couple of weeks now, and while I think it's as good as a standalone application as I've yet to see - it's major downfall is it's inability to seamlisly sync to anything other than your Mac, and only if you have omnifocus already installed. I use several computers on a day to day basis (work computer, laptop, and my own personal mac, friends computers), and would like some sort of web based application to support this - it's even a service i would pay for. Are there any plans for this?

[JRArseneau]

I'm not sure if you'll get an official response, but I'm in the same boat. Unfortunately I use Windows at work and it's sometimes annoying to type everything on my iphone.. Oh well, OF is the best thing to happen to my productivity, so I'm OK with it.. for now anyway.

[Lizard]

Nope. No plans for a web app that doesn't run on the same computer as OmniFocus for Mac. (There's another thread on this forum discussing that webapp.)

[nunez]

How about an API for the .ofocus files then? This would have usefulness far beyond just a web application. You could update and manipulate your GTD 'life' in many ways if we could read/write directly to the data store.

[Lizard]

Technically, we do have an API. OmniFocus for the Mac has an AppleScript library. I realize that isn't a good option for someone who doesn't own a Mac, but it is an API. That's how all the widgets shared on the other OmniFocus forums work.

[nunez]

Technically, we do have an API. OmniFocus for the Mac has an AppleScript library. I realize that isn't a good option for someone who doesn't own a Mac, but it is an API. That's how all the widgets shared on the other OmniFocus forums work.
Hmmm. An AppleScript library is actually what I was thinking of. Is this available outside of OmniFocus for Mac? If I'm using, for example, Outlook or Entourage to implement GTD, we could use AppleScript (or another API) to sync?

Being able to read & write .ofocus files (independently of the Mac version) could lead to a bunch of other cool things to do on the iPhone & WebDav.

[Lizard]

The AppleScript library for OmniFocus requires OmniFocus for Mac. We have no plans to make it independent.

[nunez]

The AppleScript library for OmniFocus requires OmniFocus for Mac. We have no plans to make it independent.
How about a definition of the XML schema then? Reading/writing the XML files isn't that hard; less than ideal (like a formal, supported, API), but still possible for the dedicated.

[ptone]

How about a definition of the XML schema then? Reading/writing the XML files isn't that hard; less than ideal (like a formal, supported, API), but still possible for the dedicated.

if one were serious about writing a GTD webapp that did what OF does, reverse engineering the XML from Omnigroup yourself would only be a small fraction of your total effort.

I think if someone was serious about this, and put in real time with some real results, the Omni-dudes would answer questions you still had about XML structure, client IDs, what have you.

But until such time, I don't see why they would spend the time needed to document a non-open spec that they continue to modify to improve their product.

-P

[nunez]

if one were serious about writing a GTD webapp that did what OF does, reverse engineering the XML from Omnigroup yourself would only be a small fraction of your total effort.

I think if someone was serious about this, and put in real time with some real results, the Omni-dudes would answer questions you still had about XML structure, client IDs, what have you.

But until such time, I don't see why they would spend the time needed to document a non-open spec that they continue to modify to improve their product.

-P

Perhaps there's a mismatch of expectations. I am not suggesting someone write a web application (yeah, I hijacked the thread, perhaps a moderator will move it somewhere else, if appropriate). That would be a lot of work, and we've already got one effort stalled, and that had the advantage of contributed source!

Generally I think that the ability to send/receive information from the application is important, and the interface with the desktop version isn't what I have in mind. Even with the desktop application, there's quite a few things I, and probably others, would like to see done that would not be satisfied by that architecture (having your Mac running somewhere modifying the .ofocus file on a remote disk).

I think the problem was summed up nicely in the last sentence: "a non-open spec" -- I'd like to see an open way of getting information into and out of OmniFocus iPhone. With an accessible, documented API and a data file sitting on a WebDav drive somewhere, there are a lot of cool things that could be done with interesting little scripts and programs to make GTD on the iPhone simpler and more functional

Regards,

- Steve

[Andrew]

This is not an official response, but I don't think we're ready to commit to a static file format at this point - publishing the format either ties our hands with respect to making changes or encourages others to do a lot of work that we might invalidate with one of our changes. The more mature the application gets, the easier this would become (probably).

If it's something that's important to you, please send feedback (ideally via the Send Feedback item in the Help menu) to help us better gauge demand as we set future priorities. There may be ways that we can accommodate certain needs, or maybe there will be such demand as to raise the priority of this.