Bug regarding due/overdue items
 

Hi there,

I've discovered a 2-part bug in OmniFocus for Mac regarding due/overdue items. You can duplicate these bugs in OmniFocus for Mac by taking these steps:

1. Go into OmniFocus' Preferences>Data. Set "Due Soon" to "2 days", and check the box that says "in the sidebar". Close the preferences.

2. Choose "View>Planning Mode"

3. Choose "File>Add Project". Name the project whatever you want. Make the project a parallel project, not a sequential project.

4. Within that project, add an action. Let's type the words "Do Homework" for that action.

5. Choose "Edit>Outlining>Add Child". Type "Math Homework" and assign it a due date of tomorrow.

6. Hit return to create another child of "Do Homework". Type "English Homework" and assign it a due date of tomorrow.

7. Immediately, you will notice bug #1: In the sidebar, it lists the incorrect number "1" for the number of due items for that project, instead of the correct number "2". Ironically, OmniFocus on the iPhone handles this behavior correctly by correctly showing the number "2", but OmniFocus for the Mac doesn't handle this behavior correctly.

8. Next, choose "View>Show View Bar".

9. On the view bar, make the following selections:
Project Filter: All Projects
Grouping: Ungrouped
Sorting: Unsorted
Status Filter: Due Soon
Estimated Time Filter: Any Duration
Flag Filter: Any Flag State

10. Now you will notice bug #2: Even though both of those children actions are due soon, they do not show up on your screen. OmniFocus is inadvertently hiding them because they are children. If you moved those children to be PARENTS, they would show up. But as children, they do not show up. Again, the iPhone actually handles this behavior properly, but the Mac does not.

Thanks,
Scott

I couldn’t reproduce your bug following your steps (for the first one). I show two due soon actions in the sidebar.

I did see the second behavior that you described. Of course, they do show up properly in context view.

Thanks, Lucas.

Very weird... I quit & relaunched OmniFocus and I can no longer reproduce the first bug either anymore!

The second one is still a problem, as you said, so I am now looking at those in context view (like you suggested).

Thanks!

Oh wait, I see what the first bug is. I was wrong about the first bug. Here's how to reproduce it:

If you have one action which is overdue and one action which is due soon -- and they're both within the same project -- the sidebar badge will only show you the number which corresponds to the overdue action, even though OmniFocus' Preferences say that it will show BOTH "due soon AND overdue actions" in the sidebar.

That's what the bug is.

If you only have "due soon" actions for a particular project, it adds up all the "due soon" actions in sidebar for that project. If you only have "overdue" actions for a particular project, it adds up all the "overdue" actions for that project. But as soon as you have BOTH "due soon" and "overdue" actions for a particular project, it only gives you a count of the "overdue" actions.

That's not a bug, that's the intended behavior. It shows you the count of the most severe class, so to speak. Yes, the iPhone app will sum them if you configure it to do so, but the desktop app doesn't work that way. So, if there are any overdue actions, you get the count of overdue actions, otherwise, you get the count of any due soon actions, otherwise you get the count of actions (Inbox only).

Nah, I'm reporting this as a bug to The Omni Group. The preferences don't say "Show Due Soon **OR** Overdue Actions"... the preferences say "Show Due Soon **AND** Overdue Actions", and that's the behavior I'd like to see. Plus, it's clearly what The Omni Group intended because that's how the iPhone app behaves.

[QUOTE=scotty321;72606]Nah, I'm reporting this as a bug to The Omni Group. The preferences don't say "Show Due Soon **OR** Overdue Actions"... the preferences say "Show Due Soon **AND** Overdue Actions", and that's the behavior I'd like to see. Plus, it's clearly what The Omni Group intended because that's how the iPhone app behaves.[/QUOTE]
Never mind that this behavior long predates the feature in the iPhone app -- this behavior goes back to pre-1.0 versions, and is documented in the historical release notes (Nov. 8, 2007):
[indent]
Added counters in the sidebar for projects, folders, and contexts for the number of due soon or overdue actions they contain. Overdue trumps due soon. There isn't yet a counter for inbox items; this is yet to come.
[/indent]
Also, the documentation states:[indent]
If you choose to show an indicator in the menu bar, you can click it to see how many due soon [b]or[/b] overdue items you have in your inbox and your individual contexts; choose an item from this menu to open an OmniFocus window on it.
[/indent](emphasis mine)

You should definitely send feedback in if you would like to see different behavior.

Ahhh, very interesting. Okay, cool... I'll submit it as a feature request. It's really quite confusing, to say the least! :) Thanks!