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Connecting OP to OF Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I'll chime in for integration too. I hate hate hate to say it, but to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing some soft of OmniSuite, that might ease integration between OP, OF, and OO, with links perhaps to OG and OGS.

Really.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
Out of curiosity, how do you see the linkup working? OP has a number of interrelationships between tasks that are not so easily expressed in OF project structure...
Some time ago, I sent OmniGroup my thoughts on this, which I'll repost here as food for thought. Fair warning, it's long:


Hello,

I know you've received lots of feedback on the forums regarding integration between OmniPlan and OmniFocus, but I felt the best way to communicate my desires would be by way of an email.

First off, I am not a project manager, though I occasionally do run some projects. To that end, I recently (today) purchased a license for OmniPlan.

I am, however, an avid user of OmniFocus. I certainly don't claim to be an expert -- but it is working for me, and I'm sure that as I become more experienced with it, it will only sharpen my daily focus more.

So, I see several opportunities for integration between the two applications based on interaction between the following pairs of actors:

1) one company and another company
2) one employee and another employee (peers)
3) one employee and project manager

It could be, that a project manager has assigned a task to a resource (employee) [3].
Or, a resource (employee) finishes a task that is a predecessor to another task assigned to another resource (employee) [2].
Finally, perhaps a project contains a task which is to be completed by an external actor, where the relationship is between the company coordinating the project, and the company completing some task. [1].

So, the opportunities for integration roughly boil down as follows:

1) A task assigned to a resource, where the resource is a properly formatted email address or a drag-and-drop from address book, is emailed to that resource as an attachment. The attachment type is associated with OmniFocus, which creates or updates the appropriate action.

2) Tasks imported into OmniFocus via #1 contain information how to reach the project manager. OmniFocus could have an "Send Updates" function, which finds active tasks with progress changes since last update, and then send updates as an attachment via email. That attachment is a file type associated with OmniPlan, which updates the appropriate task.

3) OmniPlan uploads a project plan with task distribution to a WebDav server. This project plan contains some meta data for each resource with tasks. OmniPlan sends an email to the resources with an attachment that imports the project (and associated WebDav path) into OmniFocus. OmniFocus finds the meta data in the WebDav path, which instructs OmniFocus where to upload it's task updates to. OmniFocus can be configured to manually update status to the project plan, periodically, or automatically (when status changes). OmniFocus would also occasionally check for status.

Assume, given #3, that two people are assigned tasks. Person A has task 1 and Person B has task 2. Task 1 is Task 2's predecessor, and Task 2 cannot complete until Task 1 is finished.

Person B would show "Task 2" in context "Waiting".
Person A would show "Task 1" as available. They would do work and eventually complete it. OmniFocus would automatically upload status when they mark it complete.
Person B's OmniFocus instance would periodically check for new status for associated project plans. They would see new status is available and download it. Task 2's predecessors would show as complete and OmniFocus would remove the Waiting context from Task 2.

Also, perhaps Task 2, while an atomic task from the Project Plan perspective, is made up of several smaller tasks.

The user should be able to locally promote it to a project and create arbitrary items beneath it, complete with their own contexts and durations. Based on the sum of any sub task durations and completion statuses, OmniFocus could automatically provide updates of percentage complete.

--------------------

There should be an ability for OmniPlan to open a WebDav stored project in a readonly manner, such that others with OmniPlan could open the project. And, a minimal Web Application for viewing the project and marking tasks as completed would be ideal. (Some amount of cross-platform compatibility)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sylvaticus View Post
I'll chime in for integration too. I hate hate hate to say it, but to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing some soft of OmniSuite, that might ease integration between OP, OF, and OO, with links perhaps to OG and OGS.

Really.
i've been posting about this for some time. together with the glaring omission of omnimindmap / omnimap. other companies have already integrated between outline and mindmap, and it wouldn't be a human milestone to go from there to integrating outline, mindmap, omnifocus, omniplan, omnigraffle, and omnigraphsketcher.

dear omni guys - i think you're sitting on the killer app, and you don't know it. or do you? please share what your plans are!

and in the meantime - please add my vote to any kind of interapp information transfer!!!
 
As a new user of OP and a longtime user of OF OOP and OGP, it seems crucial to have integration between these apps, most of all between OF and OP!
 
I think elektroglide's idea is killer. I use OF and OP - and count me in as a "me too" vote - and FreeMind as well. Individually, they're Ok, but it would really rock the Mac, and my work flow, if they were tied together, somehow.

Yeah, I can cut-and-paste, but that gets old, and it leaves room for gaps, which leads to lost information.

As for implementation, it seems to me that OF already has all of the data that you'd want to use in OP, but OP just displays it better. Can OF be updated to present different display formats?
 
We need OP and OF interaction!!! :)
 
I agree OP & OF would be a good 'team'. Quoting a post in another thread from 11/15/09
Quote:
IMHO OG hasn't integrated OOP, OP & OF well or properly. From where I sit a project starts in OOP where it gets defined and refined. It then needs to move to OP so the project can be managed and treated like a project. OF should really be the 'client' portion of project management where a team member can get their assignments and work through them.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by WrongSizeGlass View Post
I agree OP & OF would be a good 'team'. Quoting a post in another thread from 11/15/09
Well said.

Though OOP would not even really be needed. By OF and OP integration would be great. Or even some HTML reports for work that needs to be done for each resource
 
I have posted links to two Applescripts
  1. OmniPlan to OmniFocus
  2. OmniFocus to OmniPlan
in the OmniPlan Extras Forum.

--

Last edited by RobTrew; 2010-03-02 at 10:18 AM..
 
 


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