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"Active Contexts" showing with no "available" actions? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I would guess because they have available actions somewhere - even if not in a focused project. I see your point about your preference. I personally deal with this by grouping by context so that I can see only the bands of the contexts where I have something to do.
 
Sorry for the confusion here. Any context that isn't set to on hold, set to dropped, or deleted still counts as available so you can drag actions to that context and assign the actions to that context.

Last edited by Brian; 2010-03-10 at 10:26 AM.. Reason: fix awkward phrasing
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
Sorry for the confusion here. Any context that isn't set to on hold, set to dropped, or deleted still counts as available so you can drag actions to that context and assign the actions to that context.
That doesn't appear to be the case, as I have many Contexts that show up under "Remaining" but don't show up under "Active".

The difference is that the ones that show up under Remaining but not under Active don't currently have any actions in them at all.
 
Actually, even my last statement isn't quite accurate, as Remaining shows contexts that *do* have actions, but those actions aren't yet available, as well as contexts that have no actions at all.

Available shows contexts that have actions that can be, well, acted on, regardless of whether they're in my current Focus or not.
 
Gah, go me - I was describing the behavior of the "Remaining" sidebar filter in Context mode, not Available. I'm sorry about that.

The Active sidebar filter setting will show any context with one or more actions assigned in your database. Like lucas mentioned, other filter bar settings may cause that context to appear empty in a particular window. We keep it visible, though, in case you need to add more actions.

Try doing the following:
Select Perspectives -> All items
Select View -> Context Mode
Select View -> Sidebar Filter -> Active

You should be able to click through the contexts in the sidebar now and see which actions have been assigned to those contexts. (If you complete those actions, the context should disappear from the sidebar.)

I wasn't able to find any empty-but-visible contexts in my database using those settings, but if you have some, get in touch with the support ninjas; if there's a bug, we definitely want to fix it.
 
I tried duplicating this with the information from your earlier post.

I made a "Test Empty Context" context, then made a project which has that set as the default context but has no actions. The context in question isn't showing up in my context view sidebar with Active set. Are you still seeing that happen in your database?

Looks like there is a feature request in the dev database on the preference you mentioned - I'll add a link to this forum thread, but other folks that want to see this added should email the support ninjas, as well.

Last edited by Brian; 2010-03-10 at 12:53 PM.. Reason: add third paragraph
 
This is what I see under 1.8.

The context filter

Active seems to only show only context that have action items that are currently available. You can use "remaining" or available" filter within the context to show items that fall under different conditions, but this does not change the context filtering.

Stalled seems to show context that have any future action items as well as empty.

Hold seems to all contexts that are on hold (assigned to hold status).

Is this correct?

One thing that is confusing is the context that falls under stalled. If I have action items that are available in the future, the context is not really stalled in a sense it's not moving forward. It is moving forward at certain time in the future, which is different from contexts that have no action items assigned period.

I wish there is a way to distinguish these two different contexts. Perhaps one should be called "Stalled," while the other one might be called "Scheduled."

Thanks.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
The Active sidebar filter setting will show any context with one or more actions assigned in your database. Like lucas mentioned, other filter bar settings may cause that context to appear empty in a particular window. We keep it visible, though, in case you need to add more actions.

Try doing the following:
Select Perspectives -> All items
Select View -> Context Mode
Select View -> Sidebar Filter -> Active

You should be able to click through the contexts in the sidebar now and see which actions have been assigned to those contexts. (If you complete those actions, the context should disappear from the sidebar.)

I wasn't able to find any empty-but-visible contexts in my database using those settings, but if you have some, get in touch with the support ninjas; if there's a bug, we definitely want to fix it.
The issue isn't that the Active Context shows a Context when there's nothing in that Context. Rather, it's that when you're Focused on a particular Project or Folder, the Active Context shows Contexts that contain *no items for the particular Focus*.

You can test this as follows:

1. Create two Contexts, "Test Active Contexts 1" and "Test Active Context 2"
2. Create two projects and related activities, and assign them to the Contexts
- Paint Living Room
-- Buy paint supplies (Test Active Context 1)
- Clean House
-- Sweep floor (Test Active Context 2)
3. Focus on the Paint Living Room Project
4. Switch to Context mode and change to Active Context

Note that both Test Active Context 1 and 2 show up as "Active". "2" is correctly "empty", but it shouldn't show up as a Context.

If you select the top-level Contexts folder, you'll see only one Context: Test Active Context 1. That is what the sidebar should look like.

The logic of showing Active contexts on the sidebar so you can drag items to them falls apart because in theory you'd want to drag to *any* Context, including those not currently showing in Active (but that would show in Remaining).
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ksrhee View Post
Active seems to only show only context that have action items that are currently available. You can use "remaining" or available" filter within the context to show items that fall under different conditions, but this does not change the context filtering.

The issue for me is that "Active" on the sidebar ignores the Focus, and shows you Contexts that have no items for the current Focus.


I just realized that one of the reasons things stopped "working" for me is that I was using a Perspective that hid the sidebar and had the Context header selected, so I only saw the truly actionable items I had. I dumped my Perspectives when I wanted to reevaluate my workflow, and this is one of the things that popped out.
 
Okay, it sounds like that tim was referring to is still fixed. One possibility here is that the issue had regressed; wanted to make sure that wasn't the case.

We do have a feature request open on changing that filter to behave the way you'd prefer. I went ahead and attached your original email to that item in the support database; the team will know you'd like them to change the filter to take focus state into account.

Last edited by Brian; 2010-03-10 at 03:20 PM.. Reason: "thread was about" -> "tim was referring to"
 
 


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