KO/Pi timetracker HowTo

In KO/Pi you can set a todo in a "running" state to track your working time on that todo.
This Howto is about to use that timetracking feature.

CONTENT:

0) Tracking time - setting a todo to started and stopped
1) Getting the time information
2) Overview and analysis of the timetracking data

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0) Tracking time - setting a todo to started
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To track time open the todo view in KO/Pi.
There you can set a todo to the "running" state.
You can do this by choosing "Start/Stop todo.." from the context menu for that todo or by double clicking on the start time or start date column of that todo. 
A started todo is displayed green and the start time and date values in the todo list are displaying the start time.
If a parent todo with a running sub todo is displayed closed in the todo view that parent todo is displayed green as well.
If a todo is running the running information is stored every five minutes (not configureable).
(Nothing is changed in the todo itself: If the todo has a start datetime set only the display changes for the time this todo is set to running.)
You can edit a running todo as usual.
If you delete a  running todo its running information is saved automatically
You can set the todo to "stopped" in the same way.
If a todo is set to "stopped" within 30 seconds after the start, nothing is stored.
If a todo is set to stopped, its running information is stored in the directory
<yourhome>/kdepim/apps/timetrackerdir/
If you close the application all running todos are set to stopped and the running information is stored automatically.
That does mean: If you start KO/Pi there will be no todo in the "running" state.

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1) Getting the time information
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All data is stored in the dir
<yourhome>/kdepim/apps/timetrackerdir/

There are two kind of files:
E.g. 
20050417-090628-libkcal-1503885238.271.ics
and
libkcal-1387036159.309.ics

The filenames with the datetime at the beginning contains the actual tracking data:
The datetime part of the filename is the start datetime of this run of that todo.
The same value you can find in the file as "DTSTART" value.
The end datetime of the tracking you can find in the file as the "DUE" value.

A file without a datetime at the beginning 
(libkcal-1387036159.309.ics in our example)
contains no timetracking information and contains only information about a parent todo of a todo with timetracking information.
This file is needed to display the parent-child relationchip you can see in the KO/Pi todo view in the timetracking overview application: 

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2) Overview and analysis of the timetracking data
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Because every timetracking run is stored in a single file it is easy to merge the data from several computers of the same person or from several persons by copying all the files into the same directory.
There is an application which reads the content of that directory and displays the running information of each todo in a so called timetable "Gantt" view.
It makes it possible to create and print reports for specific time frames.
The default display is exactly like the parent-child relationchip displayed in the KO/Pi todo view, but it is possible to sort items by categories and by attendees.
This program will only be available for the desktop (Windows and Linux).
This program is not free open source software.
There are no decisions about the distribution model (licence model and price) yet.
You can find more information about that program after the beginning of June 2005 at www.pi-sync.net.