TOPIC: Field Request - Entry Identifier

Good morning, ThinkingRock users and development team.

I would like to suggest a new field be implemented that would allow users to reference specific entries in ThinkingRock from other applications, notes, and other ways of recording things in our daily lives.

For example, if I create an action in ThinkingRock, I have to spell out the name of the item and the project (if any) it is an action for. This can be a rather long name and such, and the name of the project (or action) can change. This causes problems for me when I review my notes, especially when my notes are referencing that action or project.

To that end, I prose that all entries in ThinkingRock have a entry specific identifier. This is information that is captured at the time the entry is created (be it an actoin, reference item, or project). I imagine the field to be nothing but a number value that is created by using the YEAR:DAY:MONTH:HOUR:MINUTES numbers. For example, 200908100915, which indicates the entry was created 2009/08/10 at 9:15 AM. This time/date stamp (as it were) is created only once and is not editable.

Having this value would allow me to reference the item in my own personal notes outside of ThinkingRock and would be extremely helpful.

Thank you for your consideration!

To complete the request, where would you like the field displayed and who you want to be able to search on it? It will also need to be a user preference if you want to get it displayed or not.

claire wrote:
Claire,

Thank you for the note.

My personal preference would be to have the reference value be located at the bottom, next to the Done and Created fields, for both Projects and Actions. For Reference Items, this value would be located directly under the Notes field. For Collected Thoughts, next to the Tickled field. For Process Thoughts, next to the Created field.

The value should be created at the time the information is captured. That is to say, when it is entered as a Collected Thought or directly added as a Project or Action. In the future, if it is possible to create a Reference Item directly, the reference value should be created then, too.

I would want to be able to search for this value in any view and even have it displayed as a value I could sort in my different views (within a column).

The field value, while calculated, should NOT be editable by users (as it needs to be unique to each project, action, and reference) but the user should be able to copy/paste the value in the field. That is, the value should not only be visible (via user's preferences) but also selectable using the cursor which can then be copied.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or comments.

Thank you for considering my proposal!