This feature is going to be part of ictime version 4.2, to be released end of November 2014. This documentation is work in progress.
Work Log Attributes (WLA) are en easy and powerful way to enhance your work logs with any kind of additional data you require. You can place one or more WLA on your "Log Work" mask, and can have a different set of WLA (or no WLA at all) depending on project and/or the Activity Type selected by the user.
What Is a Work Log Attribute
A Work Log Attribute (WLA) is a kind of "custom field" for work logs that can be placed on the ictime "Log Work" mask to collect any kind of data that is not part of the ictime default "Log Work" mask. At this moment, we support input text fields and dropdowns as field types, and for dropdowns, data (key-value-pairs) can be managed as static data or can be retrieved from a database with a dynamic query. A WLA can either be related to an Activity Type and/or a JIRA project, so it only appears for certain projects and/or after a user has selected an activity type. Data collected with a WLA is available via the export functionality of ictime Reporting.
At this moment, Work Log Attributes are neither searchable nor displayed in the details of a report, their values can only be exported (or used via an API; see API).
Some typical use cases for a WLA are:
- If you do not (or do not only) need information about time spent to charge your work, but have other quantity-based criteria, like pages written, hard disks erased, images converted, disks burnt, ..., you can use a WLA. This way, ictime does not work as a mere time tracking solution any longer, but becomes a kind of general service recording tool.
- If you need aditional criteria like travel expenses, km travelled or fixed cost for a certain job, you can use a WLA.
- If Activity Types are not detailed enough for your purposes and you would need another hierachy level below, you can do that with a WLA.
- If you need accounting information that needs to be tracked on the level of single work logs (so that you can't use a custom field on issue level), you can use a WLA.
Create & Configure Work Log Attributes
WLA List
Create & Edit WLA
| Field | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Name (Internal) | An internal name for your purposes. | |
| Label (Screen) | Name like it will appear on the "Log Work" screen. | |
| Mapping ID | If you are | |
| Field Type | Input text or dropdown. | |
| RegEx (Field Check) | A regular expression that enforces a defined format for the user's input. | Not applicable to dropdowns. |
| JNDI | If you want to manage dropdown values dynamically via a database query, you need to define your JNDI here. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Naming_and_Directory_Interface. | Only applicable to dropdowns where dropdown values should be dynamically retrieved from a database. |
| SQL Query | The query used to dynamically retrieve dropdown data from a database. | Only applicable to dropdowns. |
| WLA Type | There are two different types of WLA that distinguish as follows:
It is not possible to create a WLA that has relations to activity types and projects at the same time. However, for certain use cases, it is possible to create a WLA with type "PROJECT" and to create a real dependency from activity types. This requires the "Depend on Activity Type" checkbox being checked. For more information, see below. | For details, see below. |
| Assignments | The activity types or projects (depending on WLA Type) this WLA is assigned to. Assignments define if the WLA appears on the "Log Work" mask. For more information, see below. | |
| Order | If you define multiple WLA and multiple WLA might appear on the "Log Work" dialogue, you can define a sorting order for all WLA here. Sorting applies across all WLA, regardless of their type. All WLA will always display below the "Activity Type" dropdown and above the "Description" textarea. The order applies within different WLA on the same screen. | Numerical, like 10, 20, 30 |
| Active | If the WLA is currently active. | It is not possible to delete a WLA that is in use. You can only deactivate it. If you deactivate a WLA, all data is kept, but the WLA is no longer available for new work logs (when editing a work log, you can either not save or need to clear/delete the data of this WLA). |
| Mandatory | If the WLA is a mandatoy field in the "Log Work" mask. | |
| Global | If the WLA is globally assigned to all activity types or all projects (depending on WLA Type). A global assignment automatically includes future projects or activity types that do not exist at this moment. See below. | |
| Depend on Activity Type | By default, a WLA Type "PROJECT" is directly displayed in the "Log Work" mask for all projects this WLA has been assigned to. "Depend on Activity Type" changes this behaviour and the WLA will only be displayed (in the "Log Work" mask for all projects this WLA has been assigned to) after the user has selected (any) activity type. Usually, this setting only changes the field's display behaviour. However, if you combine this setting with field type "Dropdown" and use a dynamic database query to populate the dropdown, you could create a real dependency of this WLA from project/s and activity type/s at the same time. See below. | Only applicable for WLA Type "PROJECT". |
WLA Types
Assigments
Depend on Activity Type
Configuring Dropdowns
Static Data
If you have static data, i.e. data that will be the same wherever the dropdown appears (and remains the same over a longer period of time), you should manage the key-value-pairs for the dropdown manually.
Dynamic Data (SQL Query)
Implications of Changing Data
Log Work with Work Log Attributes
Create Work Logs
A maximum of 10 WLA are supported for a work log. You can create as many WLA as you want, but it is not possible that the "Log Work" screen displays and handles more than 10.
Edit Work Logs
Limitations & Known Issues
At this moment, the main limitation is that WLA are not searchable in Reporting and that values for WLA fields are not displayed in reports, but can only be exported or used via an API. These topics will be addressed in the future, but there are technical limits as regards performance and display (imagine the report details screen for a report that contains multiple projects and these projects have multiple different WLAs, the grid would get a dozen or more additional columns).
Another limitation is that a WLA does not know anything about it's own content, so it is e.g. not possible that ictime aggregates/summarizes values that are numbers. This is also on our roadmap. For the moment, you can do everything with the data based on exported .xls files or you use an API to work with the data in a different system (like your ERP system).
If you move issues in JIRA between different projects that have a different WLA configuration, and these issues have work logs with WLA data, these work logs are no longer consistent, because they contain WLA data from the original project that does not match with the WLA configuration of the target project. As a result, reports might generate incorrect data for accounting purposes. We already know a similar problem when moving issues in JIRA between different projects that do not match as regards configuration for Activity Types, Rounding Rules and Teams/Price Lists. This problem is addressed with a specific tool to fix such work logs, see Fix Work Logs (Warnings). Such a mechanism does not exist yet for work logs that get inconsistent regarding their WLA configuration. The only way to fix such work logs at this moment is to edit them one by one.