Feature Request: Calendar View & Calendar Sync

Hello: perhaps i missed this and it exists alread β€” i would find it very useful to have findings either synch with calendar apps or have its own calendar to provide a better overview of what is going on when. Olli.

You have not missed it, it’s not implemented in the current app. A calendar view of all your entries is on our todo list, potentially combined with sync with your calendar. It is not going to be in the 2.0 release, but hopefully part of a future update (to be clear, it’s not planned yet, just also on my wish list…).

Charles

Thank you for the clarification. It is a bit sad to hear that this is at the bottom of the list – for proper project and resource utilisation planning, this will be essential. In essence, what the lack of this feature will produce for me, is using another software to make sure the time lines do not conflict. If you are running a behavioural neuroscience group, there are limited number of rooms and apparatuses available, and experiments take days and weeks. To plan when what room is used is critical to meet the targets.
Would be great could the priority of this be reconsidered :wink:
Olli.

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Totally support @hardt hardt, the reason I use Findings is the calendar view, it is so convent to organize multiple experiment with out conflicts and I believe no one will perform only one experiment in lab, @hardt has a resource utilization planing example, and how about a PI, how about an animal experiment during months? Now I have to stay in Findings 1. Honestly, I feel Findings 2.0 is just a protocol organize app, any other text management app can do it. Timeline is basically invisible if it is in text not in a calendar.

Thanks

Good to hear that others need this functionality as well.
I am not sure if that is part of the app yet, but one should be able to construct experiments out of modules (protocols), basically daisy-chaining these – eg., an experiment might start with a behavioural protocol A, then B, then followed by ePhys protocol A, then ephys protocol B, then immuo protocol A. these are all timed, and required unique resoureces, that could be associated automatically with the protocol, so that all is booked automatcally and the calendar is updated. As Bo @Boning said, at the moment Findings is nothing more than a protocol database, and I can do that myself.

But Findings is not the only software that has not yet recognised what a lot of labs, at least in the neuroscience community, really need – the resources and techniques united in one lab are so diverse and experiments consist of a variety of highly different procedures. And you have a couple of grad students, post docs, and the army of undergrads around that all participate in getting various projects done. Software that helps with that task is absent. Or costs and arm and a leg, and I am not ready to fork out 500 dollars a month for a silly subscription to a company that thinks they should keep my classified data on their servers. What most providers also do not seem to understand is that we are entrusted with government money to finance our studies, and Universities are keen on keeping the data in-house or with dedicated providers that ensure full complicance with the funding agencies data management plans. So usually a cloud solution is simply a no go. And it will never be for me anyways because I do not feel safe distributing these data and always relying on the internet to do my work.

I think there is a market for a PROPER lab management solution that recognises these basic needs. The new Findings, I am afraid, is utterly useless.

I should have updated the discussion, but we plan to have the calendar view back in Findings 2.1. Thanks for your patience!

I have more details about the new features in Findings 2 compared to Findings 1, as well as the few features we plan to bring back: New features in Findings 2, compared to Findings 1

Hello, I just want to follow up regarding the Calendar View. Will it be implemented sometime soon? Although I can see my schedule using the Journal, Calendar View will be more helpful I think. Thanks!

I agree that project planning including calendar sync is the only reason for me to use an app like Findings.

I need to move about whole experiments or protocols with many linked events of different duration, spaced over days / weeks, and see where they conflict in order to choose which project I start when.

Some flexibility is necessary. Ideal would be if I could choose which durations between parts of a protocol are flexible (ie. something can be kept at -80 for x amount of time) and which are fixed (ie. have to be continued exactly x hours or days after the previous part of the protocol).

it would be great to have such an app.