ToDefer

ToDefer is a web app for managing tasks on a "best-effort" basis.

It's build with Clojure tools.build and shadow-cljs and requires PostgreSQL and Redis.

Manifesto

What problem it seeks to solve

Todefer is built around the realization that most of the tasks I want to keep track of are not actually things I want "ToDo", but rather things I want to put off until later. Hence the name "ToDefer".

However, there is also a need for "TODO" functionality. But this should be limited to just planing today or tomorrow, no further ahead.

So Todefer attempts to manage both deferred stuff and also provide good planning for 1 day ahead.

What ToDefer provides

ToDefer allows one to define named pages containing either "Tasks" or "Habits". And also "ToDo" pages which aggregate stuff from one or more Tasks or Habits pages.

On Tasks pages, one defers tasks either into named categories, or to specific dates. The tasks then dissapear into their categories until either one brings the out manually or they become due (in-the-case of date categories). The due tasks are shown at the top of the page.

On habits pages, each "Habit" has a recurrance frequency. Habits that are not due are hidden away. Habits that are due are shown at the top of the page to be dealt with.

Note that Habits recurr from the date they are marked done, not the date they were due to be done.

ToDo pages simply show all tasks from all linked Task or Habit pages which have been marked for today or tomorrow.

What is the intended workflow?

Add tasks to it all day whennever you want.

Every evening or morning, go through your Tasks and Habits pages, and mark as ToDo anything which you want to do today or tomorrow.

What it's not

ToDefer is not:

a calendar
a project management system

Running this code

Here I explain briefly how you may run this code on your workstation for development.

Create a PostgreSQL database like this.

Then, make a env/dev/resources/db-credentials.edn of the form:

{:db-name "my_app"
 :user "my_app"
 :password "password"}

Now migrate your database. Fire up repl and run this in your user namespace:

(go)
(migrate)

Now add your dev admin user:

(query (q/create-user "testuser" "testpass"))

Don't forget to build your js:

npx shadow-cljs compile app

Upgrading the codebase dependencies

Update deps.edn with: https://github.com/liquidz/antq

Update node with: npm update

Deployment

This is an example guide on how to deploy this app onto Debian.

Compile

Compile your js:

npx shadow-cljs release app

Compile your .jar:

clj -T:build uber

Server

You need a Debian server with these packages installed from apt:

postgresql
redis
default-jre
nginx

DB

Create a postgres user and database.

Application

Create a system user "deploy".

Make these directories and chown them to deploy

/var/todefer
/var/log/todefer

Upload the .jar you compiled to /var/todefer.

Add a systemd config at /lib/systemd/system/todefer.service:

[Unit]
Description=Todefer
After=network.target postgresql.service

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/var/todefer
SuccessExitStatus=143
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /var/todefer/todefer.jar run-app
User=deploy

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Add the environment config to /var/todefer/env.edn

{:db-name "todefer"
 :user "todefer"
 :password "EDITME"}

Run the migrations and create a Todefer login

sudo -u deploy java -jar /var/todefer/todefer.jar migrate
sudo -u deploy java -jar /var/todefer/todefer.jar add-user

Nginx

Include this snippet in your Nginx vhost:

location / {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3001/;
    proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    proxy_redirect  off;
}

Start everything up

Enable and start your todefer systemd service.

Reload Nginx.

Log into the UI

Now it should be accessible on the web. Log in and go to the settings page to create your first pages.

Xylon2 / todefer

readme