please record time of usage

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi,
I installed Rabbit 1.1 with Aptana yesterday, and it seems to work as expected. 
I looked at yesterday's metrics. The time length matches what I would expect, 
but I notice an issue with my current time tracking practices.

My main time tracking tool is the browser history. As I'm a Web developer, with 
Iceweasel, I can see rather easily what I was doing during a 15-minute period 
and bill appropriately. But there are still holes when I'm doing more intense 
coding that I wished Rabbit could fill. For example, I'm not seeing any page 
load during a 50 minutes period yesterday. I'm wondering if I was away from 
keyboard, or coding.

What I could do with the current metrics is to add the time spent in Aptana 
yesterday to the time I estimate from the browser, but the problem will be I'm 
going to charge time twice. Most of the time I switch back and forth between 
Aptana and Iceweasel so that time is already charged. To be able to confirm 
that time spent in Aptana fills some "browser history holes", I need a rather 
precise time, that is the minute or at least the hour. Ideally, the time could 
be split in 15 minutes period or something like that, so I don't have too many 
entries of 30 seconds, a 10 seconds window switch to the IM client, then back 
in Aptana.

I leave this request vague voluntarily, anything would help.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by chea...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2010 at 10:31

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi,

I think I understand what you mean. The currently implementation is a hard 
design decision made from the beginning, please let me explain.

The reason that Rabbit only records the date not the time is to minimize the 
size of the XML data files. For example, if Rabbit was to storing the event 
data with the time, then each event will have an entry in the files, so 10 
events will have 10 entries in the XML file, this will make the file too big 
too handle. That is why Rabbit is only storing the event data with the date 
only, so that if there are 10 identical events happened at different time of 
the same day, they will be stored as a single entry in the XML file with the 
total usage. One example is the command events, a user can use the same command 
up to a few hundred times a day (like me), so rather than storing a few hundred 
entries into the file each with an event time, Rabbit stores the data as a 
single entry with the date and the number of times the command has been 
executed.

I do see your point, that was also what I wanted to do from the beginning (to 
provide more accurate data), but I had to keep a good balance between the size 
of the files and the accuracy of the data, so (after a lot of experimenting) 
that's why I decided to store data with "date accuracy" not "time accuracy", 
which is a good way to maintain the size of the files and still provide a good 
level of accuracy. Also the XML files are broken up into each month in order to 
make the data more manageable.

I've also been thinking about using a database to store the data which can 
handle more data with more accuracy, but I don't think many people would want 
to use Rabbit (a small plugin) if they need to keep a database (a big monster) 
running...

But I will look for alternatives ways to improve the accuracy of the data to 
better suit your needs. One idea could be to add another metrics that shows 
when you become active with the workbench and when you become inactive? 
Something like:

  Become Active at 10:30 AM
  Become Inactive at 10:45 AM
  Become Active at 11:00 AM
  Become Inactive at 12:00 AM

If you have any ideas/suggestions please let me know too.

Thanks for using Rabbit! 

;-)

Original comment by llaec...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 4:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Hi llaechen,
thanks for your explanation. I don't know from experience the cost of using XML 
files. Personally I already have mysql-server installed on my PC because of a 
dependency of Akonadi (plus now it's required for my work) so I wouldn't mind, 
but I agree many people won't like it and in any case it would make 
configuration harder to require a database like MySQL. What about SQLite? I 
don't know it as a developer but it seems simpler. I know Iceweasel uses it for 
its history library.

Otherwise, I guess time precision could be configurable. But looking at the 
Commands metrics, I see what you mean. Even with just 15 minutes periods, 
storing all of that individually must be heavy. I must say I see no easy good 
solution. Personally, of the 15 commands shown there, I don't care about any 
one in particular (none helps me tracks time). I imagine this is more useful 
for heavy Eclipse users who want to optimize their coding? In which case I 
suppose a weekly report would be sufficient to track improvements in their 
habbits, if not a monthly one. For me, if I'm not missing some time tracking 
use, I would just disable that feature.

Looking at all the "tabs" of Rabbit, the one which I would like to have with 
more precision the most is Sessions. In fact I'm not sure what a session is, 
but an activity metrics with 15 minutes periods as you describe would also be 
very useful.

Thanks to you for making Rabbit.

Original comment by chea...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2010 at 5:08

[GoogleCodeExporter]

"Session" shows the total amount of time a user spent using eclipse. I should 
improve on it with your suggestion so that a user can tell when he/she is 
active/inactive. I will look into that.

Thanks.

Original comment by llaec...@gmail.com on 20 Nov 2010 at 10:08

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Have you been thinking to store statistic data to some external storage, like 
DB?

Original comment by vpr...@gmail.com on 1 Feb 2011 at 4:38

[GoogleCodeExporter]

@vpr...
Yes I have, but I don't think that will be implemented any time soon (or at 
all). :-)

Original comment by llaec...@gmail.com on 7 Feb 2011 at 8:58

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect