Integrations

Tracks can be integrated with a number of other tools... whatever it takes to help you get things done! This page has information on setting up some of these. Not all of these are applicable to all platforms, and some require more technical knowledge than others. See also <%= link_to "developer documentation for Tracks' REST API", url_for(:action => 'rest_api') %>.

Contents:

• Add an Action with Applescript
• Add an Action with Applescript based on the currently selected Email in Mail.app
• Add Actions with Quicksilver and Applescript
• Automatically Email Yourself Upcoming Actions
• Integrate Tracks with an email server to be able to send an action through email to Tracks
• Add Tracks as a Google Gmail gadget

Do you have one of your own to add? Tell us about it in our Tips and Tricks forum and we may include it on this page in a future versions of Tracks.

Add an Action with Applescript

This is a simple script that pops up a dialog box asking for a description, and then sends that to Tracks with a hard-coded context.

1. Choose the context you want to add actions to: <%= options_from_collection_for_select(current_user.contexts, "id", "name", current_user.contexts.first.id) %>
2. Copy the Applescript below to the clipboard.
   <%= render :partial => 'applescript1', :locals => { :context => current_user.contexts.first } %>
3. Open Script Editor and paste the script into a new document.
4. Compile and save the script. Run it as necessary.

You do not have any context yet. The script will be available after you add your first context

Add an Action with Applescript based on the currently selected Email in Mail.app

This script takes the sender and subject of the selected email(s) in Mail and creates a new action for each one, with the description, "Email [sender] about [subject]". The description gets truncated to 100 characters (the validation limit for the field) if it is longer than that. It also has Growl notifications if you have Growl installed.

1. Choose the context you want to add actions to: <%= options_from_collection_for_select(current_user.contexts, "id", "name", current_user.contexts.first.id) %>
2. Copy the Applescript below to the clipboard.
   <%= render :partial => 'applescript2', :locals => { :context => current_user.contexts.first } %>
3. Open Script Editor and paste the script into a new document.
4. Compile and save the script to the ~/Library/Scriipts/Mail Scripts directory.
5. For more information on using AppleScript with Mail.app, see this overview.

You do not have any context yet. The script will be available after you add your first context

Add Actions with Quicksilver and Applescript

This integration will allow you to add actions to Tracks via Quicksilver.

1. Choose the context you want to add actions to: <%= options_from_collection_for_select(current_user.contexts, "id", "name", current_user.contexts.first.id) %>
2. Copy the Applescript below to the clipboard.
   <%= render :partial => 'quicksilver_applescript', :locals => { :context => current_user.contexts.first } %>
3. Open Script Editor and paste the script into a new document.
4. Compile and save the script as "Add to Tracks.scpt" in ~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/Actions/ (you may need to create the Actions directory)
5. Restart Quicksilver
6. Activate Quicksilver (Ctrl+Space by default)
7. Press "." to put quicksilver into text mode
8. Type the description of the next action you want to add
9. Press tab to switch to the action pane.
10. By typing or scrolling, choose the "Add to Tracks" action.

You do not have any context yet. The script will be available after you add your first context

Automatically Email Yourself Upcoming Actions

If you enter the following entry to your crontab, you will receive email every day around 5 AM with a list of the upcoming actions which are due within the next 7 days.

You can of course use other text <%= link_to 'feeds provided by Tracks', feeds_path %> -- why not email a list of next actions in a particular project to a group of colleagues who are working on the project?

Integrated email/SMS receiver

If Tracks is running on the same server as your mail server, you can use the integrated mail handler built into tracks. Steps to set it up:

• Go to <%= link_to t('layouts.navigation.preferences'), preferences_url %> and set your "<%= Preference.human_attribute_name('sms_email') %>" and "<%= Preference.human_attribute_name('sms_context') %>" for todos sent in via email (which could come from an SMS message)
• In sendmail/qmail/postfix/whatever, set up an email address alias to pipe messages to

  /usr/bin/bundle exec /PATH/TO/TRACKS/script/rails r -e production 'MessageGateway.receive(STDIN.read)'

• Send an email to your newly configured address!

You can also use the Rich Todo API to send in tasks like "do laundry @ Home" or "Call Bill > project X". The subject of the message will fill description, context, and project, while the body will populate the tasks's note.

You may need to configure your site.yml to tell the message gateway to look at the to: field or from: field to lookup Tracks' user from the email address in that field.

You can also send all email to a specific Tracks user. Configure mail_dispatch in site.yml to single_user and pass the login of the user:

TRACKS_MAIL_RECEIVER=<%=current_user.login%> usr/bin/bundle exec /PATH/TO/TRACKS/script/rails r -e production 'MessageGateway.receive(STDIN.read)'

Add Tracks as a Google Gmail gadget

You can now manage your projects/actions inside Gmail using Tracks Gmail Gadget. Add Tracks Gmail gadget to the sidebar of Gmail and track your next actions or add new action without explicitly open new browser tab for Tracks. Steps to set it up:

• Sign in to Gmail and click Settings in the top right of your Gmail page. In Gmail setting page, click Labs tab
• Enable the "Add any gadget by URL" feature. You will find it at bottom of the list. Select Enable radio button and click Save Changes button.
• Now you can see Gadgets tab added to Gmail Settings. Go to the Gadgets tab
• Paste following link to the Add a gadget by its URL: and then click Add button:
  

  <%= integrations_url + "/google_gadget" %>