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Display To-do lists on your desktop (Windows)

Note
The feature described on this page requires Pagico v4.0 or later. The third party application mentioned here is only available for Microsoft Windows.

Starting with Pagico v4.0, a Command Line Interface (CLI) component is developed to provide users alternative access to their Pagico data through the command line. This article shows you how to display your ToDo lists (tasks) on your desktop, with the help of a free 3rd party application called Serious Samurize. The final result will look like this…

Display tasks right on your desktop, plus auto-update!

About Serious Samurize

Serious Samurize is a free, 3rd party application that allows you to place console (CLI) output (and a lot more) onto your desktop with customizable styles.

Step 1: Make sure you have the latest version of Pagico v4 installed.

Only Pagico v4.0 r868 or later has the Tasks CLI plugin.

Step 2: Get and install Serious Samurize

Serious Samurize can be downloaded from its official website. Once installed, it may ask you to reboot your computer. And when you first launch the Serious Samurize, you may notice there’s nothing showing up on your desktop except for the SS icon in your task bar. This is normal, as you haven’t gotten any configuration files yet.

Step 3: Install the pre-made configuration file

In order to help you get started as soon as possible, we’ve made a configuration file for you. All you need to do, is to download the configuration file (Pagico.ini, 1.6k, right-click and download as a file) and install it by placing it at: C:\Program Files\Samurize\Config folder.

Load the Pagico configuration file via menu commandStep 4: Load the configuration file in Serious Samurize

You need to ask the Serious Samurize application to load the configuration file by right clicking on the Serious Samurize icon (located in far right side of your task bar), and selecting the menu item: Select Config File -> Pagico.ini.

If you don’t see the Pagico.ini item showing up in the Select Config File sub-menu, you may have placed the configuration file in the wrong place in Step 3.

The pre-made configuration file does the following things:

  • Display tasks due on today, tomorrow, and this week in three separate lists
  • Content is auto-updated every minute
  • Font: Courier New in black

All done!

Once you get the configuration file loaded, you should be able to see your tasks (today, tomorrow and this week) showing up on your desktop. Hooray! Oh, and don’t forget that you can move it around by dragging it (dragging might not be too easy, as you’ll need to really click on the word to be able to move it).

Next step?
Make it look good with your wallpaper by setting up font style, color, shadow, … etc!
To customize the look and feel of the displayed tasks, simply right click on the SS icon in your task bar, and choose the “Edit Config File…” menu command. Then, you’ll be able to see the config editor, which is really powerful.
To start customizing, first you need to select the “Tasks” item under the Pagico group. Then in the right column, switch to the “Display” tab, where you’ll have plenty of stuff to play with.

For advanced users…

If you’re savvy enough, you might want to tweak the content that’s being displayed. For example, you can create a text group showing only tasks due in today, and a text group showing only tasks due in tomorrow, etc, and set up the text groups with different styles.

To do so, you’ll need to switch to the “Source” tab in the Config File Editor. Then, in the command line textbox, use the following syntax to get different results:

“C:\Program Files\Pagico\CodeX\plugins\tasks.windows.cmd” {options}

Possible options:

  • today=1
    Tasks that are due on today
  • tomorrow=1
    Tasks that are due on tomorrow
  • thisweek=1
    Tasks that are due within the current week
  • overdue=1
    Tasks that are overdue
  • inbox=1
    Tasks that are stored in Inbox

You may use multiple options (separated by space) at one time.

For example, in the pre-made configuration file, the command is:

“C:\Program Files\Pagico\CodeX\plugins\tasks.windows.cmd” today=1 tomorrow=1 thisweek=1

Also posted in Managing Schedule | Back to Top | 1 User Contributed Note.

The new data engine in Pagico v4

Starting from v4, the Pagico is utilizing a dramatically improved data engine, SQLite3, compared to its predecessors. As Pagico evolves over time and comes with better features, the internal database component pretty much remained the same (it lived this long partly because it was a custom-built database that was exactly designed for Pagico). However, as time goes by we clearly felt that the data engine, being the most important component, needs to be improved in many ways. It has to be faster in performance, more stable, easier to move and backup.

But replacing such an important module is not an easy job. Fortunately, with the totally rewritten libraries in Pagico v4, this task becomes much easier and manageable.

Benefits

To sum up, the benefits of the new SQLite3 data engine include:

  • Much more reliable (industry-proven database compared to custom-built database)
  • 2x faster (not in all aspects, but averagely twice as fast as before)
  • Much easier when duplicating and backing up (a regular db contains 50 files, compared to tens of thousands of files before)
  • Many more possible features for Pagico based on the better API and functionalities
  • And many more.

Server-side Technologies

Server-side technologies are also employed in Pagico to ensure data integrity to the maximum level. For example, Pagico writes changes to the database in just a splash of time just when needed, instead of opening long term database connections which is commonly found in other desktop database programs and is vulnerable to system crashes.

Backup Is Still Important

Although Pagico has multiple measures built in to increase data reliability, we still recommend you to backup your databases regularly. Because we all know that the peace of mind about your data is more valuable than anything else in your computer experience.

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Command Line Interface

Note

The feature described in this article is available in Pagico v4.0 and later.

As a new addition to Pagico 4, the Command Line Interface (CLI) component provides users with various access to their data stored in Pagico databases via the command line (or, “Terminal” application on Mac OS X).

The CLI component of the Pagico 4 is designed as a plugin system. Various plugins covering different purposes have been developed or are being developed. Currently the following plugins are shipped with the Pagico 4 installation package:

  • Inbox
  • Tasks

The CLI component, on Macs and Linux systems, is accessible from /opt/pagico/plugins folder.

The CLI component is still under development. The plugins above are being updated frequently, and more of them are on the way.

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Display To-do lists on your desktop (Mac)

Note

The feature that is described in this article is available in Pagico v4.0 and later. And the 3rd party application mentioned here is only available on the Mac OS X.

Starting with Pagico v4.0, a Command Line Interface (CLI) component is developed to provide users alternative access to their Pagico data through the command line. This article shows you how to display your ToDo lists (tasks) on your desktop, with the help of a free 3rd party application called GeekTool.

About GeekTool

The GeekTool is a free, 3rd party application that allows you to place command line data (and more) onto your desktop.

Step 1: Make sure you have the latest version of Pagico v4.0 installed.

Only Pagico v4.0 r868 or later has the Tasks CLI plugin.

Step 2: Download and install the latest version of GeekTool: (website, download page)

Step 3: Add a new “Shell” Geeklet (a panel that displays information on your desktop)

To do so, you need to use the GeekTool panel located in your System Preferences panel. In the GeekTool panel, drag a “Shell” type Geeklet on to your desktop.

Step 4: Configure the Geeklet to display the desired information from Pagico CLI Tasks Plugin.

Select the Geeklet, and “Command” input box, copy and paste one of the following commands:

Display Tasks due today:

/opt/pagico/plugins/tasks today=1

Display Tasks due today and tomorrow:

/opt/pagico/plugins/tasks today=1 tomorrow=1

Display incomplete tasks in Inbox:

/opt/pagico/plugins/tasks inbox=1

Display all overdue tasks:

/opt/pagico/plugins/tasks overdue=1

Step 5: Set the auto-refresh timer by entering a number (of seconds), and set the font style by clicking on the “Style” button to make sure the text suits your wallpaper. Also you might want to adjust the position and size of the Geeklet by dragging it around.

For advanced users

The options are separated with a single space, and they can be used together in any order. So, for example, to display all four sections (today, tomorrow, inbox, and overdue), you can use:

/opt/pagico/plugins/tasks today=1 tomorrow=1 inbox=1 overdue=1

Additionally, you can create multiple Geeklets placed in different spots and font style with different options to suit your needs.

Also posted in Managing Schedule | Back to Top | 6 User Contributed Notes.

About your Pagico Service Identifier (PSID)

Note

The feature described in this article requires Pagico v4.0 or higher.

Starting from Pagico v4.0, a new concept called “Pagico Service Identifier” (PSID) is introduced, and is displayed in the “Preferences” panel. It is a series of characters identifying your Pagico on the internet. To see it, simply switch to your “Preferences” panel by clicking on the wheels icon in the tool bar, and scroll to the bottom of the screen.

What does it do?

The PSID is the identifier that the Pagico cloud service will need to recognize your Pagico software, and synchronize its inbox data with your online Inbox data. Your PSID is universally unique, and is bound to your computer and license.

To use the cloud service for inbox data synchronization, you’ll need to log into the Pagico cloud service, and register your computer(s) with your Pagico Cloud Account by entering your PSID(s). Once the registration is done, the data you store in your local inbox will be automatically synchronized to the Pagico servers, and vice versa.

Therefore it is important that you keep your PSID safely to protect your privacy.

More on the Pagico Cloud Service will be discussed in the corresponding article.

Back to Top | 4 User Contributed Notes.

Synchronize your database on multiple computers via Dropbox

Note
This article discuss the use of a third party application in conjunction with Pagico. The copyright of the mentioned product(s) belongs to their respectful owners. Features or services of the third party applications may be changed over time.

About Dropbox

Dropbox is a free cross-platform file synchronizing tool, that helps you to synchronize files on all your systems automatically. It currently supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, so it’s perfect to use in conjunction with Pagico, so you can easily use the same database on multiple computers without having to carry your thumbdrive all the time.

Step 1: Get Dropbox

So, to get started, you need to get the Dropbox application on your system first. There are two storage plans available from Dropbox, one is free with 2GB storage space, and a non-free plan that provides 50GB of storage space. For our example here, the free 2GB plan would be more than enough.

After downloading and installing the program, you will be asked to register a Dropbox account and associate your computer with your account. Once you’ve done so, you’ll have a “My Dropbox” folder set up on your system. This becomes your synchronized folder, meaning that all the files and folders within this “My Dropbox” folder, will be synchronized automatically across all your registered devices.

Step 2: Put your Pagico database into your Dropbox folder

Now, it’s time to put (move or copy, whatever you prefer) your Pagico database(s) into your Dropbox folder. By doing so, all the changes you made to the database will be automatically synchronized across all your registered computers and devices.

Step 3: Register your other computers with Dropbox

Everything is now completed, except for that you only have one computer registered with Dropbox. So now it’s the time to register your other computers with Dropbox. Simply follow the Step 1 above on your other computers, and choose “I have a dropbox account” instead of creating a new one when asked. Then, once associated, the Dropbox application will automatically create your “My Dropbox” folder on your new computers, bringing you the most current version of your Pagico database.

Conclusion

Although we haven’t extensively tested this solution, it appears to be the perfect solution to synchronize your databases across multiple computers, and we haven’t experienced any issue yet. One thing to note is that you want to avoid data conflicts — meaning that you’ll always try to work on the database on one computer at a time. If multiple changes are being made on several copies of the database at the same time, nobody can guarantee about the data integrity so far.

Back to Top | 6 User Contributed Notes.

Important Notes for Ubuntu users

This article was updated on Nov 17th, 2009.

Ubuntu is a great operating system in terms of functionality, user experience and stability. But considering the number of different Ubuntu system versions (x86, i386, 8.04, 8.10 and the future versions), we simply do not have the resource to prepare our products to cover all the Ubuntu releases. So, here are some of the important notes for Ubuntu users.

  • Pagico on Ubuntu currently only supports 32-bit Ubuntu 9.10. Currently there is no plan for 64-bit Ubuntu support.
  • Due to many factors, the old internal database used in Pagico v2.3 could not be upgraded.
  • Databases created by Pagico v3.x and higher can be upgraded to v4 without a problem.
  • Starting from January 19th, 2009 we’re putting the Ubuntu system as one of our prioritized platforms, and we will keep up the pace of new releases on Ubuntu system as frequently as we do for Mac and Windows systems.
  • The database folder (ending with “.pgco”. On Mac OS X, it appears as a single document) can be transferred and used on any platform, regardless of on which OS the database was created.

If there’s anything that hasn’t been covered in this article, please feel free to contribute (or ask questions) below.

Thanks!

The Pagico Team

Back to Top | 14 User Contributed Notes.