SolOTility

I’ve had a break from working on my primary project “Demox” the last two weeks in order to work on a side-project that I call “SolOTility” (or Solution Organizer Utility).

I’ve wanted to try create a non-game application for quite some time but haven’t really made the effort to actually start, or decide what the program’s purpose should be either for that matter, until now, that is!

So what can SolOTility do and what are my goals with the project?

It’s basicly a program to maintain order for my personal projects and my (and anyone who find interest in it aswell, for that matter.) game design documents along with concepts, ideas, issues and tasks. My goal is to make it easy to use and with a fast workflow. There already exist a whole lot of great programs and web applications that serve the same and/or similar purpose though, so to double back, my main purpose with this program is to code something else than a game- in case anyone would find use for my application aswell that’s a bonus!

Solution Catalog Tree
The project/solutions are structured with tree-node lists, the user has full control of catalog management.

Work Item Editor
A text editor for managing and creating work items. The user can add tags to the text to format or colorize encapsulated parts of the text with customizable controls. The editor also include a dialog to link related work items for quick access from within the editor dialog.

Work Item List
The list that display all items placed within the selected catalog. Work items are color-coded depending on the type of item and the item icons also display what state/progress the work item is in. (eg. Inactive, Prioritized, Completed etc.) The user can also filter items by item type(s) and item state(s)

Work Items
So what are these work items actually? There are currently two primary types of work items- text files and mind maps.
The text file work similar to regular text files, you enter text into the “Content Writer” panel- the text can also be colorized by certain special characters. The text-type work items are split into four sub-types aswell, “Bug“, “Feature“, “Task” and “Note“. While the editor does not handle these types any different from one another, the sub-type help identify the item in lists by changing icon of the file.

Mindmap items are node-based objects that allow the user to draw mind maps! (… who could’ve guessed? -__-)
The editor will allow the user to drag and drop shapes into the editor panel, add some descriptive text to them, and connect them with one another.

I’m soon done with everything that I’ve intended to implement for v0.0.1, and will implement the tool into my workflow for “Demox“. A beta version will be available to download when I feel that the program work good enough! I’ll also create a page here on my website dedicated to this program soon, for further updates aswell as more in-depth information regarding the program’s features etc.

Until then, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter!