Create your first task
The whole walkthrough, from the first click to a created task — four steps on the web, four screens on your phone.
A task is work to be done in the field, pinned on the map: a tree across the trail, a boardwalk to repair, a sign to put back up. It is the basic object in Sentinel — everything else hangs off it.
This tutorial walks the whole thing twice: once on the web, once on your phone. By the end you will have a real task, in the right place, visible to the whole crew. Give it three minutes.
Where: left navigation bar, under General → Tasks. On your phone, the + button on the Field screen.
Before you start
You need permission to create tasks. If you see neither the Create a task button on the web nor the + on your phone, it is not a bug: your role does not have it. See understanding roles.
Only one field is required in the entire walkthrough: the name. Everything else can wait, and can be changed later.
On the web — four steps
1. Open the Tasks section
In the left navigation bar, click Tasks, under General. The Create a task button sits at the top of the section, right next to the title.
The starting point: the Tasks section and its button.
- 1Tasks, under General: the section you need to be in.
- 2Create a task: the button that opens the panel.
The small arrow attached to the button opens a second entry, Task from an image. This tutorial uses the button itself; the photo route has its own article.
2. Pick the type
A panel opens on the right. The first thing it asks for is the type of problem.
Step one: the type of problem.
- 1One tile per type. The list is your own place's — you can change it.
- 2Segment is not a type like the others: it describes a stretch of trail instead of a point.
Pick the type that describes the problem, not the work to be done: Fallen Tree, not "chainsawing". That is what will make your end-of-season statistics readable.
Only pick Segment if the problem spans a length of trail — fifty metres of erosion, say. The walkthrough then differs slightly: you will draw a start and an end instead of dropping a point.
3. Place the marker
Click the map where the problem is. The marker drops; drag it to fine-tune.
Step two: the marker and the matched trail.
- 1The marker, draggable until you continue.
- 2The matched trail appears at the top right as soon as the marker is within range.
- 3Next moves on to the form.
Sentinel snaps your click to the nearest trail. If a trail is within range, the marker is pulled onto the line and the trail is attached to the task on its own. Range depends on zoom: about ten metres when you are zoomed in, up to a hundred and fifty when you are looking from far out. That is deliberate — from far out, nobody aims to the metre.
If no trail is in range, the point is taken as-is and the task stays off-trail. That is perfectly valid: a parking area, an access bridge or a material cache sits on no trail at all.
4. Fill it in and create
Step three: the form.
- 1The preview reminds you where you dropped the marker.
- 2Status and priority arrive already set — New and Medium.
- 3The name: the only required field in the whole walkthrough.
Write a name someone will recognize in the field. "Maple down across the trail, km 2" beats "Tree". That name is what someone will read on their phone, out in the bush, three weeks later.
The rest is optional. Assignee, estimated time, project, folder, photos, materials: all of it fills in just as well later. Do not hold up the task for information you do not have yet.
The button at the bottom creates the task. It shows up immediately on the map, on the kanban board, and on the phones of crew members already looking at that area.
The shortcut that skips a step
Once the gesture is familiar, the fastest route is not the button: it is right-clicking the map, right where the problem is. The position is already known, so the marker step disappears — only the type and the form are left. See the Tasks section.
On your phone — four screens
This is the most common route, because it is where you are when you see the problem.
1. Tap the +
The round gold button, at the bottom right of the Field screen, opens a menu.
The + button menu.
- 1Up to five entries — tap Task.
- 2The + button, always in the same place.
Which entries you get depends on your permissions and on the view you are in: you may not get all five.
2. Pick the type
The same choice as on the web, in three columns.
Picking the type, on your phone.
- 1The grid of your place's types.
- 2Segment, here too, for a stretch of trail rather than a point.
3. Confirm the location
The phone starts from where you are — that is the whole point of creating the task on the spot.
Confirming the location.
- 1Drag the marker to fine-tune.
- 2The two modes: attached to a trail, or free at your own position.
- 3Next moves on to the photo.
Two modes, and this is the part to understand. Attached to a trail, a tap too far from the line is refused — the app says "Out of location" instead of dropping the marker anywhere. In free position mode, you drop it wherever you want.
If you have not placed a marker, Next refuses to move on and tells you so.
4. The photo, then the form
The next screen opens the camera straight away. A photo is worth a lot to whoever comes to do the work — but it is not required: Next moves on without taking one.
The form, on your phone.
- 1The type you picked, shown at the top.
- 2Status and priority.
- 3The name, already filled in with the type — replace it.
The Add button, at the top right, creates the task.
It works with no signal
That is the normal case at the bottom of a valley, and Sentinel treats it as such. The task is saved on your phone, a message confirms it will be synchronized when the connection comes back, and the walkthrough ends normally.
There is nothing to redo, nothing to resend. See working offline.
Two differences between web and phone
They catch people out when moving from one to the other:
| Web | Phone | |
|---|---|---|
| Default priority | Medium | Low |
| Default name | empty | the type's name |
Either way, the values can be changed before creating — and priority can be corrected at any point afterwards.
What you have now
A created task is visible everywhere at once: on the map, on the kanban board, in the list, and on the crew's phones. Three ways to follow on:
- Assign it — to a person or a group, so it shows up in their planning.
- Track it — by dragging it from one kanban column to the next. See the Tasks section.
- Count it — by logging time against it. See logging time.