The Tasks section: map, kanban, folders

The Tasks section is the workshop of the web app: it's where you look at what there is to do, organise it, and hand it out.

It comes down to two view modes, a heavily equipped list, and a toolbar shared by both.

Where: left navigation bar, under General → Tasks.

The two view modes

The toolbar's switcher flips between two views:

The map, paired with a list on the left. That's the geography view: where the problems are, which ones cluster, how much driving that means.

The kanban, full width. That's the progress view: one column per status, one card per task, and drag-and-drop to move things along.

Both share the same filters: whatever you filter on the kanban stays filtered when you switch to the map.

The toolbar

It sits on the right of the header and is identical in both views.

Left to right:

The Create project entry in the ⋯ menu stays greyed out until a filter is active: it turns a filter's result into a project, so it needs a filter.

The other two entries — Export Excel and Edit several tasks — each open a dialog, and that's what the next two sections are about. If you can't see them, it's a matter of rights: each has its own.

Export to Excel

⋯ menu → Export Excel. You get an .xlsx file of your tasks, to open in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

The dialog has its own filter bar, independent from the section's. That's deliberate: you can export a batch of tasks without undoing the filter you were working with. It starts empty every time you open it.

Until a filter is set, the dialog shows Select your tasks and the button stays inactive. That's the principle: filter first, export second. As soon as a filter is set, the matching tasks appear as a preview and the button lights up with their count — Export 12 tasks. You see exactly what will end up in the file before you click.

The export is built by the server, not by your browser: after the click, Sentinel prepares the file in the background and hands it over when it's ready. Expect a few seconds for a normal export. A very large one can take up to a minute and a half — leave the dialog open while it works.

The entry only appears if your role has the Export right.

Edit several tasks at once

⋯ menu → Edit several tasks. This dialog applies one change to a whole batch: moving thirty tasks to Ready, assigning an entire trail to a group, attaching a batch to a project.

The dialog follows the same two-step logic as the export, with its own filter bar. One difference: the edit form only appears once tasks are found. As long as the filter returns nothing, the dialog stays narrow and shows only the invitation to filter — you can't prepare a change that would apply to no one.

Once the batch is set, the right-hand column offers four properties, each behind a switch:

The switch is the important part: only the properties you turn on are touched. Everything else on each task is left alone. So you can change the status of thirty tasks without touching who's responsible for them, or change several properties at once by turning them on together.

Telling the team. A last switch, Send a notification, is off by default. Turned on, it sends a push notification and an email to the members subscribed to the attributes you're changing — the people who asked to be told when a task changes owner, for instance. Save it for changes that call for action; a big end-of-season tidy-up doesn't need to wake up thirty phones. See notification settings.

The confirmation. The final button sums up the task count, then a confirmation lists the exact changes before applying them. Read it: a batch edit cannot be undone. There's no undo — you can only run another edit in the opposite direction, and that won't restore the individual values you lost if they weren't all identical to begin with.

The work then runs server-side; on a very large batch it can take a few minutes. The changes reach the team's phones as they land.

This entry requires the Batch edit right in read and write, which is separate from the export right.

The list and its groupings

The list appears to the left of the map, in map view only. Its own buttons are in the small grey bar above the search field.

It isn't a plain enumeration: it groups, and that's what makes it readable on a busy network.

Two settings combine:

• a main grouping: by status or by type;
• a Group by trail toggle, which nests the first one under trails.

That gives four readings. "By status" answers "where does the work stand"; "by type, grouped by trail" answers "what's there to do on La Coulée, and of what kind".

Every group header carries its count. Tasks with no trail are gathered under No trail rather than hidden.

The search field filters the list as you type. It searches task names and folder names: searching a folder brings up everything inside it.

Folders

Folders are your own filing. Unlike the trail or the status, which describe the task, a folder describes your intent: "May 12 work day", "Before opening", "Waiting on the permit".

Create. The folder button, the third one in the list's bar — marker ② on the illustration above. A name, and it's done.

File tasks into one. Drag a task onto the folder's header. To move several at once, Shift + click selects them, then a single drag moves them all.

Rename or delete. The ⋯ menu on the folder's header.

One important point: deleting a folder does not delete the tasks inside it. They simply go back to No folder. A folder is a label, not a container.

Showing a group on the map

This is the least visible button and one of the most useful. Hover a group's header and, on the right, its count is replaced by a small map icon.

Click it and the map shows only that group's tasks. The button then stays lit in gold to remind you a projection is on — that's marker ③ on the illustration above, on the "May 12 work day" folder.

Three things to know:

• It isn't a filter. Your filters don't move, the list doesn't move — only the map narrows. It's a spotlight, not a sieve.
• Selections add up. Light two folders and the map shows both. Click again to switch one off.
• The ✕ that clears filters also switches these projections off.

The typical use: the day before a work day, you light up that day's folder and look at the map to decide where to start.

Creating a task from the map

The fastest way to create a task on the web isn't the button: it's a right-click on the map, at the exact spot of the problem.

A menu opens at the click point with a single entry — Create a task here — and the form opens with the position already filled in.

Sentinel snaps your click to the nearest trail. If a trail is within reach, two things happen: the position is pulled onto the line instead of being left beside it, and the trail is pre-filled in the form. The menu confirms it by showing the trail's name, with the colour dot of its difficulty.

How far that snap reaches depends on the zoom: about ten metres when you're zoomed in, up to a hundred and fifty when you're far out. That's deliberate — from far away you don't aim to the metre. If no trail is within reach, the point is taken as-is and the task stays off-trail.

Three things to know:

• Right-click only responds in the Tasks and Structures sections. On the dashboard home it does nothing.
• In Structures, the same gesture offers Create a structure here.
• You need the matching create right, otherwise no menu appears.

The menu closes if you move the map, press Esc, or click elsewhere.

Moving a task forward

This all happens in kanban view — the first illustration on this page.

Change the status. Drag a card from one column to another. The change is immediate for the whole team, including phones already open on the map.

Open the details. Click a card to open the side panel: photos, trail, priority, assignee, time logged and discussion.

Assign it. Pick a person or a group. The assignee finds the task in their planning, on web and on mobile.

Filtering without losing the thread

Filters are applied server-side: the counter at the top of each column always reflects what you filtered, not just what happens to be loaded on screen.

A common pattern: filter by trail before a work day, then bulk-assign the remaining tasks to the group that will be on site.