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, without the map. That's the progress view: one column per status, one card per task, and drag-and-drop to move things along. Hover a column header and a + appears: it creates a task that starts out with that column's status — and in the selected folder, if there is one. Its menu also offers to start from a photo. If your place has folders, they take up a column to the left of the board and let you show one folder at a time — see folders.

Both share the same filters: whatever you filter on the kanban stays filtered when you switch to the map. The Assigned to filter lists your groups alongside your members: filtering on "North crew" shows everything handed to that group.

Each view has its own search field: above the list in map view, above the board in kanban view. The kanban one searches the task name, its type, its trail, its folder, its project, its assignee — member or group — and its description — which is what the grey hint text in the field spells out. It combines with everything else: to search inside one folder, select that folder first.

The toolbar

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

Left to right:

On a narrow screen. The bar never overflows: when room runs short, it puts its controls away one at a time, starting with the rightmost one. The control that disappears moves into a sliders button that opens the same list, and the active-filter count stays visible on it. As long as there is room for the others, they stay as buttons. Widen the window and they come back in reverse order.

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".

From the list, in map view

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

On a brand-new place, that button isn't there yet: as long as no task exists, the list is replaced by a welcome block explaining what a task is. That block offers both moves — Create a task and Create folder — so you can set up your folders first and fill them later. As soon as a first folder exists, the normal list takes over and shows it, still empty.

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.

From the column, in kanban view

Your folders form a column to the left of the board.

Create, rename, delete. The + at the top of the column creates a folder. Hover a folder and a ⋯ menu appears, with Rename and Delete.

File tasks into one. Drag a card onto a folder in the column and it changes folder. Shift + click selects several cards — they turn gold and get a check mark — and a single drag moves them all. To take a task out of its folder, drop it on All tasks at the top of the column; a task that has no folder to begin with is not accepted there. A confirmation message shows up every time, because nothing visibly moves on the board when you are looking at all tasks.

Showing one folder only. Click a folder and the board shows only its tasks. All tasks brings everything back. One folder at a time.

This is a view choice, not a filter: the Advanced filter button does not light up, the ✕ does not appear, and your filters stay exactly as you left them. What this view does do is remember you: the mode you picked and the folder you opened are kept for that place, even if you close the browser. You come back where you left off. Each place keeps its own.

Seeing where a task is filed. While you are looking at All tasks, every card carries its folder name at the bottom — marker ④. As soon as you step into a folder, the label disappears: it would no longer tell you anything new.

A task created while a folder is open goes into that folder. The form's Folder field arrives pre-filled. Nothing stops you from changing it or clearing it before saving.

If the place has no folders at all, the column does not appear: the board takes the full width — and the first folder is then created from the list.

One important point: deleting a folder does not delete the tasks inside it. They simply lose their folder and stay in the list as before. 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.