Winsana - client for the Asana task management service on your Windows Phone

Our team has tried many tools for project management. Almost all of them had a serious drawback - they were too complicated and cumbersome. As a result, even the simple operation of creating a task and the appointment of a performer caused irritation and any unwillingness to use the tool in the future. Agree that the main task of any instrument is to make life easier, and not to complicate it.

About six months ago, I met with the service Asana. At first I began to use it for personal purposes, but in the end I came to the conclusion that it is better to use a single tool, including at work.
As a source code repository, we use cloud TFS, respectively, project management is carried out in the same place. But for us he was too cumbersome. Yes, and customers, when they saw what they would have to face every day, offered to use Google Docs or Excel and not complicate their lives.

We safely moved to Asana and were very pleased. But it has one small drawback - the service is unavailable through IE and Opera. If the lack of Opera support didn’t upset us much, the situation with IE was more critical - access to tasks on a Windows Phone device was difficult. You could either play with the user agent, or use third-party browsers. In addition, for personal use, I wanted exactly the native application - this is the most convenient option.

Those who are not familiar with Asana can familiarize themselves with a detailed review of the service - http://habrahabr.ru/post/151162
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I reviewed clients for Android and iPhone / iPad. It turned out just wrappers for the mobile version of the site - not impressed. Asana has an API for third-party developers, so it was decided to develop its own client. The development was carried out in free time, so for the first version it was decided to minimize the functionality as much as possible. Still, I wanted to start using it myself, collect user feedback in order to understand the direction of further development.



The development took about two months. The application supports the version of Windows Phone 7.5 and higher (i.e. all existing devices on Windows Phone) and it is free.

The application turned out simple and concise, just in the style of Windows Phone. Honestly, when I saw some task managers for WP, I was panicked: how could you spoil a simple idea so much - a task list. True, it was easier for us - this is a client for an existing service, so the imagination was limited by the API capabilities.

What is Winsana and what kind of functionality does it offer:

1. Manage workspaces, projects and tasks.
2. Offline mode: all data is stored on the device.
3. Creating tasks offline and further synchronization when the network.
4. Simple and concise UI.

Problems and disadvantages of the application:

1. Login with an API key (guidopodobnaya string) - the API does not yet support other options. A spokesperson for Asana said that OAuth is planned, but there is no exact timeline yet.
2. No entity deletion - API restriction.
3. Performance problems when interacting with the service - lately there are often delays on the part of the service and we end up with a timeout error (the limit is 10 seconds).

Plans for the next version:

1. OAuth (if enabled by API).
2. Deleting entities (if enabled by API).
3. Nested tasks.
4. The function "Attach to the start screen" for workspaces, projects and users.
5. Live Tile: important information immediately on the start screen.
6. Tag Management.
7. Calendar integration - create reminders at the request of the user.
8. Adding comments to the task.
9. Optimization :)

Consider the main application screens:

1. Start screen
Available: a list of workspaces, tasks for today (overdue and with a date until today), my tasks and a list of users. Also, the user can quickly create a new task.




2. The user goes to a specific workspace.
List of projects and tags.



3. Project details
Project tasks are divided into 3 groups: active, completed and all.




4. Task details
Presented all the necessary information about the task and comments to it.



5. Editing / Creating a Task




6. Application Settings



What is available:

1. Vorkspeys default - will be used to quickly create a task from the start screen
2. User for “My Tasks”
3. Clear local storage
4. Exit: clear local data and return to login screen

Download the application at the link: http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appId=c7fcb385-4fec-4356-9a9a-12c03e41aea4

Our team will be glad to any feedback and suggestions - support@devrain.com .

In the meantime, the application was certified, we have prepared a small update. Soon it will be available in the Windows Phone Store.