Improvements for project module UI

My fellow friend @rmartin and I needed quite some time to find out how we actually have to deal with the “project” module UI, and still we are not certain that we got all of it. From that talk, some ideas for improvement derived.

  1. only use 2 instead of 3 columns for input boxes. The comment field does not have to be so large, and on smaller screens, the 3rd column may not be visible, horizontal scrolling is not very obvious in Tryton

  2. place boxes which all invoice method use, on top: product, list price, invoice method

  3. set “invoice method” to “empty” with the words “choose one”, so it’s clear that this choice is essential for further proceeding. A checkbox for “always use this method” would be nice to change the default.

  4. only display fields which are required in the present invoice method.

  5. Place the “invoice” control under the other boxes - it can easily be overseen, when it’s so far bottom right.

  6. We could not find out what the “timesheet” checkbox actually does; we were not able to mix eg “timesheet” and “on effort” method. So could it be left out?

  7. We could not find out what the “status” control actually does? - Is it just for internal records, or does it influence invoicing or other?

Here are some very rough sketches to make clear what our idea is - we may have aspects we hadn’t understood correctly:

empty, nothing choosen yet:


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

manual:


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

on effort


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

on progress


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

on timesheet


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I’d be happy to pay some money to fund this improvement, but I would not want to pay for that all alone. So, if somebody else feels the wish to contribute a moderate sum, please drop a line. As well, an estimate how costly that work is would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Wolf

The layout is complex to build because it depends on 3 different modules, I doubt we can make it works for all combination differently.

This is just taste choice and again this due to the 3 modules constraint.

This is using the same semantic as the sale or purchase.

Indeed it could be added to a configuration as default value, Add configuration for project invoice method default value (#11804) · Issues · Tryton / Tryton · GitLab

I do not see the point. All fields are important and project is not only about invoice.

It is at the same places as the buttons of other forms.

Indeed it could have an help text because the label is simpler than the name of the field which is “Available on timesheets”. But it is explained on Design — Tryton module with projects

No because project is not only about invoicing. You may want to track time even if you do not invoice based on time.

https://docs.tryton.org/projects/modules-project/en/latest/design.html#work-status

It may influence the progress which may be used for invoicing depending on the method.