RedmineStudio Settings② -Activity Categories-

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Contents

Introduction
Settings
Conclusion

Introduction

This is the second part of the RedmineStudio settings guide.

The settings guide is organized by tabs in the settings screen.
This article covers the following settings:

Activity Categories

Settings

What are Activity Categories?

“Activity Categories” are the categories for “Time Entries” (= work hours) provided by Redmine. These “Activity Categories” must be set when registering “Time Entries” in Redmine.

You can view the list of “Activity Categories” in Redmine under [Administration]-[Enumerations] in “Activities (time tracking)”. These can be freely added or edited according to your needs.

By enabling these “Activity Categories” in each project’s settings under [Time Tracking], they become available for setting on that project’s “Issues”.

In RedmineStudio, the activity category list on the left side of the input screen displays the “Activity Categories” that can be set for the selected “Work Record”, allowing you to select and configure them from there.

Activity Category Settings

Configure the following settings for activity categories.

The activity category settings screen displays all enabled activity categories. However, you cannot add or edit “Activity Categories” from the settings screen. Please add or edit them from Redmine’s settings screen. The activity category column only displays names and cannot be edited.

Enabled
Set whether to enable or disable.
When disabled, it will not be displayed on the input screen.
Background Color
Select the background color to display on the input screen.
Bold, Italic
Set whether to display as “Bold” or “Italic” on the input screen.
Target Issue Tracker
Specify the tracker of issues for which this activity category can be set. If not specified, it can be set regardless of the issue’s tracker. By specifying a tracker, the activity categories displayed when selecting an issue are limited, making selection easier.
Assignment Conditions, Auto Assignment
Please see the “Auto Assignment Settings for Activity Categories” section below.
Count as Work Time
Set whether to include the set work time when calculating labor hours and overtime. When unchecked, it will not be included in calculations. Use this for cases like off-hours travel time that should be recorded but not counted as labor hours.

Assign Activity Category When Under Issue with Same Name

By enabling this setting, the “Activity Category” will be automatically assigned to issues with the same name as the activity category, or to their child issues. For example, suppose you have an activity category called “Meeting”. If you create an issue called “Meeting” and create child issues “TL Regular Meeting” and “Morning Meeting” under it, then when you set “TL Regular Meeting” or “Morning Meeting” as a work record, the “Meeting” activity category will be automatically set.

Auto Assignment Settings for Activity Categories

Auto assignment for activity categories is a feature that automatically sets the “Activity Category” based on conditions derived from the “Issue” of the “Work Record”. By configuring this, the “Activity Category” will be automatically set when you assign an “Issue” to a “Work Record”, eliminating the need to manually select from the list.

Condition Settings for Assignment

Conditions can be set using combinations of the following issue elements:

Project: Multiple selection possible
Tracker: Multiple selection possible
Subject: Select matching method from “contains/starts with/ends with/equals”
Status: Multiple selection possible
Assignee: Select from “Anyone/Me/Others”

For example, you can set conditions like:

Project is “RedmineStudio” and Tracker is “Feature” or “Bug”
Subject contains “TL Regular Meeting” and Assignee is “Me”

In the settings screen, configure as follows:
Click the “+” on the left end of the setting row to display the condition list, then click the “+” on the right to add settings. In the capture below, two conditions are set for the “Development” activity category.

These conditions are combined according to the “Assignment Conditions” setting. Select from “AND” or “OR”. By default, it is set to “AND”, targeting issues that satisfy all conditions. When set to “OR”, issues that satisfy even one condition become targets.

Issue Hierarchy and Condition Application

Next, let’s discuss how conditions are applied based on issue hierarchy.

When applying conditions, if the target issue has a parent issue, the determination is made by tracing back through the hierarchy.

The condition check first targets the set issue. If it doesn’t match the conditions, it checks the parent issue. If that doesn’t match either, it checks that parent issue, and so on. Of course, if there is no parent issue, no backward tracing is performed.

For example, if there is a condition “Tracker is Feature”, in the case below, the selected issue (#1232) has tracker “Implementation” so it doesn’t apply. However, tracing back through parent issues reveals an issue (#1130) with tracker “Feature”, so it is considered to match the condition.

Settings Order and Condition Application

Next, let’s discuss the order of activity category settings and the application order of auto assignment.

The auto assignment application order can be set by changing the order of activity category setting rows. The determination proceeds from the top of the settings screen in order, and when a match is found, that activity category is applied.

Also, while you can pin specific activity categories to the top in the input screen’s activity category list, this does not change the application order.