Productivity Manager

A web application built with Flask that allows you to manage productivity on a task-by-task basis — add notes, sub-tasks, and related files to stay organised. Currently a work in progress, building on a tutorial foundation.

---

Table of Contents

• Features
• Currently Working On
• Tech Stack
• Project Structure
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• License
• Inspiration & Credits

---

Features

• Task Management — Create, edit, and delete tasks
• Notes — Attach notes to individual tasks (coming soon)
• Sub-tasks — Break tasks into smaller actionable items (coming soon)
• File Attachments — Link related files to tasks (coming soon)

⚠️ This project is still a work in progress. Some features listed above are planned and not yet implemented.

---

Currently Working On

The project is undergoing a significant architectural upgrade. Here's what's actively in progress:

🔄 Flask → FastAPI Migration

Migrating the backend from Flask to FastAPI to take advantage of:

• Automatic API docs — Swagger UI and ReDoc out of the box at /docs and /redoc
• Async support — non-blocking request handling for better performance
• Type safety — Pydantic models for request/response validation
• Modern Python — native support for Python type hints throughout

The Jinja2 HTML templates will be replaced with a proper API layer, decoupling the frontend from the backend.

🗄️ SQLite → PostgreSQL Migration

Moving from SQLite to PostgreSQL to support:

• Concurrent connections — better suited for multi-user access
• Production readiness — robust, scalable storage beyond local development
• Richer querying — advanced SQL features and indexing
• Cloud deployment — compatibility with hosted DB services (e.g. Supabase, Railway, Render)

The SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI will be updated from sqlite:///database.db to a PostgreSQL connection string:

# New connection format
DATABASE_URL = "postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/productivity_manager"

🎨 UI Overhaul

The current minimal interface is being redesigned with a focus on:

• Improved layout — cleaner task list and dashboard view
• Responsive design — mobile-friendly across all screen sizes
• Component-based styling — refactoring the existing SCSS into reusable, modular components
• Better UX — inline editing, drag-and-drop task ordering, and visual status indicators

---

Tech Stack

Technology	Purpose
Flask	Web framework & routing
Django	(planned integration)
SQLite	Local development database (instance/database.db)
SCSS / CSS	Styling (static/styles.scss, static/styles.css)
Jinja2	HTML templating

---

Project Structure

Flask test/
├── env/                    # Virtual environment
│   ├── AUTHORS
│   ├── LICENSE.txt
│   ├── pyvenv.cfg
│   ├── README.rst
│   └── tox.ini
├── instance/
│   └── database.db         # SQLite database
├── static/
│   ├── styles.css          # Compiled CSS
│   ├── styles.css.map      # Source map
│   └── styles.scss         # SCSS source
├── templates/
│   ├── base.html           # Base layout template
│   ├── edit.html           # Task edit page
│   └── index.html          # Main task list page
├── app.py                  # Main Flask application
├── README.md               # This file
└── requirements.txt        # Python dependencies

---

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.x (Download)
• pip (comes bundled with Python)
• Git

Steps

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/productivity-manager.git
   cd productivity-manager

2. Create and activate a virtual environment

   # Windows
   python -m venv env
   env\Scripts\activate
   
   # macOS / Linux
   python3 -m venv env
   source env/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Initialise the database

   The database is created automatically on first run. If you need to initialise it manually, open a Python shell:

   from app import db
   db.create_all()

5. Run the application

   python app.py

6. Open in your browser

   Navigate to http://127.0.0.1:5000

---

Configuration

Configuration is managed directly in app.py. Key settings to customise:

Setting	Description	Default
SECRET_KEY	Session security key — change this in production	'dev'
SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI	Database connection string	sqlite:///database.db
DEBUG	Enable/disable Flask debug mode	True

Example configuration block in app.py:

app.config['SECRET_KEY'] = 'your-secret-key-here'
app.config['SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI'] = 'sqlite:///database.db'
app.config['DEBUG'] = True

🔒 Important: Never commit a real SECRET_KEY to version control. Use environment variables for production deployments.

---

Usage

Creating a Task

1. Open the app at http://127.0.0.1:5000
2. Fill in the task form on the main page
3. Click Submit to save

Editing a Task

1. Click the Edit button next to any task
2. Modify the details on the edit page (/edit/<id>)
3. Click Save to apply changes

Deleting a Task

1. Click the Delete button next to the task you want to remove
2. The task will be permanently deleted

---

Troubleshooting

The app won't start

• Make sure your virtual environment is activated
• Confirm all dependencies are installed: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Check that port 5000 is not already in use. If it is, run on a different port:

  flask run --port 5001

Database errors

• Delete instance/database.db and restart the app to reset the database
• Ensure the instance/ folder exists and has write permissions

SCSS styles not updating

• Recompile the SCSS manually. If you have Sass installed:

  sass static/styles.scss static/styles.css

• Or use the VS Code Watch Sass extension (visible in the status bar)

Changes not reflecting in the browser

• Hard refresh your browser: Ctrl + Shift + R (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Shift + R (macOS)
• Ensure Flask's debug mode is enabled so the server reloads on file changes

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Since this is a learning project, feel free to suggest improvements or fixes.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a new branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
3. Make your changes and commit: git commit -m "Add your feature"
4. Push to your branch: git push origin feature/your-feature-name
5. Open a Pull Request

Please keep pull requests focused — one feature or fix per PR.

---

License

This project is licensed under the terms found in env/LICENSE.txt. See that file for full details.

Big thanks to Josh for the clear and beginner-friendly walkthrough!

---

*Built by Sihle Dlamini