* Timetracking that's elegant, reliable and free
In the world of Web applications it is unusual to find a Web-based service that doesn’t support Internet Explorer but our subject today, SlimTimer published by Richard White, takes exactly that approach and is compatible only with FireFox 1.5+, Camino, IE 6+, Opera and Safari.
SlimTimer, built on Ruby on Rails, is a timetracking system that is elegant, reliable and free.
After you register, using SlimTimer is easy. You simply bookmark a link provided on the Web site which actually saves a bookmarklet that opens a new browser window and restores it’s state, which consists of the tasks you previously defined if any.
To create new tasks you simply click on an “Add Task” link in the SlimTimer window, or enter ALT+A when the window has focus. You then click on the task text to start timing it. If you need to time multiple tasks you simply open another SlimTimer window.
You can add tags and comments to the current task and you can suspend the timing of the task by clicking on it again or by clicking on another task (which starts timing the newly selected task).
Every time you create and time a task or add tags and comments, the events are captured by the SlimTimer server. Using the SlimTimer site you can edit tasks details, run reports (pivot, audit, and timesheets are available for user specified date ranges and or specific types of entries), and modify your profile.
White also explains how to use Bubbles (covered in a previous newsletter), to encapsulate SlimTimer in a packaged Web browser so that you have what appears to be a desktop application.
SlimTimer also has an API so that Rich Internet Applications (RIA) or Web applications can integrate with the SlimTimer services. White notes that “The API is RESTful and fluent in XML, YAML and JSON. The Public API allows secure access to SlimTimer user data for syncing with external applications. We also have a Trusted API for those companies and individuals interested in a tighter integration with the SlimTimer platform including importing your existing users into SlimTimer and branded versions of the timer client.”
SlimTimer is, as I noted above, free and the author notes that he has no plans for ever charging for the service or even monetizing it through ad displays.
I admire SlimTimer a lot; It is simple, clean, fast, well thought out, and well implemented.
