Add support for sub-tasks in Thunderbird

[Ponda]

Thunderbird can act not only as a mail client, but also calendar, address book, tasks app and more, which gives new productivity opportunities – for example, you can very easily convert an e-mail into a task or event. One of the things Thunderbird currently lacks, however, is support for sub-tasks/hierarchical to-do. Let me show you this amazing feature on an example (using Nextcloud Tasks):

On Bugzilla, this feature was requested 21 years ago: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=194863

There are no good desktop apps supporting caldav and sub-tasks that I'm aware of, and the only such app for Android is Tasks.org. In addition, it seems Thunderbird already supports necessary attribute: https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/issues/79#issuecomment-1465267112

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[HyperCriSiS]

I think this is by far the oldest feature request I have ever seen of any software 😄

Crazy that this is still not part of Thunderbird. :frowning:

[lexante]

Joined just to add my vote.

It's years I'm looking for a sub task manager with subtasks. Found on nextcloud and tasks.org me too.

I don't know if there are apis to manage sub activities, and if it possible to create a timeline viewer for tasks and subtasks, with a time editor swiping bars, as in gantt view.

It's a huge work. To me, I'd ask for a support (also in money) to all users.

[lexante]

What about these links ? 

- https://www.ghacks.net/2019/10/26/manage-your-todo-txt-with-thunderbird-using-this-extension/

- https://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/30/how-lightnings-integration-in-thunderbird-looks-like/

[Oddstr13]

This is a feature I use extensively with the Android app Tasks.org, so this feature is a must have for me to be able to use the tasks feature in Thunderbird.

Breaking larger tasks up into bite-sized sub-tasks is important, as it makes it easier to actually get started and complete it. Nested sub-tasks help with organizing them.

[JWeiss]

I think adding support for sub-tasks would be a good start. Ideally the redesign should be even bigger, after the latest redesign of the UI the tasks screen looks like it was carelessly attached / forgotten in the redesign of thunderbird. The task screen does not fit in with the more modern UI. Especially if you compare it the more modern UIs for tasks like Task.org like Ponda did. I know redesigning an UI is a big task and the Thunderbird Team did a great job, but the Task screen could really use some love

[mokazemi]

That would be really necessary to fully support calDAV, especially these sub-tasks. I use Nextcloud tasks as my Sync server. I want to show these tasks in Thunderbird and that's why I need this feature.

[Ponda]

Good news everybody, Ryan Lee Sipes of Thunderbird confirmed it's coming on Mastodon! https://mastodon.social/@ryanleesipes/111168604462804904

[jevangelho]

Hi @Ponda, this is coming! It's been identified as something we need to do in tasks.

Thanks a lot for coming to Connect and sharing your suggestions.

[Jon]

Hey all,

Good news...

This is being worked on — feel free to keep the conversation going and stay tuned for updates.

Thanks for sharing your feedback and ideas here on Mozilla Connect 🙌

[Jon]

Hey all,

Good news...

This is being worked on — feel free to keep the conversation going and stay tuned for updates.

Thanks for sharing your feedback and ideas here on Mozilla Connect 🙌

[Jon]

Hey all,

Good news...

This is being worked on — feel free to keep the conversation going and stay tuned for updates.

Thanks for sharing your feedback and ideas here on Mozilla Connect 🙌

[Jon]

Hey all,

Good news...

This is being worked on — feel free to keep the conversation going and stay tuned for updates.

Thanks for sharing your feedback and ideas here on Mozilla Connect 🙌

[kleintux]

greate news. I dreamed about this feature since years 😍

[drelkag]

This is the biggest feature missing from Thunderbird for me. Thanks for the amazing work devs.

[BidlyBong]

Yes Please!

[KorespondentAda]

Absolutely need!
Also, it would be great to have at least some extension API for connecting Thunderbird tasks with other software like Taskwarrior or mentioned earlier Nextcloud or Task.org, so there will be no transition pain.

Thanks for your work!

[Tylla]

@KorespondentAdaif I understand your question correctly, you are talking about something like a CalDAV connector.

Which btw is already used by Thunderbird/Lightning to connect to NextCloud/OwnCloud and lots of other calendar/task providers.

If my googleFu is good enough then TaskWarrior has some proprietary format, but has some plug-in to connect to CalDAV servers. So that's the way to go.