Messages and tasks

How to work with messages and tasks, where to find them, what are editing options, etc.

Whereas markers are only available or make sense for visual MIME types, messages and tasks are universal and can be used on any asset. 

Purpose and differences

Messages and tasks share a lot of UI elements and editing capabilities. 

However, they serve different purposes:

• messages are basically comments on the context asset

• tasks are explicit calls to action

Both of them can request a change, but tasks may have a deadline and an assignee. When a task is assigned, it will appear on the assignee's board, and a reminder will show up when the deadline is approaching. This makes tasks more visible for the target user and helps to track when the request has been addressed. 

Where messages and tasks live

As any other assets, messages and tasks can be accessed from various places in Censhare Web. But the main overview can be found on the Communication tab of the context asset page. 

On the right side, three widgets grouped together store all communication assets related to the current context asset:

• Communication widget contains both messages and tasks, in the reverse chronological order, grouped into conversational threads. Threads emerge when someone replies to a message or a task. 

• Markers. See main article for more information.

• Related tasks widget contains only tasks, but shows more details about them, and allows more sorting options.

In the Communication widget, each communication asset contains information about its creation time and the author.

How to create and edit messages and tasks

Creating or editing messages and tasks won't check out the context asset, since those are not its properties, but own assets. It means that users can use the Communication tab of the same asset simultaneously, as long as they do not edit the same communication asset.

How to start creating a message or task

• In the Communication widget, you can start typing in the text input field on the top of the widget.

  • For tasks, you need to switch to the Task first.

• In the Related tasks widget, you can create a task using the plus button in the top right. 

During creation of messages and tasks, a few options are available as described below.

How to start editing a message or task

An already existing message/task can be edited in the Communication widget. For this, hover over the top right corner of it and click on the pen icon.

During editing of messages and tasks, the following options are available.

Editing options

You need to start typing something in the text input field to make all available options appear.

(1) and (2) - Saving or discarding the changes

The "POST" (1) and X (2) buttons allow you to save or discard your changes or the draft message/task.

(3) - Adding a related asset from asset picker

By clicking on this icon, you will call an asset picker dialogue that allows you to attach an existing asset to your message/task.

This action will create an Assigment relationship between the attached asset and the communication asset, but no relationship to the context asset. For supported visual MIME types, a preview will be created for the attached asset.

Adding a related asset by drag-and-drop

If you want to attach a file that is not yet a Censhare asset, simply drag it from your local file system and then drop into the message/task text field. A duplicate check will be run. If an asset with the same storage file already exists, you will see a duplicate check wizard as usual. If not, the file gets attached to the message/task, and a new asset will be created in Censhare, with a relationship to the communication asset.

(4) - Removing an existing attachment

Attachmenst can be easily removed. For this, you need to enter the editing mode and then click on the removal button.

(5) - Adding a topic

This allows to specify a related topic. It won‘t create a relationship to the corresponding topic asset, but will show the topic in the UI to make messages/tasks stand out.

(6) - Adding a marker

This button is only visible if any markers has been previously added to the context asset. It allows to add a marker to the message/task. This action will create an Assigment relationship between the marker and the communication asset, in addition to the marker‘s relationship to the context asset.

At-mentioning users or user groups

You can at-mention a user or a user group on a message/task. When you @ in the input text field, a dropdown with names with appear. Start typing the first letters of the name and press Enter to select the one you need.

Replying to a message/task

You can post your message/task as an answer to an existing one. For this, hover over an existing message/task and then click on the arrow icon:

Marking a task as completed

A task can be set to Done by clicking on the tick mark icon that appears when you hover over the upper right corner of the task. This is available in both Communication and Related tasks widgets.

Converting messages to tasks

A message can be converted to a task (but not the other way around). The message body and all attachments will be kept. To do this, enter the editing mode by clicking on the pen icon and then use the envelope icon to convert the message.

A not yet saved message cannot be converted, and the convert icon won’t be visible during initial creation of the message.

Deleting messages and tasks

To delete a message or task created in the Communication widget, go to the widget and:

• hover over the upper right corner of it

• click on the three-dot menu

• click on the trash icon

For tasks created in the Related tasks widget, you will need to go to this widget.

After you deleted a message/task, it may remain displayed in the Communication widget if the message was part of a series of replies. Also, the relations between the remaining communication assets and the context asset stay intact. This is due to the fact that the communication asset is still kept in the system. However, it gets stripped of all content, features, and values. As any other asset, it can only be completely removed by the system administrator.

Find messages and tasks

In addition to the search capabilities in the Communication and Related tasks widget, you can search for messages or tasks from everywhere in Censhare, just like for any other asset.

In censhare Web, enter the "Message" or "Task" asset type as the search criteria in the quick search to see all messages. Message assets have the subtype "Message" with the main type "Text".

If you cannot find a message or task, please check the article that explains Access to communication assets and then check if you actually have access to what you are looking for.

Stay updated

There are multiple ways to receive updates about any asset communication you are involved in. 

Notification center in the Censhare Web

Wherever you are involved in a communication on an asset, you will be notified about any updates through the notification center.  See Notifications about communication updates for more information.

Email notifications for tagged users

In addition to that, it is also possible to explicitly configure email notifications that will be sent to users @-mentioned on the communication assets (messages and tasks for now).

This configuration is explained in detail here. Indeed, your email notifications must be also enabled in your user preferences. 

Communication inside layouts 

When you work directly in a layout, it is also possible to create and edit messages and tasks related to the opened layout in the InDesign Query palette.

The Communication tab is located in the Asset query window, next to the Files tab.

The InDesign query palette does not display message and task assets by default. In this view, it is most important to focus on the content assets, which are actually placed in the layout. 

You can configure the display of messages and/or tasks via the Preferences in the censhare Client.

<child-assets-filter>
 <query>
  <not>
   <condition name="censhare:asset.type" value="text.message."/>
  </not>
  <not>
   <condition name="censhare:asset.type" value="task."/>
  </not>
 </query>
</child-assets-filter>