Wingware
Inbox Goal Details
This section describes how inbox goals work and how the Tasks Manager makes their files into tasks.
The Inbox Directory
An inbox goal's directory is shown after its name in the goal's header in the Plan tab's Goals view, as Inbox: and the path, relative to the agent working directory when it is inside it. When there is not enough room, the start of the path is cut. Click Open there to show the directory in your file manager, or Create to make it if it does not exist yet. Open is not shown for a directory on a remote host. To use another directory, right-click on the goal's header and select Goal Properties....
Wing creates the inbox directory with active, done and declined subdirectories and a README.txt. If the inbox is inside the project's working copy, Wing also adds it to the .gitignore or .hgignore file, so the files dropped into it are not committed.
Hover the mouse over the path to see the full path of the directory and counts of the goal's files by status. The last two are shown only when there are any:
- waiting -- Files that are waiting to be read by the Tasks Manager.
- active -- Files needed for tasks that have not yet finished running.
- done -- Files whose tasks have been completed and committed.
- declined -- Files that the Tasks Manager decided hold no valid requests for this project, or whose tasks were deleted without being committed.
- missing -- Files the Tasks Manager has read that are no longer in the directory, for example because you removed them.
- handled elsewhere -- Files being handled by another Wing instance, when multiple instances of Wing are sharing a single inbox directory.
Wing moves each file from the top level to active/ or declined/ sub-directories when the Tasks Manager has read it, and from active/ to done/ or declined/ when its tasks finish. You should not move files out of the subdirectories yourself.
Wing watches each inbox that exists for new files and waits until they stop changing to account for files in the process of being written. Hidden files, temporary files, partial downloads, and the README.txt are ignored.
Triage by the Tasks Manager
Only the Tasks Manager makes files into tasks, so while it is disabled, files wait in the inbox. An open inbox goal lists the waiting files above its tasks, marked Waiting for the Tasks Manager or Tasks Manager is off. Files that arrived while Wing or the Manager was not running are read once the Manager is on again.
The Tasks Manager reads new files without asking you, following the goal's Instructions if any were given, and files tasks as Ready or Draft as the goal's File Tasks As says. It files one task for each request, so it may merge several files about the same request into one task, or split a file that holds several requests into several tasks. A file about something an existing task already covers is attached to that task. Files that hold no request for this project, such as spam, are declined.
A task made from inbox files shows From inbox: and the names of its files on its row. The tooltip on the task shows where each inbox file is now located. The task's text names the files' paths, so the worker can read them.
Deleting an Inbox Goal
When you delete an inbox goal, Wing asks you to confirm and shows how many files its directory holds. Checking Also delete the directory and its files moves the directory to the trash. This is unchecked by default, so the directory is kept. The checkbox is not shown for a directory on a remote host. Once the goal is deleted, files dropped into its directory are no longer made into tasks.