For the couple of weeks, I have been working on a plugin that makes it possible to manage game projects, directly from Unity Editor. This tool is built on top of Trello, which makes it easy and fun to work with. If you don’t know what trello is, you can check it out in action here: Trello. Personally I use it for every personal and commercial project, that I’m working on.
There are two key ideas behind Unitrello. One is that it feels good to have everything in one place. Jumping between web browser and Unity distracts developer from actual work. Here user can update his status on given task, without stopping actual work. The other thing is that Trello is a general purpose tool that can help organizing virtually anything. As a consequence it lacks some features that are specific to project management. On the other hand, tools like Jira are way too complex for small projects and teams. When I designed Unitrello I wanted it to be as simple and fun as original Trello, but also wanted it to feel like a solid project management tool.
So, what’s Unitrello all about?
It’s built from two main modules:
Dashboard
Project manager
Dashboard
A dashboard is a little area in Unity’s scene window that constantly monitors changes in Trello board. If something happens(new task added, someone commented on a task, etc) a notification pop-ups and keeps user informed.
A screenshot of notification area. User can switch between two modes:
Show 6 recent notifications
Show whole list of all changes for current project
Project Manager
Project manager is a place where all work gets done. It has a very similar user experience to Trello. There are three lists: “To Do”, “Doing”, “Done”. All new tasks are placed in “To Do” list. When you start working on given task, you drag it and drop on the “Doing” list. When you are done, you move task to the “Done” list. Simple.
Realtime monitoring of changes happening in the project
Customizable skins
Simple task management(moving tasks between lists)
Planned features
Window for viewing task details__*__
Ability to post comments directly from plugin__*__
Ability to create and manage tasks directly from plugin__*__
Statistics and graphs (ie. burndown charts)
Reports
More additions to dashbord(ie. information about upcoming deadlines)
Improve collaboration between developers(post screenshot from editor with one click)
Some integration with version control system(connect commits to relevant tasks automatically)
* - Features to be implemented for public release.
The plugin is still in it’s early stage and there is plenty room for improvement. I’d love to see community’s thoughts on this. All feedback will be appreciated
Nice idea. My 2 cents is to support having the dash (or whatever component you expect people are mostly using) in a separate editor window…so I can undock it and stick it in a separate monitor.
I am currently supported PlayMaker members and created a trello board for people to vote up and keep track of user whishes. So if we can have a two way system where user can edit a task, or at least voting or leaving a comment, that would be really great!
Yeah. There definitely should an ability to make all modules, share standard editor window behavior(docking, etc).
Unitrello is based on Trello authentication system. As long as user has ability to edit cards/comment, he will be able to do this from Unitrello as well.
Hello! I don’t know if you are willing to help, but worth a shot.
Question 1) When will this be available ?
Question 2)
My name is Jeremy, and I am currently a programming student. I am taking a API Class and we have been assigned to make a Unity Editor tool. Trello is one of the agile project tools we use, and we thought it would be awesome to have that in Unity as we work on our projects.
Low and behold you are working on this already it seems!
We have been working on this for a few weeks now and are starting to think that this is going to be way over our heads. We currently can log in, and it request’s a token. Then after it logs in, we can get the information, (members info, board, etc) to show up in a URL. We are having difficulties with the GET,PUT,POST,DELETE functions. How do we display the board, and cards in the Unity editor once logged in ?
Very good! I am glad you are working on this. I am currently not working on this at all, but I am willing to help you here if you want, I believe strongly in this kind of integration.
Do you have problems making the query to begin with, or treat the results? or show the results in the editor UI?
If it’s to display a card, you first need to think about how you want to lay it out, I would totally go for a combination of horyzontal and vertical layout and inside them the data. I would also copy the way they position information on trello website so that users in Unity are not lost. So your first step is to make a mock up without any data coming from trello REST api, and then use this and inject data inside this mockup/template.
