{"id":834,"date":"2010-08-17T09:21:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T09:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/08\/17\/creating-an-activity-log-with-sharepoint\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-17T09:21:30","slug":"creating-an-activity-log-with-sharepoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andyparkes.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2010\/08\/17\/creating-an-activity-log-with-sharepoint\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating an Activity Log with SharePoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reminded of an old Notepad trick on LifeHacker yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Basically if you create a new text file, add .LOG as your first line and then save the file, every time you open it after that the date and time is automatically added for you. <\/p>\n

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LifeHacker then suggest you can use this as an activity log to help keep you focused on productivity. At the end of the day you can take a look and see what you\u2019ve done with your time!<\/p>\n

It also suggested that you added a shortcut to your taskbar so you can get to the log really quickly. <\/p>\n

I\u2019m all for improving productivity but decided I could improve on this a little so created something similar in SharePoint.<\/p>\n

On our companyweb site I also have my own site that I use for testing things out and keeping track of information specific to myself (http:\/\/companyweb\/andy<\/a>) so this seemed the perfect place for it.<\/p>\n

First thing was to create a new custom list called \u201cDaily Activity Log\u201d<\/p>\n

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Adding it to the quick launch bar means I can get at it quickly while on my site.<\/p>\n

One new list!
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Next I created a new standard view<\/p>\n

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From here I made my new view the default view, displayed only the "Created\u201d and \u201cTitle\u201d fields (in that order) and set the sort order to \u201cCreated" and Descending (newest on top)<\/p>\n

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Scrolling down the page I set the filter options to only show the entries for today.<\/p>\n

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After that I clicked the NEW button to display a form so I could fill out an activity entry. <\/p>\n

You could also rename the \u201cTitle\u201d field to something more useful but I haven\u2019t here as this post will be long enough!<\/p>\n

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TADA!<\/p>\n

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I now have a complete list of entries from today and the \u201ccreated\u201d field gives us the same timestamp effect we had in notepad.<\/p>\n

To mirror the LifeHacker suggestion I then created a new shortcut on my desktop.<\/p>\n

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The target is:<\/p>\n

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"C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe" http:\/\/companyweb\/andy\/Lists\/Daily%20Activity%20Log\/NewForm.aspx<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(This path will be different if using the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer on a 64-bit operating system)<\/p>\n

You can get the URL by clicking the NEW button and copying the URL from the address bar.<\/p>\n

I also changed the icon to make sure it looked different to the main <\/p>\n

I only created this today so only have one groups worth of information.<\/p>\n

All done!<\/p>\n

This means I\u2019ve got a tracking system for my daily activities where I can easily add entries, view what I\u2019ve achieved today as well as go back and look at previous days.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of ways to improve on this further. Some examples that spring to mind.<\/p>\n