Log Monitor is a cool little tool, and will do the job if nothing better comes along, but I've given it a little more thought, and this is how my ideal app would work...

Create a client record by selecting their folder and specifying their name.

The app then monitors this folder (and all it's subfolders) and logs the following actions...

File open - start clock
File loses focus - stop clock
Computer idle for (x) minutes - stop clock
File regains focus - start clock

So, in theory, if I have three client documents open at once, there will actually be three "clocks" active, but only one of them would be running (because only one window can ever be active at once).

As far as the logging is concerned, ideally there would be a separate log file for each client (stored in the clients folder by default). Whenever the clock is stopped, the system would log...

Name (& path) of file, Date, Start Time, End Time.

Another cool thing would be to have a "master log", which would be the same, with an added "Name of client" column. Ideally, this log would be easily transferable to Excel or Access for further querying as needed.

I would imagine that other people using this app would like to have an added option of file filters (excluding certain extensions, etc.). I Wouldn't use this function, but I'm sure others would.

HI there. Not sure if this would qualify as a coding snack, or if someone may know of something that does this already.

I have tried many different time logging apps, but they keep failing because I keep forgetting to press the go and stop buttons.

My work folder is split into subfolders for each client, so ideally, I'd love an app that starts the clock when I open (or create) a file within a folder (or one of it's subfolders/subsubfolder, etc), and stops the clock when I move onto something else, close the file, or the computer is idle for (x) minutes. If all this could be logged in a plain old text file, I'd be set. Maybe another option would be stopping the clock if a certain application becomes active (for me, that would be Firefox).

Is this possible? Has it been done already?