How to run Rachota

Rachota is distributed as so called Java Archive (jar file). To launch it you need to have Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. If you are not sure whether you have JRE installed or not, type java -version on the command line and press Enter. If your system does not recognize the java command, download and install JRE 1.5 or higher. Once installed, Rachota can be run using the following command:
java -jar rachota_21.jar

How to set the location of diary files

In order to do that use the -userdir switch. For example if you want your diary files stored in directory D:\rachota\diaries, run Rachota this way:
java -jar rachota_21.jar -userdir=D:\rachota\diaries

How to run Rachota in my language

Rachota tries to detect your country and language automatically. However, if your locale is not set correctly, use standard Java options to select the desired localization, for example:
java -Duser.language=en -Duser.country=US -jar rachota_21.jar

Note: Rachota is currently translated into English, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Romanian, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish. The following table helps you to find the correct language/country codes.

Localization Language code Country code
Czech cs CZ
English en US
French fr FR
German de DE
Hungarian hu HU
Italian it IT
Japanese ja JP
Portugese pt BR
Romanian ro RO
Russian ru RU
Spanish es MX (Mexico), ES (Spain)

Furthermore, if you want to use national characters in descriptions of your tasks, you might want to change the default encoding.

How to change default configuration

It is possible to tweak some of the default system settings. You can use <userdir>\settings.cfg file to change default values of some options. Please note that this is possible only when Rachota is not running otherwise your modifications will be overwritten on Rachota exit. The following table lists all useful properties:

Description Option Example
Diary saving interval savingPeriod By default, diary and settings files are saved every 30 seconds. If you want to have your files saved every minute, use this statement:
savingPeriod = 60
Text encoding systemEncoding Default text encoding is determined by your operating system. However, if you for example need KOI8-R encoding, use this statement:
systemEncoding = KOI8-R
Text font fontName
fontSize		 It is possible to force Rachota to use a special font. For example, if you prefer 12 points Microsoft Sans Serif font, use this statement:
fontName = Microsoft Sans Serif
fontSize = 12
Automatic start automaticStart When launched Rachota starts to measure idle time automatically and records its start time. If you want to turn this feature off, use this statement:
automaticStart = false
Time in title showTime By default, title contains both task and total times. It is possible to display only one of them or none. Valid values are both, task, total or none. If you are interested only in active task time, use this statement:
showTime = task

How to highlight private tasks

How come I cannot get private tasks highlighted in the history chart? This happens when the Count private tasks setting is turned off. Go to System | Settings menu and check this option.

How to manually edit measured time

It is intentionally not possible to manually edit time of a task. To partially workaround it, you can simply transfer time between tasks. To achieve this, select the source task and use Task | Move time menu item. Select destination task, setup desired number of hours/minutes/seconds and push OK button.

Is it true that Rachota is "calling home"?

Yes, by default Rachota connects to its Analytics server on the first day of a week and sends it Rachota instance's unique ID and weekly usage data. Sharing your data is required if you want to obtain the same average data from other Rachota users. However, if you don't like this feature, you can simply turn it off in the System settings dialog. Just uncheck Report weekly activity option.

OK, so what is actually being shared?

Rachota transfers unique identification string and weekly usage data which in particular is:
* total working time from the previous week
* total idle time from the previous week
* total time spent on private tasks from the previous week
* total number of diaries
* 6 efficiency factors [1] from the previous week
[1] categorization, effectivity, granularity, prioritization, repetition and statusing

All the three numbers are in milliseconds. In return the server returns the same data calculated from all records received from other Rachota users. The ID string contains:
* version of Rachota
* build number of Rachota
* operating system name
* operating system architecture
* operating system version
* Java version
* country
* user name
* installation directory of Rachota

Finally, what does Rachota mean?

Rachota is a Czech word and basically means manual work or labour. It has a slight negative connotation though. It stands for something you will have to do after the weekend but you do not look forward to.