AppUsageGUI

AppUsageGUI is a desktop application that monitors the runtime of specific applications, organizing sessions into projects. Users can create multiple projects, each containing multiple tracking sessions, providing a comprehensive analysis of time and usage data.

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• Project Management. Organization of tracking sessions into separate projects. Each project acts as a container for related sessions, allowing work to be grouped by categories or clients. Projects are stored in independent directories with their own data structure.
• Session Tracking. Monitoring of the execution time of executable applications with named sessions. The system detects active processes using the psutil library and logs their activity time. Each session maintains detailed start and end records.
• Session Continuation. Ability to resume previous sessions within any project. Session data is preserved between application restarts, maintaining accumulated time and tracking status.
• Customizable Rules. Configuration of custom tracking rules and application filtering. Users define which processes should be monitored and can set specific criteria for application detection.
• Cross-Platform Support. Operation on Windows and macOS systems. The application handles differences in process detection and GUI application filtering between platforms. On macOS, it requires permission configuration.
• Data Integrity. Verification of session data integrity through hash checking. Each session file includes a separate .hash file that validates data authenticity and prevents corruption.
• Pause and Resume. Pause and resume functionality during active tracking. Users can temporarily suspend time logging without ending the session, maintaining the accuracy of accumulated time.
• Intelligent Detection. Automatic identification of GUI applications versus background processes. The system differentiates between applications with a visual interface and system services, focusing on interactive software.
• Project Analysis. Visualization of total time spent across all sessions within a project. Provides aggregated metrics showing the time distribution among different work categories.
• Migration Support. Automatic migration of existing sessions to the new project structure. When upgrading from previous versions, the application reorganizes existing data into the current format.
• MVC Architecture. Implementation of the Model-View-Controller pattern with separate logical and GUI components. Separation of concerns improves maintainability and allows independent evolution of components.
• Data Persistence. Storage of session data with integrity verification via hash. Data is organized by project directories and includes complete metadata for recovery.
• Process Monitoring. Detection of running applications using the psutil library. The system periodically checks process status and updates time counters for target applications.

AppUsageGUI was developed by Adam-Color and is available on GitHub. The program was created using Python with Tkinter for the graphical interface. The application employs the psutil library for process monitoring and follows MVC architecture principles. Development began as a tool for precise application usage time tracking, evolving to include project organization and advanced session management features.

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