Basic Operations with Tasks

In this chapter you'll learn how to do basic operations with tasks: to create or delete a task, to dynamically update a task's property.

Adding a new task

To add a new task to the Gantt chart, use the addTask method:

var taskId = gantt.addTask({
    id:10,
    text:"Project #1",
    start_date:"02-09-2013",
    duration:28
});

Preventing from adding tasks to certain levels

A quite easy way to prevent users from adding sub-tasks to a task of a certain level (or based on some other condition) is to hide the 'Add' button through CSS.

You can assign a CSS class for each task row using the grid_row_class template:

gantt.templates.grid_row_class = function( start, end, task ){
    if ( task.$level > 1 ){
        return "nested_task"
    }
    return "";
};

and hide the 'Add' button for such rows:

.nested_task .gantt_add{
    display: none !important;
}

Updating a task's property

To dynamically update a property of a task object, use the updateTask method:

var task = gantt.getTask(10);//->{id:10,text:"Task #10",start_date:"02-09-2013",...}
 
task.text = "Task #10_1"; gantt.updateTask(10); gantt.refreshData();

Redrawing tasks

To re-draw all tasks in the Gantt chart, use the the refreshData method:

var task = gantt.getTask(10);//->{id:10,text:"Task #10",start_date:"02-09-2013",...}
var task2 = gantt.getTask(11);//->{id:11,text:"Task #11",start_date:"05-09-2013",...}
 
task.text = "Task #10_1";  task2.text = "Task #11_1"; gantt.refreshData();

Deleting tasks

To delete a task, use the deleteTask method:

gantt.deleteTask(taskId);

Cascade deleting of nested tasks

There is a cascade_delete config that regulates the process of deleting tasks from Gantt. By default, it is set to true, which means that when you delete a task, Gantt sends a request to a server for each nested task and link of the deleted task.

If you don't need to send multiple requests to the server, you can simply disable the cascade_delete config:

gantt.config.cascade_delete = false;

In that case Gantt will send only one request to the server - for deleting just the parent task, while its nested tasks and links will be deleted by the server.

The cascade_delete option affects the way of implemeting a backend. Read more in the related section of the Server-side Integration article.

Removing all tasks from the Gantt chart

To clear the Gantt chart from tasks, call the clearAll method:

gantt.clearAll();