blogposts

Localization of the TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal

TeamPulse Product Blog — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:24:42 GMT

With the 2012 R2 Release, localization of the Ideas and Feedback Portal is as easy as editing a text file!

Background

Localization is the process of changing the text in an application to another language, or locale. Well designed applications allow for changing the text that is displayed without having to branch the source code and recompile, and TeamPulse certainly falls into this category. Built on Microsoft’s .NET Platform, TeamPulse takes full advantage of the localization features provided by the .NET Framework, allowing you to customize the Ideas and Feedback portal to the language that best meets your needs.

Based on our customers’ feedback that we gather through many channels, including our instance of the Ideas and Feedback Portal that we use to gather feedback from you, our customer, the ability to localize the Feedback Portal was a highly rated need.

Getting Started

Finding the Installation Folder using Environment Variables

Before we can customize the Portal, we need to know where on our server the application resides. If you followed the defaults during installation, the location is %ProgramFiles%\Telerik\TeamPulse\FeedbackPortal, where %ProgramFiles% is the default drive and path for installation of software. To quickly determine where your default directory is, open a command window by clicking Start->Run, then type “cmd” without the quotes (see Figure 1).

Figure 1

Once you have a command window open, type “echo %ProgramFiles%” (without the quotes), and you will see the definition of the environment variable (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

Finding the Installation Folder using Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager

The Ideas and Feedback Portal is an ASP.NET application that runs in IIS. To determine where it is running, open up Internet Information Services Manager by clicking on Start –> Administrative Tools –> Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Or, from the Run prompt (Start –> Run), type “INETMGR.EXE” without the quotes.

This will bring up a window similar to the one in Figure 3. Expand the Server in the left rail, and click on the “Sites” icon. This will list all of the sites installed on that server. In the center content area of the screen, make sure that the “Features View” tab is selected. This will then list all of the sites and the path to their installation. You can see in this example that the Portal as well as TeamPulse are both installed under the C:\Program Files\Telerik\TeamPulse directory. If your path has an environment variable (such as %SystemDrive%), you can use the technique from the previous section to discover the actual installation path.

Figure 3

Working With Localization Files

To put it bluntly, localization files are big XML files. All of the strings that can be modified are their own <data> element like in Listing 1. These are the data elements for the “Like” and “Dislike” labels in the Feedback Portal. The strings in the <value> tags are the values that get displayed in the application.

<data name="Dislike" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Dislike</value> 
 </data> 
 <data name="Like" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Like</value> 
 </data>

Listing 1

If we want to change the display to Yes for Like and No for Dislike as we change the language to Dutch, we change the XML to what we see in Listing 2.

<data name="Dislike" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Nee</value> 
 </data> 
 <data name="Like" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Ja</value> 
 </data>

Listing 2

Ideas and Feedback Portal Localization File

With the 2012 R2 Release, the localization file for the Feedback Portal is located in %installation_directory%\App_GlobalResources directory, where %installation_directory% is the directory where the feedback portal is installed (this can be located as described in the beginning of this article). In that directory is a file named “String.resx”, which is the localization file for the Portal.

In this example, we want to change the Search Topics/Suggest New text as well as the Like/Dislike text. Figure 4 shows the changes that we want to make.

Figure 4

In this example, we are going to change the language to "Dutch”, but before we do that, we need to determine how we are going to activate the localization.

Updating the Main Resource File

One way is to replace the text in the string.resx file with the changes that we want. Any changes that are made in the strings.resx file that is in the %installation_directory%\App_GlobalResources directory will automatically take effect on the next browser refresh. If you do change the existing file, make sure to make a backup before you start!

Changing the Culture Using the Web.Config

Since there is only currently one resource file, ASP.NET will automatically use that file. If there is more than one, it looks to match the file names with the current “UICulture”. The Culture setting is used for date and numerical formatting, whereas the UI Culture is used for localizing the strings in an application. The naming convention for localization files is “Strings.yy.resx”, where “yy” indicates the culture. “en” for English, “bg” for Bulgarian, “nl” for Dutch, etc.

To change the UICulture for an ASP.NET application, open up the web.config file (found in the %installation_directory% for the Ideas and Feedback Portal), and find the line that reads <system.web>. Add a new line after system.web line as shown in Listing 3 so you can specify the UICulture. In this example, the culture is set to English. NOTE: Please make sure that you enter it exactly like it is written, as it’s case sensitive.

<system.web> 
  <globalization uiCulture="en"/> 
  <!-- rest of config file cut for brevity -> 
 </system.web>

Listing 3

Changing the Text to Dutch

First we copy the existing “Strings.resx” file to “Strings.nl.resx”. In the new file, find the four entries that we want to change. These changes that are shown in Listing 4. We also change the web.config file to change the UICulture to “NL”, as shown in Listing 5.

<data name="SearchTopics" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Zoeken Onderwerpen</value> 
 </data> 
 <data name="Suggest" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Suggesties doen voor nieuwe onderwerpen</value> 
 </data> 
 
 <data name="Dislike" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Nee</value> 
 </data> 
 <data name="Like" xml:space="preserve"> 
  <value>Ja</value> 
 </data>

Listing 4

<system.web> 
  <globalization uiCulture="nl"/> 
  <!-- rest of config file cut for brevity --> 
 </system.web>

Listing 5

Once those changes are in place, we can refresh our browser and see the (partly) localized Ideas and Feedback Portal (as shown in Figure 5).

Figure 5

Summary

With just a few steps (once you know where to look), you can easily localize the TeamPulse Ideas and Feedback Portal to match your language and customer needs. Special thanks to the development team for making this such a simple process with the 2012 R2 release. You spoke, we listened, and we have simplified the process for localization into merely editing text files!

The Import Project from TFS Wizard in TeamPulse

TeamPulse Product Blog — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:06:00 GMT

“Click-Click-Click-Done”

That’s how Joel Semeniuk, Executive VP of Agile Project Management at Telerik, defined “done” for our TeamPulse integration with the Team Foundation Server.

Last Thursday we released the Service Pack to our R2 Release and it is exclusively focused on the integration with TFS. To meet Joel’s requirements, we created the Import Project from TFS wizard.

The new Import Project from TFS wizard can be launched as soon as you start TeamPulse. And here is how the integration goes step by step.

Select a Project

Once the connection to your server is established, you can decide which project to import by choosing from your Project List collection.

You can find useful tips on the right side of the wizard throughout the whole integration process. They will assist you set up the integration in no time.

Edit Project’s Info

Once the project is selected you can edit its name, add a description, and set the project goals.

Map your TFS work item types with the TeamPulse entity types

The next step allows you to map your TFS work item types with the TeamPulse entity types. Just drag & drop.

Set Default Values and Value Mappings & Configure Field Mappings between TeamPulse and TFS

You need to confirm the fields you would like to sync between TeamPulse and TFS. Standard mappings are added by default, but you can modify them or add more. If the standard mappings are all you need, continue to the next step.

Import all Areas and Interations from TFS

The TFS sync automatically imports all Areas and Iterations from TFS into TeamPulse. And you can choose current iteration, set its start date and duration. All other will be automatically given dates based on the current iteration start date and default iteration length that you provide.

Select Team Members

After that you can select which team members of yours are granted access to your projects.

Confirm Settings

Confirm the synchronization options and click Next.

And Finish

The board sums up what actions you have taken and how they affect your TeamPulse projects. If necessary you can go back and edit the settings. When ready, click Finish to complete the integration.

Did you find this blog post useful? Here is a 60-sec video of the integration that you can also refer to when setting up your integration between TeamPulse and Microsoft TFS.

Would you like to try the Import Projects from TFS wizard? Get a trial now.

Come to the Agile Buffet Table to Fill Your Plate

Agile Blog — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:07:00 GMT

We decided to try a brand new concept for the next Agile Q&A Panel.

It is called the Agile Buffet Table and will be held on May 24th, Thursday.

The topic of the webinar will evolve around the fact that you don’t need to follow all agile principles per se. Instead you can create and implement a process that matches your own needs. Take a look at the agenda for the webinar and see what’s in it for you.

What is a buffet?
Understanding the buffet table – knowing what to choose from
Filling your plate – how to choose the right meal for you
Sushi and Peanut butter – things that shouldn’t be mixed together
Staples of a good diet – what every plate should contain if you want to be healthy
When to go back for more – knowing how to pull in additional practices when you need them
Don’t stuff yourself – it’s better to take small plates with a little food and go back often compared to filling a large plate one time

Follow your taste and come to the Agile Buffet Table. Our experts Joel Semeniuk, Steve Porter, and Ramiro Millan will help you pick the right ingredients for you.

And hey - every attendee will get a FREE copy of our brand new eBook called "Top 30 Agile Myths – Busted! "

3 Great Examples of Styled Feedback Portals

TeamPulse Product Blog — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:42:27 GMT

After the last TeamPulse release, you have the chance to use an upgraded version of the Ideas & Feedback Portal that allows you to fully style the portal and get closer to your company’s look and feel.

Here is the original look of the feedback portal.

And this is the customized feedback portal of Test Studio for iOS.

They launched the portal as soon as they launched their testing tool for iOS so they can capture customers’ feedback, requests and ideas to make their product better and according to their clients’ needs.

Test Studio committed to its purple & black look, so whenever users come from their website to the portal, they can only experience the natural Test Studio environment they are used to.

The following styling has been done to the Test Studio for iOS feedback portal:

Changed background color
Changed search background
Changed links color
Changed hovered links color
Uploaded logo

Changed all fonts
Added Google Analytics code
Removed project’s name

The Testing team added their Google Analytics code to the HTML so they can observe users and engagement and interest, as convenient as they do it on their website.

With a banner on their Test Studio for iOS website, they are inviting the users to share their feedback to build together a better testing tool.

Here is another example of a customized portal - Sitefinity Steve’s feedback portal.

He has also been running his portal to capture customers’ ideas, feature requests and feedback.

Here is the list of changes Steve did to style his portal:

Changed background color
Changed links color
Changed hovered links color
Uploaded logo

Added pin icons in front of each of the buttons in the navigation
Removed project’s name

Do you want to style your feedback portal?

Here is a sample of a customized portal we did for illustrational purposes.

These are the changes we did:

Uploaded logo
Changed background color
Changed search background
Changed links color
Changed hovered links color

Changed the Suggest New hint text
Updated the header
Changes the main navigation style
Removed the white background
Added a menu to the portal
Added a divider between the header and the body
Added Twitter and Facebook share buttons

In a couple of posts we explain how to implement those changes on your own. Here is the blog for the basic changes, and the other one – for advanced portal customization. Let us know if you find them useful.

Of course, this isn’t the full list of possibilities for styling the portal. Use your imagination together with you CSS and JavaScript skills!

Haven’t tried the portal yet? Try it as part of TeamPulse.

You already have a feedback portal?

Show us how you customized it and submit it as a case study in our TeamPulse Story Contest to win the new iPad and other shiny prizes.

TeamPulse Nominated for Code Project Reader’s Choice 2012 Award

TeamPulse Product Blog — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:37:32 GMT

A few days ago the nominations for the CodeProject.com Reader’s Choice Awards 2012 were announced.

We are extremely happy that our agile project management tool Telerik TeamPulse is among the nominees in the Application Lifecycle Management category.

Hooray!

Please vote for TeamPulse in the ALM category here.

Just to remind you that recently TeamPulse introduced a deeper integration with Telerik’s automated testing tool Test Studio which further helped us with this nomination. Thanks to the tight integration between the two you can now ensure that all your requirements are properly defined, tested and that all bugs are captured and managed effectively. Plus you will be using tools that are at the top of their respective categories.

Learn more about the integration.

Telerik TeamPulse Wins an Award at GIDS for a Second Consecutive Year

TeamPulse Product Blog — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:48:30 GMT

We are very happy to announce that our agile project management software Telerik TeamPulse was awarded with a GIDS 2012 Award in the Collaboration Solution category at the Great Indian Developer Summit.

This award is a great honor for our team. It recognizes our solution as one that enhances team productivity and collaboration which is the core of our own development process.

Just to remind you about our greatest assets in terms of improving collaboration – integration with Microsoft Lync, email notifications, and of course our feedback portal extension.

The Ideas & Feedback Portal allows you to successfully capture customer feedback to build the right features according to priority. After our last release you can also get the portal closer to your company’s look and feel thanks to its theme customization - by uploading a logo, changing the background and links colors, as well as by adding CSS or JavaScript code.

Last year TeamPulse was also awarded at the Great Indian Developer Summit with a GIDS 2011 award in the “Change and Configuration Management” category for its Bug Tracking Module.

We want to thank to our community for the support and recognition. And we must say that it is your constant ideas and feedback that helps us build a solution that matches your needs. We will continue to listen to what you tell us, so please keep your thoughts with us on our Feedback Portal.

Haven’t tried TeamPulse yet? Get a free 30-day trial now.

[Podcast] Agile Q&A Panel - Part 2 with Joel Semeniuk and Steve Porter

Zero to Agile Podcast Series — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 07:38:39 GMT

Listen to Part 2 of our Agile Q&A Panel with Phil Japikse, Steve Porter and Joel Semeniuk

Additional resources:
TeamPulse Best Practices Analyzer

Listen to Part 1 of the Agile Q&A Panel

About the guests:

Joel Semeniuk

Joel Semeniuk is a founder of Imaginet Resources Corp., a Canadian based Microsoft Gold Partner. Currently, Joel is also serving as an Executive VP at Telerik in charge of the Agile Project Management Division. He is also a Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Microsoft ALM and has a degree in Computer Science. With over 18 years of experience, Joel specializes in helping organizations around the world realize their potential through maturing their software development and information technology practices. Joel is passionate about Application Lifecycle Management tooling, techniques, and mindsets and regularly speaks at conferences around the world on a wide range of ALM topics. Joel is also the co-author of “Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System” published by Microsoft Press as well as dozens of other articles for popular trade magazines.

Steve Porter

Steve Porter is a senior ALM consultant working for Imaginet, a global provider of ALM services. Steve currently serves as the product owner for TeamPulse, an Agile project management software tool. Previous to this assignment, he has worked with multiple organizations in assisting them with their adoption of Agile software development practices. One of his current passions is on helping people and organizations better understand and use the Scrum framework. He currently holds all of the available certification levels offered by Scrum.org and is a certified trainer for each of these designations. He has also authored official supporting material for the recent Scrum guide updates written by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland.

Download Podcast

Advanced Customization of the Ideas and Feedback Portal

TeamPulse Product Blog — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:22:16 GMT

In this blog post, we continue to customize the TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal. It is important to have a deep understanding of JavaScript and CSS before taking on the examples that are shown here. However, if something were to go amiss, the TeamPulse team has made it easy to revert your changes and restore the site to the original JavaScript and CSS.

This post only shows some of the power behind the advanced settings. Feel free to experiment to create your own unique design. After all, you are only one click away from restoring the Portal if you make a mistake.

Advanced Settings on the Customize TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal page

As a review, to get to the customization page, click on “Settings” on the main menu, then “Portal Settings” on the submenu, and finally click the “Customize…” button on the “Manage Ideas & Feedback Portal Settings” screen.

Figure 1 – Accessing the customization page for the Feedback Portal

To change the CSS or add custom JavaScript, we will be working with the Advanced Settings.

Figure 2 – Advanced Settings area of the customization page for the Feedback Portal

After clicking on the “Apply custom CSS & JavaScript” link, the page will present two text areas. The button on the bottom labeled “Reset to Default” will clear out these text areas, but leave the basic customizations (colors, image, etc) intact. It is a convenience button, since you can also just delete anything that you entered and achieve the same effect.

Figure 3 – Text Areas for adding custom CSS and JavaScript

The custom CSS text area injects a style tag into the Portal page, overriding the default CSS that is contained in the CSS files referenced by the page.

Note: Please do not include the <style> open and close tags, as the page will include them for you.

Change the CSS on the Portal

Changing the Search Buttons and Search Text Box

The first change we will make is to left align the search buttons and the search text box, as well as change the images used for Search and Suggest New. For reference, Figure 4 shows the default appearance.

Figure 4 – Default icons and location for Search, Suggest New, and the Search Text Box

The CSS that we will apply is list in Listing 1.

#SearchButtons { text-align: left; padding: 10px; }
 #SearchControl { margin: 0; }
 #SearchButtons a { color: #333; line-height: 34px; heght: 34px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; padding: 0 0 0 40px; opacity: 0.6; }
 #SearchButtons a.selected { color: #333; opacity: 1; }
 #SearchButtons a#searchButton.selected,
 #SearchButtons a#searchButton { 
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 background-position: 0 3px;
 background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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);
 }
 #SearchButtons a#suggestButton.selected,
 #SearchButtons a#suggestButton { 
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 background-position: 0 3px;
 background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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);
 }

Listing 1 – Changing the Search Icons and alignment

Changing the Suggest New Hint Text

One final change that we will make to the Search and Suggest New features is to change the hint that appears when a user clicks on “Suggest New”. The default style is centered with white text, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 – Default Suggest New Hint Text font color and alignment

To fit the new color scheme and styling, we want to change the font to grey as well as left align the text. The CSS for this is in Listing 2.

#SuggestHintText { color: #666; margin: 0; }

Listing 2 – Changing the Select New Hint font color and alignment

The resulting change is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 – Updated Suggest New Hint Text font color and alignment

Updating The Header

The next set of customization will update the header to align our custom logo. The current header is show in Figure 7.

Figure 7 – Default alignment with Custom Logo

This CSS will change the alignment of the custom logo so it matches the left of the search box container as well as the avatar of the logged in user. The resulting change is shown in Figure 8.

#Header { margin: 0 10px; }
 #Header #ProjectBranding { padding: 0; margin: 0 0 20px 0; height: 59px; }
 #Header nav { clear: both; width: 100%; }
 #Header nav ul { list-style: none; margin: 0; padding: 0; }
 #Header nav li { float: left; }
 #Header nav li a { display: block; color: #333; padding: 10px; }
 #Header nav li a:hover { color: #999; }

Listing 3 – Changing the Select New Hint font color and alignment

Figure 8 – Correct alignment for Custom Logo

Changing the Main Navigation Style

Our next change will move the main navigation to the right rail and update the style of the text. Again, for reference, the default layout is shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 – Default layout and style of the main navigation

The following CSS moves the grid containing the feedback items to the left side (eliminating the left rail) and creates a right rail for the navigation items. The style of the items is also updated. The CSS is shown in Listing 4 and the updated layout is shown in Figure 10.

#MainNavigation { float: right; padding-right: 0; }
 #MainNavigation a { padding: 5px; color: #9ABE07; }
 #MainNavigation .active a { background: #eee; }
 .inner-page #MainNavigation { display: none; }
 
 #Body { margin: 0 194px 0 0; }
 .inner { background: none; border-left: 1px solid #eee; }
 .sticky #SearchWrapper { margin: 0 0 0 -480px; width: 960px; }

Listing 4 – Changing the Select New Hint font color and alignment

Figure 10 – Main navigation moved to the right with updated font styling

Removing the White Background

Our final change is to remove the White background from the content of the page. This is done with a single line of CSS, shown as the first line (starting with #wrapper) in Listing 5. The remaining lines in the listing update the Item Detail page style. The default style on the detail pages is designed to work best with the default white background, so a few changes are necessary.

#Wrapper { position: relative; background: none; border: none; }
 .property-label { color: #fff; }
 body {color: #fff;}
 .inner .likes.votes-count-box {background-image: none;}
 .inner .dislikes.votes-count-box {background-image: none;}
 .back-link {margin-left: -55px; filter: alpha(opacity=50); }

Listing 5 – Removing the white background from the content area

Removing the background from the content area will make the entire page the same color as the Page Background (as set in the Basic Settings). To make the page more attractive, we need to change the customizations that we did in our previous post. These changes are shown in Figure 11, and the resulting page is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 11 – Updated Basic Settings

Figure 12 – Page with white background removed from content area and updated basic settings

Using JavaScript to Customize and Add Page Elements

Just as with the custom CSS text area, the JavaScript text area injects the correct tags into the Portal page.

Note: Please do not include the <script> open and close tags, as the page will include them for you. If you need to add HTML Elements (as shown in the section "Adding Twitter and Facebook Links to Content Items"), you can close the automatically opened <script> tag as long as you open another one, as a closing </script> will be added for you automatically.

Adding A Menu To The Portal

For the first change, we will use JQuery and JavaScript to add a custom menu to the Portal. For these changes, we use the second text area in the Advanced Settings portion of the Customization page.

The following code will add a series of links into the page. These are for example purposes only, and you will want to add the correct href attributes to your custom menu. The resulting menu is shown in Figure 13.

('#Header').append(''
 + '<nav class="clearfix">'
 + '<ul>'
 + '<li><a href="#">Home</a></li>'
 + '<li><a href="#">About Us</a></li>'
 + '<li><a href="#">Products</a></li>'
 + '<li><a href="#">Contacts</a></li>'
 + '</ul>'
 +'</nav>');

Listing 6 – Adding custom Menu to the Header

Figure 13 – Custom Menu added to the header

Adding a Divider

Next we will add a divider separating the header from the body for the page. The code for this is shown in Listing 7, and the resulting change is shown in Figure 14.

$('body').prepend('<div style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; height: 119px; border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;"></div>');
 if ( $('#Body').children('.inner').length > 0 ) {
      $('body').addClass('inner-page');
 }

Listing 7 – Adding a divider between the header and the body of the Portal

Figure 14 – Portal with divider

Adding Twitter and Facebook Links to Content Items

Our final change will be to add Twitter and Facebook “Like” buttons to the item detail pages. The Detail pages inherit much of the same styling updates that we have done to the main Portal page, and our customization are shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15 – Customized Item Detail page

To add the links for Twitter and Facebook, we use the JavaScript shown in Listing 8. Here is an example of adding a closing </script> tag since we need to add an HTML element into the page. We then open a new <script> tag. It is very important to make sure that there is an open <script> tag that is NOT closed, as the customization page will add a closing </script> tag automatically.

In addition to this change, we need to add one more CSS element to help with styling the location of the Twitter link. The single line of CSS used to do this is in Listing 9, and the final markup is shown in Figure 16.

</script>
 <div id="fb-root"></div>
 <script>(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
   js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
   js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=115589899834";
   fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
 }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
 <script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");</script>
 <script>
 $('.item-comments').before('<a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button">Tweet</a>');
 $('.item-comments').before('<div class="fb-like" data-send="false" data-layout="button_count" data-width="50" data-show-faces="false" data-font="segoe ui"></div>');

Listing 8 – Adding Twitter and Facebook

CSS Change for Twitter Link:

.twitter-share-button { float: left; }

Listing 9 – Styling the Twitter Link.

Figure 16 – Customized Item Detail page with Twitter and Facebook Links

Adding Google Analytics into the Portal

If you are using Google Analytics (GA), that code will need to be placed in the <body> of the Portal. Since the JavaScript text area inserts the custom code at the end of the <body>, this is a perfect place to add your GA code. You must make sure that you are correctly closing and opening the <script> tags.

Summary

This blog post show just a few of the tricks that can be used to further customize the TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal. Modifying CSS and JavaScript on the page is a very powerful feature that the development team has provided, and while it allows you to make major changes to the layout, it should only be undertaken by people who have a deep understanding of CSS and JavaScript. Fortunately, we have provided an “oops'” button that will restore that page back to the original starting point.

In case you are looking for the basic options for customizing the portal, check out our previous post.

Try as part of TeamPulse

Here is your chance to get the portal for FREE. The company with most representatives at our R2 release webinar wins a TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal license.

How to customize the Ideas and Feedback Portal

TeamPulse Product Blog — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:44:36 GMT

With the latest release of TeamPulse, we now offer the ability to significantly update the look and feel for the Ideas & Feedback Portal. This will allow you to brand the portal to seamlessly blend in with your own product branding, providing a more consistent user experience. The team has created two different mechanisms for customization. Based on customer feedback, the development team has created a new page that allows basic and advanced changes. This post will cover the basic customizations.

The Default Portal Look and Feel

For reference, here is the default, “out of the box” portal. (Don’t worry, all of the data is fictitious).

Figure 1 – Standard Feedback Portal

Accessing The Customization Page

To access the Portal customization page, simply click on “Settings” on the main menu, then “Portal Settings” on the submenu, and finally click the “Customize…” button on the “Manage Ideas & Feedback Portal Settings” screen.

Figure 2 – Accessing the customization page for the Feedback Portal

This will bring up the Customization page (shown below). The top half of the page allows for the most requested options (changes to the Portal’s colors, adding a custom logo, and removing the project title), and the development team has made it very simple to make these changes.

It is important to note that you should use the Advanced Settings (covered in our next blog post), only if you are very familiar with CSS and JavaScript.

Figure 3 – Feedback Portal Customization Page

Adding Your Logo

Let’s begin by adding your own logo to the site. To change the logo that is displayed, click on the “Select…” button in the middle of the page. This brings up a standard File Open dialog, where you can select your image. Please note the dimensions that the image will be resized to. For optimal quality, make sure your custom image is within the limits as stated.

Figure 4 – Feedback Portal with custom image applied

After selecting your image, you will be presented a check box that will allow you to “Hide project name”. By checking this checkbox, the project name will be removed from the portal.

Figure 5 – Options for hiding the project name

After removing the project name, the header will adjust accordingly, lining up the custom logo with the user avatar, as in Figure 6.

Figure 6 – Feedback Portal with Custom image applied and project name hidden

Customizing the Colors

The Page background, Search background, as well as the links on the pages are all customizable. To enter new colors for these items, use the top part of the “Customize TeamPulse Ideas & feedback Portal” page. When entering colors, you can use either color names (e.g. blue, red, green) or the hex code (e.g. #FFFFFF) for the color you want to use. As you enter the color codes (or names), the images to the right of the text boxes will update to the color that you have entered, giving you a live preview of the result of the change.

The “Page background” is the right and left rail of the page as well as the footer below the page itself. The “Search background” is the bar that encases the search text box. Using the sample colors entered in Figure 7 will result in the page changes that are shown in Figure 8.

Figure 7 – Sample colors

Figure 7 – Sample colors applied

Summary

With just a few quick settings, we’ve been able to significantly alter to appearance of the Portal.

In our next post, we are looking at some CSS and JavaScript modifications that will allow you to make even more dramatic changes.

Try as part of TeamPulse

And here is your chance to get the portal for FREE. The company with most representatives at our R2 release webinar wins a TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal license.

[Podcast] Agile Q&A Panel - Part 1 with Joel Semeniuk and Steve Porter

Zero to Agile Podcast Series — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:31:36 GMT

Listen to Part 1 of our Agile Q&A Panel with Phil Japikse, Steve Porter and Joel Semeniuk

Additional resources:
Register for the next Agile Q&A Panel
TeamPulse Best Practices Analyzer

About the guests:

Joel Semeniuk

Steve Porter

Download Podcast

[Podcast] Know Thy Customer - Part 2 with Pete Brown and Rachel Appel

Zero to Agile Podcast Series — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:05:27 GMT

Listen to Part 2 of Phil's discussion with Pete Brown and Rachel Appel on how to Know Thy Customer.

Download Podcast

Additional resources:
Know Thy Customer (blog by Joel Semeniuk)
TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal

Did you miss the first part of the podcast? >> Know Thy Customer - Part 1 with Pete Brown and Rachel Appel

[Podcast] Know Thy Customer - Part 1 with Pete Brown and Rachel Appel

Zero to Agile Podcast Series — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:49:18 GMT

Who are our customers? What are they looking for? These are some of the hardest questions to answer in the software industry. Join Phil as he talks with two senior Microsoft evangelists, Peter Brown and Rachel Appel, about how they connect with their customers in one of the largest developer communities in the world.

Download Podcast

Additional resources:
Know Thy Customer (blog by Joel Semeniuk)
TeamPulse Ideas & Feedback Portal

About the guests:

Pete Brown

Pete Brown is a Senior Program Manager with Microsoft, leading the Developer Community team, as well as a former Microsoft Silverlight MVP, INETA speaker, and RIA Architect. Pete's focus at Microsoft is the community around client application development (Windows 8 XAML, WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, Surface, Windows Forms, C++, Native Windows API, .NET Micro Framework, Robotics, and more), with a particular focus on XAML and gadgets.

Rachel Appel

Rachel currently works for Microsoft as a Sr. Developer Evangelist based in the NYC Metro area. Rachel is an industry recognized author, mentor, trainer, and speaker, who regularly speaks at national conferences such as DevConnections, MIX, VSLive, and CodeStock.

Get All the Agile Books You Want. For FREE.

Agile Blog — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:28:56 GMT

Do you have a long list of Agile books you want to read? Here is your chance to get all of them for free.

The only thing you need to do is to share your wishlist with us and circle us on Google+. And that is how you enter the draw.

The idea is to create a place where we all exchange wishlists of Agile books. They might consist brand new books. Or good old classics. That is up to you.

You have probably wondered which reads are recommended by the Agile coaches, or which books are in their own wishlists. Well, it’s time to find out.

Agile Q&A Panel: The Challenges of Agile Project Management

Agile Blog — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:32:30 GMT

Adopting and scaling Agile is a challenging and long process. For everyone. That is why we would like to invite you to our free Q&A panel on The Challenges of Agile Project Management. The event is hosted by our experts who have more than 60 years cumulative experience coaching and implementing Agile.

Join our moderated interactive panel and get to meet them:

Joel Semeniuk
Microsoft Regional Director, MVP Microsoft ALM, and Executive VP of Agile Project Management at Telerik

Philip Japikse
Microsoft MVP, Agile Practices Evangelist at Telerik

Steve Porter
Agile Expert and Coach, TeamPulse Product Owner at Telerik

Attendees will also participate in interactive polls and surveys, as well as enter a draw to win a 5-user pack for Telerik's Agile project management tool TeamPulse ($1499).

The session is scheduled for March 9th, 1pm EST and it's absolutely free, so mark your calendar and make sure you book your seat now.

Tell is the comments section below what topics you would like us to discuss at the panel.

7 Must-have Features When Choosing an Agile Management Tool [Whitepaper]

Agile Blog — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:53:03 GMT

There is an overabundance of tools on the market today. Some of these tools span across various landscape areas of development processes where some tool choices only target specific areas.

“The application development software market will grow modestly through 2015, when it will reach $10.1 billion in revenue. New applications, consumption models, devices and developers are driving evolution of the AD space.”

Gartner
Market Trends: Application Development Software, Worldwide, 2011-2015

To save you time and effort we have compiled 7 of the most important characteristics that organizations should consider when investing in tooling that supports their Agile management practices and teams.

Download now