activeCollab blog

activeCollab 2.2 Beta is Available for Download

Ilija Studen — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:44:44 CDT

We are proud to announce that activeCollab 2.2 beta is available for download for everyone who has valid Upgrades and Support plan:

This release is built on top of activeCollab 2.1.2 and brings two new modules to Corporate edition:

Invoicing module lets you prepare and issue invoices. This module is built right into activeCollab and does not require any external invoicing service (and therefore no additional monthly fees);
Source modules adds Subversion integration to the system. Now you can add as many Subversion repositories to the projects as you want. activeCollab automatically connects commit messages with tickets. You can even complete a ticket with a commit message.

Release notes are available here. Installation and upgrade instructions are same as for previous version. Just don't forget to install Invoicing and Source modules once you install / upgrade your setup.

We hope that you'll find these additions useful and that you'll join the beta test and help us get stable releases out of the doors as soon as possible. Thank you for your support!

New website section - Interviews

Ilija Studen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:24:33 CDT

We are happy to present you a new section on activeCollab website - Interviews. This is a place where activeCollab users can introduce themselves and their business, tell something about the way they work, and share their activeCollab experience.

In a past month, we have gathered a couple of interviews from some of our users who were willing to help in the initial period. We are very pleased with the feedback and material we got. Thank you all guys, you are great!

Since the testing period got over, we would like to invite you all to be a part of this action. Tell your story and leave a mark on activeCollab website. If you would like to be a part of it, contact us on ivana@a51dev.com. Basically, all you have to do is answer this few questions:

Tell us more about you, your company and what do you do?
How did you find out about activeCollab? What were your first impressions?
How were you managing projects before activeCollab? Email, pen and paper, another project management tool?
How did activeCollab help you improve your team's collaboration? What are the tools you use the most? If you were asked to pick one "killer feature" which one would it be?
What do coworkers think? How have they adjusted to activeCollab?
Thank you for your time! Anything you have to add?

It will not take much of your time, and it would really help us a lot.

So, go ahead and become a part of activeCollab website! We are here if you need any assistance, or have some additional questions.

activeCollab 2.1.2 is Available for Download

Ilija Studen — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:52:06 CDT

We are proud to announce that activeCollab 2.1.2 is available for download on your activeCollab.com profile pages:

This is a bug fix and compatibility release so upgrade is strongly recommended, especially if you are a Safari user.

Please read full list of changes in release notes. Installation instructions are available here. If you are upgrading, you can find step by step instructions here.

Thank you for your continuous support! We are here to help if you have any quesitons or need our assistance.

activeCollab 1.1.6 and 2.1.1 are Available for Download

Ilija Studen — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:36:56 CDT

Today we are announcing two bug fix releases:

activeCollab 1.1.6 for people who are still using activeCollab 1.1 branch. Please check Release Notes and Upgrade Instructions for this release.
activeCollab 2.1.1 for everyone who have a valid Upgrade and Support plan or access to activeCollab 2 branch. Release Notes and Upgrade Instructions are available for this release too.

Both releases are bug fix and security releases (please check release notes for details) so upgrade to them is highly recommended. If you need any assistance with the upgrade or Installation, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Thank you for your continous support.

activeCollab 2.1 is Available for Download

Ilija Studen — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:30:04 CDT

After more than two months of beta testing, we are proud to announce that stable version of activeCollab 2 (v2.1) is available for download! What makes this release so important are many new features and improvements:

Better Email Integration - activeCollab is now able to send and receive email messages. Received messages are submitted as new tickets or discussions or comments if users reply to notifications they got.
Global Documents - New Documents module lets you upload files and post text documents that are available globally, not per project. You can organize them into categories and control their visibility, just like you can with Files.
Improved Checklists module brings drag and drop reordering of tasks and checklists, ability to move tasks between checklists and streamlined task creation.
Pages module now offers better organization and pages management (categories, drag and drop reordering etc), compare tool that outlines the changes made between versions, easier way to track what people are working on and more.
After it was removed in activeCollab 1.0, Who’s Online is back in v2. This simple features lets you know who was online in the past 15 minutes as well as when was the last time people involved on a project were seen.
A ton of interface improvements, including overhauled Dashboard and Project Overview with new activity log, redesigned people section, easier management of project groups and categories, avatars, logos and icons, all new Quick Add dialog, improved subscription management, better visual editor...

And more! We are so proud of this release and hope you’ll like improvements it brings. You can check activeCollab 2 release notes to see the full list of new features and improvements.

Upgrade is free for everyone who had a valid Upgrade and Support plan back when beta started on February 1st 2009. or purchased a license since than. If you have a license, but your Upgrade and Support subscription expired before February 1st, you’ll need to renew it to get access to this release. Renewal is $99 for Small Biz and $199 for Corporate version.

Next step? Please check this list of frequently asked questions and answers:

I’m new here, but I really like what I see. How can I demo activeCollab? Where can I purchase a license?

To try activeCollab, go to homepage and request a demo. We’ll host one activeCollab installation for you for 7 days, completely free. When you decide to purchase a license, go to Pricing page to see available editions and purchase a license. Please note that demo is running Corporate edition!

What is your refund policy, just in case I purchase a license and it does not work out for me?

We offer 30 days, no questions asked guarantee, for activeCollab Small Biz and Corporate licenses. If system does not work out for you, just let us know within 30 days since you purchase a license and we’ll give you your money back.

Before I purchase, how can I know if my server meets activeCollab System Requirements?

System Requirements are listed in this article. You can also use a probe.php - it's simple tool we developed to check if your server has all the tools installed needed to run activeCollab. Procedure is simple, because it’s a PHP file that you upload and visit through your browser. Read more about this tool here.

I have a valid Upgrade and Support plan. How can I upgrade?

Upgrade instructions for existing users are available here. Basically, it can be summed up with:

Download latest version and upload new files to your server
Run the upgrade script
Clear all cached data

but check the article for the details and exact instructions.

My Upgrade and Support plan expired. Where can I renew?

Renew your Upgrade and Support subscription on your profile. Click on a Renew link in your license information block and follow the regular order process.

Once you renewed, activeCollab will be available for download and you can follow the upgrade instructions to get the latest version up and running.

Thank you for your continuous support. If you have any questions regarding this release, or need our assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, either on Community Forums or by Support Portal.

activeCollab 2: Changes to Module Definitions

Ilija Studen — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 03:22:05 CDT

activeCollab 2 slightly changes the way modules are defined. Our goal was to use object oriented design for things that were procedural in the past. This way, we reduced number of files needed to define a module and amount of code that you need to write.

In previous versions, you needed 5 files to define a module:

info.php - Information about the module
routes.php - Route definitions for the module
handlers.php - Event handlers that this module implements
install.php - Code that prepares and installs the module
uninstall.php - Code that cleans up the database and file system after the module has been uninstalled

Instead of all these files, now we have a single file - module class. Its name is based on module name. If module name is tickets, this class would be TicketsModule (defined in TicketsModule.class.php file) and if it is status_updates, name is StatusUpdatesModule (defined in StatusUpdatesModule.class.php file).

Information and operation handled by the old files are now fully covered with this class:

Information about the module are stored in object properties (like name and version). Some properties are returned by special function so you can localize them (like getDescription() or getUninstallMessage()).
When Router loads defined routes, it will call defineRoutes() method of each module.
EventManager loads even handler definition in similar ways as Router, but instead of defineRoutes() method it calls defineHandlers() method.
install.php and uninstall.php are replaced with install() and uninstall() methods.

Router and EventManager now know which module they are loading so there is no need to specify module in route and handler definition any more. You can do that if you wish (to override other modules for example), but it’s optional.

Because new module definitions extend Module class, there are helper methods they inherit that make definition of new configuration options and email templates much easier. Please check addConfigOption() and addEmailTemplate() of Module class for details.

And finally, we added support for platform tests before module is installed. Before you can install a module, activeCollab calls its canBeInstalled() method. If it returns true, module can be installed, but if it returns false, system will abort the installation. Module developer can log messages to inform the user about the tests performed and/or reasons why the module can’t be installed.

Check this implementation from new Incoming Mail module:

/**
 * Returns true if this module can be installed
 *
 * @param array $log
 * @return boolean
 */
function canBeInstalled(&$log) {
  if(extension_loaded('imap')) {
    $log[] = lang('OK: IMAP extension loaded');
  } else {
    $log[] = lang('This module requires IMAP PHP extension to be installed. Read more about IMAP extension in PHP documentation: http://www.php.net/imap');
    return false;
  } // if
  
  return true;
} // canBeInstalled

It’s that easy!

The best way to learn the new system is to see it working. Because of that we recommend that you download latest activeCollab 2 beta from your profile and check out IncomingMailModule or TicketsModule implementations to see all the new features implemented and working.

activeCollab 2: Documents Module

Ilija Studen — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:05:13 CDT

After Incoming Mail and improved Pages module, we have another handy activeCollab 2 feature to present - Documents. This addition allows you to upload files and post text documents that are available globally.

One might ask: “Why do you need a separate feature for document posting when you have the Files tab in projects?” The answer is simple - itʼs a place where you can publish documents that will be available to everyone, not just people who are working on a particular project.

Like Files, this section displays icons next to the document name to describe it. If you uploaded an image, system will display small image preview instead of type icon. Documents can be grouped by category and you can "pin" important documents to the top of the list. Visibility, email notifications and category management are working the same way as they do in Files.

Unlike Files, Documents are available on a higher level, outside any of the projects. Everyone with the right kind of permission can access them.

Documents can be uploaded from your computer or created on the spot as simple text documents. Uploaded documents are available for download only, while text documents can be opened and read directly there, in Docs section.

Whether user can or can't see a document depends directly on the Role that person has. If user is allowed to see private objects, she will see all of the documents, but if she donʼt have that permission, she will have access only to documents that are marked as Normal. This is handy if you wish to hide some documents from specif groups of people.

Documents feature is designed to be simple and easy to use, and we hope youʼll like it and ﬁnd it useful.

activeCollab 2.0.3 is Available for Download

Ilija Studen — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:22:51 CDT

We are really happy to announce that activeCollab 2.0.3 is available for download. This is the last activeCollab 2 beta release. It brings many bug fixes, API improvements and Paste Unformatted Text tool in visual editor.

Next release will be stable version and prices are going up to US$249 for SmallBiz and US$499 for Corporate version when it's announced. If you are still considering to purchase a license, but haven't made the move yet, we recommend you do in by the end of the next week and take advantage of the existing pricing (save is $50 for SmallBiz and $100 for Corporate version). Read more about the price increase on Act Now and Save page.

activeCollab 2.0.3 is available as additional download on View Licenses page of your activeCollab.com profile:

If you don't see it, please make sure that you had a valid Upgrade and Support plan on February 1st because this release is distributed as part of Upgrade plan. Renewing expired Upgrade and Support plan will give you access to this release automatically. Read more about Upgrade and Support subscription here.

Installation and upgrade instructions are available in documentation, as usual:

Thank you for choosing activeCollab and helping us through beta cycle. If you have any questions regarding the beta or need our assistance, don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

activeCollab 2: Improved Pages Module

Ilija Studen — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:54:05 CDT

Module that has changed the most in activeCollab 2 is Pages. This tool is designed to help teams work on complex text documents or series of small articles.

Lets imagine a team of people working on a website. They can use Pages to write and organize all the content for that project. Changes they and client make to the articles are recorded for future reference and each time someone updates an article, everyone involved is notified via email. Cool, ha?

Although the purpose of this module has not changed, a lot of new functionality was introduced based on feedback we got from activeCollab users.

First important change is that we dropped concept of start page. It just didn’t work. Instead, when you click on Pages tab, you’ll get a list of recently updated pages grouped by date when they were last updated:

This page gives you a quick overview over what the team is working on at the moment.

In activeCollab v2 we also added categories to pages. Like in previous version, pages can be organized in a tree like structure under categories. This gives you flexibility to organize even the complex projects such as books, software documentation etc:

System offers a really simple tool that lets you quickly reorganize pages by dragging them to a desired position in the document structure:

Whey you are done with a page, and you want to “announce” that to the rest of the team, just mark it as archived. The page will be crossed over on the list, so there will be no confusion whether the work is done or not.

Although old activeCollab remembered all page content changes, people reported that it was really hard to find what were the differences between versions. This is why we added a nice little compare tool that highlights changes between versions:

On top of new features we just described, old features such as page tasks, unlimited number of attachments and comments, email notifications etc, are still here.

We hope you’ll enjoy improvements we made. Thank you for your continuous support!

Quick Tip: Project Templates

Ilija Studen — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:53:03 CDT

One of the features people love the most in activeCollab are project templates. This feature lets you set up projects with all the milestone, tickets and tasks that you can easily copy and use as a starting point for new projects. When new project is created, all milestones, tickets and task, along with assignment data and due dates are copied into new project:

When start dates of template and new project are set, due dates in new project will be recalculated so there is the same number of days between due date and project's start date like in template.

If you work on a lot of similar projects, this feature alone can save you a ton of time and money. It's no wonder why people like it so much.

Because any project can be used as a template, the list on New Project form can become really long as time goes by and you keep adding projects. This is why we introduced Project Template Group. When this group is selected on Administration > General Settings page, activeCollab will list only projects from that group in the drop-down:

Project Template Group is a nice and easy way to keep the list of templates clean.