Interesting question: 10 days after...
List of requests posted in previous entry (Interesting question)
I'm really impressed with amount of comments you posted on previous entry where I asked one simple question: What would be the first thing that you'd like to see CHANGED in activeCollab? There was a lot of comments so I decided to get all the requests, sort them and post them in a separate overview post. The list is pretty long and if you have something to add please post a comment.
Here is the list:
Minor update requests
Projects and project objects
- Project progress based on number of tasks and/or milestones completed
- Set project permissions when you create a project (on the same screen)
- Upcoming milestones in calendar form on Project overview
- Ability to reorder task lists
- Multiple file download (select files, zip them and download them all together)
- Repeating milestones
- Requested tasks features
- Long description, multiple resolutions, priority, due date, multiple asignees
- Display tasks ID on the pages for easier reference
- Introduce task dependencies
Interface
- Company logo on every page, including login screen
- Hide “Tags” when there are no tags for a given object
- Better Opera compatibility
- Drag and drop reordering (for tasks)
- Link to My tasks on every page
- Improve navigation
- Show projects grouped by company
- Wider theme
- Tag cloud
- Date picker in forms
Clients, users, permissions
- Make a specific person of every client company be able to update company info and manage member accounts
- Per user language settings
- Owner company members should be able to see what users have in their task lists
- Allow non-administrators to create new projects
System
- Set upgrade check off by default
- Textile guidelines for every field that supports Textile
- Improved theming support
- Add one message to several projects
- Per project default is_private value (#19)
- Auto-parse URL-s in text fields
- More object information (description and body) in RSS
- Site-name property (currently we use company name in Dashboard header)
- WYSIWYG editor
- Users should be able (forced?) to upload daily reports
- Ability to import a file from a file system. That way users will be able to upload files using FTP and simply import them into the activeCollab
- Count date ranges only in terms of business days (skip weekends)
- Support for collaborative writing (writeboards or some sort of wiki)
- Simple export of data and backup
- Upload progress bar
- Ability to limit amount of uploaded data for a given company
Notifications and mailing
- Send notification when task or file get posted
- Include text or comment message in notification email
- Daily digest type of notifications
Major feature requests
- Integration with Google Calendar
- Support for project and object templates
- Gantt charts
- Milestones from all projects on a timeline
- Milestones for a specific project on a timeline
- Time tracking with timers
- Support for plugins
- Chat module
Posted on: 2007-01-28 2:25
Comments:
Are these going to be added to the roadmap ? Also, are you going to update the dates on the Roadmap?
Interface
1. Ability to search across projects for keywords found in project names, messages, tasks and milestones. Ability to then click and enter project page.
So so important for our ability to navigate when hundreds of projects are present and we need to find project data or attachments
1. Ability to search across projects for keywords found in project names, messages, tasks and milestones. Ability to then click and enter project page.
So so important for our ability to navigate when hundreds of projects are present and we need to find project data or attachments
Personally, I think the single biggest feature that would catapult activeCollab forward, leaving the competition in the dust, would be integrating Galaxia. Galaxia is a workflow suite (business process modeling) originally built as part of tikiwiki. The thought of this would replace or suplement tasklist templates. It also would provide a system for upper level management to take a look at what task a project is currently on, who’s working on it, and how long it’s been at that point in the process.
In short, it deals with task routing. When user x has finished task 1, task 2 is automatically created and setup for user y and so on.
Most people don’t yet realize how powerful a simple intuitive workflow system integrated into a taskmanger can be. It’s something I have been looking for forever and not found in any free or paid services.
Be warned, the galaxia site is very much on the ugly side (imho), but with a clean UI and visual charting showing where in the workflow process you are would really make this system pop!
I have grand delusious of trying to write a plugin to connect galaxia to activecollab once the framework is released.
Bravo for the great s/w btw!
In short, it deals with task routing. When user x has finished task 1, task 2 is automatically created and setup for user y and so on.
Most people don’t yet realize how powerful a simple intuitive workflow system integrated into a taskmanger can be. It’s something I have been looking for forever and not found in any free or paid services.
Be warned, the galaxia site is very much on the ugly side (imho), but with a clean UI and visual charting showing where in the workflow process you are would really make this system pop!
I have grand delusious of trying to write a plugin to connect galaxia to activecollab once the framework is released.
Bravo for the great s/w btw!
Ability to add a task on the My Tasks overview page. That’s often something I want to do quickly, and at the moment I’ve got to click into the the project first. Thanks!
I think that really is THE list.
I have one point, might be abovementionend, I couldn’t see it…
Once we have a nice progress bar – and let’s say I’m up to 80% complete on the project, or task list … – I’d love to see, where we’re missing the other 20%.
I want to see easily who hasn’t their job – maybe not only as an admin – but also as a project leader/coordinator.
Can you see my point?
Secondly I fear, that we’ll blow up aC too much, I’d love to keep it stupid simple (KISS). Could we have almost every feature “on-demand”, like turning off tags for certain projects,...
Lastly I support a more global level… – global search – global tags – global writeboard…
thanks a lot
I have one point, might be abovementionend, I couldn’t see it…
Once we have a nice progress bar – and let’s say I’m up to 80% complete on the project, or task list … – I’d love to see, where we’re missing the other 20%.
I want to see easily who hasn’t their job – maybe not only as an admin – but also as a project leader/coordinator.
Can you see my point?
Secondly I fear, that we’ll blow up aC too much, I’d love to keep it stupid simple (KISS). Could we have almost every feature “on-demand”, like turning off tags for certain projects,...
Lastly I support a more global level… – global search – global tags – global writeboard…
thanks a lot
+1 for simplicity … when I see the list and some suggetions (esp. additions to tasks), I am afraid that aC will become a bloated “monster” like Bugzilla interfacewise.
Please keep a tight scope on this – less is more.
Please keep a tight scope on this – less is more.
No one ever said that all of this will end up in the activeCollab. Its just a list of things people asked for in previous blog post, nothing more.
Hi there,
Many thanks for all of your efforts so far! I think the project is fantastic. As a project manager I am starting to use ActiveCollab every day.
As far as features I would like to see go:
* Time Tracking – as an example: slimtimer (this is very useful)
* Project Completion dependencies – ie project A needs to be completed before project B
* Gantt Chart
Cheers
Many thanks for all of your efforts so far! I think the project is fantastic. As a project manager I am starting to use ActiveCollab every day.
As far as features I would like to see go:
* Time Tracking – as an example: slimtimer (this is very useful)
* Project Completion dependencies – ie project A needs to be completed before project B
* Gantt Chart
Cheers
Nice..
I want especially the Plugin Support. It’s a must for my company to avoid hardcoding of the source and upgrading issues.
Regards
I want especially the Plugin Support. It’s a must for my company to avoid hardcoding of the source and upgrading issues.
Regards
To me the most urgent and simple thing is adding notifications for files and tasks. Short of following an RSS feed (most clients dont do this), I now have to either send emails manually or go add a new message every time i add or revise a file, major pain.
I stated to modify this myself but dont want to hack a lot of stuff and then deal with it when upgrading.
I stated to modify this myself but dont want to hack a lot of stuff and then deal with it when upgrading.
Great work, Ilja! A strong plugin architecture seems to me the key to balancing many of these feature requests and the need to keep it simple. If it doesn’t stay simple, AC stops deriving the value of a simple, horizontal style of project management that Basecamp has shown has serious utility and value.
That said, two things stand out to me as highly critical. Time tracking is one of them—I’m delighted to have moved off Basecamp for most of my work, but once again tracking hours separately is quite annoying. Even outside of billing issues, it is useful for client and for one’s own practice to know how time is being allocated.
The other feature (perhaps best achieved through a plugin system?) would be some kind of a simple per-project calendar system (date, time, location, attendees). Milestones are nice, but being able to know that I shouldn’t be calling a colleague because s/he is a in a meeting, or that we’re all getting together Wednesday to discuss the new design, seems like a key feature, and one that could differentiate AC from the competition.
A couple more notes:
One thing about Gantt charts—if there are going to be Gantt charts, they need to be in a nice vector format and probably viewable on screen via a schmancy smooth zooming in-n-out applet of some sort. Gantt charts need tons of resolution, far beyond that of the best computer displays on the market—they really only work on a big pieces of paper printed on high resolution printers, or drawn up by hand. There’s a nice thread about this on Tufte’s site; I’ll try and dredge it up. In any event, please don’t do them if they’re just going to be low-res JPEG or PNGs. It won’t be worth the electrons.
Finally, a small quibble: if I’m posting a message, I want to receive email notifications of others who have posted themselves, but it is redundant to receive an email notification of something I myself posted.
That said, two things stand out to me as highly critical. Time tracking is one of them—I’m delighted to have moved off Basecamp for most of my work, but once again tracking hours separately is quite annoying. Even outside of billing issues, it is useful for client and for one’s own practice to know how time is being allocated.
The other feature (perhaps best achieved through a plugin system?) would be some kind of a simple per-project calendar system (date, time, location, attendees). Milestones are nice, but being able to know that I shouldn’t be calling a colleague because s/he is a in a meeting, or that we’re all getting together Wednesday to discuss the new design, seems like a key feature, and one that could differentiate AC from the competition.
A couple more notes:
One thing about Gantt charts—if there are going to be Gantt charts, they need to be in a nice vector format and probably viewable on screen via a schmancy smooth zooming in-n-out applet of some sort. Gantt charts need tons of resolution, far beyond that of the best computer displays on the market—they really only work on a big pieces of paper printed on high resolution printers, or drawn up by hand. There’s a nice thread about this on Tufte’s site; I’ll try and dredge it up. In any event, please don’t do them if they’re just going to be low-res JPEG or PNGs. It won’t be worth the electrons.
Finally, a small quibble: if I’m posting a message, I want to receive email notifications of others who have posted themselves, but it is redundant to receive an email notification of something I myself posted.
First off – thank you for your efforts!
For us the most urgent feature would be an easier way to prioritize/reorder tasks. Also about this, it would be very useful (and pretty easy to implement) to be able to set a color for a specific task, so that it appears with that color on the list.
Dan
For us the most urgent feature would be an easier way to prioritize/reorder tasks. Also about this, it would be very useful (and pretty easy to implement) to be able to set a color for a specific task, so that it appears with that color on the list.
Dan
I don’t see subtasking on your list… It’s extremely useful for me organizing tasks, like:
Project1
|
| task1
| task2
|
| task2.1
| task2.2
|
|task2.2.1
|task2.2.2
| task2.3
|
| task3
Ok, in another words… it’s something i find difficult to live without. :) In big projects, subtasking is essential, and normally project management tools do not support subtasking (except dotProject, which is a “monster”).
Project1
|
| task1
| task2
|
| task2.1
| task2.2
|
|task2.2.1
|task2.2.2
| task2.3
|
| task3
Ok, in another words… it’s something i find difficult to live without. :) In big projects, subtasking is essential, and normally project management tools do not support subtasking (except dotProject, which is a “monster”).
In my previous comment, the example got badly formatted (i should have expected this). The idea was to show a tree structure showing how tasks should be organized.
Ilja,
The only two things I have to say are… 1) wow. This is getting hot. Great project. 2) I saw that one suggestion was WYSIWYG, and I cannot lay down and just not say anything :) Here’s one vote for leaving the mess making WYSIWYG’s behind. If on the other hand you have seen What You See is What You MEAN, that might be an alternative? See Here: http://www.wymeditor.org/en/. Anyway, just my measly penny in the wishing well :)
The only two things I have to say are… 1) wow. This is getting hot. Great project. 2) I saw that one suggestion was WYSIWYG, and I cannot lay down and just not say anything :) Here’s one vote for leaving the mess making WYSIWYG’s behind. If on the other hand you have seen What You See is What You MEAN, that might be an alternative? See Here: http://www.wymeditor.org/en/. Anyway, just my measly penny in the wishing well :)
I’m new to aC, but I will probably be implementing/extending it for the place I’m currently working (a genetics lab). I think that a plugin system would be a great improvement (I’m not sure what has been done already). With this, things like a WYSIWYG editor and rss feeds and things could be implemented separately, keeping aC nice and clean, and allowing more people to develop things… Similarly, some sort of API would be very nice.
I will probably be trying to implement a more flexible file management system integrated with what is already there (revision history!). The place I work requires much better data storage and management for many files. It would be great to somehow interface with the existing framework through an API.
I will probably be trying to implement a more flexible file management system integrated with what is already there (revision history!). The place I work requires much better data storage and management for many files. It would be great to somehow interface with the existing framework through an API.
anti-WYSIWYG +1
but if i assess Ilija right, an wysiyg will enter aC only by plugin. which is ok with me.
but if i assess Ilija right, an wysiyg will enter aC only by plugin. which is ok with me.
Downloaded AC three weeks ago, and its amazing.
Just one request: the textboxes have limited area to type in. What do you think about having the ability for users to change the height of the text area by dragging a handle?
Just one request: the textboxes have limited area to type in. What do you think about having the ability for users to change the height of the text area by dragging a handle?
anti-WYSIWYG +1
KISS !
KISS !
Last week had a meeting with department heads about my projects listed on our AC website. I realize how helpful it would be to have the capability to print nicely formatted PDF’s of the projects and its tasks/messages/etc in a summary/full report.
Most other open source PHP/MySQL project management software do not have this feature.
Most other open source PHP/MySQL project management software do not have this feature.
Hey all,
I would also love to see a Collaborative Writing tool, such as a wiki, writeboard, etc. Document generation is generally overlooked in project management applications.
A big step forward would be to integrate the a wiki or writeboard into the “Files”, and have the end result of the collaboration be a downloadable document (a PDF or DOC or something actually useful for people who deal with documentation all day).
Oh and document revision control. That would be absolutely amazing.
Thanks,
Dariusz
I would also love to see a Collaborative Writing tool, such as a wiki, writeboard, etc. Document generation is generally overlooked in project management applications.
A big step forward would be to integrate the a wiki or writeboard into the “Files”, and have the end result of the collaboration be a downloadable document (a PDF or DOC or something actually useful for people who deal with documentation all day).
Oh and document revision control. That would be absolutely amazing.
Thanks,
Dariusz
Current Files section already features document revisions (just click on Edit file and select to Update file and it will show you versioning controls).
Love the list. I think that all of this is great work and activecollab is on its way to dominating OS project Management. I have to agree with the users that support a strong plugin architecture. If this product is to thrive and grow, facilitating an easy means by which the community can contribute is a must. I would also like to encourage the integration of a stable JS library to begin the process of enhancing the UI. I strongly support Jquery. Its well supported, well engineered and an extremely fast growing community. Once integrated making UI enhancements in future releases would be a breeze.
This list is here for the reference. It does not mean that all of the things listed in this blog post and in comments will be implemented. Most of them wont…
@CorpX: I agree about jQuery. Such a nice peace of code!
@CorpX: I agree about jQuery. Such a nice peace of code!
view from an avid basecamp user:
minor update requests > projects:
2. yes; 4. important; 5. nice idea, but don’t waste your time – it’s a geek/power user request, won’t be used by clients
minor update requests > interface:
1. YES; 3. nope, unless it’s easy. clients can be assumed to be using win/IE, possibly firefox or safari. Company geeks/powerusers should be able to fit themselves into those possibilities; 4. yes; 5. nice idea, better than basecamp; 8. CAREFUL – keeping information density low and clear is what makes basecamp better than a typical open source “built by geeks for geeks” web app. Clients want clarity and white space is a huge part of conveying that feeling; 10. yes
minor update requests > clients, users, permissions:
1. nice, important, better than basecamp; 2. nice but not enough need to make it a priority now?; 4. mmm, no. its part of the administrators job. if he can’t do the job, he shouldn’t be the administrator.
minor update requests > system:
2. yup, or at least a link to a help popup; 3. as a user, I want it, but watch that it you don’t let the core bend to themer requests; the theme designers need to match your parameters, or you’ll end up with a code-maintenance nightmare!; 6. yes! 9. yes! super simple – bold, italic, add link, large/medium/small type sizer, maybe a 6-color choice. the whole point is to make it EASIER than figuring out textile. this isn’t a document creator, turn off most rich text options; 11. nice, but not enough users will use this to make it a priority; 13. this is a definitely a hole compared to basecamp. we use writeboards a lot. 15. look at http://labs.beffa.org/w2box/
major feature requests:
1. nice, but not easy…; 3.NOT having this is a big part of basecamp’s vision, and I would suggest a big part of its success. at most, create a separate file upload category (jpg?pdf?) so that if a project manager is using a gantt tool, they can make it available – but DON’T waste your time building an online gantt tool!; 4. manual time tracking entry/editing, but don’t waste your time with online timers. people can do this themselves.
minor update requests > projects:
2. yes; 4. important; 5. nice idea, but don’t waste your time – it’s a geek/power user request, won’t be used by clients
minor update requests > interface:
1. YES; 3. nope, unless it’s easy. clients can be assumed to be using win/IE, possibly firefox or safari. Company geeks/powerusers should be able to fit themselves into those possibilities; 4. yes; 5. nice idea, better than basecamp; 8. CAREFUL – keeping information density low and clear is what makes basecamp better than a typical open source “built by geeks for geeks” web app. Clients want clarity and white space is a huge part of conveying that feeling; 10. yes
minor update requests > clients, users, permissions:
1. nice, important, better than basecamp; 2. nice but not enough need to make it a priority now?; 4. mmm, no. its part of the administrators job. if he can’t do the job, he shouldn’t be the administrator.
minor update requests > system:
2. yup, or at least a link to a help popup; 3. as a user, I want it, but watch that it you don’t let the core bend to themer requests; the theme designers need to match your parameters, or you’ll end up with a code-maintenance nightmare!; 6. yes! 9. yes! super simple – bold, italic, add link, large/medium/small type sizer, maybe a 6-color choice. the whole point is to make it EASIER than figuring out textile. this isn’t a document creator, turn off most rich text options; 11. nice, but not enough users will use this to make it a priority; 13. this is a definitely a hole compared to basecamp. we use writeboards a lot. 15. look at http://labs.beffa.org/w2box/
major feature requests:
1. nice, but not easy…; 3.NOT having this is a big part of basecamp’s vision, and I would suggest a big part of its success. at most, create a separate file upload category (jpg?pdf?) so that if a project manager is using a gantt tool, they can make it available – but DON’T waste your time building an online gantt tool!; 4. manual time tracking entry/editing, but don’t waste your time with online timers. people can do this themselves.
one thing i was surprised to not see in the list:
ability to see when a user last logged in. the current, ‘users in the last 15 minutes’ feature is nice, but it can’t be used to track all your user’s involvement like the ability to see when each member has last logged in could.
ability to see when a user last logged in. the current, ‘users in the last 15 minutes’ feature is nice, but it can’t be used to track all your user’s involvement like the ability to see when each member has last logged in could.
The one issue I’m currently running in to that would be nice to have control over in the administration section is file size limits for uploads/downloads.
@Kristin: What is the problem? You want to increase the upload size or limit the upload size?
A simple report of Projects and the Users that are assigned to them.
By the way, shouldn’t the text on the save button when editing a project read, “Save edited project” instead of “Edit project details”?
By the way, shouldn’t the text on the save button when editing a project read, “Save edited project” instead of “Edit project details”?
I would love, love, love to see some dynamic semantic classes applied to the XHTML elements on the web pages to apply CSS more effectively.
If “dynamic semantic classes” sounds like make-em-up talk check out this very brief explanation.
http://www.plaintxt.org/2006/07/06/dynamic-semantic-classes/
It would allow for very customized themes to be created without touching the underlying XHTML code.
Right now the site is very nice XHTML and CSS without many hooks to customize the look and feel. like lets say div#sidebar .completedTasks, div.milestone.late, body.projects or body.tasks
It would allow me to create really interactive themes, without any back end hacking.
If “dynamic semantic classes” sounds like make-em-up talk check out this very brief explanation.
http://www.plaintxt.org/2006/07/06/dynamic-semantic-classes/
It would allow for very customized themes to be created without touching the underlying XHTML code.
Right now the site is very nice XHTML and CSS without many hooks to customize the look and feel. like lets say div#sidebar .completedTasks, div.milestone.late, body.projects or body.tasks
It would allow me to create really interactive themes, without any back end hacking.
A really small request maybe, but I would consider it valuable to add ID’s to the task lists. We are using ActiveCollab to keep track of to-do lists for software development, and adding ID’s gives some cross-referencing for use with our version control system (Subversion).
I also agree that it is essential to keep it simple and clean. Already the interface seems a bit cluttered, with many ways to get to specific parts. I believe it would be good to think about the most common “workflow” of project management and work from there to redesign specific interface parts.
Resource allocation is also important (assign multiple people to tasks). If this can be combined with even a simple Gantt chart, AC will become very powerful. Maybe a step towards Gantts could be to be able to define project start dates in addition the current milestone dates.
Just my 2 cents for a great product – I really appreciate the effort that’s been going into this, and I am looking forward to the goodness the future will bring us project managers!
I also agree that it is essential to keep it simple and clean. Already the interface seems a bit cluttered, with many ways to get to specific parts. I believe it would be good to think about the most common “workflow” of project management and work from there to redesign specific interface parts.
Resource allocation is also important (assign multiple people to tasks). If this can be combined with even a simple Gantt chart, AC will become very powerful. Maybe a step towards Gantts could be to be able to define project start dates in addition the current milestone dates.
Just my 2 cents for a great product – I really appreciate the effort that’s been going into this, and I am looking forward to the goodness the future will bring us project managers!
First off i just want to say to Ilija and everyone else that contributed to the project great work and thank you.
But i was thinking what would be nice, is the ability to assign a user a task with out a project. There are sometimes when I need a member of my team to pickup something for the office or to do something that is not related to a project. and i like the idea of them just clicking the check box when its done.
Right now we are using my modified version of tiddlywiki’s for each person to have their own task list and we just open the files on a network share. But if two people open the file at the same time it can over write someones changes so its not very efficient.
Thanks again
But i was thinking what would be nice, is the ability to assign a user a task with out a project. There are sometimes when I need a member of my team to pickup something for the office or to do something that is not related to a project. and i like the idea of them just clicking the check box when its done.
Right now we are using my modified version of tiddlywiki’s for each person to have their own task list and we just open the files on a network share. But if two people open the file at the same time it can over write someones changes so its not very efficient.
Thanks again
oh and one more thing
the ability to have client company’s not see each other when they are assigned to a project sometimes you don’t want a client to know you used an outside developer.
Thanks again again :D
the ability to have client company’s not see each other when they are assigned to a project sometimes you don’t want a client to know you used an outside developer.
Thanks again again :D
no, please, chat module is not needed. everybody today use IMs instead of a chat… supporting a chat involves time and efforts that could be spent for other really important features. sorry, i’m an recent user, so I dont know about previous comments about that.
few other ;)
I also think that you should not work on integration with other software (ie google calendar) right now. please do a web app that really rocks, before adding external stuffs. expecially if you’re developing APIs and a plugin system: some other could develope integration systems with other applications. :)
on other issues, I think you missed:
– a “user-based” view instead of a “project-based” view: if I’m involved on a project, I’d like to see all my tasks, all my upcoming milestones, all comments on my comments/file, etc. in brief: not recents events, but all upcoming events. – also, there would be a way, for a project manager, to see at a glance whoever is involved somewhere. I call that a “staff-view”.
I look forward for other comments here and other blog issues (dont have time to look at your forums, since it doesnt support rss).
I also think that you should not work on integration with other software (ie google calendar) right now. please do a web app that really rocks, before adding external stuffs. expecially if you’re developing APIs and a plugin system: some other could develope integration systems with other applications. :)
on other issues, I think you missed:
– a “user-based” view instead of a “project-based” view: if I’m involved on a project, I’d like to see all my tasks, all my upcoming milestones, all comments on my comments/file, etc. in brief: not recents events, but all upcoming events. – also, there would be a way, for a project manager, to see at a glance whoever is involved somewhere. I call that a “staff-view”.
I look forward for other comments here and other blog issues (dont have time to look at your forums, since it doesnt support rss).
I agree with Alberto on the user based view. When Coordinating team interactions (particularly when team members hold promises in multiple projects) seeing a list of tasks and milestones in all projects from the user perspective is a valuable tool. Even in one large project with many tasks and Milestones, this would be great.
—J.
—J.
This is feedback about the blog rss: as you’re incorporating the number of comments into the title of each messages in the feed, the feed updates as soon as somebody adds a comment to any post.
-c
-c
I’m trying out activeCollab on DreamHost, and since Dreamost is slow, the lack of Ajax means doing anything equals a few page refreshes, each of which takes several seconds. Which prevents my clients from using the app.
So it’s possible that on a decent host, activeCollab’s usability is fine.
Otherwise, I’d vote for some AJAX-enabled common features (add task, check off task, add milestone). Maybe just from the dashboard.
I realize this probably shouldn’t be top priority, but … can’t hurt to mention it.
So it’s possible that on a decent host, activeCollab’s usability is fine.
Otherwise, I’d vote for some AJAX-enabled common features (add task, check off task, add milestone). Maybe just from the dashboard.
I realize this probably shouldn’t be top priority, but … can’t hurt to mention it.
Please can I vote against tag clouds? They are an inherently poor user interface for something like activeCollab. They are fine on blogs and whatnot where you can (pretty much) randomly pick a topic and explore.
I don’t see how a tag-cloud would serve a useful purpose in aC at all – it’s just not the kind of application they were designed (badly) for.
I don’t see how a tag-cloud would serve a useful purpose in aC at all – it’s just not the kind of application they were designed (badly) for.
Personally, I don’t like tag clouds, but than I figured that general idea behind tag clouds is pretty much OK. Problem is how people usually implement them. They seam like a complete mess in most cases.
There are some ideas that I think could improve overall experience when working with tag clouds and I’d like to play with them a bit. Who knows, maybe something good comes out that ;) We can always fall back to a simple list of tags.
There are some ideas that I think could improve overall experience when working with tag clouds and I’d like to play with them a bit. Who knows, maybe something good comes out that ;) We can always fall back to a simple list of tags.
I use AC on a daily basis and I have no real issues, bit slow, but I am on Dreamhost and someone mentioned that they are a little slow.
Features I really need are:
1. Time capture on tasks/projects – just a simple number. Nothing fancy like start end times, etc.
2. Week day summary digests of project activities (messages, files, task allocated, completed, etc.) emailed at 8am or something.
3. Task precedence and optional task dates
Also a big fan of the functional dashboard idea (#39) from Ben Strackany above – “’I’d vote for some AJAX-enabled common features (add task, check off task, add milestone). Maybe just from the dashboard.”
My clients often get confused and often need a training session. I know this may sound odd to many, but a lot of intelligent and capable people just do not get how to use web apps. I don’t know if themes would help. So, as with all things, please Keep it Simple.
A complex way to meet everyone’s needs would be to have features by project/user set up by the administrator.
Features I would never use include chat, white boards, collaborative documents, charts. I use other applications for these activities and i would rather see AC development effort focused on project mgt and usability.
Regardless, keep up the great work.
Features I really need are:
1. Time capture on tasks/projects – just a simple number. Nothing fancy like start end times, etc.
2. Week day summary digests of project activities (messages, files, task allocated, completed, etc.) emailed at 8am or something.
3. Task precedence and optional task dates
Also a big fan of the functional dashboard idea (#39) from Ben Strackany above – “’I’d vote for some AJAX-enabled common features (add task, check off task, add milestone). Maybe just from the dashboard.”
My clients often get confused and often need a training session. I know this may sound odd to many, but a lot of intelligent and capable people just do not get how to use web apps. I don’t know if themes would help. So, as with all things, please Keep it Simple.
A complex way to meet everyone’s needs would be to have features by project/user set up by the administrator.
Features I would never use include chat, white boards, collaborative documents, charts. I use other applications for these activities and i would rather see AC development effort focused on project mgt and usability.
Regardless, keep up the great work.
Thank you for your efforts!
I would like to see a couple of simple (hopefully) enhancements:
1. Use the area on the dashboard view to display upcoming milestones (not just today). Perhaps show the next 10 upcoming milestones assigned to you. Basically the ability to login and quickly see what needs to be done this week.
2. A screen that shows a list/report of everyone’s milestones grouped by user in date order. One section for completed milestones, and one section for non-completed milestones.
3. On the project screen, sort by projects in which I have an active milestone or task, not just overall permissions. Currently, I have many projects in which I have permissions to view/edit, but don’t have any active milestones or tasks. (same goes for my tasks)
4. Similar to my tasks and my projects, a my milestones area. These would be milestones assigned to me in date order.
5. Reorder tabs. Since it works best to create milestones before tags, it would make sense to have the milestone tab first, followed by the tags tab.
I would like to see a couple of simple (hopefully) enhancements:
1. Use the area on the dashboard view to display upcoming milestones (not just today). Perhaps show the next 10 upcoming milestones assigned to you. Basically the ability to login and quickly see what needs to be done this week.
2. A screen that shows a list/report of everyone’s milestones grouped by user in date order. One section for completed milestones, and one section for non-completed milestones.
3. On the project screen, sort by projects in which I have an active milestone or task, not just overall permissions. Currently, I have many projects in which I have permissions to view/edit, but don’t have any active milestones or tasks. (same goes for my tasks)
4. Similar to my tasks and my projects, a my milestones area. These would be milestones assigned to me in date order.
5. Reorder tabs. Since it works best to create milestones before tags, it would make sense to have the milestone tab first, followed by the tags tab.
Alberto started it, I thought about it too…
aC has a very project-centered focus, I’d like to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach in comparison with a more user/team/group focus.
* Someone would start a “team” – basically a project, chooses the people to part of it,
* these people could be members of multiple project teams, not just one,
I wonder if there would be a difference… What do you think? (Should we move it to the forum?)
aC has a very project-centered focus, I’d like to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach in comparison with a more user/team/group focus.
* Someone would start a “team” – basically a project, chooses the people to part of it,
* these people could be members of multiple project teams, not just one,
I wonder if there would be a difference… What do you think? (Should we move it to the forum?)
great software. i checked out BaseCamp many moons ago and was about to check it out again when i came across activeCollab.
I think i have a simple suggestion/request…
As a fan of the GTD system, i’m using tags and task headers (the names of a group of tasks) in that sense for all projects: action, waiting, calls, etc.
I’d love it on the MyTasks page if i could see tasks across all projects by either a tag or i tasks would be grouped under their group name.
Thanks for the effort on this. I can’t wait to see where it goes!
I think i have a simple suggestion/request…
As a fan of the GTD system, i’m using tags and task headers (the names of a group of tasks) in that sense for all projects: action, waiting, calls, etc.
I’d love it on the MyTasks page if i could see tasks across all projects by either a tag or i tasks would be grouped under their group name.
Thanks for the effort on this. I can’t wait to see where it goes!
Integration with Google Calendar sounds good – for example, as a way to put ‘to-do items’ for people assigned to tasks, and let Google Calendar handle reminders etc. But my voice is weak here – I’m not an active user of aC, just installing it now :)
SVN- Subversion application-
I will help build this if I can get some specs????
Thanks!
I will help build this if I can get some specs????
Thanks!
There are few problems with SVN integration:
1. There is an extension for PHP that enables you to access SVN directly, but it is not part of default PHP installation and it need to be downloaded and installed from pecl.php.net. Too much info for most people ;)
2. Integration with version control system is out of scope for 1.0 release.
1. There is an extension for PHP that enables you to access SVN directly, but it is not part of default PHP installation and it need to be downloaded and installed from pecl.php.net. Too much info for most people ;)
2. Integration with version control system is out of scope for 1.0 release.
1. Hide contact info of team members from client.
2. Bug tracking. Drat I really need this. But I guess if I had to, we can settle for the additional task features. Better than leaving ActiveCollab, which I am starting to get fond of. Can a task be associated with a file? I guess I can use this for screenshots of bug reports.
3. Multiple file upload (upload a zip or tar.gz file, etc.)
4. Ditto for wiki or writeboard or some form of Google Docs
By the way, I’m not particularly fond of WYSIWYG editors or the CHAT feature. Oh gracious no.
2. Bug tracking. Drat I really need this. But I guess if I had to, we can settle for the additional task features. Better than leaving ActiveCollab, which I am starting to get fond of. Can a task be associated with a file? I guess I can use this for screenshots of bug reports.
3. Multiple file upload (upload a zip or tar.gz file, etc.)
4. Ditto for wiki or writeboard or some form of Google Docs
By the way, I’m not particularly fond of WYSIWYG editors or the CHAT feature. Oh gracious no.
Forgot to add:
Ability to clear the history (shown in Dashboard) from the admin interface.
Ability to clear the history (shown in Dashboard) from the admin interface.
Drop the chat-module.
There are too much better options available.
For example Jabber as a free alternative, or even IRC.
There are too much better options available.
For example Jabber as a free alternative, or even IRC.
Chat makes sense because all communication stays in the system. No need to search your email, chat logs, download folder etc. Everything is in one place.
Dear Ilija,
We have started using aC a month ago. It is amazing.
We added a time tracking feature to it as well. What we have done is when tasks are entered, we have a “Start” label placed besides them. Once clicked, you can either “Pause” or complete the task. For completing, the checkbox which is already in place is used. As soon as marked “Complete”, the time taken by that task is displayed below the task.
:Vishal
We have started using aC a month ago. It is amazing.
We added a time tracking feature to it as well. What we have done is when tasks are entered, we have a “Start” label placed besides them. Once clicked, you can either “Pause” or complete the task. For completing, the checkbox which is already in place is used. As soon as marked “Complete”, the time taken by that task is displayed below the task.
:Vishal
I’d like it to have an intro that plays a random Led Zeppelin song. ;)
I think you’ve done a great job listening to and responding to the user base. But, I think it’s gone too far. It’s becoming mob rule. It’s time to hole up in the woods with a generator and workstation and just get the current plan completed before considering any additions.
I think you’ve done a great job listening to and responding to the user base. But, I think it’s gone too far. It’s becoming mob rule. It’s time to hole up in the woods with a generator and workstation and just get the current plan completed before considering any additions.
well, Ilija, even though you think so, I dont see many people asking for a chat, maybe only one:
http://www.activecollab.com/blog/33/interesting-question/#comment1962
one of my best rules are: if a feature is good just for 1 person, simply drop it! :)
btw, I agree with you: a good PM tool need to take in one place all emails (maybe also “selected” chat discussions). would be good to have, for every project, an email address we can keep in copy, that could be checked every hour and imported as comments on projects. but, again, this is a feature I can wait until 2.0 version.
also: storing all chats seems to me very expensive and you get much “garbage information” (such as personal talks, unuseful questions, etc) that comes out when you search for something.
ps: wouldn’t be better to have a vote system for features? so we can vote and then you can sort features by votes. :)
http://www.activecollab.com/blog/33/interesting-question/#comment1962
one of my best rules are: if a feature is good just for 1 person, simply drop it! :)
btw, I agree with you: a good PM tool need to take in one place all emails (maybe also “selected” chat discussions). would be good to have, for every project, an email address we can keep in copy, that could be checked every hour and imported as comments on projects. but, again, this is a feature I can wait until 2.0 version.
also: storing all chats seems to me very expensive and you get much “garbage information” (such as personal talks, unuseful questions, etc) that comes out when you search for something.
ps: wouldn’t be better to have a vote system for features? so we can vote and then you can sort features by votes. :)
for the record, i could really use a chat feature. not just because the info would be stored in one place. but, because at crunch-time on projects, the messaging back and forth just isnt fast enough. chat would keep the info in one place AND give a quicker way to do a lot of question and answering.
Ilija’s instincts have been right on, imo. if, theoretically, i were paying him to build the rest of this out, i would have full confidence saying “go ahead and use your best judgement to finish, given only what you know now, without considering more changes until the current vision is done.” the whole business of gauging how many people want what, etc. is not as simple as it would first seem. in many cases i think it can be counter-productive and not benefit toward good software when it diminishes the ability to be decisive and confident in a direction.
Ilija’s instincts have been right on, imo. if, theoretically, i were paying him to build the rest of this out, i would have full confidence saying “go ahead and use your best judgement to finish, given only what you know now, without considering more changes until the current vision is done.” the whole business of gauging how many people want what, etc. is not as simple as it would first seem. in many cases i think it can be counter-productive and not benefit toward good software when it diminishes the ability to be decisive and confident in a direction.
Option to switch to Markdown instead of Textile.
Have a way for people to email a certain address and have it added to activeCollab. The biggest hurdle is getting people to login and post for a little change where they would normally shoot over an email. Just have a little area where the emails sent by a client to a special email address go into that client’s project – just an area where the content shows up and you can click to add it to a project. This is especially true when clients are emailed by people for requests or receive input from other people.
What I’d call a very helpful (but hopefully not too complicated to include) feature for cleaning up the overview pages, is the ability to “pause” a project or several milestones. I think I’ve seen a request for it in the forums but I couldn’t find it anymore. So here it is again. What do you think, Ilija?
@dobersch: Did you mean this topic? I’ve submitted Ticket #257 for the record and we’ll see what can be done there.
Yes Ilija, that’s exactly what I meant (I was just searching the forum for “pause” but not for “on hold”...).
Until there’s something more sophisticated (read: more project states), I’ll go with your “cancelled-done” idea.
Thanks for your fast answer, keep on hacking!
Until there’s something more sophisticated (read: more project states), I’ll go with your “cancelled-done” idea.
Thanks for your fast answer, keep on hacking!
It would also be useful to make a person member of different companies. This is useful when organizing private projects among friends, but also when collaborating with freelancers acosiated with different companies.
Those are the 2 most important features I’d like to see implemented:
– Bug tracking would be very nice, as clients would use this app most of the time for support reasons. – mail-in support: someone can send / forward an email to activecollab which will then be automatically added to ac in a queue or something (maybe even several queues and place mails in queue based on filters (e.g. subject starts with [bug] then add to bug queue, etc)
for example eventum can do this (http://eventum.mysql.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
– Bug tracking would be very nice, as clients would use this app most of the time for support reasons. – mail-in support: someone can send / forward an email to activecollab which will then be automatically added to ac in a queue or something (maybe even several queues and place mails in queue based on filters (e.g. subject starts with [bug] then add to bug queue, etc)
for example eventum can do this (http://eventum.mysql.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
facility to upload or attach related files while adding a new task for any project
ability to flag / categories / hide entries on the dashboard to highlight important and routine data
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Noel
2007-01-28 2:56