Comparison with Basecamp and Extension of Authentication System

Martin Kong Pro

Jan 10. 2010. 8:56 am

I am planning to install ActiveCollab in my company and start moving people away from BaseCamp. Since my staff are long time Basecamp users, I need to explain to them what they can do in Basecamp, they can also do in ActiveCollab. After playing with ActiveCollab for the last few times, it seems to me that:

AC Discussion = BC Messages
AC Checklist = BC Todo
AC Milestones = BC Milestone
AC Pages = BC Writeboard
AC Files = BC Files

Is this correct?

Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 10. 2010. 9:32 am

#2

Hello,

Thank you for considering swhich to activeCollab. Basically, what you listed is pretty much true, but there are several differences in the implementation.

For example, Messages in Basecamp used to be more like blog last time I used BC, while activeCollab discussions section is more like per project forum, for task management we recommend tickets over checklists unless you have good use for checklists (in that case, you have two tools at your disposal), pages can be organized in categories and hierarchal structure etc.

Please let us know if you have further questions.

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Martin Kong Pro

Jan 10. 2010. 11:40 am

#3

Thanks for your quick response.

1) Yes, Tickets is definitely more powerful and for sure can provide the functions of BC Todo and more. But I am afraid the term "Tickets" will be too confusing to my users.

2) Is there a documentation on differences between Tickets and Checklists? From a quick scan, I notice Tickets has category but Checklists don't, Tickets has file attachment but Checklists don't. Anything else? From reading the forum, I see there are many ppl also confused about these two modules.

3) I just notice in Todo, one cannot comment and attach file to individual task. That's going to be a problem as my users do that a lot in BC.

4) There is also no commenting and file attachment in Milestones.

5) Seems to me Pages can also provide the functionality of BC Messages. Differences between Pages and Discussion is that Pages has revision, tasks and hierarchic but Discussion don't. Any other differences? But the term "Pages" is going to confuse a lot of my users.

6) Is there anyway to turn on and off different modules on a project basis. On some simple projects with less technical users, I want to turn off some of those advanced functions, e.g. Time, Tickets.

7) Is there anyway to change the order of the Tabs?

8) In the latest version, is it possible to completely (i.e. including breadcrumbs and all) rename a function by defining a new language set?

Thanks!

Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 10. 2010. 7:01 pm

#4

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in activeCollab. Lets go one thing at a time:

1. Any new platform with a bit different approach will be "confusing" and it can't be avoided. It's a matter of naming and people pick that up quite fast, you should not underestimate them :)

2. Tickets are more like big tasks that can evolve through time, while checklists are more like list of tasks that need to be executed. That's the different between the tools and should use them accordingly. Tickets are better suited as general task management tool, while checklists are great as additional tool for lists, procedures and similar things.

3. Tickets support both comments and attachments. If you have a task that requires comments and attachments, it's big enough to be "promoted" into a ticket.

4. Correct - there is no commets and attachments on milestones. You can always upload files in Files section or start a new Discussion.

5. Pages are designed to be used for collaborative writing, and discussion features are there to aid that task. Discussions are designed to be used as a simple, per project forum.

6. Not at the moment. Modules can be uninstalled globally, but not per module basis. You can still set users so they can't access different modules when you add them to the project. In that case, module will be invisible to them in a given project.

7. Not at the moment, sorry.

8. Yes, it is possible to use localization to rename a specific module or a feature. It's a bit hackish, but it gets the job done and many people use localization for that.

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Martin Kong Pro

Jan 11. 2010. 2:29 am

#5

- I think I understand the differences between Tickets and Checklists. But is there a side-by-side features/functions comparison between the two?

- So tasks doesn't support comment and attachments, right?

- We don't have much collabrative writing to do, but i like the fact that Pages has tasks, do you see anything wrong with using Pages for simple messages/blogging purposes?

- Is there a side-by-side features/functions comparison between Pages and Discussions?

- Any plan to add OpenID login support?

- Just curious, what platform is ActiveCollab's own website based on? I like the way replies/comments is presented in the forums. I wonder if that's possible in ActiveCollab through theming.

Thanks!

Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 11. 2010. 4:45 am

#6

Hi,

1. We don't have such comparison tables, because we design modules around specific functionality and add features that are required for that functionality.

You can easily see what is supported by playing for a couple of minutes with each module. Don't forget to check Options drop-down that is available on details pages for tickets, discussions etc. There are some useful features that are not pushed to the main interface to avoid clutter.

2. Tasks that you use to break pages and tickets into smaller actions don't support comments or attachments, but both tickets and pages do.

3. No, I don't see anything wrong with that.

4. No, there is no such comparison table, as I explained in #1.

5. Not at the moment.

6. This website runs on a custom CMS that we developed. It's not activeCollab based :(( If you wish to provide similar public interface, you may consider developing a custom module that makes specific sections public. That does require programming experience and good understanding of how activeCollab modules work, but it's possible.

Thank you for your continued interest. If you have any additional questions, you know where you can find us :))

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Martin Kong Pro

Jan 12. 2010. 11:12 am

#7

Have a few more questions regarding AC login system:

- Right now, email address is used as user id. Any plan to let user pick their own userid?

- Does AC support online user registration? Or would admin have to create every users manually?

- I want to provide a link from within our intranet to AC and auto. login the user into AC. Is it possible to modify AC's login code so that it will read login credential from our own user database? Single Sign On is becoming very important to our users.

Thanks!

Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 12. 2010. 4:51 pm

#8

Hello Martin,

1. We do not plan to re-introduce usernames. You can completely replace authentication system and use any type of authentication you want.

2. By default, all user accounts are created by administrators and people managers. You can write a module that provides public registration if you need such feature.

3. Yes, it is possible. Please check the link I mentioned in #1.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

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Martin Kong Pro

Jan 12. 2010. 10:01 pm

#9

- Replacing the authentication system just means "externalizing" the userid+password information. We still need to create the user account in AC since all user profile stuff (e.g. system role, company, project permision, display name, email address, etc) is still needed. Is this correct? It will just mean the email address+password stored in AC will not be used during authentication.

- You mention we can write a module that provides public registration, that mean we can add user account with all profile information programmatically, right?

- For users from our own company, we like to replace the authentication system so that we can do login/authenticate with our internal user database. But for users from client/partner/contractor companies, we will fall back to AC internal authentication system. Can we do something like this:

a. authenticate against our own user database
b. if the user doesn't exist in our own database, pass it back to AC internal authentication mechanism

Thanks!

Ilija Studen Staff

Jan 13. 2010. 5:54 am

#10

Hi Martin,

1. Yes, that is correct. Your authentication provider can pull the data from your central user database and create a new user account based on that data. This new account is used for authentication in the future.

2. Yes, you can push data into activeCollab using activeCollab API or by writing a module.

3. Yes, you can do that. Please check article I mentioned in previous post regarding authentication extension for details.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

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