activeCollab Blog Archive

When we started work on activeCollab 1.0 one of the top priority tasks was to improve messages. They were one of the most important elements in the system. You used them for discussion, document writing, note taking, and who knows what else... Based on your feedback and our brainstorming we wanted to cover following things:

1. The new system should support a collaborative writing process
2. Users should be able to organize content and discussions even on large projects
3. Make tracking of content production and discussions easy

We also realized that all this couldn't be accomplished with a single tool. We decided to draw the line between discussions and content production. The old messages module was split into two more focused modules.

If you ever used a forum / bulletin board online, you'll know how to use discussions. Every project has a section where people can create new topics or reply to existing ones. Recently created and updated discussions are listed on the main screen. You can browse the archive by time of last activity or by category.

You can subscribe to topics, as well as receive an email notification every time someone posts a new reply. Notification emails contain the full text of the comment so you can track the discussion from your favorite email client.

Pages are a new concept in activeCollab 1.0 . Designed to replace old messages module, they provide some additional content production oriented features. A page is a document with a title and body that people write and discuss. There are three important new features that the old messages module didn't support

1. activeCollab 1.0 tracks revisions so you can see how the document evolved through time.
2. Every page can have unlimited sub pages. These sub pages can have their own sub ages and so on. Organize your pages like you would organize chapters in a book and work on them one step at a time. This makes work on complex documents like product documentation or even a book easy to manage.
3. Tasks can be attached to a page.

People can subscribe to pages and get email notification every time somebody posts a new revision or comment. The new content or comment on the given page is included in the notification. This is great because you can keep an eye on a specific page from your favorite email client and log into activeCollab only if you have something to comment or add.

Our goal was to create something that is simple, works for you and provides a good foundation for future activeCollab development:

Unlimited everything - projects, users, clients, tasks...

Better?

When you buy activeCollab you get to use it for as long as you want. Support, as well as upgrades are free for the first year. When the license does expire, you can easily renew it or continue using activeCollab without support or upgrades.

Additional services will include copyright removal at a one time $199, as well as some cool new plugins we'll provide in the future.

The bad news is that this model doesn't let us provide you with a free version. We're convinced someone will fill that gap, and in the mean time we'll keep activeCollab 0.7.1. around. A lot of the community members are experienced enough to help you with 0.7.1.

The final launch is scheduled for October 5th so you better prepare for it. In the mean time, we'll post some further details about the new features of activeCollab 1.0. What makes activeCollab 1.0 one of the best collaboration tools? You'll see...

With the launch of v1.0 activeCollab, two different "flavors" will be available depending on what you need - activeCollab for businesses and activeCollab Lite for small, non-profit organizations and individuals. Before we get to the difference between the two, lets see what they both have:

1. Both versions are made to run on your web server - you download activeCollab and install it on your own web server. You get to choose your host!
2. Themes are enabled in both versions so you can change the look and feel of your setup.
3. Both versions are extensible through plugins.
4. Both versions have an API so they can be integrated with other tools and services you use!

Now the differences:

activeCollab is a great solution for those of you who need advanced collaboration and project management tools for either yourselves or your businesses. You can use it in for-profit activities. Available in several different packages, you can pick the one that best fits your needs. These packages come with advanced features such as advanced task management, group chat, time tracking and a powerful calendar. They are commercially supported and we'll answer any question within one business day.

The activeCollab license does not expire so you can use it for as long as you want. One year of free support and upgrades are included in the license. When it expires you can chose to renew it on a yearly basis or keep using activeCollab without support and upgrades.

activeCollab packages are based on the number of active projects you can have at the same time. There are four states projects can have in activeCollab 1.0 - active, paused, completed and canceled. Only the number of active projects is limited by the license. You can have as many paused, completed or canceled projects in the archive as you like.

activeCollab Lite is created for individuals as well as small organizations who don't need advanced or business oriented features. The license covers individual, non-profit or non-commercial use, completely free of charge. You can have up to 5 active projects at any time.

The Lite version doesn't feature advanced modules such as tickets and commercial support, but for individuals and non-profits you can always rely on the very active activeCollab community forums. activeCollab Lite is distributed with full source code so you can use it to learn how the code works and extend activeCollab from there on.

Comparison table: 

Hope this clears everything. We may tweak the numbers based on the feedback, but this is basically it. Now you need to choose your... destiny? Quite.

It seems that tasks really needed some improvement. You made it very clear - something had to be done. Although we liked loved the simplicity of the current solution, we knew you needed more firepower. So, out with the old? Not really. We kept the old "task list" with a few minor tweaks and also added a separate, even more powerful task management module. If you need it - use it!

Checklists module 

We renamed the "task list" to "checklist". You define a list of tasks and go through them. Simple? Quite...

Tasks can now also have priorities and due dates. You can assign a task to anyone, a single user or a group of users. Also, the interface is more usable and looks far better:

Tickets module

Of all the things in activeCollab, tickets are the feature that the team has used the most. Tickets are bigger tasks that may require subtasking, team discussion or client approval. Need more information, screenshots, related documents? Here is what you get:

1. Tickets can have priorities, due dates and multiple assignees just like tasks
2. A full description field and support for unlimited file attachments lets you provide everything and the kitchen sink
3. You can comment on tickets
4. You can subscribe to ticket changes and get notified when a ticket's status changes or someone posts a comment
5. Tickets can behave just like a checklist and have an unlimited number of tasks attached to it
6. Use ticket categories to organize them with ease

And don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter. When activeCollab launches, you'll be the first to know!

For those who haven't noticed, we redesigned the website. Nice, right?

If you haven't already signed up for the activeCollab newsletter, go to the homepage and subscribe. When activeCollab launches, you'll be the first to know!