We have been working long hours and late nights to get the new version of activeCollab ready, and now – you can get a taste!  How? Well, since the premise of the development of activeCollab has always been user feedback and feature requests, we think the time has come once again to call on our biggest asset – the users! Yes, that's you.

We will be releasing the beta of activeCollab 1.0 to all those who want to try out all the new features and the new activeCollab interface – but only to a limited number of users who apply on the beta sign up page. After you apply for a beta testing account and you are approved, an invitation code will be emailed to you. Using this code you can create a completely new activeCollab installation on our test server. Don't worry, all the data you enter can be exported at any time.

We want you to test the hell out of activeCollab! Use it, play with it, break it if you can! Those who help us improve activeCollab by providing feedback can expect a brand new shiny activeCollab Pro license when the full version is released. Remember, the number of test accounts is limited – so sign up!

Still here? Don't forget to sign up for the beta!

One of the crucial questions we are facing at the moment is whether a particular feature should be added to the free version of activeCollab or should it be reserved for the commercial version. This question is not as simple as it may seem so we decided to set some rules to help us in the process and keep us focused.

The great advantage of having a dual Lite and Pro version model is that you don't have to put every single feature in one version making it bloated and confusing for novices users and people who don't need the extra functionality. There are already too many tools that are so complex that people don't even want to use them anymore. This led to the decision to target our Lite version to people who need a place to organize their activities and communication but don't want a complex user interface or advanced features intended for power users and companies.

This segment of the user base is made up of bloggers who want a central place where they can work on their articles with simple yet effective tools for both writing and collaboration, students who are using the tool for homework or research projects as well as non profit organizations that need a place where their volunteers can chat, share ideas as well as organize their activities. These types of users don't want charts, PDF reports, time sheets or other gadgets that are typical for a business environment.

Drawing a line between the users we mentioned and business users makes things so much easier. Before deciding whether a feature is for the Lite or for the Pro version we ask ourselves a few simple questions - Does this  feature benefit a 20 year old student? His teacher? His mother? What about a non profit organization she is involved in? Does it help or just get in the way? Can it be simplified to fit their needs? When you think about features in that way you can pretty easily decide which feature is essential and which isn't.

Business users - there's no need to be worried! The foundation of activeCollab on which we are working on is so flexible that we will be able to build almost anything on top of it and we will make sure that you get all the fancy gadgets you need to get the job done. Making things simple for the Lite users also makes the whole application much slimmer and usable, increasing productivity for both Lite and Pro users!

We would love to hear your opinion! Do you think we are missing something? Tell us!

One of the most important new features that activeCollab 1.0 will bring is improved interface. We spent (and continue to spend) a lot of time on details that directly improve user experience and productivity - things that are commonly accessed are always at reach of your hand, we killed complete page reloads everywhere where possible and makes sense, added a bunch of new controls that make some complex tasks really easy and so on. But, there is catch - you need to use modern browser (IE6+, Firefox or Safari) and you need to have JavaScript enabled.

To make sure that system is working even when JavaScript is disabled developers use a simple trick. We start with a page that just works everywhere, without any fancy tricks. When that code is loaded we use JavaScript to enhance it and add special functionality to it. For instance, we can start with a simple fieldset and use JavaScript to enhance it so it can be collapsed and expanded so we can keep big forms as tidy as possible. If JavaScript is disabled fieldset will not be transformed and the whole thing will use browsers default behavior; if we have JavaScript we will have some nice improvements that reduce clutter and help users do their job faster.

This approach produces better and more accessible system, so there should be no problems, right? Most of the time the answer is Yes, but there is one big question here - does it pay off. It burns a lot of time (meaning money) to be developed and still:

1. Most of the people use modern browsers and have JS turned on.
2. On websites every visitor counts. You don't have this type of pressure with web applications, especially when they don't have a public interface.

When you put it that way you have this choice:

1. Make JavaScript a requirement and focus on brining more value to most of the users instead of hacking around browsers issues and clients that do not support JavaScript.
2. Burn time and money on progressive enhancements to ensure maximal compatibility at any cost and have usable system even when JavaScript is disabled.
3. Make a system that is usable when JS is disabled but require it in situations when you would end up with a crippled solution in order to ensure compatibility and accessibility.

Not an easy decision to make. What do you think? How many of you use browsers that does not support JavaScript of have it disabled?

For those who have not read Status update post and discussion that followed here is a short list of most important decisions that we announced:

1. There will be no new releases in 0.x branch. Next major version will be activeCollab 1.0
2. Core development will be done by newly founded company while community will be able to contribute through plugins and tools that use API
3. License will change and some of the advanced features will be available only in commercial version (read on for details)

This announcements raised a lot of concern in the community. Main problem with Status update post is that it is brief and without details on what we are doing now and how we plan to structure the project in the future so most of the people got only a blurry image of what is happening and that caused a lot of confusion. I've posted a followup comment with more details on questions that people asked but decided to republish it as a separate blog entry so everyone can read it (thanks to Dan for a suggestion). So, here is the list of most important questions raised by the community and explanations:

Concern #1: activeCollab will not be available as installable script

We never said that. Version that you can download and install on your own server will be available (free and commercial versions).

What we said is that beta testing will be done in hosted environment and we have a really strong reason for that decision:

Usually process for installable software: Pack a release, release it, support upgrade and installation, wait for new features and bug fixes to accumulate, pack another release, release it, wait for people who upgrade their installation just two weeks ago to finally find time to download new version and install it, provide support to people who are upgrading, see how it works… Repeat!

We don't want that kind of overhead in development process so we decided to go with hosted environment where we can provide bug fixes instantly and roll out new features as soon as they are ready for testing. As soon as we get ready for testing public announcement will be made and people will be able to sign for an account. We will have limited number of accounts (server resources are limited) so please subscribe to RSS feed or to our newsletter to get notified on time.

Concern #2: We will not be able to extend the system

1.0 has been under development for some time now (about a month or so) and it already has plugin support and thanks to RESTful approach the whole application is one big API. Plugins are mini applications that hook into the system (like time tracking, invoicing…) and system provides a great number of hooks that let them handle events thrown by system or other plugins. I would dare to say that with 1.0 version activeCollab is finally extensible.

Concern #3: Code will be completely closed

Development of core features will be handled by new company, but it does not mean that source code will not be available. With plugin support in place it is really important to give people something they can learn from. Having code available would help them better understand how system works. That will eventually result in some cool plugins and implementations and we want to support that.

We will make sure that developers get access to the source code, but that does not mean that it will be available under the terms of classic open source licenses such is GPL, LGPL, MPL... There are a lot of communities that work this way - vBulletin, IPB, Expression Engine etc. Developers have all the resources they need to develop their own functionality on top of the system, but the system itself is still the property of company who develops it. Some may think that open source is superior than this approach but just looking at projects that are structured this way shows that it works pretty nicely, even better than some open source project that they compete with.

Concern #4: Free version will be so crippled that it will be unusable

Line will be drawn between common features and business features. Unless you need business features free version will do just fine (most home users and non profit organizations will not notice the difference). If you need activeCollab for your business you will be able to develop all the features you need as plugins or to go with Business edition where you get commercial support and additional, business related plugins.  Commercial versions will be reasonably priced.

Concern #5: There will be no new features in new release, just the price tag

If you really think this way you will be really surprised when you see first screenshots ;)

Concern #6: There will be no way to monitor the progress

We plan to blog about how development is progressing. We definitely want you to know what cool stuff we are building so sound recording hardware and screen capturing software is in place. Consider it as one new media / software development experiment.

Hope this helps. If you have any further questions or need more info than it is provided in this post please post a question in comments, but note that even we don't have all the answers at this moment.

There has been a lot of confusion and questions regarding current project status and its future. To make thing clearer here are some updates on project status and roadmap updates that took place lately:

1. activeCollab is not abandoned. It is live and kicking.
2. Old roadmap is dropped. There will be no 0.7.5 or any other major version in 0.x branch (at least I will not make it but if someone wants to pick up 0.x branch than its not a problem). Next major release is activeCollab 1.0 and it is scheduled for summer 2007. Code in 1.0 branch is not compatible with 0.x code so parallel development is not possible.
3. New code is PHP4 compatible and does not require InnoDB, GD or PDO. There are also some additions to the framework that make serving AJAX and API calls way easier. Support for plugins is already functional in 1.0 branch.
4. Improved interface will feature better navigation and page organization, a lot of AJAX calls and new widgets to improve user experience and make things more usable.
5. To keep the development process focused as possible there will be no public beta versions. All beta testing will be done in hosted environment (to roll out change and fixes more easily). All details about beta testing will be posted when we get in that state.
6. activeCollab 1.0 and future core development will be developed exclusively by company that I started and community will be able to contribute by developing plugins, themes and translations.

This decisions are made to ensure that by the end of the year we have a product that is easy to use and extend without the risk that enhancements will break the system, that runs nicely out of box and most importunately to support it properly.

Stay tuned.

Update (2006/03/03): We posted a followup that should explain things a bit more.