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.

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...

This information is not valid any more. We'll post more details in the next couple of days

Thanks 

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.

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!

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!

In the previous post I mentioned that we have been using a development version of activeCollab 1.0 for our own project management needs. We are really happy (while being 100% objective :) ) with it, although it’s not yet completely finished.

We think that the only way to develop a great product is to actually use it. Having said that, we started using activeCollab 1.0 as soon as we built features that are essential to our development process – task management and the platform for writing and sharing content. From that day we discovered and fixed a ton of small details that we missed during development.

Here is a little example – I already wrote that one of my favorite features in activeCollab 1.0 is ability to star (bookmark) objects and have them all listed on one page.

During the first few days I noticed a glitch with a specific feature. When I select a task, unstar it and mark it as completed -  it’s a three step process - obviously. But, if you have JS disabled - it means 3 page reloads. That is too much for something that you do over and over again so I sat down and less than 30 minutes added a simple way to select as many objects as you want and edit them in one click, including unstar and complete. The process of unstaring an object and marking it as done now takes just a few clicks (to mark objects and select the action), as well as no page reloads if you have JavaScript turned on.

Small tweaks such as the one I mentioned really make a difference. The only way to notice a need for such a tweak is to actually use your own product and that’s why every development team should use their own product, not just build what software architects and management order them to build.

For the past few weeks we have been using activeCollab 1.0 for our own internal project management needs - planning activeCollab 1.0. Well, that sounded odd. Although version 1.0 is still under development and some pieces of the application aren’t completely worked out, it’s already usable and really helps us stay on track.

Version 1.0 is as you already know, packed with new features. One of my favorite features is the ability to star (bookmark) any item (discussion, file, task…) and easily access it. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s simplicity and usefulness helps me stay productive.

You can use starred objects for whatever you want – there is no workflow enforced. I use them to keep track on things that I’m currently working on across all projects.

I usually keep around 10 task starred even though I know that I cannot finish all of them during a single day. This way I can pick tasks that I’d like to work on among all the tasks that I starred. If there is less than 10 starred tasks I go to the tasks page and star a few more that I feel I’d enjoy working on that day. I keep my Starred page always open in a separate tab so I can always see stuff that needs to be done. If I need to go somewhere I just hit the print button, grab my laptop and I’m all set.

This is a perfect example of what we are trying to do – make activeCollab fit your workflow, not enforce it’s own. You will be able to use starred objects for whatever you want – to bookmark important documents or discussions, filter things that you need to do, or anything else you can think of - basically, it’s the best thing since slice bread. Oh my, there’s that marketing lingo coming up. In any case, use it, abuse it... For now, wait for it. :)

The first change you will notice in activeCollab 1.0 is the new interface, and it’s most obvious new commodity – the new navigation system. We sat down and redesigned the system from the ground up in order to make it more usable as well as visually more pleasing.

(click for larger image)

1. This set of options lets you quickly access your profile or logout from the system.
2. A logo of the owner company is shown on every single page and can be changed within the Setting panel. By default, it links back to the dashboard.
3. These are the main activeCollab sections – always at hand and packed with shortcuts to make common tasks like jumping to a project as seamless as possible.
4. Instead of permanently removing objects from the system, activeCollab 1.0 moves them to the Trash, giving you the opportunity to restore or completely remove them. As with your desktop trash, this makes recovering objects simple as well as removes the need for the nagging “Are you sure?” questions while moving items to the Trash.
5. Starred objects works basically like bookmarks in your favorite browser – letting you mark the objects important to you. You can use this feature to mark things you are currently working on, plan to work on or that you just use frequently. All the starred objects are listed on one, easy to access page.
6. Now, you can search through companies, people and projects from the globally available search bar. Just type in what you are looking for and let activeCollab 1.0 do the rest.
7. Adding new messages, tasks, files as well as other objects is easy – and you can do it from anywhere in the system. No need to go to a specific page just to add new objects.

While trying to add new features available in activeCollab 1.0, we have tried to keep the interface as simple as possible. Even with all the lab testing, detailed studies into the way how humans interact with graphic user interfaces and all the group therapy our designer had to go through while designing the interface – we do want to hear what you think about it!

There are three roles that a user could have in activeCollab 0.7.1:

1. Owner company member with administration permissions
2. Owner company member without administration permissions
3. Members of client companies

While this setup would do the trick in most situations, it wasn’t flexible enough and created problems in some situations, especially to people who wanted to let their clients create projects or had contractors on board. In order to address these issues, we made a more flexible roles and permissions system in activeCollab 1.0.

Here is a part of the “Roles” chapter from the “activeCollab 1.0 User Manual”. Please note that this is an early draft of the User Manual and that it might change by the time we launch.

So we asked you to apply for a beta account... And what happens? Due to the huge amount of applications we've decided to turn activeCollab into an beta sign-up app...

Ok, so we're kidding – but with the whole Web 2.0 feat. beta status going around you can't blame us. :) We were planning to keep the beta sign-up page open until the actual beta kicks off, but because of the overwhelming number of applications and the fact that an actual human being has to go through them – we decided it's time to close the application phase of the beta.

Further instructions about the beta will be posted on the blog and also sent to those of you who applied – so stay tuned. If you have any questions about the activeCollab 1.0 beta program, you should check the FAQ list or ask in the commments if you don't find an answer.

Now it's time to go through all your applications... Thanks for your interest, the extra coffe I'll be buying to stay awake – and see you in beta!