Navigating the 1.0

activeCollab 1.0 comes with a completely new navigation. Check it out!

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)

This set of options lets you quickly access your profile or logout from the system.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!

Posted on: 2007-06-26 7:19

Comments

Guest

2007-06-26 8:19

Looks cool, but how do I test version 1.0? There is no open beta or download as far as I can see.

Guest

2007-06-26 8:43

wow!!

We are eagerly awaiting the ability to use active collab to do most of our development and business organisation. We are waiting for 1.0 and are really keen to help out with the beta.

Best of luck.

Guest

2007-06-26 9:00

The only thing I’m waiting for is time tracking. If you make it, I’ll start using the software.

Guest

2007-06-26 9:22

hi, looks very nice. Is this a logo PNG? (IE support?)
vg
Jan

Ilija Studen

2007-06-26 9:32

@Tanc: activeCollab 1.0 is not yet available for download. Read more about the beta here and here.

@Ivan: Time tracking is already functional, but it will be part of the commercial version, not the free one.

@Jan: I just checked – it’s a GIF with matte color set to fit the background. I’ll see with Goran (he’s responsible for everything design and CSS related) if we can use PNG. Making it work in IE6 is not difficult (AlphaImageLoader will do the trick).

Guest

2007-06-26 9:34

looks promising, would be good to see alive…

Guest

2007-06-26 9:39

Very nice preview, the group therapy was a true benefit! How does react hovered buttons when there are multiple choices below, like “Projects” for example? I guess/hope this is a dynamic menu with one click access to any level.

Guest

2007-06-26 10:13

This looks great, you guys have done a really good job.

I especially like the global search, quick add, trash and logo. Part of my job is programme management so I like the ability to jump between various projects ad tasks; it seems that getting around from one area to the next and adding information is ging to be very streamlined. Looking forward to seeing it in action.

I’m guessing it can all be themed to match a company’s corporate colours?

Guest

2007-06-26 11:52

That looks fantastic Ilija! I, like everyone else, am anxiously awaiting AC 1.0

Keep up the good work.
Ryan

Guest

2007-06-26 12:11

#10

Interface looks really good. Please…. please make it easy to change the basic colors though. Not everyone likes red and there should be a really easy way of changing it for something else to match corporate colors and/or personal preferences.

Can’t wait until 1.0 is released!

Guest

2007-06-26 12:55

#11

mm, nice!

it`ll be interesting to see the differences in features between the ‘Community’ and ‘Commercial’ versions when they`re completed/release and pricing associated with it. All sounds very promising atm ;)

I`m also liking that colour scheme – this will be part of the release, right? :D

Roll on v1.0!

Guest

2007-06-26 1:13

#12

I like the idea of a trash can and global search even more than a common logo! It has a good look for business.

Guest

2007-06-26 3:25

#13

You may consider an option with fewer background images for speedier loading? Perhaps a CSS style switcher. It looks beautiful, but sometimes speed is more important, or some clients might use a slower connection?

Guest

2007-06-26 3:46

#14

We signed up for Beta, but never received a notification. Any reason?

Guest

2007-06-26 3:56

#15

Excellent! Really looking forward to giving AC 1 a try.

Guest

2007-06-26 5:34

#16

I agree with Danny and Matthew.

There should be a simple way to change the color scheme and there should be a simple way to turn off the extra graphical elements (i.e. icons and background shadows etc.).

Allowing people to quickly (although at a basic level) integrate activeCollab with their existing website(s) would be a strong selling point. Even if this is just changing the color scheme.

Removing graphical elements is extremely important for some users and their clients. Sometimes clients who travel a lot have poor and unreliable internet connections, the quicker it can load, the quicker they can get what they need and logout.

Guest

2007-06-26 6:26

#17

It’s great.

Beutiful, i want thenew version

Great work!!!

Rod

Guest

2007-06-26 7:10

#18

I second Aaron’s question (#14). I signed up for the beta on (I think) the first day, but have not heard anything since. Am I on the list? Has the beta testing started? Some confirmation either way would be nice … I am setting up a new project site and would love to start off with 1.0.

Guest

2007-06-26 7:45

#19

...it`ll be interesting to see the differences in features between the ‘Community’ and ‘Commercial’ versions when they`re completed/release and pricing associated with it. All sounds very promising atm ;)...

is the idea of a commerical version actually on the table? it would be a great shame for the spirit of open-source if activecollab goes for the dual licensing approach.

Ilija Studen

2007-06-26 7:50

#20

@Aeron and Phong: Beta is being prepared. Nobody got any invitations or accounts yet. Please be patient.

@Rich: activeCollab is being reconstructed into a commercial product with free, Lite version that will most probably be shipped under the open source license. Please check Status update followup and Different targets for Lite and Pro versions posts for more details.

Guest

2007-06-26 8:12

#21

looks good, but I also think a light version without so many images would be nice. Will there be ways to have custome themes?

Guest

2007-06-26 8:55

#22

Looks great!
I can’t wait for 1.0…

Guest

2007-06-26 9:58

#23

Is there any update on the 1.0 release date, i remember reading a while back that the road map was for a summer 07 release, but with the beta still no started started and it being the middle of June already is that still the plan?

Ilija Studen

2007-06-26 10:23

#24

@Gaz – Summer ends in September, right? We are still on schedule ;)

Guest

2007-06-27 6:32

#25

Very nice. Definitely looking forward to beta!

Guest

2007-06-27 6:47

#26

@Ilija

LOL. Well still earlier than Leopard ;)

Keep up the good works!

floxk

2007-06-27 9:55

#27

Well, here in germany it surely feels like summer is over! We’re waiting for 1.0 …

looks interesting so far, I hope the users will like the switch…

Guest

2007-06-27 6:04

#28

Ilija, will commercial version be based on pay-once principle, or on time-limited licensing (like vBulletin)?

Ilija Studen

2007-06-27 6:15

#29

@Akira: Pricing information will be posted a week or two before launch.

Guest

2007-06-27 6:16

#30

I missed the beta deadline, but would love to have an invite, please.

Thanks

Ilija Studen

2007-06-27 6:20

#31

@Wayne: That is a common request. Please check out this comment.

Guest

2007-06-27 9:31

#32

Any prices for the commercial version?

And about migration from 0.7.1 to the 1.0 version?

Guest

2007-06-28 3:29

#33

Hi Ilija,

I love this piece of software.

Just two comments regarding the task list:

*A. Would it be possible to also assign a place/event to the tasks? *

Certain tasks can only be done at a certain place or at an event.

Example:
1. discuss and approve new design (category: company meeting),
2. present feedback from the conference (category: company meeting),
3. purchase new hard drive (category: shopping list)
4. get prices for new monitors (category: shopping list)

Later on, when you need items for agenda for your company meeting, meeting with a client, your shopping list, etc. it makes life a lot easier and more efficient AND you remember to do things at the right time at the right place.

B. Assign importance and urgency to your tasks

Hope this is helpful. Looking forward to the beta, pity that the registration for testing is no longer available.

Vitalis

richard

2007-06-28 1:41

#34

Ilija

I can’t tell you how disappointed not to be chosen for your beta programme I have 12 years of application design/programming experience and a string of blue chip clients (Tesco BD-NTWK AMEC) that I would love to roll out a viable alternative to basecamp. I applied well within the time frame. You are doing a great job of teasing us with your feeds. But without something to play with Its a chocolate tea pot. Bare in mind I have to sell in solutions and I am only going to do that on the basis of actually being able to use the product. Without seeding it to the commercial developer community you are basically stunting the launch of version 1 when it eventually arrives. Just my 2¢

Richard

Guest

2007-06-28 2:44

#35

compliments for the job! be smart!

Ilija Studen

2007-06-28 7:15

#36

@Jorge:

Don’t worry, activeCollab 1.0 will be able to import data from activeCollab 0.7.1. Pricing and licensing details will be posted in due time.

@Richard:

There is no reason for being disappointed – nobody got invitations for ß because ß is not yet started. I am really sorry, but building something like activeCollab 1.0 is not an easy process and requires a lot of time. Please be patient.

@Raster:

Thanks! I’ll try but can’t promise you anything ;)

jeremyclarke

2007-06-28 10:26

#37

The current release lets you use modular template themes and choose which one you want to use at any give moment (like wordpress or drupal). Is that how the 1.0 release will work? A lot of the previous questions basically come down to that. If you can run a custom template then I’m sure someone will take the time to make a imageless version of the default (as well as other kookiness and fun stuff).

One thing I’d really want to see is the ability to change the top navigation to show Images, Images+Text or just Text depending on what you want (like the Cocoa/Carbon system on OSX and Gnome on Linux). Icons with text can get tedious once you already know what the images mean and it would let people who just want the text have an easy way to avoid loading the images.

In terms of the menu icons themselves, it would be great if they were themeable as well, i.e. that if the theme contained images of a given generic filename (trash.gif or whatever) they would automatically be included instead of the default ones. I guess this could also be done with CSS, depending on how you write the default template, but the important thing is that it doesn’t require too many hoops to change them (as incongruous icons can VERY quickly shift the mood of a design and make it hard to integrate with another website’s style).

ideapower

2007-06-29 12:54

#38

love it!!! hoping for some easy theming/customizing options.

DraganBabic

2007-06-29 10:50

#39

Great stuff dudes! I really like what Goran did with the new look and feel of the app, but I agree with someone who said that a theme switcher (just a basic one) feature would come really handy. This color scheme is kind of aggressive, and as much as I like it, maybe not all people will, so it would be cool if they would be offered an alternative in a form of a simple style switcher from the settings screen that would offer a neutral alternative (color-wise).

Keep up the good work.

Guest

2007-06-29 2:25

#40

Ilija, is it possible to know just principle right now? This is a very important question… If aC will be like basecamp (monthly payment), then I’ll start moving my company to another solution right away… If it will be ‘buy once’ like regular software – then its okay to wait and take a look at your pricing )

Ilija Studen

2007-06-29 3:48

#41

@Jeremy, ideapower and Dragan:

Thanks for the suggestions. We’ll make changing look and feel of activeCollab 1.0 as easy as possible.

@Akira:

Model is pretty simple – you pay the license to use activeCollab, download the software and install it on your own server. One year of support and upgrades is included in initial price. When that year expires you can still use the software without any limitation but we do not offer support or updates unless you renew you subscription (price for support and upgrades renewal is significantly lower than intial software price).

Similar model is used by ExpressionEngine and many other products.

Guest

2007-07-01 3:17

#42

Great Progress! One question though.

Why do you put the big trash icon on the top?
Trash is trash. It should be put on the bottom.

Also the admin button, it’s not necessary there. Because most people that’s using aC is not administrator. They shouldn’t be bothered with admin function. Put it beside ‘profile’ or ‘logout’

Thanks
Argo Wibowo

Guest

2007-07-02 10:09

#43

wooohooo! Ilija, thanks alot, i’m certainly interested in aC pro then =))

lookin forward for the release )

interactive

2007-07-02 11:39

#44

Hi Ilija,
about the toolbar : it’s great and the page can easily use both png and gif thanks to CSS :

#header {

height: 91px; 

width: 447px;

margin-bottom: 0 !important;



background: url(header.png) top left no-repeat !important;

background: url(header.gif) top left no-repeat; /*stoopid ie*/

}

Firefox see the png and IE the gif.

Anyway, Goran knows this ;) .

Is the star a tag like in gmail ? How does it work ? I mean, in a project, you can list all starred items, right ?
How will it work in few words ?

Thx, it looks promising!

Guest

2007-07-02 12:08

#45

Do we know what the commercial version will be selling for yet Ilija?

Ilija Studen

2007-07-02 1:57

#46

@interactive:

Think of Star feature as a way to bookmark objects.

You basically click a star icon next to the task you are working on, discussions you are interested in, milestone you are assigned to or any other object in a project. All those object get listed in your Starred folder (you access it through main navigation).

@James:

Sorry, we cannot discuss any specific numbers just yet.

Guest

2007-07-02 7:46

#47

I have been really interested in your product for a while now and actually started reworking it to fit my needs until I checked back and saw you were finalizing 1.0!

I know you don’t want to give definite deadlines or prices. But can you give us a broad time frame of when you think you will be releasing this? Before the end of summer, year? I think I can speak for everyone and yourself we are all eager.

I can also lend a hand in any design that might be needed. So drop me a line.

Ilija Studen

2007-07-02 7:48

#48

@JJ: Deadline is Summer 2007 ;)

Guest

2007-07-02 9:07

#49

Here’s a thought. Make a popup list of the favorites that are added via the star icon button. Then the user could be anywhere within ActiveCollab and navigate to their selected favorite just by clicking on it from the list. No need to navigate to a special page.

Guest

2007-07-03 9:20

#50

That’s a lot of space for some toolbar icons only …

Guest

2007-07-03 11:06

#51

Hollywood Launch in Getting Real

Go from teaser to preview to launch

If an app launches in a forest and there’s no one there to use it, does it make a noise? The point here is that if you launch your app without any pre-hype, people aren’t going to know about it.

To build up buzz and anticipation, go with a Hollywood-style launch: 1) Teaser, 2) Preview, and 3) Launch.
Teaser

A few months ahead of time, start dropping hints. Let people know what you’re working on. Post a logo. Post to your blog about the development. Stay vague but plant the seed. Also, get a site up where you can collect emails from folks who are interested.

Ilija Studen

2007-07-03 11:25

#52

Yeah, that makes sense :)

interactive

2007-07-03 4:34

#53

Probably offtopic,

@tata,
I like this way of presenting and I’ll probably use it for a project.
This recipe has been used for products like “iphone”, no ?

Guest

2007-07-04 1:46

#54

Ilija when you say deadline is Summer 2007, what month is Summer for you? I’m in Australia so Summer is around Christmas.

Guest

2007-07-04 3:54

#55

@Adam: Read post #24

Ilija, I think the new navigational system is beautiful, but I’m going to have to agree with Julia- it is a lot of [vertical] space used for just a toolbar. (I’m sure you didn’t expect this much criticism from that little partial screen shot..) I would personally love it as is, but unfortunately many of our employees are half blind and run their resolution at 1024×768 or worse.. gasp 800×600, or they’re on a widescreen laptop with not so much height to it. A toolbar of that size will just cause extra scrolling. I’m not saying it needs to be designed to fit on an 800×600 screen, but since most of the work will be done below the toolbar, I personally think it be more functional overall if it weren’t quite so tall.

Ilija Studen

2007-07-04 4:16

#56

@Levi

We actually expected even more criticism ;) I think that this type of early feedback is really important. You pointed out some problems that we overlooked or forgot and I’d like to say thanks.

Regarding the height issue – we will see how we can work around the problem.

Guest

2007-07-04 7:40

#57

I would be very nice to see it as an auto-hide feature or a firefox-plugin-bar

Guest

2007-07-05 2:57

#58

Wow! That looks awesome!
I’m really looking forward to v1.0

pixelita

2007-07-05 4:44

#59

All this has whetted my appetite for 1.0 and I can’t wait to get my grubby little paws on it!

Davor

2007-07-06 10:48

#60

This interface looks very nice. I have installed the 0.7 on our server, but am waiting for the Basecamp XML import to be available again to get my hands dirty. I hope this will be the case in the 1.0 version?

I am also hoping for some better font diferentiation (size/type) in the 1.0 version. Will this be the case?

A comment above mentioned a commercial version. Is this a hosted/supported solution to which there will be a community alternative?

Guest

2007-07-08 9:19

#61

It is summer 2007 in the southern hemisphere so, guys?

The new interface looks great! I can’t wait any longer to use the new AC.

Please, please, don’t make the commercial version subscription based like Basecamp, let us install in our servers!

Guest

2007-07-09 4:48

#62

It is nice have big icons, but there should be a way to hide them, when they are not required. Look at MS Office 2007 behaviour….

Guest

2007-07-11 8:49

#63

HI I’m interested in translation of Active Collab into new languages. It is possible? easy? are you interested to collect the translations?

I can look for somebody to translate english to spanish and catalan.

Thanks at all.

Guest

2007-07-12 1:32

#64

@Levi – Thanks, missed that.

Bring on September. I need the search functionality badly, I will buy 1.0 as soon as it’s released if the pricing is reasonable.

shrike

2007-07-13 2:47

#65

Integration with Google desktop

Just wondering, could it be possible to integrate tasklist with Google desktop tasklist? Or Google calendar?

Is there any change to get started with translation for 1.0? I could deliver Finnish language.

Guest

2007-07-13 5:15

#66

what is the ETA for 1.0?

Guest

2007-07-13 6:46

#67

I’m still curious about the pricing, hope it’s not expensive

Guest

2007-07-15 5:04

#68

Ilija, Have you considered adding aC to the Go PHP 5 initiative?
http://gophp5.org/

Ilija Studen

2007-07-15 5:56

#69

@Colin:

We worked really hard to make activeCollab 1.0 PHP4 compatible and we don’t plan to have PHP5 as a system requirement any time soon. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt ;)

Guest

2007-07-16 2:18

#70

Well, according to a recent news on PHP website, PHP4 will be discontinued so making aC only available for PHP5 wouldn’t be a big issue.

Ilija Studen

2007-07-16 2:28

#71

Yeah, I know. We decided that it’s a good thing when your customers don’t need to know what version of PHP they are running ;) Software that just works is good software.

Guest

2007-07-17 7:47

#72

Getting aC to run in PHP 4 was impossible for me so I guess it is unofficially a Go PHP5 app.

Ilija Studen

2007-07-17 1:17

#73

@antonio: activeCollab 0.7.1 is PHP5 only. From activeCollab 1.0 we’ll have PHP4 support enabled.

Guest

2007-07-23 9:30

#74

Was very happy after reading the response to Akira’s question, would be a real shame if aC head down the commercial road and start charging crazy prices.

Keep up the good work :)

Guest

2007-07-23 11:39

#75

Hello Ilija,

I do a lot of test in the version 0.7.1 and they one feature very interesting to add if is always possible in the definitive version 1.O

I fact, if you can add the posibility to stock “templates” from one kind of project is very interesting, because many times we work in new project but with the same ciient, sometimes, the same users, tasks, midelsones, tags, etc.

For exemple, for working with editors, with the same or also diferent clients, we need to do aprox the same tasks, etc. only the dates change, or some contents, or the users… but all the structure for the project stay the same. If you think about, and you see whats going on in other sectors, I am sure they are many exemples with one very similar srtucture for the projects . I think in all this kind of project the posibility to start a new project with one “model” or “template” building by each user before is maybe interesting for a lot of people.

(sorry for my english, I hope you understand the idea)
Mario

pietr007

2007-07-24 6:48

#76

Ilija,

regarding comment #41 above, does it mean we will have access to source code and be able to make modifications to the code while paying the license, or is the access only given through an API? Reason for my question is that at some centers we necessarily have to make modifications to areas such as in authentication. The later is mandated by government regulations in the US if we want, for example, to store research data

thanks

Rick

Ilija Studen

2007-07-25 1:34

#77

@Rick: Licensing details will be posted in due time…

Guest

2007-07-26 12:58

#78

My two cents:

Way to much real estate wasted in the header. I see this was mentioned previously. Possibly have a smart collapse button to shrink the area down or not have the wording. Just shrink it down (padding+text – icon = 40% wasted)

Icons, for the most part, should not really need text. The purpose of an icon is to, supposedly, allow for easy visual recognition. Holding the cursor over the item having small explanation is much better then wasting 15% of the screen on a text. Or have a toggle option in the admin section to turn it off the text.

The icons on the bar themselves are a little bland (so 2005 :) ). They really don’t jump out at me. OK, that was nit picking, but most people will never change from the default theme and first impressions are the most important and if you are going to use icons might as well make sure they work well. Secondly the “admin” and “project” icons are too similar in design and need to be differentiated.

I personally don’t like the term Starred, it is past tense and implies an action completed rather then current or active; this apparently is not the case with what you can/will do with “Starred items”. Terms like smart-links, quick-links, even favorites imply something positive and active. Maybe it also doesn’t sit right with me because all the other menu items are noun based. But,hey if there wasnt’ any text on the icons I wouldn’t feel it was out of place. :)

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