Guido Jansen of Realvine blogged about how they use activeCollab for managing their Magento development projects. The post is in Dutch. (English translation here – thanks to Google!)

Guido mentions that since activeCollab is web based, it is much easier to get all parties involved together. Communication is smoother and customers can participate in the development process.

They also use our Planning and Reports modules for activeCollab and said:

Reports we use internally for all projects and looking around to see how many hours the various components in a project cost and whether it matches the data in the planning module.

With this understanding we can better estimate for new projects, see where any bottlenecks, thus increasing our efficiency.

I am glad our products help increase efficiency and better track your projects Guido!

Thanks for sharing your story.

How are you using activeCollab / our products?

If your business accepts payments via Paypal, chances are you login to the Paypal website a few times in the day to check your balance. You would even keep an eye on email alerts of new sales and feel happy when you close the day with good sales.

The Entrepreneur’s Urge

I can tell you for myself that I am on the edge of my seat when we launch a new product. I am biting my nails when we push “Send” on a newsletter with a special offer. I am curious to find out how much money I made while I was sleeping, and check my Paypal balance the moment I start my computer.

You may be a web entrepreneur , a microISV, a startup or an expert offering online courses. The urge to see how well you are selling is common to all. You may be looking forward to the first sale of your newly launched product or want to track your monthly performance against your targets.

The Problem

Logging in Paypal takes time. And if you keep it idle the session also times out quickly. Now this is good for Paypal, but bad for us. All we want to do is check the Paypal balance and find out what products are selling. We want some quick bits of information and get back to our work. The process of logging in and viewing details eats up time. And biggest, it distracts you!

The Solution: Putler

Now surely, you can write-up some small script that will check your Paypal balance. You could host it on your internal server and keep hitting it when you feel like satisfying your natural urge to check your Paypal balance! But why to make things complicated (and spend time understanding and building those scripts) when you can have someone give it to you on a platter?

Welcome Putler!

Putler shows your Paypal balance on your desktop, notifies you of balance updates, lets you set a target, shows today’s transactions and tells you how well are you doing against the target. It’s a simple and effective tool to watch your Paypal account right from your computer.

Just give your Paypal API information to Putler and he will start monitoring your Paypal balance. He will gently notify you when the balance changes. He even draws a nice chart of your daily balances along with a target you may have set.

This gives you a never before visibility on targets vs performance for your Paypal business account.

Apps Magnet Launches Putler Alpha. Get it now for free!

We are releasing a public Alpha of Putler today. Get it free, monitor your Paypal account, achieve business goals, and give us feedback!

Download Putler for free now!

We are starting with only the basic features, but will make Putler smarter and stronger as he grows! Do send in your ideas and suggestions on how we can make him better!

Thank you!

37Signals rolled out their new unified authentication system – 37signals ID a while back. The new system required all users migrate their accounts and pick up a new username / password. This username / password will work across all Basecamp sites and all 37Signals products.

I wrote about it in December, and was happy that everything worked smoothly after the upgrade, and PlannerX worked without a change.

But I was in for a big shock (since I don’t read the 37Signals API developer’s mailing list!!)

The authentication system has changed. Instead of username and password, third party applications now have to authenticate via a 40 letter hex token. The token can be found under the user’s account info – hidden normally, available only after clicking a link!

This meant users of 3rd party applications that relied on Basecamp APIs – e.g. our PlannerX – would break. And won’t work until users entered their token as username and “X” as password. Crazy!

This scared me. We did not want to scare our users too! As it is, the dual login (first to PlannerX and then to Basecamp) is troublesome, having to find and paste the token for login would really be the straw that broke our camel’s neck!

I came to know about this today, and the deadline is less than 2 days away! This means, if I don’t do something right now, over this weekend, PlannerX will come to a grinding halt, and simply spit out authentication failed errors to all users.

Really a big price for not monitoring the API mailing list…

I took a few deep breaths and continued reading the mailing list.

Surely, the whole topic led to a lot of confusion and discussions among developers. The deadlines for rolling out new authentication system were pushed back so that all developers could accommodate the change.

But there was a silver lining. A new API was added that would work with the username and password as usual, and provide logged in user’s profile information – name, phone numbers etc.

Along with a silver bullet – that 40 letter hex token!

Bingo!

I just finished an update that now makes PlannerX compatible with the new token based authentication system for Basecamp.

And what’s the change for PlannerX users? Nothing! You can continue using the system as usual! When you login with your username and password, we automatically look up your token and use that for all further API communications with Basecamp.

Simple solution to a complicated issue. Took 15 minutes of development, 25 minutes of testing, and 20 minutes writing this post! Not too bad for such a big change! Was certainly less than what I feared!

If you are using OpenID for logging in, you will have to use the 40 digit token as username and “X” as password while you login to Basecamp via PlannerX.

Cheers! I can now have a good weekend!

(PS: I am onto a whole lot of other upgrades to PlannerX. Watch this space for more!)

I was skeptical about money back guarantees when we started Apps Magnet a year back. Since we were selling installable software, it is easy for people to just buy one copy, ask for a refund, and continue using it.

It was difficult for me, when someone said they wanted a refund. It was difficult to hear that they were getting errors, while I wasn’t! It sunk my heart when someone said they did not find the product suitable / found it disappointing.

We do not advertise a money back assurance for any of our products. Although we provided refunds to anyone who asked for it. I did that reluctantly at the beginning.

Now I am very happy to provide refunds. I don’t know why! Probably it’s because we have received so much praise for our products, it’s easy to hear an occasional rant. Partly also because the % of people asking for refunds is very low. And it felt right to provide refunds – it was giving respect to customers.

I am happy to announce that a 30-day money back guarantee is now standard on all our products. We will update our site / promotional material to include this over the next few days.

We believe our products can provide radical productivity improvements. And we are backing it up with a money back guarantee!

Go ahead, buy one today.

And all our existing customers, thank you for your support and faith!

:Nirav

Use notifications and incoming mails to get people on-board activeCollab

activeCollab is awesome, but some people just won’t use it. Why not let them use email? In this acVarsity video, we demonstrate everything you need to know about the Incoming Mail module of activeCollab. You will be able to set seamless email communication – both outgoing and incoming – for your activeCollab projects after watching this video. Go ahead, get more people on-board with activeCollab!

Watch video: using email for teamwork with activeCollab

You may also want to watch other acVarsity videos

Planning & Reports modules upgraded (among others!)

We launched the much awaited upgrade to Reports module around Christmas. The new version adds people and company reports, allows taking action from within reports and is simply the best reporting tool for activeCollab today.

Today, we also launched an upgrade for Planning module. This upgrade fixes some annoying bugs (with notifications and duplicate entries) and has an Export to CSV feature. We have also included a few other fixes and enhancements.

acHacks: Latest Comments First
We also launched a useful acHack. This one lets you show comments in reverse chronological order for tickets, discussions, pages and files. You no longer have to sift through pages of comments.

BTW, we also updated Copy Pages and Discussions with project acHack!

Next Product: Paypal Monitor
We are now working on a new product for Paypal. If you are a Paypal business user, we believe you will find it useful. If you would like to know more about it, drop Nirav an email.

activeCollab Updates

activeCollab guys just published cool intro videos. They can be very useful in familiarizing your users with activeCollab. Check out the videos here. If you would like to see training videos we’ve made so far, click here to see them all.

On the forums, improving search is an interesting topic. If you have a few minutes, do read it and post your comments. That will help activeCollab improve search capabilities. We also posted notes on how we improved search results. You may also want to try that out.

Another useful topic is how to move activeCollab from one server to another. There are some nuances you got to know when you move, and this article will surely get you on the right track.

If you’ve been bugged by a bunch of email notifications coming your way when you save project plans with Planning module, we finally have a solution.
We are releasing Planning Module 1.3 today. This is a minor upgrade and bug fix release. Thanks to all users for their contributions and comments (especially bug reports!)

Enhancements:

• Export the plan as a CSV / XML file
• Permissions can now be managed using Planning section in AC Admin
• Enable Save only if plan was changed.
• Can now open Planning module for a completed / paused project too

Bug Fixes:

• Notifications being sent on item reassignments (NOTE: Required update to a core AC file in “resources” module.)
• Fixes to avoid duplication of project items.
• Checklists & Pages show correctly in Calendar view now
• Ensured Activity Logs are created correctly. (Needed for Reports module)
• Dragging multiple items plan showed error in some cases – fixed
• Changing priority of tasks did not save

As usual, you can download the latest version using the same download link that you received in the original purchase confirmation email.

Feedback, comments, praises and bug reports most welcome!

We just released a fresh new activeCollab hack – Latest Comments First.

This acHack allows you to see comments in reverse chronological order (latest first) for discussions, tickets, pages and files. It ensures comment numbering and permalinks work. We have also included an administration panel to enable this hack only for selective modules.

We have pages full of comments on some discussions and tickets. This hack will free us from the trouble of navigating to the last page to find the most recent (hence most important) comments. We hope it helps you as well.

It’s only $15 and you get one year upgrades free.

Learn More – Buy Now

You may also want to learn about our other acHacks or acGarage (acGarage subscribers get all acHacks free, plus one year expert managed upgrades for activeCollab and other modules)

Got feedback? Have an idea? Feel free to post a comment!

Ho ho ho! The latest release of Reports Module – version 1.6 – is now available for instant download. If you are an existing customer, download it using the link in your original purchase confirmation email. If you have not yet purchased it, and want to get insightful reports on your projects, people and companies, click here and buy it today.

So, What’s New?

A whole lot. Almost everything actually! We rewrote the whole system. Here’s a summary of what’s changed.

Reporting engine revamp

Reports now include checklists, tasks, milestones and tickets. Daily snapshots have higher accuracy and are in line with activeCollab’s access privilege system. The core reporting engine is robust and well tested.

Person Reports Card

Detailed People reports added

You can now keep track of your team’s activities. See detailed statistics about work activity, project assignments and compare people using the Activity Score. Assignment chart shows you items assigned to a person across projects while Hours chart shows the actual hours spent across assigned projects. You can filter people by name, role and company as well as see performance in given date range.

Company Reports added – including overview of projects for that company

Another major addition is Company Reports. You can now see project status summary for all projects of a company on one screen. Filter to see only Active Projects or All Projects.

Ability to send a reminder from within Reports module

Reporting without the ability to take action has limited use. You can now send a reminder / followup / appreciation right from Reports module. Appropriate person will automatically appear in the To field, and you can add any other user using intelligent auto complete system. You can do use this quick action system from all reports – Projects, People and Companies.

Printing improved significantly

Printing now works much better, and works for all three reporting screens. We have even included a summary at top.

Company Usage Stats

System usage statistics as part of company reports

There is no way to find out how many total, open and closed tickets you have in activeCollab. No way to find out disk space usage or number of users either. System usage statistics – available under Companies Reports – provide you detailed usage statistics about your activeCollab system. You can narrow down by client companies to see their usage patterns too.

Project status summary added to Project Reports, including forecast

Get a summary of project’s progress at a glance with the Project Status summary panel. You can see % completion, leader, group, next milestone and a pie chart indicating progress. Hovering over gives you additional details. Project’s Velocity (speed of completing items) is highlighted. And we have even added a forecast date for project completion. It studies the last few weeks’ items – opened, closed, reopened, added – and predicts a completion date.

HTTPS support

Reports module now works well over HTTPS too! Thanks to everyone’s patience on this!

Revamped interface

We are proud of user interface redesign in this release! We spent numerous hours getting the details right. We hope you will appreciate it.

Permissions and configuration for Reports from AC Admin section

You no longer need to edit PHP files to change settings. You don’t even need to go to System Roles to give permissions to view Reports. We have added a Reports Configuration option in activeCollab administration screen. You can configure permissions, date format, weights to use in activity scores and other settings from there.

Fine grained access control – rights inherited from activeCollab

Reports module now will only include those projects, companies and users that are visible to the currently logged in user. It will show reports according to access rights of current user. You can now rest assured that users won’t get access to any unauthorized information. Rights are inherited from activeCollab and you can also set permissions for the three types of reports from Reports module configuration screen in activeCollab administration section.

Possibly a hundred other small improvements!

There are many other enhancements! Lots of tweaks to make your reporting easier, faster and more productive for you. We have paid attention to the details so that you can focus on taking decisions based on these reports.

Wow, that’s a lot! Is there a demo?

We don’t have a live demo, but invite you to our short introduction video on Reports Module. It will show you all types of reports available and how you can use them. You can also see some screenshots from documentation page.

Looks good. I want to get insights on my projects too!

Sure. Go ahead, click here to purchase Reports module ($69) and download it instantly. Installation instructions are included in your download.

You can learn more about Reports Module here.

Learn More – View Demo Video – Buy Now ($69)

Thank you Santa!

Thank you Santa for this wonderful Christmas gift!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you from Apps Magnet team!

(Santa Clause photo by Matti Mattila)

Reports module version 1.6 is live!

Price is $69. And it’s worth much more!

If you are an existing customer, you can download the latest version using the same download link as you got in the original purchase email.

More updates and demo video coming soon.

I set up the about to be released version of Reports module for activeCollab on our services company‘s server. During all these months of development, I’ve been testing it with small amount of real + test data. And I was zapped when I tested it with real big data today.

System Usage Statistics

Reports module tells we I have 41 active projects now, and have logged close to 22,000 hours of work on those projects. We have tons of work items completed, 2GB worth of files, and we are going strong.

And when I looked at the overall project summary, it told me we are 91% done, yet will never finish our projects. We have logged close to 4000 hours over the last 3 months and have items that are due for more than 290 days.

Summary - All Projects

And if that was not enough, we are closing work only at a rate of 12 items per week.

Few!

I planned to spend about 10 minutes reviewing the reports since I just wanted to test before wrapping up the build. But I spent well over half an hour – with occasional “wow’s” and “aha’s”, and “damn’s” in between.I think I am loving it.

Here are some other revelations / insights:

• Lot of team members use the system to just log hours (since it’s mandatory to log hours)
• Some tell me they will log hours, but never do! I could actually send them a reminder right from the Reports module.
• We don’t use the estimates feature of Planning module. Most items are not estimated.
• It’s actually good to have “Never” as the forecast date! It means my team has enough work  for a while 😉
• Most of the clients are involved only in posting comments on discussions. May be we can get them more involved on features / bugs.
• We have many old clients in the system who are no longer active. May be it’s time to check how they are doing and if they have more work for us 😉

My final reaction: this is deadly. This version of Reports module is just too dangerous. It’s sizzling hot. It must be handled with care.

Take care!