We are releasing Planning Module 1.6 today. The best got better!

Highlights of this release are:

• Tickets hacks are now a separate module – Tickets Plus Module and include major enhancements
• You can now work full screen with Planning module
• Some long standing bugs are gone – private milestones and version conflicts are the main ones
• Planning Module (and other latest releases) now officially support activeCollab 2.3.2 and onwards (we are dropping support for older versions)

Upgrading requires some work, else you may see errors

Upgrading to Planning Module 1.6 requires some extra work – apart from the standard “upload the ‘for-upload’ folder and install module from admin” procedure. Since we have decoupled Planning module and Tickets Plus, and that Tickets Plus is now a module, we need to bring the installation back to a cleaner state before uploading Planning module / Tickets Plus files.

Click here for upgrade instructions.

Common Questions you may have

Why are we separating Tickets hacks as a new module?

Short answer: operational efficiencies.

Long answer: Tickets enhancements have been a huge success. As we call them – they are like a warrior’s sword. A warrior needs to keep his sword sharp. And we plan to enhance Tickets Plus regularly. We started selling Tickets Plus as a separate product couple months back but included all files in Planning module for your convenience. This means every time a new version of Tickets Plus comes out, we also need to roll out a new Planning module version. We would also need to closely coordinate development of both products. And as we released a new version of either of them, customers will have to upgrade them too. This was getting complicated. Hence we decided to split. We can now work independently on each product and you can now upgrade them independently as well.

Do I have to pay again for Tickets Plus?

No! Tickets Plus module is complimentary to all Planning Module customers even now. All Planning Module customers will see new Tickets Plus Module downloads in their accounts. Use links there to download your copy of Tickets Plus.

Why are we dropping support for older activeCollab versions?

Frankly, to make our (and yours) lives easier. We believe activeCollab 2.3.2 is a solid version, and everyone should upgrade to it. Secondly, supporting multiple versions took longer time in development, testing and customer service.

If you are using older version of activeCollab, you can download / use earlier version of Planning / Tickets Plus modules.

Should I upgrade?

Oh yes!

My license has expired. What should I do?

Please renew your license. This will give you an additional year’s upgrades and will help us continue bringing improvements!

When will “Feature X / Y / Z” be available?

We are defining priorities for the next version of Planning Module. There are some ideas we are considering – like better printing, multiple projects in outline view and resource management. Please post your suggestions on our forum and vote for features you like.

Here are full release notes.

Release Notes

Enhancements

• Separated Tickets Plus from Planning Module
• Tickets Plus: Live search on Tickets List view
• Tickets Plus: Added In Progress workflow status
• Tickets Plus: Workflow names and CSS associations updated, so you can now easily change workflow status labels
• Tickets Plus: Quick Update now only changes responsible person so other assignees are preserved
• Tickets Plus: Enhanced List and Print views
• Full screen mode: Planning Module can now fill your entire browser screen via Full screen mode.
• Added support for Confidential Items Module: You can now make items confidential from Planning Module itself.
• Added Actual Hours field in CSV export

Fixes

• Milestones were created as Private for Private Projects
• Cards view search function was broken. Fixed.
• Tickets Plus: Drag and drop did not work in tickets list
• Notifications said “Created” when the item was updated

Next Actions

• Login to your members area and download the latest versions (you can also renew your license from there)
• Buy Planning Module today if you haven’t already done so – it’s still our most loved product!

Time Reports Plus is a runaway hit. Our customers keep telling us how much they love it and how it simplifies billing, tracking and discovering usage patterns.

Now you can discover insights even quicker.

Runtime filtering for Time Reports

Time Reports Plus now lets you filter at run time. You may have created a Time Report with some conditions. But you can change all of them with Time Reports Plus. Additionally, you can select up to three summary parameters and include actual time records if you wish.

Without this, you would have to create new Time Reports for every combination of filter choices you wanted to apply. Creating a new report for every condition was a major headache. Now it’s gone!

Release Notes

• Added run time filtering options for person, date and status
• Minor improvements to styling – display and print

Click here to learn more about Time Reports Plus, and buy it at $49

We announced late last week that we plan to release a new module – Confidential Pages – in two weeks. While development was going in full swing we realized:

• It will be confusing for users to have a new module for confidential pages
• Features provides by Pages – like versioning, tracking changes etc were not that important
• Pages functionality is very similar to Tickets
• As a matter of fact, it will be very good to have Confidential Tickets
• The reason why we wanted a separate module was that it will not create problems for any existing modules. Hacking a core module can cause things to break – e.g. Confidential Tickets may show up in Planning Module
• After thinking about this long and hard, we concluded that Confidential Pages Module will be no more.
• We will promote Tickets Plus as a first class module for activeCollab (instead of the current “hack” status). This new module will support Confidential Tickets – tickets accessible only by people who are subscribed / assigned to them (and Administrators)
• This will also mean less maintenance for us as we have to manage  a single product
• More importantly, it means Tickets will now pack immense power. Imagine creating tickets that only a specific person in your team can see.

What do you think? Is this wise? Will it make more sense?

We are live now!

Time Reports Plus uses your existing Time Reports and lets you summarize them by Project, Person, Date or Billing Status. You can select up to three of these parameters and can also see sub totals at each level. You can select multiple time records and batch update them right from the reports screen. There is no new icon to click or new page to go to. Time Reports Plus automagically enhances current time reporting screens – both at project level and globally.

• Learn More – story behind Time Reports, What it can do for you, Screenshot and more…
• Watch a video tutorial about time reports and making them more useful with Time Reports Plus
• Buy Now at $49

Grif – who inspired us to build this module, commented on quick tour video. And here’s what he said:

LOVE THIS !!! I have been waiting my whole ActiveCollab life for this. Sign me up.

I am really excited with this module! Look forward to your feedback.

We just released our latest product – Inline Pagination (for comments in activeCollab).

This module allows you to see comments from next page on current page for discussions, tickets, pages and files. You can now see all comments on single page. Quickly review them, make connections between what people said and take decisions. No back and forth / page reloads required.

This nifty little productivity enhancer will surely impress your team and client! We can promise that.

Learn more, watch a quick tour video and buy this product from here.

Ok, so I just sent out an email announcement about the latest release of Planning module – version 1.4. This update provides a lot of long pending (and eagerly awaited) features and fixes many issues. we strongly recommend all customers to upgrade. And if you haven’t bought Planning module yet, you should get it right away!

Enhancements:

• Print from Outline and Card views
• Full localization support. You can now even change names for Tickets, Milestones, Tasks etc in Outline / Card view
• Works with activeCollab Small Biz edition too
• Updated icons – added colors! Let us know how you like this!
  
• Tickets listing in AC can now show details with single click, assignees, due dates along with category icon, workflow status and a quick Edit link. Thanks to Frederik (Dwarf), mphillips, MarkOs, bean_nwfc and other contributors on activeCollab forum post
  
• Project selector now longer shows up at start up. Only when you click “Open”.
• Increased height of Project selector for readability with long list
• Alert boxes now show up near the top, making them easier to find
• Enhanced error checking during save and notification sending
• Created new project from template now advances Start dates too.
• Completed or Inactive projects too can be edited with Planning module now.
• Merged hacks and Planning module files for easier installation
• Other small fixes and performance improvements

Issues Fixed:

• Quick Update completes / reopens ticket correctly now
• Error on line 1066 in Planning class. Solved.
• Administrators did not get access to Planning module on fresh install.
• HTTPS gives error on IE7/8
• Very slow to load projects’ list
• Set mode to opaque, for pop ups to show correctly over Planning module
• Changing only Priority for tasks did not save
• Clearing a field deleted item in Outline view.

We plan to update our documentation and create some more tutorial videos for Planning module in near future. Will keep you posted!

And hey, we want to hear your feedback on this version. Please try it out and let us know your comments!

Thanks a ton!

We just released the 1.7 version of Reports module. This update continues on the breakthrough 1.6 version, makes it more stable and even easier to get insightful reports about projects, people and companies from your activeCollab setup.

We have significantly improved the localization support in this version. Translated strings now show at all places and are dynamically loaded from your activeCollab.

Now even send Reminders in Spanish from Reports module. We have full localization support.

Here’s what included in this release.

Feature Additions

• Improved localization support. Now all labels can be translated and work well
• Project name in summary boxes are now clickable and linked to Project Dashboard
• Added links to all “Recent Activities” and “Upcoming Items” in People reports
• Omitted projects under “Project Template Group” in projects list
• Moved Reports Module loading indicator higher for better visibility

Click here to learn more about Reports module and how it can benefit you.

Issues Fixed

• Next Milestone Date is now adjusted according to user’s timezone
• Fixed: HTTP Request Error – if Calendar module is not installed
• Fixed: If admin entered hours for other people, they were still reported under admin
• Made “wmode opaque” for Reports flash file. Will show Project List / Status / Quick Add windows above the Reports module now.
• Fixed: If person was not assigned any project, DB Query Errors were generated.
• Fixed: All items going in “Other” category
• Fixed: Estimates staying flat if there were no tasks on tickets
• Fixed: Date time field mismatch in DB Queries for end dates
• Fixed: Clicking a ticket from Person Card did not work

We recommend all current users to upgrade to the latest version. This upgrade can be done simply by replacing all files in their correct locations over FTP.

Click here to learn more about Reports module and how it can benefit you.

The superb folks at A51 – makers of activeCollab web collaboration and project management software – reviewed our Reports module for activeCollab. An extension to activeCollab that lets you track key performance indicators of projects, people and companies. activeCollab team says:

Reports Module is one of the most successful activeCollab related products developed outside A51.

That’s right. Hundreds of customers use Reports module and they all find it invaluable. Here’s a comment we got a few hours ago:

I use both your Reports and Planning modules. LOVE them both.
– Monica

We eat our own dogfood. We use our products daily and listen to our customers. Frankly, we developed Reports module for our own use. When we couldn’t imagine living without it, we released it as a product.

Sometimes you download software and you just can’t believe how bad it is, or how hard it is to accomplish the very simple tasks that the software tries to accomplish. Chances are, it’s because the developers of the software don’t use it.
– Joel Spolski on Eating your own Dogfood

Thankfully, our software does not fall in this category.

The Story Behind Reports Module

It’s been over a year we launched the Reports module. We were using activeCollab for managing projects and needed a better reporting system. We wanted to track velocity of projects (rate at which they are completing), iteration charts (kind of work done each week) and insights into most active and longest open items. We also wanted to track what items needed attention and were risky / dependent on others.

We started generating these reports using SQL queries on activeCollab database. We created a few MySQL views, ran a set of queries and exported a CSV file at the end.

One day, I resolved to make this look prettier and put together a dashboard with charts and lists populated from these queries. I polished it over the next few days and put it up on our activeCollab setup. The reaction was “WOW!” We kept it going for a while, but Reports module was destined for something bigger.

Software Services vs Products Dilemma

If you are a software services company, you write a lot of code. You build tools that save you time. Most of these tools have great value, but only for you. At times, you dream of generalizing these tools and releasing them for greater good. But often they end up as internal side projects. Sometimes you release them, but can’t give them enough attention since you already have other paid projects waiting.

I’ve been through this experience two dozen times. In last 12 years at Magnet, I’ve initiated about 22 products. Most died. Some were released as open source. Some became popular. Some took life of their own. None gave us revenue we could sustain. Paid consulting projects kept running the company and product ideas remained only a wish.

I was not going to repeat that mistake this time.

If you do it, do it for good

When I decided to release Reports module to public, I was clear it had to be a long-term product, a paid product and something that I will pay enough attention to. No more side projects. I wanted something that will become a business in its own.

Reports Module Sales Trend

Over the last year, Reports module has evolved. Nine releases in a year, many bug fixes, enhancements and a major overhaul, Reports module has come a long way. We have also seen sales grow after our initial launch, slow down, and then pick up once again after the major 1.6 version launch. We have incorporated a lot of user feedback (we feel privileged to have participating customers!)

Today, Reports module gives us insights. It helps us track project progress, how the team is doing and even the overall system usage. There are enormous improvements in the “prettiness” too!

Reports Module in Feb 2009 (click for full view)

Reports Module in Feb 2010 (click for full view)

We have our wish list open though, and there are improvements we are planning for this year.

activeCollab team did a comprehensive review of the module – features, usefulness and its working. At the end, they said:

Reports module can be a very useful and handy tool, especially if you’re working with clients and great number of people. Everything is accessible easily, available at one place, and simple to set up.

Everything is accessible, available and simple! – that sums up our principles for developing software. We use them on all our software and are glad activeCollab team recognized them clearly. (I hope they finds Reports module useful for tracking their projects as well!)

I want to end this post with a summary of I think contributed to our little success with Reports module (and our other products).

Success Factors

• Unexplored, super niche market: Reports module was the first commercial module for activeCollab. First reporting tool of its kind. activeCollab has a small, but participating and forward thinking customer base. This really worked.
• Accessible, available, simple: Our focus is always on keeping only what’s important and making it easily accessible. Things that would take you hours to do, we want you to do them in minutes. We want everything simple and easy to understand. We spend more time thinking about simplifying our products, than in writing code! Everything from our products to demo videos is designed with our users in mind.
• Community participation: We made it simple to give feedback. We’ve had some great feedback from customers and we improve our products with that. Participating on activeCollab forums helped establish credibility as well.
• Long term vision, self-interest and passion: I founded Apps Magnet to be a sustainable long-term business that makes money by making people more productive. I am passionate about programming, productivity and making a difference. Apps Magnet is an expression of my passion. We make products that we want, we build them with passion, and are happy to find enough customers who share this passion.

Thank you for reading! I wish you a passionate and productive day today!

(dancing balls image from Flickr)

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 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!