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• We have many old clients in the system who are no longer active.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!

Viewing reports is typically a passive process. You would see your burndown chart and make mental notes. You would see the hours chart and nod your head. You will see project reports one after another and think about how you can improve your next iterations.

What if you can take some action right on that reports page?

That will make reports even more valuable. Imagine seeing a burndown chart and firing an email to your project lead – either congratulating on the consistent progress or inquiring into the causes of recent decline in project velocity.

We experienced a sudden flash of creativity while we were building people reports for the next release of Reports module for activeCollab.

We are incorporating a simple feedback mechanism on reports – ability to send an email to your team while you are viewing the project / people / companies reports. You can invoke it by a keystroke or clicking a button. You will be able to do that from any screen – project reports, people reports or companies reports.

Do you think it will be useful to you?

(PS: The bad part: This will delay the release by a few days. But we’ll complete it ASAP!)

We are working on the next release of Reports module for activeCollab and want your feedback on two new reports we are adding: People and System Reports.

We are close to completing development on this. You can see a few screenshots of the new version here on activeCollab forums.

People Reports

Allow you to filter users and see their activity stats. Monitor work progress and hour logs easily. Here’s how we are planning this screen to be.

People Reports Mockup - click to enlarge

System Reports

There is no way to find your overall system statistics with activeCollab. Here’s a simple screen that gives you all the “birds eye view” numbers you may need.

System Reports Mockup - click to enlarge

What do we want?

We want your feedback on the reporting fields included, the overall look and feel and the ease of use. All suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance!

Reports module used MySQL views to get categories and comment counts. Many customers had troubles configuring MySQL privileges to create views. We updated the code to let go of views – without compromising on any features!

The latest version of Reports module is available!

Feature Additions:

1. Clicking on an item in Most Active / Longest Open list will open it in a new window.
2. Report module does not require views anymore!
3. Checks available RAM and takes only as many weeks’ snapshot as possible. (In short, number of weeks snapshot to take = memory available in MB / 4)
4. Wrapped Reports SWF output in a <div> tag. Makes it easier to apply CSS on it. Thanks to Leon Poole for the idea.

Fixes:

1. Fixed problem where Reports overlapped Quick Add popup. Thanks to Leon Poole for the fix.
2. Used localized version of “iteration” in charts.

And it’s still at $39! Save yourself time and energy managing projects. Go ahead and buy the Reports module for activeCollab!

We released version 1.3 of our Reports Module for activeCollab today.

This version adds many powerful features and works with latest stable activeCollab version. Here is what has changed.

• Reports module now works with AC 2.1. Also added installation checks.
• You can now see reports grouped by activeCollab project groups.
• Added support for updating reports daily. Default changed to daily updates.
• Reports now also include Pages – active (open) / archived (closed), and hours logged on them. They also show up in most active and longest open lists.
• If project names are too long, the project drop down used to be too wide. Fixed.
• Confirmed that the module works over SSL as well.
• Increased memory limit and execution time limit while installing. This will make it work for setups with many projects / tickets.

We are excited about this release and got great response within minutes of releasing it! Here’s a customer feedback:

Thank you. This is an amazingly powerful and useful tool and on top of making it compatible you added all the extra power features that were suggested! I’m ecstatic.

– WillemN from gfxi

If you are an existing customer, you get upgrades free for one year and would have already received it. If you are interested, you can buy Reports module from activeCollab from here, it’s only $69.

As always, we look forward to your ideas, suggestions and feedback!

What would you like to see in the next release of Reports module for activeCollab? We have got a few items on our list, but would like to build something that you would like!

Here’s the list:

• Updating reports data everyday, instead of every week
• People Reports – list of members, their hours worked, tickets posted / closed (want your suggestions here)
• MIS Reports – project costing and profitability?
• Add tasks from Pages too
• Bug fix: If project names are too long, the view gets cut
• Improvement: Insert reports data in batches of only 100 rows at once to avoid query length limitations

What do you think will be most important? What features would you like?

Please post your comments on our Get Satisfaction page and let us know what you think. Feel free to add share any other ideas too!

If you get this error while installing Reports module, you are running an old version of MySQL (earlier than MySQL 5). Reports module requires at least MySQL 5 since it uses views on activeCollab tables to pull ticket categories and activity levels.

Error
Error (DBQueryError)
Query failed with message 'You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'VIEW IF EXISTS `acx_view_ticket_categories`' at line 1'
Error params:
File: NULL
Line: NULL
Sql: DROP VIEW IF EXISTS `acx_view_ticket_categories`
Error number: 1064
Error message: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'VIEW IF EXISTS `acx_view_ticket_categories`' at line 1
Backtrace:


#0 Error->__construct(Query failed with message 'You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'VIEW IF EXISTS `acx_view_ticket_categories`' at line 1', 1) called at [/yourserver.com/activecollab/angie/classes/errors/DBQueryError.class.php:57]

Solution
Upgrade to MySQL 5+.

We just released the latest, 1.2 version of Reports Module.

Icons in v1.2 main bar

• Works with activeCollab 1.1+ as well as activeCollab 2.0+
• You can now print Reports!
• Added localization support – you can now translate Reports interface in your own language
• UI and performance enhancements – icons, negative value support, date format etc!

You can now print your reports

This upgrade addresses most of the feature requests we received and bugs discovered. If you are an existing customer, you should have got your free upgrade by now.

If you are not a customer yet, buy it now. It’s only $39!

Got a question from a customer:
I am setting up a cron using a third party service. Do I have to set cron to execute the tasks both frequently, hourly and daily (or is it sufficient once a week?)

Our Answer:

If you set up frequently, hourly and daily it will make activeCollab happy! (The new Incoming Mail module uses frequently job to pull emails).

For Reports, once a week is sufficient, but you will need to ensure it gets called on the day your week starts (as per aC configuration you have). Webcron.org may be in some other timezone than your server. So you will need to ensure it gets fired at correct time. When cron gets executed, it checks if this is the start of the week, if so, it will take reporting snapshots.

Every week, on start of week (e.g. Monday) we take snapshot of previous week.

If your host does not have crontab / scheduled task enabled, your reporting data will not update. For best results you should have Scheduled Tasks configured and working for activeCollab.

If your server has a web based control panel (cPanel, Plesk etc), there are good chances you can configure cron jobs with it. If you have shell access to the server (SSH), you can easily configure cron jobs from command line (crontab -e).

If all that fails, what are my alternatives?

Alright, so life is really making it difficult for you, you have two alternatives.

1. Re-install Reports module every week. When Reports module installs, it collects all historical data about your projects. Re-installing it (uninstall, and then install) will refresh your data.
2. Run cron from another computer. Either set it up on your desktop or use a third party service to run scheduled tasks (e.g. Webcron.org). Just ensure your are using correct URLs of your activeCollab installation. Reports module needs the daily cron / scheduled task to be executed.