Think Big! That’s what I kept experiencing in my US tour in October. A coffee cup would be five times larger and fifteen times costlier in the USA than my office in India. Everyone was talking about changing the world. Everyone was talking about millions. You can’t stop but get infected by this passion.

I returned on 5th November and last 33 days were about catching up with work. Pending deliveries. Revamping code structure. Solving bugs. Adding new features. Brainstorming our plans for 2012. Training new team members. Just keeping the neck down and working hard.

And then there is activeCollab 3. Yes, it’s looking great and is just around the corner! We get access to developer previews and it’s progressed faster than my own expectations over last two months. So I thought we should share our activeCollab 3 plans with you – as it is they are centered around you!

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.

Projects are similar

Most project plans are similar. You may have elaboration phase, a  planning / prototyping phase, actual execution of the project and then project completion / handover phase. You would also want that your projects follow a  defined process of execution. You would want to follow the same design brief, same categories and structure of the project plan. You may also have 3-4 variations on the process based on the project type.

How do you enforce structure across all projects?

Creating same kind of structure for every new project is a waste of time. So how do you cut it short? Well, use templates!

activeCollab allows you to create new projects from a template project. You choose a project group as “template group” and all projects under it can then be used as a template while creating a new project. Creating a new  project like this copies milestones, tickets and checklists. activeCollab will even reschedule your milestones based on start date of the new project.

We created a video tutorial to explain every step in using project templates. I believe you may even find nuggets of other useful strategies as you view this tutorial! We crafted it with a lot of love. Go ahead, view the video tutorial on top right and give us comments.

This video demonstrates using the acHack: Copy Pages and Discussions with Project. If you like the hack, you can buy it for $17. The tutorial and concepts explained are useful whether you have the hack or not.

Share your mojo

How do you use project templates? Do you have particular project templates you use? Why not share them with everyone by posting a comment here?

activeCollab’s Time reports show Last Week’s time entries by default. But that’s not very useful.

How do you see the time entries you made for today?

Seeing today’s time entries helps you review your work and also add any hourlog entries you missed. Here’s how you can create a new time report to see your own time entries for today and make it the default report.

1. Log on to activeCollab. Click on the Time clock link in top menu.
   

   Time Report icon in top menu

2. Click on “New Report” button in top right.
   

   Click on New Report Button

3. Fill in the form to create a new time report. Give a name that’s easy to remember – call it “Today” or “My Work Today”.
4. Enter “Custom” as the “Report Group”.
5. Select “Today” in “For Day” and “Person Accessing This Report” in “Assigned To”.
   

   Creating a new Time Report

6. Click “Submit” to save this report.
7. Your report is now saved and will show your time entries for today.
   

   Report Created

Making It Default Report

Our new report is now active, but not the default report. activeCollab does not allow making a report default from its web interface. We will need to go to the backend database for this. If you do not have access to the database, you will need to ask your system administrator to do this. Here are the steps.

1. Log in to your database administration tool – e.g. phpMyAdmin
2. Locate the acx_time_reports table. Browse the current records. It will show a result similar to following. (Note: you may need to replace “acx” with your table prefix if you are not using the default)
   

   Entries from acx_time_reports table

3. Notice the “Last Week” report has 1 for the is_default field. We need to set that to 0 and our new “Today” report to 1. This can be done using the following queries or using the edit option in phpMyAdmin.
   

   Update Time Reports table to set default report

4. That’s all. Our new report is the default report now. Every time you click on the Time clock in the top menu, you will see your time entries for the day!

Want more?

You can try out different options on the new reports screen. Creating custom time reports is a very powerful (yet almost hidden) feature of activeCollab. Try creating a new report for the time logs of people who report to you.

Options for day while creating new time report

activeCollab’s Time Tracking module allows tracking billable and non-billable hours. This way you can keep track of the time your team spends. These hours are also used to create invoices. Reports and Planning module use these hour logs for reporting and analysis.

Share your mojo

Have you created some super cool reports? Others will find them useful. Why not post a comment and share them with others?

Do you know you can easily replace the activeCollab logos with your own? Here’s how you do it.

Using your own logo in header

Make a GIF image of your logo. Maximum size 100x45 pixels. Save it as “logo.gif” and replace it in the “public/brand” folder within activeCollab installation. Refresh an activeCollab page and you should see your own logo now.

Workaround for Access theme

If you are using Access theme, edit “public/assets/themes/access/theme.css“. Near the top you will see some CSS code for “.site_logo” and “#login_company_logo“. Change the “background” property for both and use “url(../../../brand/logo.gif)” for both. Ensure to put correct number of “../“. Save and re-upload the file to server, clear the “compile” folder and refresh! It should show your logo now!

Removing logo from footer

BTW, if you want to remove activeCollab logo from the footer, you can do that by purchasing Branding Removal from them.

Logo for Invoices

You can also replace the logo used in invoices by replacing an image named “invoicing_logo.jpg” (maximum 200×90 pixels) in “public/brand” folder.

Replace icon for URL bar in browser (favicon)

Similarly, you can change the icon that shows up in the browser’s URL bar by putting in a 16×16 “favicon.png” image in the same “public/brand” folder.

Make sure you make these images in appropriate dimensions and correct file format.

Hello! Nirav Mehta here from Apps Magnet. Today, I will demonstrate a simple method to upgrade your activeCollab installation. If you’ve been looking for the simplest and best answer to “How to upgrade my activeCollab setup?”, this is the answer!

This method ensures minimal downtime and is also recommended by the activeCollab team.

activeCollab is a superb web based collaboration and project management system. Each new version packs useful features and bug fixes. But sometimes upgrades can be challenging. We will see how to avoid common problems in this video.

This video demonstrates downloading the latest activeCollab version, unzipping it, downloading your custom modules and themes from the server to your location installation, renaming local folders and uploading new files to the server. Then we rename the old folders – activecollab and public/assets for backup and make our newly uploaded folders live. Next step is clearing the cache and running the upgrade script.

These steps are documented on activeCollab site: the usual upgrade method and the minimal downtime upgrade method. This video uses the minimal downtime method.

This method will work with any recent activeCollab version, and future versions too!

These upgrade methods do not preserve any hacks you may have done to activeCollab.

BTW, we use this method when we upgrade and manage activeCollab for our acGarage customers. But we also maintain custom hacks that we support.

If your server has cPanel or similar web based control panel, you can upload the activeCollab zip file on the server and unzip it there. Then copy over files using web file manager. This cuts down the FTP process – the most boring and error prone step in the whole upgrade process.

acGarage is designed to simplify upgrades and system administration with activeCollab. We want you to focus on managing projects, not activeCollab!

acGarage is the managed expert service for continuous improvement of your activeCollab setup. It includes upgrades, hacks and housekeeping. You can sign up for an annual plan for only $199.

I hope this tutorial was helpful. We’ll look forward to your feedback. And if you want to sign up for acGarage, here’s the link.

You can watch this video tutorial on right or on Vimeo.