We have moved our own help desk systems to activeCollab + Tasks Plus module for a few weeks now. And eating your own dog food is improving the product!!

Eating your own dog food, also called dogfooding, is a slang term used to reference a scenario in which a company (usually, a computer software company) uses its own product to demonstrate the quality and capabilities of the product.
Wikipedia

Yesterday we released an update to Tasks Plus that addresses two important usability issues.

1. Tasks Plus now allows you to add your own “signature”. This signature will be added to outgoing mails on all comments you post on support tasks (and not on normal tasks).
2. Tasks Plus can automatically change workflow label of a support ticket when client responds to it. This lets you easily see items that need your attention.

Adding your own signature for support tickets

• Go to your user profile
• Click on Options. Select Add Signature.
  
• Add whatever you like to be appended to your comments on support tickets.
  

Automatically changing task label when client replies

• Go to activeCollab admin – Tasks Plus Settings
• Locate the option to “Auto change workflow label”. Set it to any label you want.
  

Changelog for Tasks Plus 4.1.1 (activeCollab 4 version)

Fix:
- Error (ConfigOptionDnxError) on task view page.

Tasks Plus 4.1

Enhancement
+ Change the workflow label of a support ticket when client comment on a task.
+ Added user signature when replying to support ticket

Fix:
- Code Snippets were not added while commenting in aC4.
- System notification was not generated properly when support ticket is created through incoming email.
- Fixed error when change the label of a subtask.

Changelog for Tasks Plus 3.4.8 (activeCollab 3 version)

Enhancement
+ Auto change label of support ticket after client's comment.

Fix:
- Code snippets were not added while making Comment

We hope you like these changes! If you have started using Tasks Plus / activeCollab for your helpdesk, do let us know your stories!

We released activeCollab 4 compatible versions of all our products last Saturday, and had tested them with activeCollab 4.0.6.

Yesterday late night (our time) activeCollab 4.0.7 was released. And today morning we were greeted with emails from customers about problems with 4.0.7! There were some core changes in 4.0.7 that caused compatibility issues.

We are happy to announce that Planning, Tasks Plus, Confidential Items, Reports Plus and Quick Add Plus modules are now compatible with 4.0.7 as well. This basically means all our modules are compatible with aC 4.0.7.

So, here’s the quick update…

Planning module 4.0.1

Fix;
- Fix "Invalid plan outline: error.

Reports Plus module 4.0.1

Fix:
- Fix "Internal server error" while installation

Tasks Plus module 4.0.1

Fix:
- Invalid param error

Confidential Items module 4.0.1

aC 4.0.7 compatible version

Quick Add Plus 4.0.1

aC 4.0.7 compatible version

Don’t forget to use our Apps Magnet Auto Updater module to automatically update all our modules.

What was earlier only available in acGarage Plus – our premium housekeeping, backup and auto update extension for activeCollab, is now available to everyone… And is even free!!

This was a tough call for us. A big reason for people to buy acGarage Plus was the auto update functionality.

activeCollab’s release frequency has increased, and we too have to update and release our modules accordingly.

Everyone wants to stay with the latest versions and they can easily download available updates from our My Account area.

Anyone who does not want to waste time downloading, unzipping and uploading all these modules, will certainly buy the acGarage Plus module.

So if we made it free, it would hurt our business.

We still made it free!!

We don’t want customers to waste their time. They’d better use that working on their projects!

With that ideal, we took the auto update functionality from acGarage Plus and brought it in acGarage Lite. Then we renamed the product to “Apps Magnet Auto Updater”.

The Auto Updater is a free download, and works with both activeCollab 3 and 4.

Download it, unzip and install it to your activeCollab. And that’s the only module you need to manually install.

All new products you purchase from Apps Magnet, and all future updates (assuming the support / update license is valid), can be installed with just one click after this.

Try it today and let us know your reactions!!

Were you waiting for our modules to be compatible with activeCollab 4?

All our modules are now compatible with activeCollab 4 – that’s 18 modules to be precise.

We have also updated our website to let you easily find / filter on activeCollab 4 / 3 or 2 modules. All modules ship with versions for activeCollab 2, 3 and 4 (as applicable).

Here’s our recommended method to upgrade our modules for activeCollab 4

1. Update activeCollab 3 to activeCollab 4.
2. Download the free “Apps Magnet Auto Updater” module.
3. Download, install and configure “Apps Magnet Auto Updater” module. You will need to enter your Apps Magnet login information, and choose file upload method – Direct PHP, FTP or SFTP.
4. Click on “Check now for available updates” button.
5. Once updates are found, click on “Run now” button.
6. All your modules will be download and updated automatically.
7. Make sure to reconfigure Permissions settings for modules like Planning / Reports…

We have released updates for Reports Plus, Tasks Plus, Chronograph, Confidential Items, WordPress activeCollab Connector and Job Number Generator modules.

Overview of new features:

• Export Project Data (Project Name, Category, Labels, Custom fields and lot more ..) using Reports Plus module
• Edit Job Number and add job number automatically to existing projects feature added in Job Number Generator module

Also all our products are now compatible with activeCollab 3.3.14.

The easiest way to automatically upgrade all these modules is to using acGarage Plus module.

Please find the change log below.

Job Number Generator 3.0.1

Enhancements:
+ Edit Job Number.
+ Automatically add job number for existing projects.
Fix:
-Leader of a project was not selected in leader's dropdown by default on project edit form.

WordPress activeCollab Connector 3.2.1

Fix:
- Flyout form was not closed after creating a new Task, Discussion etc.

Tasks Plus 3.4.5

Fix:
_ Throw "unknown error occurred" error while installing modules.

Reports Plus 3.5.6

Fix:
- Comma is missing into the dictionary file.

Reports Plus 3.5.5

Enhancements:
+ Export Projects data
Fix:
- Total time of trashed users were also displayed on the project dashboard

Chronograph 3.0.5

Enhancement:
+ Show only completed tasks in list for time track.

Fixes:
- Recent items list was not refresh after log time.
- Time was not reset log time.

Confidential Items 3.0.5

Fix:
- Only users with "Show private object" permission were displayed in assignees list.

Sometimes we are fed up with too many notifications from activeCollab… At the same time we don’t want to miss important events and activities.

In Notifications Plus, we implemented a system to instantly notify you about all activities within activeCollab and now we are giving you full control over what you see. You can now filter out activities for which you do not want to see pop up notifications. These filters apply to the entire system – all users in activeCollab.

For example, you may want to show notifications only for new comments, task completions and reopens. Activity Filters in Notifications Plus let you do this easily!

Here’s a screenshot of all activities you can filter on.. Click for larger version..

Notifications Plus activity Filter

Please find the change log below.

Notifications Plus 3.2 [2013/06/20]
===============================

Enhancements:
+ Now, pop up notifications only show for selected activities. Admin can filter activities from an admin panel.

Fix:
- Due date email template was not properly formatted.

We are happy to announce our latest activeCollab module – Job Number Generator!!

activeCollab users have asked for a way to automatically generate job numbers many times on the forums. And we are happy we have a solution now! This module can automatically generate unique identification numbers for your activeCollab projects. You can choose a suffix and prefix, and how many digits should the job number have. Whenever a new project is created, the module will automatically pick up the next available number and assign it to the new project.

Project Job Numbers show up everywhere – easy to reference and recall

Now, you can merge two tasks using Tasks Plus and you can search in comments through Search Plus module. We have just updated four of our modules Tasks Plus, Search Plus, Planning and acGarage Plus. We are also working on aC 3.3.12 compatibility test.

Keep your eye on compatibility status of our products.

Here are the changelogs.

Tasks Plus 3.4.3

Enhancements:
+ Add merge two tasks support
+ Now, initial email notification will be sent to subscribers for new support ticket
+ Differentiate Support ticket with normal tasks using icon

Fix:
- Fix Unknown field "is_support_ticket" in project_objects table.

Search Plus 3.1

Enhancements:
+ Search in comments

Planning module for activeCollab 3.2.3

Fix:
- Fixed filter return empty result for "Include Time" option when subtask is in Assignments list.

acGarage Plus 3.4.7

Enhancement:
+ Option added to delete old activeCollab versions from activeCollab directory.

We updated Tasks Plus, acGarage Plus, Communications, Planning and Reports Plus modules in last two days.

You may download the latest versions from our My Account area, or automatically upgrade using acGarage Plus.

Here are the changelogs.

acGarage Plus 3.4.6

Enhancement:
+ Added "Direct" method for auto upgrade (no need of FTP/SFTP, but via PHP)

Known Issue:
+ When user switches from SFTP to Direct and then back to SFTP, there may be permission issues. Please ensure "owner" for "custom/modules", "custom/auth_providers", "work" and "work/backup_modules" folders is changed to SFTP user if doing so.

Communications 3.1.3

Enhancements:
+ Compatible with activecollab 3.3.10
+ Filter Communications based on user and time period
+ Activity logs on Communication created
+ Email notifications to participants on communication creation
+ Status bar badge updates when communication is replied to

Fix:
- "New Communication" button needs to be clicked twice
-  Strip HTML characters in communication reply
-  Communication was not showing updated details after editing

Tasks Plus 3.4.2

Enhancement:
+ Support ticket notifications are sent from mailbox name and email address now

Fixe:
- Completing a task while commenting properly changes the workflow label now

Planning 3.2.2

Enhancements:
+Add Estimted and Actual time in assignments list.

Reports Plus 3.5.3

Enhancements:
+ CSS changes to avoid style conflict with other modules.
+ Flash version removed.

Fixes:
- Filters were visible to the user regardless of the permissions.
- Time Reports Plus date filter was not showing today's date.
- Time records were not properly aligned while grouping.
- Canceled invoices were not updated in the finance report.
- Only assigned projects will be displayed as legends in people leader board.
- Projects were not accessible when tracking modules is not installed.

activeCollab is growing and releasing new version very often. We know you all are curious to know about whether all our products are compatible with an latest activeCollab version or not.

So, we’ve created a page where you can check compatibility status of our modules with different activeCollab versions.