12th February 2013 will mark Apps Magnet’s 4th Anniversary. Four years of awesome solutions for activeCollab (and Basecamp, and PayPal…). Four years of cherished relationships with customers. Four years of writing, tweaking, debugging and optimizing code. Four years of challenges and triumphs.

First, our present for you!

Yes, it’s our anniversary, but you get the gift.. On our anniversaries so far, we have given our customers 10X discounts. It was 10% on first, 20% on second, 30% on third. I don’t know if we will do 100% discount on our 10th anniversary; but for the 4th, we certainly have 40% discounts for you!!

From now, till 18th Feb 2013, you get a flat 40% off on our products. We’ve already discounted the prices, so you don’t have to worry about coupon codes!

The Past…

Apps Magnet was the first professional grade, commercial extension developer for activeCollab. We’d been using activeCollab for a while and developed a reporting solution for our own needs. That was later released as Reports module for activeCollab on Feb 12, 2009. A month later, we launched PlannerX for Basecamp – based off a planning system we used in activeCollab ourselves. PlannerX was soon ported to activeCollab, and we kept moving forward from there on.

On our second anniversary, we released a series of videos. The first – “2 years of Apps Magnet: from zero to six figures” instantly became a hit – not just in activeCollab community, but also in other startup / tech circles.

The 4 Essential Skills for Entrepreneurship video too was termed “inspiring” by many viewers.

Do watch these videos if you haven’t already!

The Present & The Future…

We shared our 2013 Roadmap with you last month. And we are very much working on it. We released 5 product updates last week and are working on a lot more!

Time Reports Plus will soon merge with Reports Plus. Financial reporting will be added to Reports Plus too. Resource management work for Planning module is underway and we are getting closer to the kind of workflow we want from it.

The team is growing, support response time is coming down, and we are looking forward to a bright 2013!!

How has been your experience with us these four years?

Many of you have been with us for a good part of these four years. How’s been your experience? How have these four years been for you?

We’d love to hear your comments! Post them below!!

Here’s update of 5 products

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POP3 Authentication v3.0.2 [2013/02/06]

Fix:
- Added extra conditions to check mail server is reachable or not
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Reports Plus 3.2.2 [2012/02/05]

Fixes:
- "Updates Weight" value was not save correctly in databse 
- Leader board in people section shows 'failed to load page error'
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Planning module for activeCollab 3.1.6 [2013/02/05]

Fix:
- Private items was visible by user who doesn't have permission to see private objects
- Print outline was giving an error.
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Quick Add Plus 3.2.1 [2013/02/05]

Fix:
- Set default billable status. 
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Chronograph v3.0.2 [2013/02/05]

Fix:
-Added support for default billable status.
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9 updates across 7 products already in January 2013!

Do consider signing up for acGarage Plus to get updates automatically!

Tasks Plus v3.2.5 [2013/01/08]
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Fixes:
- Move to Archive option was removed from task option.
- Fixed "Failed to load page" error while viewing the archive task.


Quick Add Plus 3.2 [2013/01/07]
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Enhancements: 
+ Added option to select tasks of active, completed or both for parent selection drop down

Fix:
- Quick Add menu was not able to load if Tracking & Expense module is not loaded.


POP3 Authentication v3.0.1 [2013/01/08]
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Fix:
- Password was not set even if user authenticated through POP3


WHMCS activeCollab Connector v3.1.1 [2013/01/08]
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Enhancements:
+ Added conditions when user is authenticated
+ Added validation message 


acGarage Plus 3.4.2 [2013/01/08]
================================================================================

Enhancements:
+ Added instruction about bucket name
+ Added missing phrases into dictionary file


Time Reports Plus v3.3.5 [2013/01/15]
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Fix
- All time records were included when invoice is created from project report (Thanks to Lukas Rüegg for reporting this)


Tasks Plus v3.2.6 [2013/01/15]
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Enhancements:
- Added backward compatibility with activeCollab 3.1.19

Fix:
- Estimate can be added only by those users who have permission to add an estimate.


WHMCS activeCollab Connector v3.1.2 [2013/01/16]
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Fix:
- User was not created in activeCollab after authenticated in WHMCS.


Planning module for activeCollab 3.1.5 [2013/01/18]
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Fixes:
+ Estimate was only shown for the default job type
+ Fixed "Invalid XML" error when save a plan.

Ho ho ho ho!!!

Malay decided to become your Santa this year! And he’s brought you some gifts!!

Plus module updates…

Here’s the chronological list of module updates for December 2012…

Chronograph v3.0.1 [2012/12/06]
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Enhancements:
- Chronograph popup window opens on a click.
- Remove chronograph related data on disable/unistall of a module.

Fixes:
- Fix "call-time pass-by-reference" error.
- Timer value were display incorrectly.

Tasks Plus v3.2.4 [2012/12/03]
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Fixes:
- Added custom field support.
- Compatibility with activeCollab 3.2.3+
- Kanban print button duplicated.

Known issue:
- Kanban print button doesn't display in quick view.

Confidential Items 3.0.3 [2012/12/13]
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Fixes:
- Compatible with aC 3.2.4
- Email Notifications were not being sent for confidential items.

Planning module for activeCollab 3.1.4 [2012/12/17]
================================================================================

Fixes:
- Actual hours were not displayed.
- Task was not complete/reopen if Tasks Plus module is loaded.

Reports Plus 3.2.1 [2012/12/21]
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Enhancements:
+ Added "People Report" in People Section
+ Added animation in charts.
+ Removed "Time and Expense Tracking" module dependency.
+ Date Formate settings applies in HTML version

Fixes:
- Arranged chart legends horizontally.
- Fixed tooltip flickering issue in FireFox.

Time Reports Plus v3.3.4 [2012/12/21]
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Enhancements: 
+ Show estimate in the report
+ Added quick view support for task

Hide People 3.1 [2012/12/06]
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Fixes:
- People icon doesn't display even user has permission to manage company people
- Compatibility with activeCollab 3.2.4

acGarage Plus 3.4.1 [2012/12/24]
================================================================================

Enhancements:
+ Added SFTP support
+ Displays expired products in separate section

Fix:
- Was not able to upgrade products (Forbidden issue)

Enjoy!!

Over the years, we have received many requests for porting Planning and Reports modules to HTML / JavaScript – and moving away from Flash. Today we released the first beta of HTML / JavaScript based charting in Reports Plus. This is available for activeCollab 3 only, and also only for Project Reports and Companies Reports.

Here are two screenshots…

Project Reports – click to enlarge

Company Reports – click to enlarge

Our existing users may ask – but what’s the difference between the Flash version and the HTML version? They look almost the same?

Why HTML5 / JS?

The Flash version of Reports Plus works flawlessly. It’s got excellent usability, superb charts and has been working solidly for nearly four years.

But the HTML / JS based version will allow us to do things we couldn’t with Flash. For example, we will be making these reports viewable on mobile devices in a future version. Or that we may allow embedding some of the reports on a project’s main page.

We didn’t want to lose the usability edge,  so we went great lengths to ensure the new version looks and works just like the Flash version.

Hopefully you’ll like it!

How to get your hands on this version?

Today’s release of Reports Plus includes HTML5 / JavaScript based reports. You can download it from our My Account area, or perform automatic upgrade using acGarage Plus.

Once installed, you will see another icon next to Reports Plus icon in activeCollab Reports section. Click that to access HTML version of the reports.

And once you’ve tried it, do give us your feedback! Post a comment below or contact us via our support desk!

What’s next?

Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing a few more updates to Reports Plus. These updates will cover:

• Support for People Reports in HTML5/JS
• Mobile view support
• People Leaderboard and ability to show it on project’s dashboard

So stay tuned!

We just released updates to four modules – these releases are primarily to make them compatible with activeCollab 3.2.4 (3.2.3+ technically!)

• Assignments Plus
• Time Reports Plus
• Notifications Plus
• Communications

We will be releasing an update for Tasks Plus on Monday – 3rd December – and it will have support for Custom Fields as well!

You can download the updates from our My Account area.

You may want to use acGarage Lite or Plus to stay up to date on new releases!

We released two new modules yesterday – Chronograph and POP3 Authentication.

Chronograph: time tracking for activeCollab simplified

Ok, Chronograph is not technically a new module. It’s been on our roadmap for a long time, and even available for purchase pre-release. We finally made the first release yesterday!

Chronograph makes time tracking a piece of cake! You no longer have to guess how much time you worked on a task. You don’t even need to click around and locate the task within activeCollab to log time. Chronograph sits in the activeCollab status bar and is absolutely easy to use. We actually spent all this time redesigning Chronograph module such that it makes time tracking simpler, not tedious!

POP3 Authentication: Simplest way to bring colleagues to activeCollab

Remembering another password for activeCollab can be troublesome. Creating new user accounts everytime someone joins your team is time consuming. POP3 Authentication module allows users to login to activeCollab with the same password they use to check their email! And everyone is going to remember that! Plus, your email server is already going to be integrated with LDAP or any other central authentication system you use. You may also have password policies implemented on your email server.

POP3 Authentication benefits from all of that and provides a seamless login / onboarding experience for your employees…

And yes, you can define what domains should use POP3 auth – so your clients won’t start hitting your mail servers!!

It’s quite nifty actually…

POP3 Authentication Settings

Diwali Vacation at Apps Magnet

Apps Magnet is based in Mumbai, India. And we will be on a brief vacation during Diwali days – 11th November to 14th November. Our response time during this period will be longer because we’d be lighting diyas and firecrackers with our families. Plus eating sweets and Diwali special delicacies.

We wish you the best festivities!

Product Updates

We’ve released a lot of product updates recently. We have many products plus we are always improving them. On top of that, activeCollab updates come frequently too. Plus we don’t really know what version of the product or activeCollab a user is using. It would be overwhelming for users if we sent emails / blogged about all updates!!

Recently, activeCollab 3.1.18 was released and Confidential Items module was not compatible with new code. We released an update quickly, but some users experienced troubles logging into activeCollab due to the incompatibility. Such critical issues are rare, but if customers knew of product updates, they can choose to upgrade whenever they feel like.

That’s why we strongly recommend using our free acGarage Lite to get product update notifications within activeCollab. You can also get automatic upgrades and a whole lot of other benefits with acGarage Plus if you wish.

New Tutorial Videos

We’ve added a public video about batch update of time records using Time Reports Plus here. Plus an exclusive video for Inner Circle customers on invoicing with Time Reports Plus.

Here’s to better projects!!

Woo hoo!!!

acGarage Plus can now backup your activeCollab 3 data to the cloud! The latest – 3.3 version – adds support for Amazon Simple Storage System – S3. This means you can now backup your activeCollab database and all files / attachments to a safe third party cloud location!

This is the second major addition to acGarage Plus this month. We release module auto upgrades last week and will add another important feature next week.

Remember, acGarage Plus price will go up to $99 next week. So take advantage of the lower, $79 while it lasts!

Confidential Items module for activeCollab fills a unique need – an additional level of security for items in activeCollab. There are many cases where you want a task or discussion or file to be visible only to specific people – not necessarily people who have access to private items, but anyone from the team on a specific project.

This is a very popular module for activeCollab 2 and we’ve been trying to port it to activeCollab 3 for many months. We did not want to do any core hacks and wanted to keep things simple and clean. We tried a number of alternatives, but were not happy with the results. But finally we cracked it!

Click here to learn more, read the current limitations and buy Confidential Items module for activeCollab 3.

Two product updates for today:

WHMCS Connector now supports Single Sign On. Users logged into activeCollab can get a WHMCS link on main left menu. Clicking on the link will automatically log them into WHMCS (without entering username / password) and take them to WHMCS.

BTW, if you use Quick Links module, you can even create a link that’s visible only to particular user roles.

Lightbox is updated to be compatible with activeCollab 3.1.15.

Both downloads are available under My Account area. If you use acGarage Plus, you can automatically update them as well.