We updated four products for compatibility, the others will work without a change.

Products we’ve updated:

• Planning Module (version 1.7.3)
• Tickets Plus Module (version 1.5.3 – this also adds useful new features)
• Confidential Items Module (version 1.3.2)
• acHack – Gravatar (version 1.3.1)

All other products are already compatible with activeCollab 2.3.4

Customers can download these updates from our members area.

Release Notes

Planning Module v1.7.3

• activeCollab v2.3.4 compatibility version
• Items created by people who can’t see private objects will be normal now

Tickets Plus Module v1.5.3

Enhancements:

• activeCollab v2.3.4 compatibility added
• Can now filter tickets based on user – creator, assignee, responsible. (thanks to Dale Daguro of mercola.com for sponsoring initial work on this)
• Quickly update status and responsible person while adding a comment
• Now you can set the default sorting option for tickets list (thanks for your suggestion Damien)

Fixes:

• Status update notification email no longer goes to user who’s making the change
• Even if workflow status was not changed during an edit operation, it was showing in Recent Activities. Fixed.

Confidential Items Module v1.3.2

• activeCollab v2.3.4 compatibility version

acHack – Gravatar v1.3.1

• activeCollab v2.3.4 compatibility version

Enjoy!

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?

At the same time, we received bug reports and tweak requests. And here comes another release of Planning Module! It adds few features and fixes some annoyances. We recommend you upgrade.

BTW, if you don’t like to keep upgrading modules and activeCollab yourself, we offer an annual upgrade and housekeeping service – acGarage.

Here are the changes in this version.

Enhancements

• Updated error handling during server problems. Session time out, PHP errors and others are treated distinctly now.
• Increased the width of “Recover Project” message for readability. (thanks to Jani Kiviranta)
• Now stripping invalid characters from plan before XML handling. (thanks to Brian and others)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed number of issues with notification sending. (thanks to Randy, Alexey and others)
• Start and Due dates now span full days in Gantt chart. (thanks to Franklau for reporting this)
• Top menu toggle button labels can now be translated. (thanks to Jani Kiviranta)
• IE7/8 gave “HTTP Request Error” over HTTPS (thanks to Chris)
• Updated upgrade instructions. (thanks to Anthony for pointing to confusion)

The last version (1.2) was a significant upgrade and added support for multiple projects on Gantt chart, calendar for start/due dates in Outline, an administration panel, branding removal option and many other features. Click here to review release notes of version 1.2.

How to Upgrade?

You can always download the latest version of Planning Module for activeCollab using the download link in your purchase confirmation email. If you can not find your purchase confirmation email send us the email address with which you purchased the module.We will resend the email with download link.

Upgrading is done by uninstalling the module and then installing it. First go to activeCollab Administration – Modules. Uninstall current Planning module. Then upload new version files to your server. Go back to activeCollab Administration and install Planning module. That’s all!

acGarage customers have already been upgraded with this latest release!

BTW, if you have not yet signed up for acGarage, it’s a great time to do so. We can upgrade both your activeCollab setup and Planning module in one go!

How to Buy?

If you have not yet bought the Planning Module, you can buy it now. It’s only $149.

1. Outline View

Outline View

The outline view is a tree like view of your entire project plan. It’s editable and you can add items simply by pressing enter. You can also use Tab / Shift Tab to promote / demote items and their children.

The outline view also shows assignees, estimates, start date and due date. You can add multiple assignees and use initials for names. Estimates are tracked in hours, but you can enter them in hours or easy to read short cut format – like “1m 2w 2d 4h”. Start and due dates are smart too! Just enter date (e.g. 22) and it will complete it. We have also tried to parse a few other common date formats! Date display format can be customized from backend.

You can turn off any of these 4 columns using the view options menu at top right.

2. Card View

Card View

The Card view is designed to work on details of your project plan. It shows all Tickets in your project and you can easily filter on them. Spend time on each card and define the ticket details. Cards are color coded by categories to help identify them easily.

You can update ticket’s visibility, priority, category, name, description, tags, estimate, start and due dates, tags, workflow status and assignees from the card view.

Batch update is available in both Outline view and Card view. We have even included an option to add / subtract time from start / due dates. You no longer need to change all dates manually!

3. Gantt View

Gantt View

You asked for it and we have it! Gantt view is the much awaited timeline view of your project plan. It’s a “read-only” view. You can’t edit it, but it still shows a nice graph of your project. Completed items are marked, and we also show progress on items if you log hours on them.

You can expand / collapse items, zoom in / out and review your plan.

There are many other features in Planning module! We will write about them soon!

1. We will have an Outline view to create project plan. With assignees, due dates and estimates. Similar to PlannerX.
2. We are adding a “card view” to add ticket description, category and other details. Also pushing in a simple ticket workflow (new -> assigned -> resolved etc)
3. A weekly iteration planner, that allows you to select from a list of incomplete tasks (backlog) and schedule them (via drag and drop) for immediate 3 weeks. (Update: We are skipping on iteration planner for now)
4. And a Gantt view that shows your project plan

What will be the most valuable features for you? How much time do you think something like this can save you?

Update:

The Card View took much longer than we expected. We added many things to make the workflow easier. And some eye candy Checkout Nirav’s blog post about Intelligent Time Estimation and Card Deck animation. There is more in the actual product! But we had to keep Iteration planner for later because of this.