ActiveCollab

From Fishcakes Wiki

ActiveCollab

Notes on setting up and using ActiveCollab Project Management Groupware.

Contents 1 About ActiveCollab 1.1 Features 1.2 See Also 2 Installation & Setup 2.1 Installation File Permissions 2.2 Fix Upload Problem 2.3 Custom Theme 2.3.1 aCfishcakes Theme 2.4 Moving an activeCollab installation 2.5 Adding projects 2.6 User permissions 2.7 File attachments 2.8 Messages 2.9 Task list 2.10 Milestones 2.11 Other differences 3 Other Project Management Software

About ActiveCollab

Project Management and Time Management Groupware.

• Website — http://www.activecollab.com/
• Blog — http://www.activecollab.com/blog/
• Forum — http://www.activecollab.com/forums/
• Download — http://www.activecollab.com/download/

Features

• Overview: Parent view of current tasks, upcoming milestones, and messages.
• Messages: Post and interact via messages between clients and sub users, including email notification.
• Tasks: Create a task list and mark items as completed. Assign tasks to specific group members if working on a multi-user project.
• Milestones: allow project members to create long term project goals.
• Documents: Upload, tag, and share documents with an option to keep private for certain members.
• Tags: View a tagcloud of active tasks, milestones, and documents. Very helpful view for locating related tasks and documents.
• Forms: Unique feature allowing project admins to create forms for members to fill. Create forms as a means to track progress or concerns e.g. is the project on track, etc.
• People: View active members assigned to a particular project.
• Create client profiles with sub user accounts. Each user account can be assigned unique permissions controlling the amount of operability each individual has editing projects.

See Also

• Forum Post: RoadMap
• Forum Post: Themes
• 5thirtyone.com — activeCollab graphic overview worth a read.
• slackermanager.com — activeCollab vs BaseCamp blog entry.

Installation & Setup

Was so easy it's not true.

1. Upload activeCollab.tar.gz and decompress where you want it to live.
2. Create a MySQL Database
3. Change file permissions as detailed below
4. Browse to www.yourdomain/aClocation/public/install/ and away you go (even if you don't set the permissions it will prompt you to do so, sweet).

Installation File Permissions

/cache/                 (folder)
/config/config.php      (file)
/public/files/          (folder)
/upload/                (folder)

Fix Upload Problem

Even with Permissions set correctly, When I try to upload a file I get error:

Failed to create folder '/home/lostcat/public_html/pms/upload/8e7a5/73fc2/f7ab5'

The problem is caused by open_basedir restriction and this is the fix from Forum Posting.

Open the file /activecollab/environment/functionsfiles.php and find the function force_mkdir and change this line:

if(!is_dir($forced_path)) {

to:

if(!my_is_dir($forced_path)) {

Note that we added "my_" prefix on "is_dir" function.

Now add this new function just below force_mkdir to bypass open_basedir restrictions:

function my_is_dir($dir)
{
// bypasses open_basedir restrictions of is_dir and fileperms
$tmp_cmd = `ls -dl $dir`;
$dir_flag = $tmp_cmd[0];
if($dir_flag!="d")
{
// not d; use next char (first char might be 's' and is still directory)
$dir_flag = $tmp_cmd[1];
}
return ($dir_flag=="d");
}

Save the file and try uploading again.

OR edit your Configuration options and save files to Database instead of upload folder!

Custom Theme

For goCollab Theme NOTE: To get the 'squid' to apear on you Dashboard you need to modify the source PHP file. The squid logo is already in the theme file for you. Just make the connection and you're good to go.

The PHP file can be found at: /path/to/activcollab/application/layouts/dashboard.php. Change line 21 to read like this:

div id="header"><img id="squidLogo" src="/public/assets/themes/goCollab/images/layout/squid.png" />

You can add header/footer here but need to edit a load of files. Look to Theme CSS.

aCfishcakes Theme

1. file public/assets/themes/aCfishcakes/stylesheets/dialog.css
   added logo and colouring to h1 div, coloured input button, coloured dialog and error divs.
2. file public/assets/themes/aCfishcakes/stylesheets/general/construction.css
   customised login screen by adding logo to userbox div.

Moving an activeCollab installation

Quick and easy steps for moving to a new folder or server.

1. Move all the files.
2. Make sure that you preserve old permissions (see above).
3. Change URL in your config/config.php file to new settings.
4. If you are moving on another server that move your database. Use phpMyAdmin or any other MySQL management tool to do that.
5. Delete /cache/autoloader.php and let the script regenerate it.

See Forum Post How to move activeCollab installation and not break it...

Adding projects

Basecamp makes it really easy to add a new company to a project on the fly, even if that company hasn’t been created yet. activeCollab is a little bit clunkier in this regard, since you have to specifically create a company before adding them to a project. On the other hand, when creating new projects, activeCollab gives you easier access to all created companies and the people within them. Basecamp makes you add the company and save it before being able to add the people, and once you’ve added the people you have to go to yet another screen to manage what they can do. activeCollab allows you to add people and manage their permissions prior to hitting save on a new project. This is cool, but could also get unwieldy pretty quickly as you build up more clients/companies in the system. One point to Basecamp for ease of adding new companies to projects.

User permissions

The Basecamp permissions offerings are more limited than activeCollab. Basecamp allows you to give users permission to Messages/files plus ToDo’s plus Milestones. You can’t just select only files and milestones or other personal combos–you’re limited to the preset hierarchy. activeCollab offers admins the option to give each user the ability to manage messages, manage tasks, manage milestones, upload documents and manage documents. You can select all or any combination of these permissions on a per user basis. activeCollab gets two points for extreme flexibility with user permissions.

File attachments

In the file attachment realm, activeCollab gets the point since Basecamp limits attachments to 10mb, irrespective of whether you’re storing files on your own server or on Basecamp’s. activeCollab stores files on your own server and apparently if there are any limits they come from your webhost not activeCollab. Also, Basecamp tried to make it easy to do the file storage thing on your own server, but I really wrestled with it when I set it up. Probably part of that deal was the crazy way I had to connect to a filesystem at the university, but the docs just weren’t that helpful. activeCollab simply works.

Messages

Both applications treat messages in very similar ways. Basecamp gives you a title field, category options, a message body field, a message privacy option, a file attachment option, a milestone association option and checkboxes for which users should receive email notification of the message. activeCollab offers a title field, a message body field, an expanded text field which is visible only in the comments view, a milestone option, a privacy option, an important message option, an option to lock/disable comments, the tags field, email notification to users option and a file attachment option. I’m giving the point to activeCollab for the addition options for marking the message as important and the ability to lock down comments.

Task list

Basecamp first has you create the list and save it and then add the tasks to the list. When you create the list you have a title field, the option to make the list private, an optional description of the list and the option to associate the list with milestones. Once you’ve created the list, you can add items one at a time and assign them to individuals. activeCollab gives you everything up front. When you create the new list you get a title field, a description a milestone option, a privacy option and a tag field. Additionally, before saving, you can add up to six tasks and assign them to individuals on the project. Point goes to activeCollab for ease of use and the ability to categorize with tags.

Milestones

When creating new milestones, Basecamp allows you to choose between adding one at a time, or up to ten at a time. In both cases you get a title field, a date field, an option to assign it to an individual and the option to have a notification sent immediately and a reminder sent 48 hours before the milestone is due. activeCollab offers the title, the description, the date, the privacy option and the user assignment option. It also offers tags. I’m giving the point to Basecamp for the email tickler feature.

Other differences

Both apps rely heavily on tabbed organization along the top of the view. They each offer some variation of message tabs, file tabs, to-do tabs and milestone tabs. As mention earlier, Basecamp adds chat and Writeboards. activeCollab adds a tab to browse all your tags and a very interesting forms tab. Forms allow you to create a custom entry form for adding comments to specific messages, or items to specific to-do lists. You can also have the options of enabling the form you just made and making it visible. I’m not at all sure what practical use this is…maybe you can push forms outside of the activeCollab interface for additional users?

Other Project Management Software

• 14 Dayz — subscription.
• Basecamp — you have to pay, but seems to be the industry leader.
• Basecamp Tour — worth a look as have videos which explain the terminology which is similar to activeCollab.
• Harvest — recommended by Andy Child / Rob Bevan
• TaskPro — another paid pm tool.
• TickSpot — free for single user.