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What’s It All About?  A Developer Critiques ActiveCollab!

ActiveCollab is a project management and collaboration tool, which you can host and run on your own web server. In many ways, it is similar to Basecamp. However, there are several key things which make it stand out from the 37 Signals software. I’ll cover these shortly. ActiveCollab provides the following features.

• Milestones
• Discussions
• Files (Upload different versions of the same file to the site. Share files…etc.)
• Calendar (What is due when)
• Pages (Facilitates collaborative writing)
• Tickets
• Time (How long have you spent on the project)
• People (Who is on this project)

Furthermore, the ActiveCollab platform can be expanded to add and create any number of new features with “modules.”

Getting it Running

The installation of ActiveCollab is quick and easy. If you have installed any web application like WordPress or phpBB, you will be able to do this. Just enter the server details and it does all the monkey work for you.

Usability

The key to project management software is that it is easy to use and learn. You will be exposing your clients to this software and the software should facilitate the project management. It shouldn’t act as a barrier. In short, if a client has to ask questions about the project management software and how it works the software is failing.

ActiveCollab does carry a small learning curve when it comes to the administration side. Setting up users and permissions will probably require a quick look at the documentation. The same goes for assigning people to milestones.

From the client side it is all much simpler. The navigation is simple and clear. Dare I say that once a project is set up and milestones created, the software is pretty much idiot proof.

The Good

What this software has going in its favor is how clean, concise and simple the application is. It has a good range of features, which certainly made my project management easier. The potential to create your own modules is also pretty exciting. Instead of hoping that the developers create it for you, you can make it yourself. This greatly increases the usefulness and lifespan of the tool.

The Not So Good

There are a couple of small faults.  First, the great potential in the modules is somewhat lost when you find that there are almost no user contributed modules on the ActiveCollab website. It seems that such a great selling point is lost by the lack of publicly available extensions.

I also found that page load times were a little slow. JavaScript is used nicely throughout the site. I found that when adding multiple milestones the short delays really sucked the fun out of it. It would be nice if such tasks could be AJAX-ified to speed it all up. Or, perhaps if the program allowed the user to add several milestones at a time, the delay wouldn’t be so noticeable.

My final criticism has to be that nothing new is being brought to the party. The features are well implemented and developed.  The program is quality built.  But, there is no real unique feature which makes you HAVE to get this product over something else like Basecamp.

Conclusion

I like ActiveCollab.  It’s clean, it’s easy to use, and it makes project management easier. You can expand the platform to add new features. I also like that you are paying for it “up front.”  You do not have to incur a monthly charge. This said, ActiveCollab isn’t perfect. Adding milestones can be slow and the software doesn’t introduce any new ground breaking features.

If you want to be free from the shackles of Basecamp’s monthly fee, then you should certainly consider this product. If you are looking for a project management tool, ActiveCollab should definitely be on your list!

Check out ActiveCollab’s website here.

http://www.activecollab.com/

Developer Rating: 4.5 out of 5!

Full Reviews

• Jacob Haug (Multimedia Specialist)
• Mark Poppen (Designer)
• Jason Stanley (Developer)
• Rich Komatz (Accessibility Professional)
• Luke Dingle (Client Prospective)

ActiveCollab – An Accessibility Critique

Overall, ActiveCollab is a great project management application. The design is clean and straightforward, but I find that there is a bit too much emphasis on design over functionality for my taste.

I found a few features to be really cool, like the User Based API and the Quick Add.

Here are the critiques I had for the main sections of ActiveCollab.

People

It would be nice if the lists were smaller vertically as each user takes a considerable amount of space, which will make the page unmanageable when there are many users. It would also be nice if there was a live search feature for narrowing down users.

I did run into one problem in the “people” section of ActiveCollab.  I was I was not able to upload my logo. The error I got was simply “failed to create avatar” which really gave me no idea of how to fix it. Should I change the size? Do I need to change permissions? What should I do? Obviously, it would be nice if the error message was a little more detailed.

Projects

First off, I found the “projects” button in the main navigation to be a bit deceiving. When clicking on (or more appropriately, mousing over) the arrow I would expect a drop-down menu.  Yet, I end up with a modal window. I would suggest either converting this to a dropdown menu that is pre-populated with my projects (so I’m not waiting for an AJAX call to load), or just remove it. It may seem like something small, but it can be very counter-productive.

After navigating to the “Active Projects” section of the app, I noticed I have a shiny new set of tabs on the right hand side. This is a great sub-nav system in general, but there are a few flaws with the current implementation. First and foremost, the tab system itself should be a JavaScript system so I’m not waiting for another page to load. This should function as it does in the “Quick Add” modal window. Also, after clicking on the “options” button, I lose the navigation system completely. Rule of thumb: if it’s a tab, make sure it works like one. Otherwise, just make it a button or link.

Calendar

I like the layout of the calendar, but I would like to see some functionality here. The ability to add tasks directly to the calendar would be ideal, or at least a link to add a new task. I’m really sort of “stuck” here because the only thing I’m able to do is view the calendar.

Now that we’re past the sections themselves, I found that one of the most important aspects of any project, “Tasks”, are essentially nowhere to be found (I finally found them after looking under “Pages”) and are one of the most difficult things to add. While it’s a novel idea to have different pages of tasks, it is very confusing. I can’t even add tasks from the “Quick Add” modal. This is the one aspect of ActiveCollab that I feel needs to be revamped. It could be something as simple as changing the “Pages” tab to “Tasks”.

Here are a few other things that I noticed while using the app:

• When adding users to tasks, eliminate the modal and put the select boxes right there on the page. It just takes too long to wait for and then use the modal.
• Use threaded comments, they use less vertical space.
• I would like to be able to sort projects by importance, rather than by name
• The projects tab in the main navigation should be the first button as it’s the main focus of the app
• There is too much page loading overall, which really slows down the app. Remember that the app should be something that enables me to manage my projects efficiently, not another project I have to manage.
• Confirmations should fade out after a certain amount of time.
• The print page is excellent, but should be a modal window. After trying to navigate away from the print preview I hit the “back” button, which took me to the wrong place completely.

You have to understand that this is how accessibility people think.  We strive to make good things better and great things exceptional.  ActiveCollab is a great application overall, and I feel like the developers have really spent some time putting the app together. It’s good to see a decent new competitor in the project management market.

Check out ActiveCollab’s website here.

http://www.activecollab.com/

Accessibility Rating: 4.5 out of 5!

Full Reviews

• Jacob Haug (Multimedia Specialist)
• Mark Poppen (Designer)
• Jason Stanley (Developer)
• Rich Komatz (Accessibility Professional)
• Luke Dingle (Client Prospective)

ActiveCollab – From The Eye of the Coder

Client Contributors are People Too

Considering that my first encounters with collaboration and team project software came from the view of project manager, it is a different experience to look upon a project management tool with the eyes of a client contributor.

If I am a client coder, document writer, or contributor to a project, I am not going to just stumble across an installation of ActiveCollab through a Google search; I am going to be arriving for a few specific reasons.

I need to:

• See what projects my employers, project managers and/or administrators have me working on
• Find out what work I need to do on a project
• Find out when I need my work done by
• Find out whether my project teammates are keeping up to speed

As a client working on a project, there are things I do not need to know about.

I do not need to know:

• How much the software costs
• Anything about projects that do not involve me
• Features that sell the tool to the backend administrators

As I client I know what I need, and what I do not need, but (and it may come as a surprise to some) client contributors have things they want too.

I want:

• To be alerted to work and deadlines I may have missed
• To have access to code repositories
• To be able to message and communicate with my fellow contributors

The Needs

After hitting enter on the login screen (or moving my arm across to the mouse and clicking submit if I am feeling especially active), the ubiquitous “dashboard” of team/community driven web applications greets me. Thankfully, ActiveCollab’s dashboard is a clutter-free haven for information.

The first thing I noticed with ActiveCollab was the relatively modest styling and layout. This is something to praise as it steers away from the information overload sometimes found in project management tools. Instead this program goes for a neat and clean layout that presents my information in an easy to read manner. Rather than placing me on the trading room floor of the New York Stock Exchange– with information, updates and numbers buzzing all around –, ActiveCollab sits me down in a pleasant waiting room. It focuses my eyes on new work I have to perform, work that is approaching its deadline, and what the rest of my team has been up to.

The dashboard of ActiveCollab shows the projects I am involved in and the feeds on this page amount to a sum-total of the work I need to perform. Following a link down to a lower level can give me a similar display on a per-project basis. The project page sees the introduction of “tabs” at the top of the display; these generally filter the information displayed down to:

• ‘Project Name’ — Project Overview
• ‘Milestones’ — What needs to be done on this project
• ‘Discussions’ — What is my team talking about?
• ‘People’ — Who is my team?

Therefore, when it comes to ActiveCollab addressing the needs of me, a client contributor, there is not much missing. Check, check, check and check to my simple, but sometimes overlooked, needs as a pawn on a project.

The Do Not Needs

As I mentioned above, ActiveCollab does not overload me with information. Of the information that is available to me on each view, very little of it is trivial.

The layout and use of available space is very well achieved, the ‘always available’ links towards the top of the page (search, profile, logout etcetera) do not use obtrusive screen real estate and many do not require additional page loads due to clever use of ‘lightbox-style’ overlays for features such as the search form and project selector.

When it comes to not giving me things, ActiveCollab excels. What I see is what I need to see- and to me that works just fine.

The Wants

When it comes to wants, it is all too easy to judge a piece of software harshly. If something I wanted was taken from me (like the new laptop I just purchased), I would probably be more distressed than if something I needed was taken from me (the carton of milk I just purchased). We often fight more for what we want than for what we need. It is in this area that ActiveCollab falls slightly short of my expectations.

In software development there is a fine line between what adds value and what just bloats your program into a monster. ActiveCollab has struck a nice balance but I cannot help noticing some omissions that would make it that much better.

The largest of my wants left… ahh, wanting, is that there does not appear to be any support for or option to pair the software up with an external code repository or version control system. Open source systems like Trac and commercial tools like Unfuddle include the ability to add SVN or GIT repositories to projects. Thus, they gain added project status benefits like commit messages and code change comparisons. Admittedly, not every project needs this feature but many do and with most of the competition offering it, it seems a strange omission.

The next minor shortfall in my increasingly pedantic list of wants is an email alert system. There is no setting, either globally through my user profile, or on a per-project basis, to be alerted to new tasks and milestones that are assigned to me. ActiveCollab includes an RSS feed but not everyone (yes, when I say not everyone, I mean at least me) uses or wants to use RSS feeds to check project movements. In this area ActiveCollab’s competitor (Unfuddle) wins hands down with a very customisable email alert system that can advise me on project updates as often, or as rarely, as I desire.

ActiveCollab meets and exceeds the expectations from my earlier stated list of wants. From anywhere within the tool I can click the ‘people’ tab and see a list of teammates, project leaders and administrators. Each user’s email address is available for me to message them outside of the project. When looking at the overview of a project, I can click the ‘discussions’ tab in the sub navigation and use the tools built-in message system to communicate with other contributing members.

Wow, that was nice! But that? Not so much

As a client contributor, my specification for a project management tool is not exhaustive and as a result, my opening overview did not cater for everything that ActiveCollab delivers. Here are some of the things that impressed, or depressed me.

The Nice

ActiveCollab, throughout, is a very slick system. The dashboard incorporates AJAX and JavaScript in a way that enhances overall usability and makes navigation and sourcing of information a breeze. The initial data displayed is a synopsis of your projects but clicking on a link triggers a pleasant AJAX request that fetches more information on a given area.

As projects can become more detailed and information-rich, ActiveCollab features a nice breadcrumb system that means you are only one click away from the higher levels of the project hierarchy. This feature is more important than many would have initially thought. Navigation through systems such as Trac can be cumbersome at best due to the ever-present possibility of having to go ‘home’ before drilling down again – just to get to one page above where you were.

ActiveCollab uses images in an aesthetically pleasing way. Images for controls give the whole application a welcoming, and familiar, Web 2.0 feel. (I am pretty sure it’s safe to say Web 2.0 now as its meaning is being cemented more and more each day.)

The API that is in place for developers to build tools that tie into the system is a nice inclusion. I have not looked at this in detail, but if it equals implementations available in systems like Unfuddle and Trac, ActiveCollab could be a boon for coders working with projects in the system.

The Not So Much

There is no help within the application. The majority of the information displayed is self-explanatory but the meanings of some elements with ActiveCollab differ slightly from the conventions found in project management. Links within the system, both dynamic and permanent, do not include tooltips and with names like “Starred” and “Quick Add”, I still do not know their purpose. I have treated this review coming solely from the perspective of a client contributor and have not looked at backend administrator system at all. Having no help within the tool itself means that I would have to visit ActiveCollab’s website to source this. For a program sold by license to businesses, this is not acceptable.

A negative also arises from a positive in the form of the iconic images used for many tools. Their functions are not obvious and it was a case of trial and error to see what many of them achieved – if I spotted them at all. Making these more prominent on the page would help and ensuring that the icon fits the end action would go a long way to aiding new users of ActiveCollab (or new users to project management software in general).

You Are A Nut…I Mean, In A Nutshell

ActiveCollab is a well-designed piece of project management software. The developers have spent a good amount of time making sure their system is simple and does not inundate users with superfluous or unneeded information.

The slick welcoming interface will help those new to team based collaboration ease into it and the logical display of information should prove a welcoming breath of fresh air for users who are used to other systems.

There are a few features missing such as version control and email alerts that hold it back from being the ultimate choice but ActiveCollab would be a smart investment for any business or organization that wants to tie together team based projects.

Check out ActiveCollab’s website here.

http://www.activecollab.com/

A Client’s Rating: 4 out of 5!

Full Reviews

• Jacob Haug (Multimedia Specialist)
• Mark Poppen (Designer)
• Jason Stanley (Developer)
• Rich Komatz (Accessibility Professional)
• Luke Dingle (Client Prospective)