Extranet Update: Post your comments into the project newsfeed

A small update published to project-extranet today. This adds a ‘Post Comment’ box to the project summary page. This allows users who have can access a project with the ‘contribute’, ‘modify’ or ‘owner’ permission level to post comments directly into the project newsfeed.





We have also been doing some work optimising the newsfeed so that news items that are similar to each other and occur at a similar time are only shown once. So for example if a project member views a document, then quickly views it again, this will now only generate one entry in the project newsfeed.

As always this update is automatically applied to all Extranets and is available to all accounts.

project-extranet launches recruitment specific extranet apps

We know that the project-extranet platform allows businesses of all types to operate more efficiently internally and improve the service offered to customers externally and with our ability to create bespoke Apps we have created some truly unique offerings for customers.

Now we have brought that thinking to the recruitment sector with project-extranet for recruitment agents. We have long believed that recruitment agents could seriously improve the service they offer by making use of project-extranet shared workspaces. For each position being filled, create a project and populate it with the candidates being put forwards. Use all the collaboration tools to arrange interviews, stimulate discussion about candidates and manage candidate databases.

So by working closely with a number of recruitment agencies we have developed a series of Extranet Apps designed specifically for the recruitment business. These both improve internal operational efficiency and significantly enhance the service you offer your customer.

• Candidate Wall: Post your candidates to a shared workspace to allow your clients in to access, rate, review, download cv’s, request interviews, short list and reject, all at the click on a button.
  
  
• Candidate Database: Manage your candidates in one central location. Capture their history, store documents, keep track of their status.
  
• Task management: Process driven interview, rejection, shortlisting and follow-up tasks help your staff stay on top of their job and help you get more done with less.

More information about project-extranet for recruitment agents as well as a 30-day free trial can be found at www.project-extranet.com/recruitmentagency/

project-extranet upgrade live

The latest update to project-extranet has now been applied and normal service has been resumed.

If you find that your extranet is exhibiting funny behaviour, calendars, folder lists not showing their contents, etc please try refreshing the page using your browsers refresh function. It maybe that you are using an old copy of some of the files required to run project-extranet correctly.

Over the next few days we will be publishing guides and how-to’s explaining each of the new extranet features in detail and how you get the best out of them.

Meanwhile, the first couple of guides are already up. These explain how to set-up your User Groups (Getting Started with User Groups) and Calendar synchronisation, which allows you to sync your project calendars with Microsoft Outlook, Apple iPhone/iPad, gmail calendar and more. Setting up Extranet Calendar Sync.


Need help
If you have any problems or have any questions about the extranet we now have an online chat facility that is available to your extranets administrator users. Scroll to the bottom of the extranet and click the chat button.

Planned maintenance

We are currently applying an upgrade to project-extranet.com. There maybe some service disruption during the next few hours.

We will post again here when normal service has been resumed. This should be around midday.

project-extranet update coming this weekend

The BETA testing phase for our latest and greatest update to project-extranet was completed today meaning that our scheduled rollout will occur this weekend. 

As usual all extranets will receive this upgrade, free, as part of the service. We plan to start this work from 9am Saturday and are aiming to have every extranet upgrades by the end of the day. There will be periods during this upgrade where your Extranet will be unavailable. We will keep this disruption to a minimum, but we’re sure it will be worth it!

Quick a reminder of some of the new features coming:

Calendar Synchronisation - Outlook, iPhone, iPad, Android, Gmail

RSS News feeds. See your project news feed on your desktop or mobile phones.

User Groups - enhanced/improved user management.

Search as you type - and many other user interface improvements. 

project-extranet v3.5 upgrade complete

The next upgrade to our extranet platform was today marked feature complete and handed over to our test team.

V3.5 brings some great new features and a whole host of refinements that we’re really excited and pleased to be bringing to the Extranet platform. Calendar Sync, RSS feeds, improved user management, refinements to our App Model as well as usability enhancements such as search while you type, to name a few, are all built, baked in and ready to go.

So now we enter our BETA and testing phase, which typically will last around three weeks. This gives us a go live time of around the 1st November, and as always this update will automatically be applied to your Extranet, free, as part of the service.

In the run up we will publish blogs and how guides for the new features, but if you would like to get your hands on a BETA account, either to help us out with testing, or just to get a preview of the new features please just get in touch.

Steve Jobs. 1955-2011

Steve Jobs departs leaving us with a vision of how a technology company can combine style, form and function, of how good products can transform peoples lives and the world. His leadership, taking Apple to become the worlds most valuable company, has been a lesson and inspiration to all of us in the technology business. His legacy will be with us for many years to come. 

Thank you Steve

The Team, Project-Extranet Ltd

I pronounce you ... project-extranet v3.3

The build up to the royal wedding may have dominated the news this week but here at project-extranet we have been distracted by our own celebrations; our latest update to project-extranet is now live! We’d like to think all the up coming street parties and the Friday bank holiday are all in celebration of this latest update, but as they are not, we thought we’d join in the fun and name this update ‘project-extranet v3.3 Wills & Kate’; souvenir mugs available.

And a right royal release it is too! You will find that your extranet has a whole host of new features. Some that expands the extranets collaborative capabilities and some that are designed to make your lives easier. Thank you to all who contributed the suggestions and ideas that have moulded this release; our aim is to continue to make project-extranet the best extranet product around so hearing about the way you use the product and getting suggestions is invaluable to us. Please keep them coming!

Inbox - Email filing

We’re pleased to announce that email filing is now included in your extranet, a feature we think will really help you and your users get the best out of the extranet during day-to-day use.

You will find that you now have a new section, titled ‘Inbox’. Each user has a unique filing email address. Any emails, including their attachments, sent to the unique address will be stored here allowing you later to choose where to store them in to your projects. You can even convert the email body to pdf file.

We think this is a great additional way to keep you organised via your extranet as you can fire of files, forget and deal with later.

Full details of email filing can be found here or simply log in to your extranet and try for yourself.

Your new email filing inbox

Choose the location to save your attachments or convert the email body to pdf and save

Custom folder permissions

We have also enhanced the control your have over your file permissions. Added to the current folder permission options you can now choose ‘custom permissions’ and ‘inherited from parent’. So you can now set folder permissions on a folder-by-folder basis giving you much finer control over your document management options.

To help you make sure you have correctly configured your folder security you can check the handy ‘who has access to this folder’ report, available when viewing the folder.

You can set exactly which project members have access on a folder by folder basis

Use the handy 'Who has access' report to keep track of your settings

Folder colouring

You may have already spotted it in the previous screenshot but you can now colour your folders. Banish those dreary yellow folders and brighten up your extranet by choosing from blue, black, green and red folders (Ghost folders remain as hidden).

Use different colour folders for different phases of a project, or perhaps for different document groups. How your business uses folder colouring is up to you, but using colour provides a quick and intuitive way to organise information in your extranet.

Changing the Login options

Last but not least we have been working on improving the login process. Your extranet now has as ‘lost password’ option which works in the usual way by allowing users to look up their details via email.

For those of you who are happy to sacrifice a little usability for extra security we have also included the options to turn the lost password lookup and the ‘remember me’ checkbox on and off. For more information see disabling the login 'lost password' and 'remember me' options.


As usual there are a host of other minor enhancements and bug fixes. As always as we add features new ideas spring forth and get added to our development list. If you have any ideas, or would like to comment on or ask a questions about new or existing features please do not hesitate to get in touch either via your account manager or via our extranet contact pages.

Otherwise, we hope this latest update makes your life just that little bit better.
Gerry

The iPad and the Extranet

Well the iPad 2 is out. Queues are forming outside shops as word of shipping delays and product shortages spread. It seems to be that demand for tablet devices just keeps getting stronger and stronger and yet they’re not even fully fledged computers? They are difficult to write on, spreadsheets are fiddly and there is very limited local storage. My iPad filled up long ago with photos and music leaving me having to make a choice which albums and photo’s to exclude from the obligatory iPad to iTunes syncing process. It’s okay, a friend recently observed, surely you can just put an SD card in and expand the storage. Nope. Neither there is an SD card slot, but even if there were, iPads don’t really have a file system to speak of so there would be no way to access it.

iPads, iPhones and the like do of course have an underlying file system otherwise how would they work, but the point is that there is no typical way to browse the contents of your device, no standard ‘My Documents’ folder. There are other limitations too, such as the inability to plug in peripherals via USB cable (no USB slots). However none of these prevent the iPad, or the impending avalanche of Android, Blackberry and HP WebOS devices, from providing a productive and enjoyable computing experience.

In fact, here at project-extranet we think the devices are compelling because of their limitations, not in spite of them. The world is changing, software is moving online and data is being freed from the device. Collaboration software, exactly like project-extranet, is now the file system for your business; available to any of your devices, be they historic platforms like Windows or Mac OSX, or one of the new breed such as iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry or,  to really show that this is the future, devices running the upcoming Google Chrome OS, essentially nothing more than a web browser with a keyboard.

These new devices offer a much simpler computing experience, and for simpler, you can also read cheaper. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain; they don’t really go wrong, catch viruses or get corrupted system files, and if they do, they are essentially disposable items. Your business is safely stored in the project-extranet cloud, and your other business apps are either other online applications or can be reinstalled by visiting the appropriate app store.

We’re not there yet though. Traditional computing platforms still dominate, but the queues in the streets of London and the wave of new platforms show that this revolution is underway.

Right from the start we have been designing project-extranet to be a part of this march to ubiquitous computing, offering core functionality useful to any business as well as the ability to expand the extranet via your own bespoke extranet apps, and we will continue to enhance and improve the extranet as this new IT business model develops.

So here at project-extranet, we love the iPad, especially for it’s limitations!
Gerry

Create an extranet portal by linking your extranet to your website

Extranet systems are designed to streamline your business, save you and your staff time by having a central repository where all project information, documents, calendar, knowledge bases etc can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

When setting up your extranet it’s important to make sure that it’s easy for your users to access. We have put together a handy little guide telling you how to integrate your project-extranet solution with your website, including how to place a link on your site and also how to send users back when they have finished and log out.

'Simplifying login - Linking your extranet to your website' as well as other how-to’s can be found in our extranet guides section now.

Gerry

New guide: Adding users to projects

We've had a few people recently tell us that adding users to projects can be a little long winded, and if you go about it the wrong way then it can be.

So we've posted a new article in the extranet guides section explaining the two ways this can be done. Find out more here: 'Two ways of adding users to projects'

Gerry

System status update

We have been addressing two issues that have been affecting a number of customers this morning who have had difficulty uploading either large files or large numbers of files (> 100) into a single project directory.

Both these issues are now resolved

Gerry

Newsfeeds are coming to project-extranet

We have a new update coming to project-extranet that we are planning to roll out early to mid next week, starting 7th March 2011.

As usual I will post a notice to our extranet news page with the all the details, however before we go live with this update I want to quickly let you know about one particular feature we are introducing called project newsfeeds. The project newsfeeds brings information that was previously hidden away in the project log app and puts it center stage; showing on the main summary page, the project home page and also on a new user profile page.

With one glance you can see all recent activity in your projects, activity that has happened today or all the things that have happened since you last logged in.

You can view the newsfeed for all your projects, on a project-by-project basis or on a per user basis; users who have the appropriate permission can even post their own messages into the newsfeed.

We think this update really brings your extranet to life by bringing the tools and collaboration models popularized by social media directly in to benefit your business. We’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our beta testers, we’re really excited to be getting project newsfeeds up and running in our project-extranet collaboration system.

However if you are one of our existing customers, currently going through a trial or thinking about adopting project-extranet in your line of work and reading this and thinking, “oh no this is not for me!” don’t worry.

We recognize that this new feature expands the possibilities of the system and so we have included options for switching the newsfeed off completely.

So now I’m going to explain how to do this and, if you follow these instructions, your extranet will work exactly as it is now; well apart from some nice performance increases in the shared calendar component, which I’m going to assume you don’t mind.

Firstly some screenshots to show what I’m talking about:

Extranet home page

Extranet home page without newsfeed

Extranet home page with the newsfeed

Project Summary

Project summary without the newsfeed

Project summary with the newsfeed

The user profile page

The new user profile page

Removing the newsfeed from the home page
1. Log in as an administrator and click on your extranet settings cog.
2. Click on the system settings (the gears icon)
3. De-check the option ‘Allow Newsfeed on homepage’
4. Press Apply

Actually, each user can independently choose whether they want to display the newsfeed on their homepage. This is controlled via their profile settings. If you de-check this box the option view the newsfeed on the homepage in the profile is no longer available, effectively removing it from the system.


Remove the newsfeed from the user profile page
The new user profile page newsfeed shows items attributed to that user on projects both they and the person viewing their profile is a member of.

The steps to remove this newsfeed are very similar to those above:
1. Log in as an administrator and click on your extranet settings cog.
2. Click on the system settings (the gears icon)
3. De-check the option ‘Show Newsfeed on User Profile’
4. Press Apply


Removing the newsfeed from a project.
The choice to display the newsfeed on the homepage and on the user profile page is not mutually exclusive. You can show one or the other. The same is true for using the newsfeed within your projects; you can use it (or not) regardless of the options taken previously.

The newsfeed can be added to a project in the same way as any other extranet project app. Simply open the project settings and check/de-check the appropriate app.

There are two project apps in play here. The Newsfeed Summary App and the Newsfeed App. As the name suggests the ‘Newsfeed Summary’ shows/hides the newsfeed in the project summary:

The second controls the link in the project menu. Use this app to gives you full access to the projects newsfeed via a standard link in the project menu.

We really like the newsfeed feature, but if it doesn’t work for you then hopefully these control options gives you the flexibly to set the extranet up as you need it.

If would like to get your hands on the update for a trial run before it goes live we’d be more than happy to set you up with an account on our beta test site.

If you don’t want the newsfeeds feature please do let us know. We will make sure it is disabled on your account as soon as the update goes live. Contact your support contact or get in touch via the details on www.project-extranet.com/contact.

Finally, keep watching www.project-extranet.com/news for all the latest extranet news and updates or follow us on our extranet twitter where we post progress updates and other news from around the world of project collaboration.

Gerry

Creating simple workspaces - ‘Single Project Redirect’ explained

In this blog post I’m going to discuss a feature of project-extranet called Single Project Redirect. I’ll explain how it works and how you can use it to make accessing your extranet easier.

This article assumes you have already setup your own extranet, so if you haven’t done so, get yourself over to www.project-extranet.com/try and sign up for a free extranet demo account.

Why and how
As someone who has the need for an extranet facility - a project manager, business owner or administrator - you are probably responsible for more than one project. So when you access your extranet you will see, by default, the main summary home page. This contains an aggregated view of your system: all your project calendars combined into one; your top contacts; recently viewed and updated projects list. This will allow you to quickly access the information you need.

As a person responsible for a range of tasks, you should find this aggregated launch portal very useful. But for users who are only a member of one project within your extranet, the home page summary view is potentially confusing; all they really need to be able to do is to get to their single project.

This is where the Single Project Redirect switch comes in. If enabled, which in project-extranet it is by default, then users who have just the one project assigned to them get taken straight to that project, by-passing the home page summary and saving the user a click.

So, Single Project Redirect makes the interaction for users who only have one project much easier - especially when combined with the default starting app feature that allows you to set the default starting page users see when accessing a project.

For example, if you are setting up a file sharing project, by setting the default project app to ‘documents’ and ensuring Single Project Redirect is switched on, a user logging in to your extranet can be taken straight to the documents file structure.

You can use these two features together to create a range of project spaces for your customers depending on their individual needs.

So just to recap, the features for Single Project Redirect are:

• Single Project Redirect can be enabled/disabled via the ‘Extranet Settings > System Settings’ option.
• Single Project Redirect only applies to standard user accounts, not system administrators.
• If a user has access to only one project, they get taken straight to that project upon login.
• The Home, Projects and Contacts buttons are hidden when the redirect is enabled, the rationale being that there is no point giving users access to the projects list when they only have access to one project. The home button will take them back to their project and the contacts are all available via the projects contacts app, if you have chosen to use it.
• As soon as a user is given permission to view a second project upon logging in they view the standard home summary page and the Home, Projects and Contacts main options reappear.

I hope that explains this feature and demonstrates some of the powerful ways you can use project-extranet to achieve your perfect extranet solution. As always though, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please get in touch using the details on our contact pages.

And don’t forget to keep up-to-date with extranet news, hints and tips, details of updates, and also find us on twitter for the very latest from the world of online collaboration.

Gerry

Extranet Update: Sub Folders, Hidden Folders and Templates now live

It seems like it was only yesterday we were buried knee deep in snow but it already feels like spring is just around the corner. Looking at the number of updates and new features we’ve added to project-extranet since the turn of the new year it feels like we’re on a bit of a roll.

And here we are with another, bringing in new features based directly on extranet customers feedback.

This update, (which if you are interested takes us to v3.1.0) contains the usual little usability enhancements and tweaks as well as some slight layout modifications aimed at making the extranet work better for those iPad wielding amongst you. The main feature of this update however, is reworked file sharing.

Up to now, when setting up projects it has not been possible to create a folder hierarchy. As customers have expanded the use of their extranets and have started to load up literally hundreds of files to make available to project members, this flat folder structure has, well lacked a little. You’ve told us and we've noticed.

So as of now, this is no longer the case and from this update onwards you can create a full, no restrictions folder tree.

Before: Flat folder structure

After: Build a full folder tree for better organisation

Hidden Folders
A number of you have also asked for ‘hidden folders’ within a project and I’m please to announce that this is now possible as well. You can now mark a folder, or a whole folder branch as hidden. This makes it viewable only by project owners and users with full modify access. For everyone else in the project, it is completely hidden.

As can be seen in these screen shots, hidden folders are differentiated from standard folders by using using grey folders icons.

Administrators and Project Managers can 

view full tree including hidden folders

Other users can only see normal folders. Hidden folders

are not visible.

Templates
Project Extranet has long had the the ability to create templates from which you can base your projects on. The idea behind project templates is simple; it allows you to create templates that contain settings for your common project types, meaning you don't have to set them up each time. Template include which project apps to use, folder structure, default starting app etc.

To compliment this, we have introduced a number of standard built in templates which are setup for common uses for Project-Extranet. These are:

• Customer Accounts
• Document Sharing
• Meeting Workspace
• Photo Sharing
• Project Collaboration
• Shared Calendar
• Shared Contact List
• Task Management

The names are pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully these new built in project templates will give you (and new project-extranet users) a quick and simple way to get the most out of your extranet. They are of course only suggestions, and you can edit/delete these templates and create your own to suite your needs. Simply go to Extranet Settings > Templates.

That’s pretty much it for this release, we’re not out of ideas just yet and have some other interesting developments just around the corner. In the meantime, please keep the feedback coming, we’d love to hear from you and how your business is using your Extranet.

If you are not already a customer of Project-Extranet you can sign up for a free, no obligation trial at www.project-extranet.com.

The latest extranet updates and news can be found at www.project-extranet.com/news or join us on twitter, facebook and blogspot.

Gerry

Sub folders on their way to project-extranet

Just a quick posting today; the latest update to project-extranet has just completed go-live testing and will be rolled out to our production servers over the next couple of days.

This update brings a number of enhancements, the main one being to document management where nested sub-folders as well as secure folder branches are now possible.

We should be up and running by the start of work on morning of Monday 14th Feb if not before.

I will post more information here when we go-live, so keep checking back, or, if you tweet, join me on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/gerrymcnicol/

Gerry

Another week, another update to Project-Extranet

Ok so it’s not the most glamorous number in the world, but none-the-less Project-Extranet v3.0.15 is now live! A tiara wearing release number it may not be, but as well as a host of little improvements and fixes, v3.0.15 does contain a new and interesting feature, one that has been often requested, and might benefit you too.

As you may know, when you click on a Project you are taken initially to the Project Summary screen. This aggregates all the information from the various Extranet Apps used in the Project, such as calendar, documents, contacts, as well as any bespoke Extranet Apps you may be running. It looks like this:

Project Summary

For rich collaborative extranet projects this works well, but there are a number of cases where you are using just one, or maybe two, Extranet Apps in certain Projects. There are other cases where, although you are using a number of Extranet Apps, it makes more sense to use, for example, Documents, as the starting page for a Project.

Well this is now possible. Your Extranet now has a new feature that allows you set the default starting page for each Project.

You can now set the default app via Project Settings > Project Apps

You can set any Extranet App to be the starting point for a Project. So for example, if you have setup a client a login so they can view their invoices, you have probably made a Project that includes the Document App. You may also have included the Calendar, to record payments, contract dates etc, and let’s say for the point of argument, the Notes App, maybe to keep a copy of purchase orders etc.

So the Project has all those features, but really the main thing you want your client to be able to do is view a list of all the invoices (that they should be paying you) and so it makes sense to set the default App for this Project to be Documents. It keeps things easy for them.

Another example is if you a photographer and want a way of using the Extranet to distribute photos to clients. Project-Extranet has a lovely Photo’s App included and you can now set that as the default App. Now when your clients login from your website to see their photo’s (wedding, event etc) they get taken straight to their private Project page where they are all presented for them to view.

Give your customers now excuse not to pay you by creating an
accountancy project for them. Set the default app to documents

Photographers give your clients a preview of their Photo's.
Create a photography project and set the Photo's App as the default app.
Once they have paid you, you can upload their final files to the Documents App, what a great way to do business!
And as you can see you can brand the Extranet so it fits seamlessly with your website.

Templates
In Project-Extranet you can of course create templates. These can be use as the basis for creating your Projects. The default app works here as well. Simply create, or edit, your templates, in the usual way (via Settings > Templates) and set the default App.

Templates can be used to create a list of common project configurations meaning
you don't have to start from scratch for each Project.

Now when you go to create your new Project it will already have the default app set correctly, and as you can see from the screenshot below, gives you and your team the option for many basic project types.

That’s all for now folks. Don’t forget to come and like us on facebook, follow us on twitter or visit the website and the blog. So many ways to stay in touch!

Gerry
Linked In

Project-Extranet, now with added speed!

It was a busy weekend here at Project-Extranet as we migrated our hosting infrastructure to new and more powerful servers.

The number of companies using Project-Extranet to share documents with their customers and distributed workforce has been growing on a daily basis, so that was quite a lot of data to move! However, everything was completed according to plan so now all users will see their Extranet’s running faster and more smoothly.

We have another update coming soon, so remember to check back regularly, but as always, if you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to contact your account manager or get in touch via www.project-extranet.com/contact/

Have a good week everybody
Gerry

Project-Extranet updated to v3.0.14

Those with the eye's of eagles will have noticed that we published a minor update to Project-Extranet yesterday containing a small fixes and minor enhancements:

Firstly there was a slight discrepancy in the way the send/skip notification buttons were working in Internet Explorer compared with all other browsers. This was leading to a little confusion, so we have addressed this and now IE operates in line with Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera. Thanks to Martin from ProWaste Management Services Ltd and Jackie from SkyCaddie for helping us out with this one.

Also fixed is a bug in the file uploader which sometimes caused documents you uploaded to the same project to be listed when starting a new upload session. This was occurring mostly for Chrome users and should now be resolved.

While were were at it we have added a little feature to the file uploader so that it remembers the last folder between Extranet sessions. We hope this makes your life a little easier, especially for those of you using the Extranet to publish invoices to your customers on a monthly basis!

The Notes App has been renamed to Sticky Notes. We are working on a new, more comprehensive Notes App, so stay tuned for that.

Otherwise v3.0.14 contained some behind the scenes changes that support the new Meeting Workspace App. This is now published as a free addition which you can add to your Extranet via the Extranet App Store.

Thanks to all those who helped test and provided really useful feedback.

I am going to blog with more information on the Meeting Workspace App soon, so check back for a 'how-to guide' and other instructions.

Don't forget, you can try out Project-Extranet for free. Create your own Extranet, quickly and simply by visiting www.project-extranet.com/try/.

That's if for now, have a good weekend everybody
Gerry