Of course, you have tools at your disposal like Assignments, activity logs, but what if you had some reminder on tickets that are without activity for some period of time? Here where Auto-Reminder helps you…

Download Page | activecollab Modules Bundle

Get inside with more details of Free Module for activecollab

With Auto-Reminder module you can get notified about tickets or tasks that you are assigned to and there were no actions from any subscribers or assignees during specific number of days to force you make any action with tasks that are lost within tons of them.

Settings

When installed, you’ll have AutoReminder option in Administration area where you can make module inactive when necessary and set default notification period.

By default, 5 days are set for notification period when you should get email from the system if there were no actions on ticket. You can change default setting to any number.

Note: When module is installed, new email template is created in the system that you can customize to send default notification message.

Reminder Options

When you create any ticket in activecollab 2.x you’ll see extra field – Set AutoReminder. If you check that option you can enter custom reminder text and change default notification period.

For example, you’ve set 3 days. After ticket is created, you’ll get email notification about it with your custom or default message that there was no activity during these 3 days and you need to take some action or leave it alone. Or you’ll get notification after 3 days when the last action took place and in case ticket is not completed.

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This module is provided For Free. The only limit is that is shouldn’t be resold or branded as your own. All copyrights are owed by virtual assistant company LongerDays.

All features and advantages over other MVC frameworks plus why it’s saves time developing products and solutions described in post.

So why it’s better than other frameworks or engines?

We use SingularCore on daily basis for any custom solution we build in company. 2 developers work everyday on improving it, writing modular systems.

Basically it’s an instrument for easy and flexible development of any kind of software that includes advantages of several MVC frameworks.

We already built big product based on this engine that got popular since 5 months release date – UseResponse – Customer Feedback Software that can be installed on your server. It’s modular, support themes, quick in customization, easy to localize and much more.

Main Features

SingularCore is not CMS and doesn’t have ready-made backend or authorization form. It’s developed for companies and freelancers to built small or big solutions, products and software for internal needs or for sale. In fact, you can do anything with the help of this CMF – imagine it to be a library over Zend Framework.

Flexibility in Any Software

• Ready-Made CMF
• Bunch of special view/action helpers
• Benchmark component & Debug toolbar
• Taxonomy based on Nested sets
• Element-based layout builder
• Extended users\roles\rights support
• Authorization system at your hand
• Flexible ACL integration

Easy Customization

• Extended module structure
• Modules replication
• Create any themes (frontend\backend)
• Handy Multilanguage\Localization

Improved Performance 

• All in Cache (DB, layouts\views blocks)
• Improved Event handlers & hooks with references

Installation & Requirements

Download latest archive from SingularCore website. Extract archive to your server or folder. Enter http://yourwebsite.com/install and follow installation instructions.

Note: Make sure to create database before system installation 

Requirements: PHP 5.2 or later, MYSQL 5.1 or later, Apache (or Nginx, IIS)

Quick Links

Documentation is not complete, but it will give you basics about the development process. More information for Developers can be taken from Developer Manual at  UseResponse website.

Download SingularCore & Release Notes  | Official Documentation | Advantages |

Note: If you have any questions, please use USWebStyle Support Center to get response on your feedback regarding this product.

Now anyone can share their extras including translations, modules and themes with others to get maximum of your community.

Release Notes | Upgrade  | Extras Area

Extras Area

Now anyone can download or share extensions, extras and applications related to UseResponse in public on free or commercial basis.

Any user has ability to upload translations, modules, themes or software. With these extensions you can extend your community with more features. Most of them are provided to save your time on extending advanced system options.

As of now, we have 5 extras in the directory:

• Newsletter Module – to notify your customers or any other users with updates, announcements your company has;
• Sitemap Module –  generate sitemap automatically and ping search engines on daily basis about updates of your community;
• Wide Theme – if you want to get all the space out of screen resolution, use that theme that is based on default one;
• Brazilian Translation – ready to use if you have Portuguese or Brazilian community;
• Russian Translation – native system support with simplified approach in your Russian community.

New Features in 1.1

So what are major new features introduced in 1.1 release that will get your system to the next level in regards of maintenance and providing support.

Important: Starting from this release we support only PHP  5.3

Auto-Updater & Modules Activation

With Auto-Updater you won’t spend time on keeping your system up-to date. You’ll just need to enter ftp access and update UseResponse automatically once new version is released.

Also, there is a way to save module data without uninstalling it. Just deactivate module by clicking on checkbox next to the module that shouldn’t appear on front- or backend of your community.

Extended Text Area

New text area shows formatting of your entered text right inside area with ability to change view.

You can also enter lists, numeric lists and  insert inline images. Previously you could only attach images to the comment or response.

New Sorting Methods & Priorities

Previously there was no way to sort responses on home page and only popular responses were shown there at each response type box. Now you can select several ways like New, Updated or Popular responses to be shown on home page.

There is one more valuable feature like priority. It allows you to manually put response in Top on home page or just never show it there by clicking Down next to response actions. It’s available for Administrators and users with Manage Responses permissions.

Note: top and down priorities are higher over default sorting options.

Single Sign-On

We’ve integrated two methods of SSO that will give you ability to integrate authentication with your other applications to have the same account both at your community and other solutions.

One Login allows you to  integrate community with the help of Javascript and file written programming language of your application.

LDAP method is more professional way, though more complex. This method is advised for corporate usage with strict policies if other applications use that method of authentication with the help of LDAP server. Requires LDAP PHP Extention

Other Features

More details about new features mentioned below could be found in release notes:

• Performance improvements;
• Search inside widget;
• Installer Improvements;
• Views count and history to track progress;

We are satisfied with our results along with our customers after installing our community system. Most of them use it extensively taking all advantages provided in package. Some of positive feedback and testimonials can be seen at out Thanks section.

There are more  than 50 tweaks and bug  fixes in 1.0.1 release. And we are glad to provide all our contributors and current customers with Newsletters and SiteMap modules that can be downloaded from License Manager Area.

Full Release Notes | Upgrade Instructions | Admin Manual

Improved Cache Management

The new version of UseResponse is now 30-50% faster due to improvements and optimization of the cache environment. All blocks now are cached on front-end:

• Home page;
• Responses list page;
• Breadcrumbs;
• Full Response page.

Better Quick-Search Feature

Among usability improvements, we have been working on improving the process of creating new responses.In 1.0 version the search results were returned on the search results page, and in 1.01 we have implemented Ajax search, without page reload, and usability improvements.  This feature is done to reduce the number of duplicate responses added, and help users easier and faster find what they are looking for:

Categories Icons & Filters

Categories icons are now larger (32×32 px) and look more nice on the main page. When going to the categories page, you can now not just filter responses by categories, but also view all uncategorizedresponses.

We have also improved text formatting in the widget, as well as responses, and comments. Now if there are any attachments to the response description or to the comment, links to these attachments are also included in the email notification. Several attachments in response are now open in several browser tabs.

Further Plans & Extras

During this month we were also working on such  new features and modules:

• Chat (will be released later in 1.1);
• Developer API;
• Auto-Updater for UseResponse;
• Sitemap Module (available for download in Extras area) – all users with active license has access;
• Newsletters Modules (available for download in Extras area)  - all users with active license has access;
• Admin Manual - we’ve finished our administration manual that will help configure your system.

In the long run we are planning to add lots of other features, finish User Manual and publish Module Development Guide that would improve your customer support and integration with 3rd party systems.

Bug Fixes

Most of them concern System Localization:

• Fixed bug when admin changes languages several times and it didn’t clean browser cookies
• Fixed minor translation issues in the system with several additions to dictionaries
• Some translations in Category dictionary couldn’t be saved
• Fixed meta-title display that contained special characters
• Some untranslated messages were logged in system.log without any reason
• Fixed doubled system dictionary in localization after system installation

Bug fixes in Private Objects module:

• Users could see private categories without having permission to see them
• When editing private response it changed to public visibility

Login Plus module:

• In Login Plus when you add response or comment and want to login with Facebook it showed home page content inside in IE9
• Fixed Google Login in Login Plus module: window size, export of avatar, 2nd authentication

There also were some browser compatibility tweaks, some fixes in Backup module.

We are pleased to announce the official release of our start-up UseResponse - fully functional, self-hosted, commercial open-source Customer Feedback Software and Support System.

What is UseResponse?

UseResponse is a Customer Feedback and Support tool that can be easily installed on your website. Main purpose of this service is to facilitate customer support and improve customer feedback, and accordingly to gain community loyalty. More details on What is UR page.

When developing UseResponse we aimed at developing a system that would improve company’s communication with their customers. We make it easier for customers to get in touch with company not just to ask questions, and complain about problems, but also suggest ideas on improve companies services and products.

Organize Community, Provide Support, Gather Feedback

At the same time our service helps companies save on the time and expenses in support of their community, and have transparent conversations with their customers. So obviously it’s a WIN-WIN position for everyone.

Our product is written on Singular Core, which is based on Zend Framework, PHP. UseResponse is commercial open-source, and has modular system so that you can build your own modules and modify existing according to your needs.

Another great advantage of UseResponse comparing to SaaS systems is that you own and manage all your data yourself, without any third-party interactions. With UseResponse you have at your disposal both the script and all the data that your company members and customers have ever posted.

You can find full list on features on our website, however let us list the core features here as well:

1. 4 Response Types (Ideas, Questions, Problems, Thanks)
2. Categories (Products & Services)
3. Full Code Customization
4. Themes & Widget
5. Voting and Commenting System (including positive and negative votes)
6. User Ranking
7. Users Management (Roles and permissions)
8. Localization Support
9. Private Objects (for conversations inside company)
10. Moderation of Responses and Comments

How Does it Work?

Once purchased you download the script and install it on your server. We provide you detailed installation instructions, no special programming knowledge is required. As long as you are familiar with FTP connection and MySQL database creation, you should be able to install UseResponse on your server during 15 minutes.

After installed, upload your logo, add a message you would like your community to see, add slogan, and rename the community title if necessary, enable or disable modules. You can customize your community look by changing CSS (we are planning developing several design themes soon). You can also add feedback widget to your website by just placing customized code:

What Should You Expect?

We have lots of plans and ideas to improve and grow our product. We are currently in process of live chat module development and surveys system, as well as designing several themes. Further we will be working on detailed community statistics and API. There are plenty of ideas and features that we are eager to implement. At the same time we are open for suggestions, and would be happy to hear our community voice to know what direction you want to go, and what features to implement.

So please go ahead, and share your ideas with us or ask questions in UseResponse Community!

See also:

• Pricing & Packages
• Documentation
• Quick Tour

With the help of our  new Support Center you are able to share ideas, reports problems or ask questions regarding our services and products.

General Information

Emails and live chat were instruments we’ve used before, but we lacked concentrated at one place of all feedback we get: ideas, problems and questions clients may have!

Support Center is powered by UseResponse – Customer Support Software and Community Support Solution that can be installed on your server  and 100% customized.

Now you can Share Ideas, Report problems or Ask Questions about our products at one place! System includes voting system with commenting, where we discuss all objects with our customers and try to resolve them with status changes.

Adding New Response   

We won’t share much about public release, as we need many things to work on before it’s released in December. Official Release will be announced with post here with description of all features. The only thing we can show, how response page looks when you added your feedback:

Full Idea Page 

We’ll try to collect client’s opinions about system in general and our products and see how it works before we release that support system for sale.

As of now you are welcome to use our support center and share your opinion about it or you can subscribe at UseResponse website to be notified when solution is released to be the first to purchase it with discount price.

P.P.S. activecollab modules customers should register at system as accounts at download section varies from the one you need to create at support center. 

All current customers should use recovery password to receive generated password to the email they’ve used while purchasing modules.

For more than 1.5 year we have reactivated download links to everyone while module updates and this was pretty annoying and time consuming. Now any customer can use his user profile at our website to get updates.

The following procedures will be held when releasing new modules:

1. Update in activecollab downloads area;
2. If major modules updates are performed, than we’ll publish blog post. Use our Twitter or subscribe to blog via Rss to be up-to-date. Later we plan to simplify that process…
3. Customers can enter their download area at any page of our website except blog, and enter the credentials they receive when purchasing product(s);

If your free year subscription for updates expired, you can easily update the subscription with 30% discount at your user profile of USWebStyle client area.

This post will give you step-by-step instructions how to manage process from initial inquiry to building specs for detailed price and time estimation based on building activecollab modules. Specification Requirements  inside!

We’ve built 14 public modules, and more than 30 custom, 12 of them could be found in our activecollab modules bundle, ToDo module and Converter. So we know how to make requirements document to build module effectively with less expenses.

Any quality product should start with detailed requirements list. Any of our activeCollab Modules sold started from initial requirements and moved into production right after development is completed and modules are tested. Everything should be planned and according to the requirements listed in Specs document. We show you how we build specs, provide some examples of specs we do of small modules and how to write specs for the modules updates.

Initial Inquiury

1. Before filling in contact form, think about general requirements of your future activecollab module, as developer won’t know your thoughts and details unless specs is prepared;
2. Itemize the list of general requirements at one place – spend several days revising these requirements from time to time if anything comes in your mind. The main problem of most of the clients is that they can rethink or integrate extra features when activecollab module is almost built that brings more expenses in comparison to initial estimation;
3. Customer should provide requirements in short, laconic way so there’s no hesitation about general module requirements

Result: you’ll get quick reply with rough estimation from developer with the price and deadline that will be close to real one – the one that would be provided after specification requirements document is prepared.

Discussing Requirements

1. Customer: Provide short module description and itemize the list of main requirements for developer to understand what will that module be about and how it will work in system in general;
2. Customer: provide only details, if they are specific only to that module or connected with other modules in system.
3. Developer: provide list of questions required to understand what customer wants in superficial way.
4. Developer: organize phone call or chat conference to discuss details during 5-10 minutes, only to know how much time and price it will require (price and time range);
5. Developer: if you’ve got all short details in order to give estimation – it’s time to move to the next step (if customer is satisfied)

Building Specification Requirements

If you are a customer and want to build specification requirements document, these advises will be for you.

1. Start your document with description of your module with 3-4 paragraphs;
2. Strucutre the module by pages;
3. Prototype it! Provide layouts of each page built in photoshop or using any other instrument like Axure, or any online mockup tool. I recommend using photoshop, as building activecollab module will require preferably native aC elements to be used and layout in fact will be final design for developer to implement. That will save you much time. Make layouts by taking snapshots of elements from activeCollab interface.
4. Describe in details all the pages, elements on them, actions, messages and connections with other pages if any.
5. Review the document with developer page by page to make sure you didn’t miss anything. If you missed any detail, developer won’t be glad to work extra 20 hours without being paid, as it wasn’t described in specs and if the price was fixed.
6. Ask developer for the final estimation to start your first or next successful activecollab module

Examples of Specification Requirements

To understand better all the document structure you are going to provide to your future developer, you should get the idea of all mentioned above on real examples.

Below you can find 3 specs examples of our written modules. These specs were made for HR Manager module, activecollab Finder Pro and Tickets Summary Module.

Buy Module: $40 | Module Page | Discounts | Online Demo

We continue our series of modules that improve team work efficiancy and now it took us a bit longer to launch new module while waiting for activecollab 3 to come in public and preparing global modules updates.

Converter is a tool to convert all popular projects’ objects in activecollab from one to another providing flexible settings while performing that operation.

Specials

All those who purchased activecollab modules bundle will receive 50% discount and the price for them is only $20. All current customers except those who purchased Quick Access, can purchase module for $30.

Coupon codes could be found in reactivated download emails.

Main Converter popup

When module is installed administrator will see Converter icon at the top navigation of activecollab environment. You can set visibility of that icon only for administrator by going to Admin->Converter. All other users even if they are allowed to use this module, will have convert options from Tickets list page and objects details page.

If you want other user roles to be able to use that module, you should go to Admin->Roles and edit System Role. Find can_use_converter and set this parameter to yes.

To convert objects, click on Converter at the top navigation and the pop-up showed above appears. You need select a project, what action you want to perform and select object to convert. You can also move it instead of just copying. At the right side there are options of content that you want to convert along with object. By default they are all checked. In case, when converted object doesn’t have the same field (pages or discussions don’t have assignees, but ticket has), it will be omitted.

There are currently 6 convert actions you can make with objects:

• Ticket->Discussion;
• Ticket->Page;
• Page->Discussion;
• Page->Ticket;
• Discussion->Ticket;
• Discussion->Page.

Tickets list page

You can make multi-object convertion on tickets list page. Just select those tickets in projects that you want to convert to and choose Convert to Discussion, or Convert to Page at the options below:

When you click on Go button, popup window appears with Copy or Move objects option, and what do you want to convert inside tickets.

Convert from Objects page

If you are located on Tickets, Page or Discussion detailed page, you can select convert option by rolling over the button at the top-right side. When pop-up appears, choose whether you want to move it or copy it and what content should be transferred .

Converter Settings

Settings include only one option to switch off top navigation icon to free space at the top bar where many icons are located and use only Converter options from objects detailed page.

For Access and Modern Theme users

If you experiencing problems showing icon in top navigation of these themes, please follow below instructions:

1. Go to /public/assets/themes/Modern/theme.css
2. Add the code at line 256 (line 315 for Access theme):
3. #menu_item_converter span.outer
   { background: transparent url(images/icons/converter.png) no-repeat center 10px; }
4. Put converter.png image into theme’s images/icons folder (/public/assets/themes/Modern/images/icons)

Current customers: you’ll receive download links on 20th June 2011. Make sure to download products during 24 hours after you receive email.

Finder Pro 1.0.5

• Fixed problem with quick search at people and projects jump to windows;
• Now only active projects show at users profile;
• Compatible with activecollab 2.3.3
• Fixed problem with short-tags on specific hosting.

Recurring Tasks 1.3.1

• Fixed multiple tasks creation inside ticket when option is selected

Quick Access 1.2

• Option to display archived projects or not;
• HR Manager module support and quick access to extra people tabs.

Tickets Merge 1.1.3

• Fixed display issue on some environments

ToDo 1.1.3

• Fixed bug when editing ToDo with link inside

PrivateComment 1.3

• Compatible with Tickets Plus hacks & Planning module.

Chat 1.5

• Fixed 2.3.3 compatibility;
• Fixed bug when you had Reminder View Module;
• Added last popup private messages on any page;
• Added new option when to receive notifications for users.

Update Instructions: To not loose your chat logs, Go to Admin->Modules-Chat and click on Update button