sorted by: recent | see : popular

Content Tagged with Announcements + Projects

Today’s Zoho Projects update brings in a few more goodies.

Project Templates : Zoho Projects has had Tasklist Templates for quite some time now. This has now been enhanced to include defining whole projects as templates. In addtion to defining tasklists, you can now have Milestones (consisting of various tasklists), documents, forum posts & users added to a template. And whenever a new project is created, you needn’t start from scratch but make a copy of a suitable project template (whereever applicable).

Bulk Upload Documents : Typically, when a new project gets started, you upload various documents like requirement docs, drawings, design plans, test procedures etc related to that project. What better way than to choose once and upload all of them in one go? Zoho Projects now offers multiple file uploads.

Log time : Logging time has now been made easier. A clock icon comes on moving your mouse over the days in the calendar view. You can click on it and log the time for your tasks in that project.

You can also log time, edit the logged time in the List View under the Timesheet tab now.

Do try the latest features in Zoho Projects.

I’ve got lots of code to share with you all today:

Net::SSH 2.0 Preview Release #3

Not very many external changes, but channels now have an on_open_failure callback that you can employ to be told when a channel could not be opened.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

channel = ssh.open_channel do |ch|
  # ...
end

channel.on_open_failure do |ch, code, reason|
  puts "could not open channel because #{reason.inspect} #{code}"
end

This change was necessary to make port forwarding a bit more reliable for Net::SSH::Gateway (see below).

Also, individual Net::SSH sessions may contain their own custom properties, much as Net::SSH channel objects do, which can be quite handy when you need to keep some state associated with the session.

ssh[:key] = "value"

This change (and several other internal refactorings) was necessary for the correct working of the Net::SSH::Multi library (see below).

To get the preview release #3 (version 1.99.2):

gem install --source http://gems.jamisbuck.org net-ssh

You can follow development via GitHub:

http://github.com/jamis/net-ssh/tree/master

Net::SFTP 2.0 Preview Release #2

All that was added in this preview release was custom properties on Upload instances:

1
2
3

uploader = sftp.upload("local.file", "remote.file")
uploader[:failed] = false
# ...

This was necessary to get Capistrano file transfers to work with Net::SFTP 2.0.

To get the preview release #2 (version 1.99.1):

gem install --source http://gems.jamisbuck.org net-sftp

You can follow development via GitHub:

http://github.com/jamis/net-sftp/tree/master

Net::SSH::Gateway 1.0 Preview Release #1

Net::SSH::Gateway is (in essence) the extraction of the gateway code from Capistrano into its own library. It lets you tunnel SSH connections through some “gateway” server to servers that would be otherwise inaccessible.

1
2
3
4
5
6

require 'net/ssh/gateway'

gateway = Net::SSH::Gateway.new('gateway.host', 'username')
gateway.ssh('remote.host', 'user') do |ssh|
  # ...
end

You can also use it as a general facilitator for forwarding connections over a local port, when you don’t care what port is to be used—you just want to connect to a remote server.

1
2
3

gateway.open('remote.host', 80) do |port|
  Net::HTTP.get_print '127.0.0.1', '/path', port
end

The current thinking is that the next release of Capistrano will ditch its own gateway implementation in favor of Net::SSH::Gateway. To get this first preview release (version 0.99.0):

gem install --source http://gems.jamisbuck.org net-ssh-gateway

You can follow development via GitHub:

http://github.com/jamis/net-ssh-gateway/tree/master

Net::SSH::Multi 1.0 Preview Release #1

Net::SSH::Multi is the guts of Capistrano, extracted into a library of their own. It allows you to define and categorize servers, and then execute commands in parallel on them, or on subsets of them, using an interface similar, if not identical, to that of Net::SSH::Connection::Session and Channel.

Eventually, Capistrano will be refactored to take advantage of Net::SSH::Multi, but doing so will require some significant changes to Capistrano’s innards, and would almost certainly break many third-party libraries. Thus, you won’t see Capistrano on Net::SSH::Multi until Capistrano 3.0 or so (which will not be the next release of Capistrano). However, you can use Net::SSH::Multi to implement most of Capistrano’s functionality in whatever form you like. Want Capistrano-in-a-rakefile? Have at it!

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

require 'net/ssh/multi'

Net::SSH::Multi.start do |session|
  session.use 'jamis@somewhere.com'
  session.use 'jamis@elsewhere.com'

  session.exec 'hostname'
  session.loop
end

Grab the first preview release (version 0.99.0):

gem install --source http://gems.jamisbuck.org net-ssh-multi

You can follow development via GitHub:

http://github.com/jamis/net-ssh-multi/tree/master

For all of these libraries I’ve tried to make the rdoc and ri documentation as informative as possible, so please refer to those to get started. If those aren’t helpful enough, let me know what could make them more useful!

The latest Zoho Projects update added quite a few handy features. You can now add links to web pages and embed HTML code snippets (of say Zoho Show presentations and YouTube videos) related to your projects in a separate Links section under ‘Documents’. The links can be tagged for easy classification and can be searched across.

Non-billable hours for tasks done unrelated to the project can now be mentioned in the Timesheet. Export options (both per project and across multiple projects for a user) now support billable/non-billable hours as well.

Project-related documents that you store centrally at Zoho Projects are now made sortable based on name. And in case of multiple persons in your team having the same first name - the email address will get shown in the Task Owner field for easy differentiation.

A few bug fixes have gone in as well. Try the latest Zoho Projects and we will be glad hearing your feedback as always.

I’m really pleased with how Net::SSH v2 is turning out. I’ve actually got it to a point where it’s about ready for a first preview release! If you’re an adventurous soul, you can grab the preview release gem (version 1.99.0) here:

• Net::SSH 2.0 preview #1 (1.99.0) gem

Note that Net::SSH v2 is not going to be 100% backwards compatible with 1.x. Many things will work mostly the same, but here are a few of the most significant gotchas:

• Net::SSH.start now uses a fixed parameter list, instead of the polymorphic monster it was. This makes it much easier to document, and use. The first parameter is always the host you are connecting to, and the second is always the username you’re connecting as. Options always come last.
• The shell, sync-shell, and open3 services have been dropped. You won’t find them in Net::SSH 2.0. If you want them, I strongly encourage you to write them and release them as third-party extensions to Net::SSH.

There are also a couple of (much needed!) short cuts for executing commands:

1
2
3
4
5
6

Net::SSH.start("localhost", "jamis") do |ssh|
  puts ssh.exec!("echo hello world!")

  ssh.exec("hello world")
  ssh.loop
end

The first, #exec!, will block until the command finishes, and will return the output. The second will return immediately, before executing the command, and will run when the event loop does, writing output to the terminal.

The documentation is pretty much done, too. To see it, just install the gem, change to the net-ssh-1.99.0 gem directory, and run “rake manual”. Then open “doc/out/index.html” in a browser. It includes a brief tutorial, a quick-reference, and an FAQ-style “how do I do X” interface.

So! Give it a try. Remember that the current release of Net::SFTP won’t work with this new version (at all), and neither will Capistrano. But the lovely thing about RubyGems is that you can easily install and uninstall, on demand.

Oh, and before I forget, a couple of little teasers about what’s coming up:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

require 'net/scp'
Net::SCP.download("localhost", "jamis", "/Users/jamis/.bashrc", "./my-bash-rc") do |name, sent, total|
  if sent == 0
     print "downloading #{name} (#{total}b): "
  elsif sent == total
     puts
  else
     print "."
  end
end

and…

1
2
3
4

require 'uri/open-scp'
open("scp://jamis@localhost/Users/jamis/.bashrc") do |io| 
  puts io.read 
end

In March 2007, we migrated most of the Zoho services to a new data center with more powerful servers. This weekend, Zoho Projects joined the other Zoho apps in the new data center. You should now be experiencing a major boost in the performance of Zoho Projects as the pages load much faster and the data inputs happen more smoothly.

Also, this update had a couple of UI enhancements. The ‘Tasks & Milestones’ tab now has sub-tabs - General, Upcoming, Overdue, Completed - for added clarity. And each Tasklist / Milestone can be Expanded or Collapsed. The ‘Forums’ tab has also undergone a few changes as well.

Try the new & enhanced Zoho Projects and we would be glad hearing your feedback!

Some cool features that you users had been asking for got added in the latest Zoho Projects update done yesterday.

• If you have the same list of tasks to be duplicated across Milestones/Projects, ‘Task List Template’ is for you. You can create a new template from scratch (click on ‘Settings’ -> ‘Templates’) or make an existing tasklist as a ‘Template Task List’.
• You can now send private messages to a selected few members of your Projects account. Click on Users -> Send Message (previously, you can only send / not send messages for all members in a project about Meetings & Forum posts)
• Archived tasks can now be exported (previously only Pending & Closed tasks could only be exported)
• While posting to the forum, the attachments will be sent along with the notification mail. Also, while replying to a forum post, you have the choice to notify all the users or the owner alone.
• Project details are displayed when you mouse over a project’s name in the left panel. Likewise, the notes added to a task get displayed on mouseover too.

Other than the above, a few bug fixes got in as well.

 

Try the new Zoho Projects and please do share your thoughts.

An update to Zoho Projects happened a few minutes ago. Some cool features that many of you have been asking for are available now. Zoho Projects, like Zoho Writer and Zoho Planner, now offers different colored skins to choose from. Choose the one you like.

Mac users rejoice. Zoho Projects now supports Safari! Opera too is now supported as Zoho Projects takes the tally of supported browsers to 4 (the other two being the obvious ones - Firefox & IE). Other useful features include : Timesheet log hours can be added/edited, forums posts can now be edited/deleted and can have attachments as well. A few issues have been fixed as well.

Update : Another important feature available now - you can now see both the Internal/External Milestones in a single page.

Please join me in welcoming the latest addition to the Zoho suite of web services - Zoho Projects! Zoho Projects, as the name implies is an online project mangement tool that helps teams to easily organize their work & track progress.

Salient features include :

• Splitting up of a project into Tasks & Milestones
• A Dashboard view to show all the recent activities
• A Calendar based view of the project
• AJAX-based design ensuring better usability (no page reloading for every beck & call)
• Centralized uploading & storage of files
• Easy collaboration among the project members by allowing meetings to be scheduled & through forums (integration with Zoho Chat coming soon)
• Logo customization - allows having your company’s logo
• Reports including Gantt charts
• Support for unlimited users
• Various plans ranging from Free (1 project) to Enterprise Version (unlimited projects, $80/month) available

Take a tour of Zoho Projects (QuickTime movie), login as a demo user & give it a test drive or sign up now for free. Try it out & do tell us what you think.

Thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick & Mike Arrington for covering the Zoho Projects launch in TechCrunch!