Taskhopper 1.1 Install Sheet

This is some basic information about how to get Taskhopper 1.1 up and running. We've put this into a simple layout so it's easy to print. We'll make it better as time permits. Currently, we are only offering the product to Joomla webmasters, so hopefully this is more than enough to get started. Below you will find the install portion. Front-end operation will be added soon.

If you have anything you would like to add, of course we would be very grateful for any input. Please do not hesitate to offer suggestions.

If you're looking for a demo, CLICK HERE

Introduction

Taskhopper, is a ticket system/project management tool that's simple and easy to use. Althought it was created with software development/support in mind, It can be adapted to fit different industries. It can help manage multiple tasks for multiple people, located in multiple places.

Taskhopper is a Joomla/Mambo component. It was created initially in Mambo, and then migrated to Joomla 1.0.12. It has been tested within a number of different templates and we find it works best with variable width layouts. Everything from RocketTheme seems to work just fine.

Installation

Taskhopper is delivered in multiple ZIP files. These are found on the download page. You click each one, and save them to your hard drive. Then open up Joomla and run the installer for the one component file and the four modules. (The component for 1.1 is about 117K, the modules are tiny, all under 3K each)

Installers>Components

Select Package file: com_thopper

Make sure media, administrator/components, components and images/stories are all Writeable

Do the same for the four modules: mod_thsearch, mod_thopper, mod_thonline and mod_thtimelog

Installers>Modules

Make sure media, administrator/modules, and modules are all Writeable

If you received a Success message after each install, then the base files have been loaded.

That's it! You should now be ready to configure...

Troubleshooting: We have encountered a few hosts that do not allow any install scripts to run. This is not a Taskhopper bug but rather an Apache configuration issue. (We concluded this because on the same host, Taskhopper would install fine on some servers, not at all on others. Also, we heard from one hosting company they don't allow that because of security reasons.)

Configuration

This documentation was written for those who might be installing components and modules for the first time. It's also written as though you're building a site specifically to manage tasks. If you are installing TH into an existing site with a specific layout, some of these instructions may not apply. In that case, just ignore them!

Here's what you'll need to do:

  • Change module access rights
  • Change menu names
  • Add a company
  • Define your categories
  • Define timelog types
  • Add some projects
  • Assign rights to users
  • Set options (name your system, default guest tickets...)
  • Edit the subject and body templates
  • Edit the TH english.php file to customize it to how you say things

Make Modules - Change Access and Publish

In most installs, Taskhopper should be non-public. In other words, users must be logged in to see the task menu. However, a guest is able to submit an item without being logged in. (We'll address that later.) First, let's make the back-end changes needed to start using the system.

Change Menu Names (optional)

Find the three modules (all starting with TH) and rename them to whatever you feel appropriate. Obviously, this is fully optional -- you can call them whatever you like. Change access on all Taskhopper modules to Registered if you want Registered level users to be able to use the system. If you'll be using Author and above, then set them to Special. If you don't yet have any users online to worry about, go ahead and publish each of them as well.

Add Company

Taskhopper was designed to support multiple clients/companies. So think of this in terms of any service related industry where multiple clients sustain the business. To start, just add your own company as there will always be an on-going flow of things that need to be done in-house to support various overhead needs.

Note: Taskhopper is currently a single-industry application. What that means is if you run a business that does landscaping and software development, the projects and categories will likely not fit too well. (Well, I guess Bug Fix could also mean getting rid of garden pests) In other words, categories are not project-specific.

Add Categories

Categories are the specific types work that will be done within projects. For software support or development, you might have something like this:

  • Bug Fix
  • Change Request
  • Graphics
  • Install/Config
  • Domain/DNS
  • Hosting
  • Documentation

If your business is landscaping,

  • Pickup/Deliver
  • Cut lawn
  • Landscape design
  • Move dirt
  • Cleanup

You get the idea.

Define your Timelog types

Fully optional is the ability for Taskhopper to keep track of how long it takes to accomplish whatever it is your task doers are doing. If you can make this work, then you run a very tight ship and you are to be commended. What you do here is indicate the type of work your people will be doing to respond to a task. Often this is connected to a rate scale. e.g,. Tech writing, database design, graphics, copy writing, painting, drywalling, dirt hauling... whatever it is your people do, list them here.

When a person starts a task, they can start a timer, then close the timer when finished. Obviously, this only works if the work is done while Taskhopper is sitting in front of them. For dirt hauling or fish cleaning, it's probably not going to be a realtime event. (In that case, they can still open a timer, then close and edit the total time to reflect just how long it took to move that dirt)

Add Projects

Before adding projects, make sure you have at least a few Joomla users. Each project needs a manager, and the manager dropdown list will come from the Joomla users table.

Each project needs these: 

Name, Order, Show, Manager, Company, Agent, Status

Name of the project: This depends how you're using Taskhopper. If you're a software company, this could be Redesign Widget X, in landscaping, it could be the address of the property where work is being done. How your business handles project work will determine how you create your project list.

Order: In the current release, all projects are listed in alphabetical order -- so this isn't used. (Still, you will need to assign a value. Sorry)

Show: If you want the project to appear in the dropdown list, enable this.

Manager: This is the person to whom unassigned new requests will be routed. Upon receiving a notification of a new request, the manager can login, click Unassigned and assume responsibility for the new item or delegate to someone else.

Company: This allows work requests to be grouped together to support invoicing or other back end processes where all activity for a company or department need to be reported.

Agent: You can ignore this for now. It's for a future release.

Status: Currently we have Planning, Active, Completed, On Hold and Cancelled. Only Planning and Active projects will appear in the front-end. This allows you to create multiple phases of an entire effort, but only show those portions that are current.

Credit Hours: The concept here is to allow project managers to assign a specific number of hours allocated for this project phase. When making an assignment to someone, it is important they understand the budget estimate for the entire project. In the next release, timelog hours in any task will be deducted from the total credit hours in the project. As new tasks are added for the same project, the balance will be visible.

Assign Rights to Users

After a few projects have been created, and assuming you have users in the system who you want to associate with projects, now you are ready to assign projects.

This is one of the "less attractive" portion of Taskhopper -- we realize this and plan to address it soon. We have released it in this state to gather input from people like you. Ideally, we'll be doing something that's group-based, but for now, you'll need to assign individual rights to each person for each project.

Click Users will bring up a list of all users in your system. If you're mixing Joomla users with non-Taskhoppers, then the list will show you names you don't care about. This was one of the debates we had prior to this release. Should registered users appear here? Well, they do. Anyone in your Joomla user table will appear here.

For anyone not handling tasks, just ignore them and they will not be able to see anything that goes on within the TH system. (However, if you make your modules Registered, then Registered users will see those modules -- even though none of the task items will be visible. If you want to separate those, you could allow non-TH'ers to be Registered, then set the modules and all TH'ers to Special (Authors or above)).

Because Taskhopper was built for people in different locations, the first configurable item in the user rights record is their location. When people are online handling requests, their location and their current time will appear. If everyone happens to be in the same location, let's say it's being using to run a political campaign, the location field could be used to indicate their title. Then you might see something like, Fred (Public Relations) in the TH Online module.

Once you have assigned all the necessary rights, click the update and that person will be able to manipulate those aspects of the projects.

Set Taskhopper defaults (Options)

Next go to Components>TaskHopper and select Options from the Administrator Menu. Here you will have three fields to complete: 

	System name
	Reply to address
	Where to send guest requests

The system name is whatever your site is about. We could have grabbed the site name from the Joomla DB, but we wanted to give you the flexibility to call it something specific, perhaps a subset of whatever the site is about. If Taskhopper is being used to help a local person get elected to a public office, then Frank For Mayor might be the system name. If this is a support component within a client's site, then Client_Name Support. This will appear as from From item in email notifications.

Reply to address is the email address that will be used in the event users hit REPLY to a notification. No, Taskhopper does not currently monitor an email address to automatically append (or start) new items. The email notification is only a convenience so you know something has changed in the system. (You might want to start all notifications with PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS ... unless of course you're ok with them replying.

Where to send guest requests is the default project that guest items will go to. For something like this, it's best to add a project that is controlled by a person in charge of all projects. They can then reassign/delegate the item after reviewing.

Changing notification messages

Each time something changes in Taskhopper, at least two email notifications are sent: 1.) The owner and 2.) The person to whom the work was assigned. (If there is not assigned_to, then it goes to the manager of that project)

Messages are all template based so you can customize for your industry/language/style.

You'll find these files in:

components/com_thopper/inc/template

Here you will find eight text files. The default will have some generic layout, something that's usually good enough for testing purposes. However you will want to modify these based on who will be the recipients of these notifications. (Here are some samples)

Tip: On some hosts, the use of a Joomla installer script will assign file rights to Apache. In this case, you will not be able to modify any files/dirs installed for Taskhopper. If you send a note to your host, you can ask them to assign these files to you. In our next release, we'll include a utility to overcome this potential issue.