Reporting, statistics, Gantt, security and much more
After less than one month from last release, here is a brand new Twproject version with exciting new features.
Reporting
Your project data are carefully collected and maintained by Twproject and this represents on of the most valuable aspect of Twproject adoption.
How can you extract your data and present it to your users? Actually Twproject has several pages with dynamic filtering capabilities that extract meaningful data, but a customizable reporting systems was missing…. until now!
On version 5.5 we have integrated Jasper Reports, one of most powerful reporting engine. Jasper reports add the capability to create your reports in minutes using an intuitive graphical editor.
Reports are integrated with the flexible Twproject security structure in an easy and practical way, without forcing users to write complex query and rules.
Here a screenshot from the report writer Jaspersoft Studio
and a couple of reports
Gantt
Thanks to a contribution of “BestKen” to our open source jQuery Gantt editor (see jQuery Gantt editor – collapsible branches) this version includes a nice new feature, collapsible branches:
Statistics
On task data, there are more statistical information available: ideal trend, worklog aggregated, and worklog done
the visual comparison between trend and aggregation makes you get at a glance the project’s “health”.
This is the first step in introducing earned value management, that will be completed in one of the forthcoming releases.
Repository
In this version we introduced some new features related to security.
In Twproject you can upload files on tasks, issues, resources and so on. Uploaded files are indexed, for full-text searching, and then saved to a repository. Now you can choose between three different kinds of storage: folder, encrypted folder or database.
In the first case uploaded files are copied as-is on a folder or network disk.
In the second case, files are encrypted using a AES key, and then saved on the same folder. File decryption is automatic when you need to access the file from Twproject, but the file itself remain encrypted on the repository. There are tools for generating AES keys and for encrypting existing files.
In the third case, files are stored on a database table as BLOB data.
Note: existing files will use its original type and will not be touched.
Security
- We have introduced a seal for every document that allows you to send a link to a friend (even without having a Twproject user defined). This link will be valid for 24 hours only, so that the risk of “leaks” will be reduced. Moreover the seal keep your repository safer, making harder an url guessing attack.
- Another minor security improvement has been introduced for the LDAP mixed authentication. This authentication modality is useful in companies where Twproject is used by internal and external users at the same time. Sometimes a large company uses the LDAP authentication to make the user’s life better, allowing a single login name and password for multiple systems (and also to have a single point for password policy management). Actually Twproject can be used not exclusively by internal users, but also by consultants or third party suppliers that are involved in projects but are not present in the LDAP server (for several good reason 🙂 ). In this case Twproject can use a fallback to its internal authentication using its internal database. Now we can force LDAP users to do not fallback; internal user MUST authenticate on LDAP, external ones will fallback.
Bugs fixed and little features:
- full search on plan comments
- search on agenda events using “a:…”
- IE fix on large auto-sizing notes fields
- fix for jdk 1.7 in some comparators
- a stylish background, and smoother colors
