Mar
28
2011
Google Docs Integration, Site Redesign, and More
by
We would like to apologize for the long delay since our last blog
entry but have lots of exciting news to report. The main changes
from the last few months are our integration with Google Docs
and our site redesign.
Google Docs Integration
If you use Google Docs, you will be happy to know that you can now attach your Google Docs files to the items you create in TeamWork Live (i.e., milestones, tasks, documents, comments, and messages) and share them with your team members and clients just like regular files. In addition, with our integration with the Google Cloud Connect plugin, you can open Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in Microsoft Office and sync your changes back to TeamWork Live without having to reupload the file. Please take a look at our Google Docs Integration page for more information about getting started with this exciting new feature.
Site Redesign
We have completely redesigned the TeamWork Live website. Not only is the new site easier on the eyes, but we have added additional support functionalities to help us better serve you. Our new support page allows us to better track your support requests and get back to you more quickly. We have added a feature requests section that allows you to request new features, vote on your favorite features, and track the status of existing feature requests. Your suggestions and votes will help guide our development. We also added an improved bug tracker that will allow you to quickly see any outstanding bugs. We hope you like the new design.
Membership Plans
We have now added a Max Plan which gives you 999 users for $249/month. The new plan allows you to use TeamWork Live knowing that it will still be reasonably priced even when you grow to a large number of users.
Miscellaenous Improvements
1. You can now specify from your preferences whether to include the client's name, the project name, or both to be included in the subject of notification emails. This will help you in keeping the notification emails organized in your email inbox.
2. The profile page for a team member now include links to view the team member's personal calendar, milestones, and tasks.
3. You can now request that a copy of the invitation email that you send to your clients be sent to you via email.
4. You can now export your clients list as a CSV file that can be opened in Microsoft Excel.
API Improvements
We have added support for uploading files and attaching Google Docs file using our API.
Platform Improvements
We spent a significant amount of time improving software platform on which TeamWork Live is built. While these changes are not immediately noticeable, you will be able to see its effect over the next several months as we will be improving on the existing features and adding many new ones. For those of you who are interested, the changes we made our platform include:
1. We switched our JavaScript library from Prototype to JQuery. We have found JQuery to be much better supported and to have many more available plugins. The switch should allow us to add UI functionality more quickly that before.
2. We have refactored our AJAX calls so that they return JSON responses. This makes it easier for our developers to add new functionalities.
Mobile Update
We had begun work on an iPhone application but we have now put it on hold because of changes in Apple's subscription policy. The main issue is that Apple requires companies that offer subscription services to use Apple's new payment system. Apple takes a 30% cut from the subscriptions, which is fine except that they require that subscriptions be priced the same whether the subscriber comes from Apple or not. As a result, it will mean that our regular subscribers would be subsidizing the cost for subscribers that come through Apple. Until Apple changes this rule, we will be exploring creating a mobile web version instead. The mobile version will be able to run on any phone with a browser including iPhone and Android.
Thank you again for your continued support and we look forward to sharing many more improvements with you soon.
Google Docs Integration
If you use Google Docs, you will be happy to know that you can now attach your Google Docs files to the items you create in TeamWork Live (i.e., milestones, tasks, documents, comments, and messages) and share them with your team members and clients just like regular files. In addition, with our integration with the Google Cloud Connect plugin, you can open Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in Microsoft Office and sync your changes back to TeamWork Live without having to reupload the file. Please take a look at our Google Docs Integration page for more information about getting started with this exciting new feature.
Site Redesign
We have completely redesigned the TeamWork Live website. Not only is the new site easier on the eyes, but we have added additional support functionalities to help us better serve you. Our new support page allows us to better track your support requests and get back to you more quickly. We have added a feature requests section that allows you to request new features, vote on your favorite features, and track the status of existing feature requests. Your suggestions and votes will help guide our development. We also added an improved bug tracker that will allow you to quickly see any outstanding bugs. We hope you like the new design.
Membership Plans
We have now added a Max Plan which gives you 999 users for $249/month. The new plan allows you to use TeamWork Live knowing that it will still be reasonably priced even when you grow to a large number of users.
Miscellaenous Improvements
1. You can now specify from your preferences whether to include the client's name, the project name, or both to be included in the subject of notification emails. This will help you in keeping the notification emails organized in your email inbox.
2. The profile page for a team member now include links to view the team member's personal calendar, milestones, and tasks.
3. You can now request that a copy of the invitation email that you send to your clients be sent to you via email.
4. You can now export your clients list as a CSV file that can be opened in Microsoft Excel.
API Improvements
We have added support for uploading files and attaching Google Docs file using our API.
Platform Improvements
We spent a significant amount of time improving software platform on which TeamWork Live is built. While these changes are not immediately noticeable, you will be able to see its effect over the next several months as we will be improving on the existing features and adding many new ones. For those of you who are interested, the changes we made our platform include:
1. We switched our JavaScript library from Prototype to JQuery. We have found JQuery to be much better supported and to have many more available plugins. The switch should allow us to add UI functionality more quickly that before.
2. We have refactored our AJAX calls so that they return JSON responses. This makes it easier for our developers to add new functionalities.
Mobile Update
We had begun work on an iPhone application but we have now put it on hold because of changes in Apple's subscription policy. The main issue is that Apple requires companies that offer subscription services to use Apple's new payment system. Apple takes a 30% cut from the subscriptions, which is fine except that they require that subscriptions be priced the same whether the subscriber comes from Apple or not. As a result, it will mean that our regular subscribers would be subsidizing the cost for subscribers that come through Apple. Until Apple changes this rule, we will be exploring creating a mobile web version instead. The mobile version will be able to run on any phone with a browser including iPhone and Android.
Thank you again for your continued support and we look forward to sharing many more improvements with you soon.
3 comments
Tuyen TruongApr 7 '11
We really appreciate all your support! We have many exciting things
in the pipeline and I expect this year to be the best yet as far as
improvements to TeamWork Live.
John W.Apr 21 '12
I just voted for the feature request to support Google folders
(collections) with linking. For example, need to review 25
documents to see what data is of use - would be great to put all 25
docs in a collection and link to it from the task. We are also
looking at a competing product which supports this but isn't as
sharp in other ways as your product.
John W.Apr 23 '12
OR ... you could allow Google folders (collections) to be easily
added in your Folders.
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