Added User Group feature and more

Today Project Hours has been updated with some new features:

• User groups. It is now possible to define user groups and add users to specific groups. When downloading a report, user groups can be specified. In this way reports per user group, i.e. company department, are possible. 
• Administrators can now update the organisation name.
• Administrators can set users to inactive. This is useful, for instance when users leave the organisation. 
• When logging in in Demo mode, you are logged in with admin rights. In this way all features except for user management are available in demo mode.
• The Report Download page has been redesigned and now has a responsive layout.

That's is for now!

Bert-Jan

New Trial Period Registration Page added to Project Hours

Today the new registration page for Project Hours went live. On this page you can sign-up for a two-month trial for your organisation or just for yourself.

Previously new users had to send a request via email and I would create an account to start with. This is now automated with the new form:

It was fun to build, notice the Google reCaptcha checkbox that makes sure the page will not be abused by automated scripts.

Bert-Jan

ProjectHours iPhone app available!

From today the Project Hours Time Registration iPhone app is available for download! I tried it out on an iPhone 5, the only thing I don't like is splash screen that is displayed when the app starts up, something to fix in the next update.  Also, iOS 10.1 is required.. Users can update their phones, I wonder how many users already have iOS 10.1 installed..



Next is to update the ProjectHours website with links to the new mobile phone apps..

Bert-Jan

Added Demo Login to Mobile Apps

I updated the  mobile apps for  Android and  Windows 10 with a link to login with a demo account. Now everybody can try out the apps!  ProjectHours Demo Video:

 

I also signed up for the Apple Developer Program. As soon as enrollment is completed I will be able to publish the iPhone app for ProjectHours!

Bert-Jan

Project Hours Windows 10 app published!

Today the Project Hours Windows 10 app went live.. Available on PC and Win 10 mobile, this Universal Windows Platform app allows for easy time tracking with the Project Hours system. iPhone app is next..

ProjectHours Android App published!

Today I published the ProjectHours Android App to the Android Play store! I developed the app in Visual Studio using the Xamarin cross-platform dev environment. This environment allows for developing one code base in C# that can be published to Android phones, Iphones and Windows laptops, pc's and phones. This works especially good for relatively simple productivity apps such as the projecthours app. If it gets more complicated it is more difficult to write  code that works on all platforms, because each platform has its own specifics (specific UI elements for instance).
To find out more about Project Hours time registration, visit our web site: https://projecthours.net

KnockOutJS makes for a smooth UI experience

On a lazy sunday afternoon I finished updating the site http://nksbieb.cloudapp.net/ This site is used by the Dutch Castle Society to search their library and archives for books on castles.

I used the KnockOutJS client side scripting library to give this little website  a smooth feel without post-backs that refresh the entire page.

That's it for now!
Bert-Jan

HTML and CSS tab pages

So, back from holiday, back to coding!
ProjectHours is not the only project I am working on. Currently I am updating a small web site Nks Bieb . The site searches a list of books on content about castles. This is for the library and archives of the Dutch Castle Society.

Currently the site only contains a list of library books. I am going to add a list of archived books as well. I want to add a tab control with a tab 'Library' and 'Archive' so users can choose where to search.
Read how to create HTML and CSS tab pages here: W3Schools.com How To Create TAB pages

Bert-Jan

Power BI to create reports for ProjectHours

I am looking for a way to provide extended reporting for Project Hours data. It should be possible for users to use some predefined reports or explore project and activity data and create reports themselves. Microsoft's Power BI solution offers this:  Azure and Power BI

I think even the free options in Power BI suffice to provide nice reports. And Power BI is available on mobile phones too..

Adding project archiving and filtering for reports

Today I worked on adding an archiving option and a report filter to project and activities in ProjectHours. Users can set set projects to 'inactive'. Inactive projects or activities are read-only. Project without displayInReports set will not be availabe in overviews and reports:

This feature is not availabe live yet, will come soon.
Bert-Jan

CAPTCHA!

I am looking into using a captcha to make it safer for users to sign up to Project Hours Time Tracking.  This component voor MVC will do the trick: https://github.com/tanveery/recaptcha-net

CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart  and is designed to determine if it is a human or a bot that is trying to logon (only humans allowed of course)..


Google's reCAPTCHA is easier  for users than the old images with distorted characters..


The user only has to tick the box to verify she/he is not a robot. How does that work? Robots can also very easily tick boxes, automated UI tests do this every day. Apparantly, Google analyzes the user's behaviour, i.e. the way the cursor moves, and is able to determine whether it concerns  a human or robot. More explanation in this stackoverflow thread: How does the new reCAPTCHA work

Bert-Jan

Adding Invoicing to ProjectHours.Net

Based on feedback I decided that ProjectHours Time Tracking needs an invoicing system. I think I will add an instance of an open source system. Invoice Plan Open Source Invoicing System looks like the perfect candidate.. Must add a Dutch version of course.

Dutch version live!

Today the Dutch version of projecthours,  https://projecthours.net/nl went live! Check it out and send feedback to info@projecthours.net.

LinkedIn company page created.

I  created a product page for ProjectHours on LinkedIn: ProjectHours LinkedIn Company Page

Added SSL encryption and Updated DNS settings

I updated the DNS entries for the projecthours domain.

https://www.projecthours.net now goes immediately to the site instead of a redirect to the azurewebsites.net address. I hope this will make the site more visible in Google.

Also bought and installed an SSL certificate for projecthours.com. 

New Info page ready

Today the new info page with demo video has been released! Try Project Hours Info Page to see what it looks like. I also added meta tags with key words to improve visibility in Google.

It is now possible to sign up for a trial period to try out Project Hours...

Next I will work on a form to sign up for a trial period (now it is only a email link). This will allow for people to sign up and try out the system immediately.

Bert-Jan

Project Hours Development Blog Started Today!

For a year or so now I have worked on a time tracking system, http://projecthours.net. It all started when my wife, who is working for the Dutch Castle Society, had  to select a time management system for their organisation.She coudn't find a suitable system, most systems were either too expensive, or did not offer the features she was looking for.

I did not hesitate and offered to build a new system. And so it started. In october 2015 I had some basic features developed and time tracking for the Dutch Castle Society could start. After that, I added more features such as reports and administrative functions.

The web site is available in Dutch and English, and is designed to display on big screens but also on mobile phones.

Now the time has come to make Project Hours available for other organisations. Soon I will add some pages where users can view an online demo and sign up for a trial period.

Online Demo

Bert-Jan