Hey Orangescrummers! We’re excited to announce that we have released the new and improved version of our open-source product with a completely revamped UI, advanced features like stability controls for your project management. 

Orangescrum is a robust, simple to use and free project management software that allows teams to collaborate in real time. 

Manage your team and their tasks with Orangescrum. Get notifications on the progress of tasks, both in real-time, as well as after they are completed.

With this system you can track all important information about your team’s work and get a complete picture of what is happening across the organization at any given time. 

Orangescrum still offers the SaaS/Cloud edition and an option to upgrade the Community (Open-source) Edition to Enterprise Self Hosted. 

Orangescrum open-source is a flexible project management web application written in CakePHP. 

The new features, enhancements, and updates are released on a regular basis.

Pull requests and bug reports by contributors are always welcome!

Offering Features

Orangescrum provides a rich set of features for Project Management.

The key features are:

• Task Management
  • Task Groups
  • Tasks
  • Task Type
  • Task View
    • Calendar View
    • List View
  • Task Due Date
  • Task Tracking
• Time Log
• Reports & Analytics
• Email Notifications
• Import & Export
• Project Collaboration
• Default Status Workflow
• Default User Role Management

Task List View

Add/Edit Task Form View

Task Details View

Project Card View

Dashboard View

System Requirements

• Apache with mod_rewrite
  • Enable curl in php.ini
  • Change the ‘post_max_size’ and upload_max_filesize to 200Mb in php.ini
• PHP 7.2
• cakephp 2.8
• MySQL 5.6 or 5.7
  • If STRICT mode is On, turn it Off.

Installation

• Extract the archive the downloaded package. Upload the extracted folder(orangescrum-master) to your working directory.
• Provide proper write permission to “app/Config”, “app/tmp” and “app/webroot” folders and their sub-folders. Ex. chmod -R 0777 app/Config, chmod -R 0777 app/tmp, chmod -R 0777 app/webroot You can change the write permission of “app/Config” folder after installation procedure is completed.
• Create a new MySQL database named “orangescrum”(utf8_unicode_ci collation).
• Get the database.sql file from the root directory and import that to your database.
• Locate your app directory, do the changes on following files:
  • app/Config/database.php – We have already updated the database name as “Orangescrum” which you can change at any point. In order to change it, just create a database using any name and update that name as database in DATABASE_CONFIG section. And also you can set a password for your Mysql login which you will have to update in the same page as password. [Required]
• Run the application as https://www.your-site.com/ from your browser and start using Orangescrum

For more information please visit Orangescrum Open-source Installation guide. 

Updates

New features, enhancements, and updates appear on a regular basis. You just need to follow these checkpoints:

• Make sure to take a backup of your database and files Replace all files in your directory with the updated version.

Users can able to find the latest releases at Orangescrum Github Repository.

Community

If you need help with Orangescrum, want to know about enhancements that are coming out or just want to be up-to-date on the latest changes and updates, then join our community forum.

You can also subscribe to our newsletter which will include any important announcements and releases. 

Report bugs

Did you find a bug? please create an issue for it before starting any work on a pull request.

About Orangescrum Open-source

Orangescrum open-source project management software is ideal for small teams or for individual usage to manage our customers’ information, projects. 

We deployed this community version for our premium users and many other organizations, who deployed it on their servers as well. 

Our open-source edition is managed in the same way as our cloud-hosted and self-hosted options, which all use the same code base.

So feel free to use it in your organization or business!

Hello, Orangescrum’ers! We are back with another update for you. Now users invite guest users to your projects and share the overall progress status with these guest users.

To ensure your successful support for our product, we have eagerly created the solution you want at Orangescrum.

Thank you once again to everyone who contributed by presenting and sharing their views on this feature.

Orangescrum has always understood very well the needs of its customers and what is best for them.

All subsequent updates are designed to improve Orangescrum’s efficiency and simplify the project workflow.

Recently, we released the Custom fields, Timesheet update, Resource Skillset, and this time we are back with “Guest User”.

Guest User

Some others call it “Guest Reviewer”. The guest user feature in project management software allows the registered guests to provide feedback or comments within the system.

Somehow, these guest users are not given full access as other users do have in the project management tool.

Their accesses are limited within the tool and allowed to make minimum proofing activities like adding comments to tasks, review project plans, etc.

Key Features of Guest Users in Oranagescrum

• Users do not have to upgrade their plan to provide project progress view to external users.
• You can set access or revoke access for guest users
• The project-based sensitive data are safe as guest users have view-only access
• Guest users can submit comments and reviews on project status
• View Project-based files
• View overall Project Progress
• Project status monitoring
• And much more

Uses Tips:

• This is a subscription-based feature
• You can invite limited guest users to your organizational subscription
• In the Orangescrum Startup plan, you can invite up to 5 guest users
• In the Professional plan, it depends on how much user subscription the organization has adopted. Ex: If an organization has taken 20 user subscriptions, then the organization can have 10 guest users

How to invite Guest User

It is the same process to follow as admin users used to invite other users to a project.

On the user role dropdown, you just select “Guest” and submit the invitation. The invited user can join to the Organgescrum using the invitation email link.

How to Restrict Access to Guest User

Guest users define themselves as limited access-based users. Still, in Orangescrum you can set access control on the User role management page.

Go to the User role management page and select the default group.

You can find the Guest on the drop-down list. And click on the “Guest”.

Then the action control drop-down menu will be visible under the Guest layer. The action controllers are Task Action, Timelog Action, File Action, Invoice Action, etc.

Now click on each action controller menu to see the detailed controller option.

Example: When you click on the Task Action controller menu, you can find the task management-related controller options; such as View, Manage, Delete, etc.

Users can easily select or de-select the controller option using the same menu.

As per the requirement, the admin can set or revoke the access to perform the guest user activities.

Spent hours column in task list page

We also have added the spent hour column on the task details page. So the user can see the spent hours for each task.

To enable this column, users must enable this feature by using the hide-show button.

Previously, there were only the estimated hour details listed on the task details page.

Task group filter in task list page

On the same task detail page, we have added the task group filter as well.

Now users can filter the task group using the    icon.

The benefit of having Guest users in the project lifecycle

Guest review functionality present in the Project management software is created to give you a perfect balance between visibility and security. You can easily share all the important files with the people you want to share with, without hampering the security of your sensitive project information.

However, without guest review, you are getting the option to give the stakeholders more access or no access at all.

But if you are giving access to the stakeholder, you are creating the possibility of sharing the information with those who don’t have any proper authority. This adds extra cost for the software, by forcing you to buy more licenses.

But if you don’t give any access to the guest, people force themselves to get reviews from outside the system. It will result in many consequences, such as

•  Requests from duplicates
•  Communication lost
•  Several versions of a file
• Incomplete audit trail
• Slow down the approval cycles

Using the Software Management Tools you are not only maintaining all the files and reviews, but you can also create a central repository of documents.

If you or your team look for any files, you are going to get them at a particular location for every file. There is no need to ask someone to send it to you or get worried that it is not placed in the right location.

You can also link the files with the tasks, this will help you to monitor and keep a report on the progress.

With this function, it becomes easier to check if the file is still waiting for approval or it’s reverted back to the creator for edits, etc.

In addition, guests can directly mark the digital files, which gives a clear understanding of the required changes.
This creates less chance of miscommunication and reduces the time-consuming tasks of teams such as collecting the feedback and cross-referencing separate files, emails, comments, and more.

Using the guest review functionality, you can create a secure invitation for the external collaborators to review the chosen files. This is to ensure that no anonymous user without authority can access your files or system.

The invitation creates a limitation on who can review, and the roles prevent sharing, forwarding, or printing the files. These are a lot more than just sending the files through email.

Also looking at the security point of view, the guest review also offers the feature of password protection, permissions control and access expiration.

Guest User FAQs

What does it mean to be a Guest in an Organization?

A project management software provides the guest user the access to review the project. The guest user can provide comments and feedback within the system.

These guest users were not given full access, unlike other users in project management tools.

They get limited access within the Software Management Tools. They are allowed for minimum proofing activities such as, adding comments to the tasks, reviewing the project plans, etc.

What access can a guest user get in an organization?

The guests have limited access in the organization. The guest can view only when access is given to them

• If the admin share a task: the guest will be able to see the task
• If a project is shared with the guest: the guest will have access to the task and the project.

Do I have to pay for Guests in an Organization?

No, the guest doesn’t have to pay any cost. The admin can add the guest free of cost. However, the admin can only add a limited number of guests.

What’s the difference between a Guest and a Limited Access Member?

There is no difference between a limited access member and a guest. Both the limited access member and guest can only access limited functions that are approved by the admin.

Can Guests see each other in an Organization?

No, the guest cannot see other guests in an organization. The admin doesn’t share that type of access with the guest user.

Who can invite Guests to an Organization?

The admin can only add the guest user. The access to add the guest user can be done by the admin itself.

Can a Guest become an Admin of an Organization?

Yes, the guest can be changed into an admin. This is possible only when the admin can add the guest as admin.

Can I convert a Guest to a Member or vice versa?

No, the guest cannot be added as a member. The guest user can only be converted as an admin.

Customer feedback is the only constant!

One good thing about 2020 was more and more customer interactions and feedback calls @Orangescrum.

There was a significant rise in the number of customers who wanted to make Orangescrum the best version of itself and unleash its potential at full throttle.

There were a lot of positive feedback that led to performance optimization, minor tweaks to existing features and user experience optimization.

Our task list and subtask view are the most loved and of course the most used pages.

We decided to revisit the look of the existing task list page and make it furthermore modern.

Here is a glimpse of the “upcoming task list view”

As a result December 2020 was dedicated to optimization and customer feedbacks only!

Some notable enhancements that has set the tone for Q1 2021 at Orangescrum are

• Resource Utilization Report
• Email to Task
• User Performance Dashboard

Stay tuned to these exciting releases in the coming weeks!

Till then, continue to use Orangescrum and keep sharing your valuable inputs!

As always, we cannot THANK YOU enough!

Continuing the drive to constantly improve project & team collaboration, Orangescrum now offers @mention to tag teammates, tasks and sub tasks.

@mentions have been a proven means of prompt timely communication while working with large project teams.

It is particularly helpful when you are working on a task that requires inputs from multiple collaborators.

You can now use the @mention within Orangescrum tasks.

• Tag team members as well as other related tasks and subtasks
• Mention them from task description and while replying or posting comments to tasks.

You can now quickly access the users of the project and tag team members who may or may not be directly involved in the task.

Improve Team Collaboration with @Mention in Orangescrum

Try it free

So, seeking inputs or asking for help becomes lot easier without having to assign a task to the concerned team member.

Let’s take a quick “how to” instructions for using @mentions within Orangescrum.

How to use @mention feature in Orangescrum?

@mention feature can be used in task description and comments. In order to use this feature, you can follow the below steps-

In Task description-

• Click on +Quick Links> Tasks under New menu.
• On the Create task form, go to the description field; add your description and type ‘@’, auto-suggestion of the names of team in that project would appear.
• Provide details such as task title, type, task linking etc. You can tag the tasks or any team member as required and click on Save.
  

• Once the task is created, people added in that task description box will get an email notification regarding this task.

In Task Reply or Comments-

• Navigate to task listing page of the project and select on specific task for which you want to add a comment or reply.
• In the task detail page, navigate to reply section, add your message and type ‘@’. Auto-suggestion will appear adding showing tasks and team members in that project. Once reply is added click on Comment button to add the comment.
  
• Use @ to quickly get the list of users as well as tasks to tag them in your comment.
• Once the task comment is added, people added in the comment will get an email notification regarding this task and its comments.

Users can get access to mentions by clicking on @Mentions in the left main menu of the tool.

You can access all @mentions from one central listing page and respond to them intuitively without having to navigate to other task views.

Hence, task responses and communication is faster, leading to improved collaboration and task management.

Summary

Task execution and overall project management are directly dependent on seamless collaboration. Also, productivity takes a hit if collaboration isn’t accorded enough importance. The key lies in exchange of timely responses between team members to move tasks to closure.

In-time progress and completion of tasks encourages teams to collaborate more and deliver project goals faster.

And @mentions are a great way to remove any cogs from your project execution wheel across all levels!

Still stuck with complex task management steps, delayed task responses and tasks missing their deadlines?

Fix all of these with smart collaboration using @mentions with Orangescrum!