Alternatives to projectGenie

By chris, posted on Mar 12th 2008

It’s been so long since I posted anything here I’m embarrassed. However work on the next version of projectGenie (Brookmeyer) continues - albeit at glacial pace. I’ve been speaking with a couple of people recently about making it properly open-source, so that anyone can contribute to the project. I’m currently investigating options for that and will hopefully have some time to do something about it.

In the meantime the world still needs project management, so here’s a long list of both web and desktop software that may help you to organise your projects and tasks: http://tutorialblog.org/freelancers-manage-your-projects/

The mountain keeps growing

By chris, posted on Jul 18th 2007

You know that lack of time I was talking about? It’s now even more lacking. However despite that I have had chance to spend some time on the upcoming Brookmeyer release, and have finally nailed three important parts.

So from that you can tell I’ve made quite a bit of progress. There’s a long way to go, I still have almost every page to shuffle round so it looks better and is easier to use, but progress has been made.

In the meantime I have a bit of technical know-how that might help you out. A couple of projectGenie users have complained that they get SQL errors after installing the current version. If that’s you then don’t panic, it’s a problem to do with the configuration file (fixed in the new version to come). Going to ‘Configuration’ and clicking the update button (you don’t need to change anything, just click the button) will re-jig your installation and sort it right out.

Time, and the lack thereof

By chris, posted on Jun 11th 2007

Hmm. Things didn’t go according to plan this weekend. There was such a lot of client work to do I didn’t get time to do anything on Brookmeyer, the new version of projectGenie Which means I’m badly behind schedule, which means I won’t meet the (self-imposed) deadline on Thursday.

It’s a shame, but then I did set myself an almost impossible task. The good news is I’ve made loads of progress by giving myself a really short amount of time to Get Something Done, and I’m fired up to get even more done very soon. So, hopefully, it won’t be long before I’m cutting the digital ribbon on a whole new version.

Until then, if you’re one of the people looking forward to trying out Brookmeyer, then sorry. You’ll have to wait a little bit longer.

Learning from the gurus

By chris, posted on Jun 8th 2007

There is less than a week to go to the release of version Brookmeyer of projectGenie. In quite what state I’ll drag myself across the line I’m not sure, but I’m fairly pleased with progress. The install, database, templating, security and application modules are done, so I’m now just faced with modifying the actual display screens to be easier to use.

Speaking of user interfaces, those clever blokes over at 37signals have updated the dashboard of Basecamp again. Basecamp is their insanely popular project management system (over 1 million people have signed up!) and is a huge inspiration to me. Basecamp is projectGenie’s main competitor, but seeing as I’m giving my software away for free, and they host theirs and take care of all the technical headaches, we’re not quite in the same market.

Their dashboard is now better than ever. Here’s a quick list of some of the goodies are;

As I mentioned, projectGenie and Basecamp are targeted at two different markets (OK, projectGenie isn’t really targeted at any market) so while there’s a lot to learn from the masters of lean, mean web applications, I won’t be copying it wholesale. That would be bad-mannered. Instead I’m going to try to be a little more selective in the graphical elements and layouts I choose (less icons, more simple lists, group things logically).

And, who knows, I may even get it done by the deadline.

Changes of plan

By chris, posted on Jun 4th 2007

So there I was, knee-deep in PHP and wondering what the hell I was thinking to set myself a challenge like this. To write, basically from scratch, a new version of a quite complex web application in just over 10 days. As if that’s not mad enough, I had other clients that need to be serviced as well. Life doesn’t stop just because of my whims.

So, depsite me saying that I wasn’t going to look at the templating system for projectGenie this time round, guess what I’ve done? That’s right, rewritten the templating system. Oh, and the installer.

There is method in my madness, you see. By having a better installer means that (hopefully) people will find it easier to start playing with projectGenie. I’m forever thinking about the users, me. And by sorting out the templating system (OK, so it’s a hybrid of a proper object-oriented templating system and my old procedural system) I can produce the rest of the system screens much more easily.

I’ve also added a simple database class so that I have a single point of failure, I mean access, to the database. And the menus are now dynamic, so people who aren;t meant to see certain section now can’t. Hurrah.

Still, to think that I’ve not even started on the list of things I’d said I’d do for version Brookmeyer … it’s a ludicrous escapade. If I make it I’ll be amazed.

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