Hero Inc.

[Translate to Italian]

With the recent addition of a few sister sites joining the Hero Inc. hosting family, I’ve needed a “ticketing” system in order to assist the admins of those sites in opening tasks for my sites and theirs. These tasks could be as simple as creating subdomains or email addresses for new users to building new images for the most recent posts.

The “ticketing” system needed to be simple, easy to integrate, and of course free. After a few simple Google searches, I settled on Collabtive. The install was simple and it ran on MySQL. I was fearful of much of the development and blog posts being in Italian, but Google solved this problem for me.

After working with the Collabtive system, known internal to me as Hero Inc. PMS (yes, insert jokes and laughter here), I found it really did everything I needed. But earlier this week, I found one weakness. It did not notify the person assigning a task or those assigned to a task that it had been closed even when notifications were enabled. Google searches showed that I was not alone in wanting this feature added. With my minor coding background I decided to give the feature a shot. Thankfully the Collabtive team did an amazing job of organizing their code. A few code changes and corrective misspellings in my code later, I had the result that I wanted.

For those interested, here is how you can update your environment to include the following feature updates:

• Email assigner when a task is created
• Email assigner and assignees when a task is edited
• Email assigner and assignees when a task is closed
• Modify the notification text for the emails sent for created, edited, and closed tasks

1. Update the Collabtive environment to the latest release. At the time of this post, the latest version is 0.6.5.
2. Update the Collabtive MySQL database to add a new column, “assigner”, to the “tasks” table. The “assigner” column should be of type Integer just as it is for the user ID.
3. Update all tasks to contain a default ID for an assigner. This will ensure that when older tasks are closed or edited that Collabtive does not fail in sending notifications.

   UPDATE `tasks` SET assigner= [INSERT DEFAULT USER ID HERE] 
   WHERE assigner = 0 OR assigner IS NULL;

4. Download the files I modified.
5. Update your Collabtive directory with the following files in the appropriate location:

   /managetask.php
   /include/class.task.php
   /language/en/lng.conf

For those not using English as the default language, the following additions need to be made to the appropriate lng.conf file:

• projectassignedsubject
• projectassignedtext
• taskassignedsubject
• taskassignedtext
• taskassignersubject
• taskassignertext
• taskclosedsubject
• taskupdatedsubject
• taskupdatedtext

That’s it. The environment is now setup to send the notifications as needed. I’ve tested the changes in my environment and didn’t have any issues. If anyone follows these instructions and encounters issues/bugs, please leave a comment and let me know.

UPDATE NOTE (2011-02-20): I’ve made a recent update to my work stated here. Go here to read more about the latest change.

UPDATE NOTE (2011-02-27): I just realized there was an error in the close task functionality and emails were being sent to the user that has an ID of 1. I’ve updated the code referenced in this post to include a fix for the getAssigner function. Please let me know if you run into any additional issues.

Everyday, I have a 45 minute commute (each way) to my current work client. Previously, I was using a multitude of podcasts to deal with the daily grind. However, I recently moved away from just podcasts to audiobooks thanks to the deal for 2 free audiobooks from Audible.com (courtesy of TWIT).

I was introduced to audiobooks first through the Harry Potter novels (I highly recommend listening to Jim Dale as a narrator) and then most recently enjoyed Catch-22. For those who have not tried audiobooks, it is very different from reading a book yourself. I see it more as reverting back to a little kid as someone else (who’s better skilled at doing so) reads you a story. It really becomes all about the quality of the story as well as the way the reader reads the story (Are their voices for various characters? Is the voice pleasant to hear? Does the voice not sound like your own? [See Seinfeld episode]).

	Before Daemon, the list of authors I enjoyed was narrowed to simply Michael Crichton and Chuck Palahniuk. However, after hearing Daemon being recommended multiple times by Leo Laporte and friends, I decided to finally break down and give it a try. Upon finishing the book, I’m extremely glad that I did. Daemon tells the story of a former computer game programmer / super genius who builds a daemon process that begins killing people in brutal, automated fashion. As more is uncovered about the daemon, it is discovered that there is more to this daemon than just the killings of “innocent” people. When the professional reviews state that this is one of the best techo-thrillers, they really are not kidding. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the book thanks to Suarez’s intense writing and Jeff Gurner’s wonderful narration. There were many times where I was yelling at my radio just like you might when watching a movie alone when you see what is coming for doomed characters. I was so enthralled by the book that I instantly ordered the follow-up (see below) immediately after finishing the book. [Rating: 5/5]
	Don’t continue any further if you are fearful of any possible spoilers.
	Freedom picks up a few months following Daemon. The Daemon is now completely integrated into the entire internet and has built a large population of followers. Many are still trying to destroy the Daemon but are their true motives justified and valid? Those that are followers of the Daemon are a mixed bag themselves as they work to prove that the Daemon is something the world doesn’t need to stop by use to make a better world. As a potential apocalypse of the internet and financial system is on the horizon, can the Daemon’s followers fight to survive and show the world what good the system is capable of doing? While I did enjoy Freedom, it was not at the same high level and grade as Daemon, but it was pretty close. The main interest I had in Freedom was the technology that Suarez so brilliantly described. As Crichton often used truth in science to drive his books, so does Suarez. The technology he describes is possible and seems only a few years away. I am eagerly waiting that day as Suarez’s HUD glasses made me easily want to drop $2,000+ if they were at my local Best Buy today. I also really enjoyed the way in which Suarez provided one of my favorite characters the ability to return from the previous novel. I don’t want to say too much so as not to spoil anything but the manner in which this character returned was very well suited. [Rating: 4.5/5]

Now that I am hooked on audiobooks, I’ve already moved on to my next selection, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, so that I can better prepare myself for watching the Swedish and American movie versions of this book.

What will I listen to after that? Maybe Crichton’s final book, Pirate Latitudes. Maybe Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil (see Our Lady Peace reference).

Anyone have any other suggestions for this particular picky reader/listener?