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Web-Based Task Management
raindog308
Administrator, Veteran
I'm looking for a web-based task management system for a small team.
I know we had a conversation about this a while ago and tree.io came out looking good, but (1) I'm not sure if tree.io will be around in the future, and (2) tree.io runs its own server on port 8000 (or wherever you tell it) and I was looking for something I could put on typical shared hosting. Also I'd like to access it from work periodically so something that runs on http/s would be better.
What I'm looking for is actually really simple:
- Make a list of tasks
- Under those tasks, subtasks. Probably more more than 1-2 levels deep.
- Flag some subtasks as hot/urgent/etc.
- Tasks/subtasks can have attached notes (usually urls or comments)
- Multi-user
- Ajaxy interface to move tasks around. Not sure what I mean by this but I want to be able to order/reorder/recategorize tasks without some time-consuming see-form-and-click-submit thing.
I have 10-15 big categories of tasks, and about 400-500 tasks spread among them.
We could just use a wiki or a Google docs spreadsheet, but the ability to add notes to tasks would be nice.
This is administrative work, not software development, so bug-trackers/issue-trackers aren't really what I want.
Comments
There's trello but it's not self hosted.
I like and use Tracks, but not sure if you can do that on shared hosting.. It's RoR and when I installed it I had to install a boatload of dependencies.
http://asana.com/ huzzah!
We use the heck out of some Asana
I liked bug genie when i checked it out but it might be to much?
Jira is an issue tracker but perhaps that could work?
JIRA only has tasks and subtasks and it stops there in terms of levels. Some plugins to get around it, but not that nice.
JIRA is used as a Task management tool though, not just a issue tracker.
what @t3k9 said. Trello is awesome
Redmine ?
So here are my notes based on explorations this afternoon:
Currently Considering
ToodleDo: I use this app constantly - perhaps 30 times a day I'm in and out of it. Absolutely love it and use it on my phone, too. My whole life is in TD. It does subtasks, priorities, etc. but I'm not sure how well it would work for collaboration. Also, there's no way to hive off this project from the rest of my life. You're limited to Folders->Tasks->Subtasks, and I find the subtasking implementation to be suboptimal, so I'd have to setup a bunch of folders that would be intermingled with all my other stuff (or setup a separate account I suppose, but that would probably break the phone integration).
collabtve: Very nice, but I wish I could reorg tasks in the interface. If you use task lists as the "main task" then you can subtask I suppose. Nice interface, easy to setup. It may be easy to reorg/reorder tasks - the rest of the GUI is so nice I'm sure that's possible but I haven't read the docs yet.
phpprojekt: The .zip also took like a half-hour to unzip...seriously, 16,000+ files? The docs say to run "php composer.phar install" but apparently you don't need to do that...well, the docs aren't great. However I kind of like it, although running on a shared host it's very slow to add (though clicking around seems OK). Easy to add any level of subtask, though reorganizing means a form/submit.
Passed On These
basecamp: hosted and expensive
TaskFreak: I'd forgotten about this oldie/goodie. Looks like it hasn't changed. Not sure if it can do subtasks.
BugGenie: looks nice, but more issue/bug-oriented. BTW, installing in the root of a domain should not require going in and editing .php files - it should just be part of the install.
dotProject: demo is offline, no longer maintained?
ProjectHQ: heck, their whole site is offline
Excel or Google Docs: little more than a glorified notepad in the sky, makes it hard to flag urgent stuff.
Project.net: requires java + oracle. I could actually do that in a VPS but sheesh, I'm planning a project not coordinating Operation Overlord.
ProjectPier: I used this at one time and recall it being pretty primitive GUI-wise, and it hasn't been maintained since 2007
Redmine: I know many use this, but I am not a Ruby guy and I'm not sure how much work it is to get going.
Tree.io: great demo, but no longer maintained?
** Trac**: really more bug/issue oriented
Trello: I didn't get the appeal, though it looks nice for simple things. I have one big task that has maybe 75 small things - I'm not sure how well that would organize.
Still to look at:
asana: hosted - my only worry there is that the company suddenly deadpools.
producteev: again, my only worry
Took at look at http://www.ontimenow.com/ ?
I've been down this road before. I've went through some of the ones you've listed (Redmine, ProjectPier, Trello and Asana). My goal for 2013 is to just get things done and not worry about self-hosted solution. However, I still havent found one I really like. You know what I did like and I found myself using it pretty extensively was Redmine. Unfortunately it's a RoR project and installing it was a nightmare. One of these days I'm going to reinstall it or find someone who can host it for me for cheap.
Found this - free redmine hosting? http://www.hostedredmine.com/
If you need JIRA hosting we do this and can provide some discounts.
at the beginning I also hated redmine mostly just because it is RoR, but since the options is limited (for self hosted), I learn a bit RoR and Redmine & using it now as my standard tool for work. it has many plugins and also some client for MS windows and Ios (but never try it). I can set 1 project to use scrum style in redmine the other with standard etc, nice.
My Second tools (non self hosted) are:
both support unlimited tree depth, you can easily get lost, but its really help to organize tasks when I have many things todo in short time
It might be a bit simple, but I like this: https://github.com/bartaz/taskboard-lite (And it can serve as scrum/kanban board ass well). live demo: http://vps3.sparklingclouds.nl/tk/
Just html, no RoR or PHP or whatever...
I am interested with answers for this. I have headaches trying so many solution and just ended up using email to track.
I believe there is a turnkey linux appliance for both redmine and tracks if you believe the setup is too involved..
Redmine. Just spend some time and install it, it's not that difficult especially if you use bundler. Might be a bit of overkill for what you need tho.
How about rapidtask.com? Tried it once briefly, looked good but I ended up using redmine at the end. I'm not sure if it has all those features and it's not self hosted.
I use Tracks and have installed it without issues on VPS's with 1mg and higher. it doesn't have all of the OP's requirements but has more features than most of the apps mentioned here.
Single user accounts are currently available without charge at tracks.tra.in and other sites shown by Google. I don't advise putting real data on someone else's Tracks server, so consider these only as test accounts.
P.S. Tracks syncs with several mobile apps and formats well for mobile browsers.
I'm throwing in the towel because I just don't want to troubleshoot RoR issues so I went with Bitbucket. For me, I only utilize tickets and not the wiki or doc. Ive used Redmine only because it had a simple interface and was self hosted.
You could try plan.io if you still want redmine.
http://www.podio.com
http://www.getflow.com
TeamLab has a free opensource edition you can download and run on your own server but its Windows only. (download link is at the bottom of their home page). We use their hosted version for all of our company's task management.
wow, that's seriously awesome ! Thanks for that !!!
@SpeedBus In the other topic I posted about the 10k apps (http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/8232/10k-apps-for-your-lowendbox#Item_4) you can find a lot more todo apps. From GTD, to Context, to simple lists, to daily returning task schedulers and such. But this one I find the nicest because the freeforming...
Have any of you guys ever looked into Mind Mapping for keeping things and tasked organized? I have been using it a lot lately to help me with projects, but it is mostly for ideas but can be used for doing stuff too or just keeping stuff in priority and moving it around.
I have had a lot of fun and actual work usage out of Mind Mapping with http://www.mindmeister.com.
It all stems from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
Asana is quite nice. Hosted but totally worth checking out.
Free for up to 30 users.
sweet thanks ! I'll have a look at that
The bug genie, I guess?
Using a combination of Asana & Github here. You can push Asana tasks into Github issues (since my dev mostly works in there).
Try task management software from Replicon. Its cloud and calender based. Designed specifically keeping the user view into consideration.
I've been searching and searching I was also stuck with RoR ... I found a few self hosted ones they weren't for me..
Started to look again and for d this its from 2011 but the links may be valid - http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/40-fantastic-self-hosted-business-apps/