Collaber Blog

Even though there are many collaboration software out there, not all of them provide the ability to edit a document collaboratively. This limitation exists in Collaber & Groove to some extent.

Recently I have read a post about one software that does it in a simple way.

Even though this functionality looks simple, it is much complex than we think. Let us analyse more.

In Collaber any member in the workspace can create a Note in Notepad Tool. This note can be edited by any other member. Every time changes are saved, a new revision will be created. In case of conflicts which is very common in a loosely couple architecture like Collaber & Groove software will take side of one member depending on the role and who got into the workspace first.

With in the Note there is no indication of which member changed what.

Now, lets think about the problems we have in implementing the solution like the one mentioned in that link. In that solution every user will choose a color. And what ever he does will be presented in that color as a background.

• When we need to show the colors chosen by user, we must disable the ability to change the background color of the text. Other wise it may confuse the readers.
• So when we disable this ability of changing the background color as a part of editing, we must also disable ability to copy paste the text from some other place. (EX: Websites, Other Documents) Because they may consist some other color background.
• Data should be treated as INSERT, DELETE and UPDATE with in the specified positions of document.

If we consider major word processors like MS Word and, Open Office they already provide support for revisions, tracking changes and comments.

As of now we are looking for way to prevent reinventing the wheel. Because no mater how much functionality we add to the Text Editing features of Collaber or any other software, we will never reach the functionality of MS Word & Open Office. So user will always in looking for more text features which are already existing in those software.

I personally think that we need to find a way to integrate OpenOffice or MS Word into Collaber desktop version. Even then there will be an issue of Collaber On Web. We can not have all the functionality of OpenOffice or MS Word in a webbased application. What solutions we have there? It is still a open question.

Rajesh Akkineni Features Requests, New Ideas Collaber, Collaboration, Editing, Gobby, Groove

While total world is celebrating Christmas, we on the other side busy with doing bug fixes and enhancements to final beta of Collaber. After this version Collaber will go into non-beta stage and will be ready to be purchased from website.

What’s new:

• Multi Calendar View
  Impressed by Google App’s Calendar and expecting similar functionality in Collaber? Yes, we heard you. Now you can see all your Calendars from within any workspace. This view will enable you to check colliding events easily.
• Improved HTML Editing
  Worried about how to insert Image? In consistency in edit and view mode? No more. Now Collaber Rich Editors are capable of providing best rich editing functions available in market. Improved Image dialog, Link dialogs makes its the task very easy.
• Complete with keyboard short cuts
  All Collaber actions can now be performed using keyboard. You can even customize the actions if required.
• Advanced Alerts
  No more fast changing alert windows which automatically close before you even see them. Our improved alert solution works much better than existing products out there.
• Reminder support for Calendar Events
  Now you can add reminders and notifications will be displayed to you on the present reminder time. Never miss an appointment from now.
• Applications Store
  Looking for custom solutions developed on Collaber? Now our new Applications store integrates downloading and installing of such tools right within your Collaber Window.
• Filters View
  Our new filters view will enable filtering items using Tags, By Date, By Members, By Status and many more. It really proves the power of Collaber on Desktop.
• Collaber On Web-Beta
  Our much awaited release of Collaber On Web(COW) will also coincide with the final beta release. Now access/share/work on all your Collaber data without downloading Collaber. Right with in your browser.

We will be back to you in 2009 with this update.

Rajesh Akkineni Coming Up, New Ideas, Progress Add new tag

“Copy As Link” is one of the main features we are going to introduce in Collaber 1.0.8

This action is available in right-click menu of any Collaber Object(Workspaces, Contacts, Members, All Tools, Files, Notes, Tasks, Calander Evets, Pictures etc etc..) Click on this action will copy a link to that object into the Clipboard.

This can be pasted in any HTML enabled component (Chat, Messages, Discussion, Notes ) or even to the external files like Ms Word etc.

When that link is clicked the corresponding object will be highlighted in its tool/view.

These links work even outside Collaber (only in windows) as long as Collaber is running. They can be sent to other users. They will work anywhere as long as the linked object is available at that user’s Collaber.

We hope this feature will reduce small gap between Collaber and Groove. We are working hard to bring all such features into Collaber. We hope all Collaber users will be happy with this feature.

Rajesh Akkineni Coming Up, New Ideas

As a part of Real-Time Collaboration we are going to introduce Audio & Video communication features in Collaber.

This module will be known as SIP Phone. It is basically a SIP phone with audio and video support developed on code from OpenWengo. Initially we will release audio support only. Will add video support later.

This plugin needs you to have an Wengo Phone account.

Rajesh Akkineni New Ideas

In a Workspace we will have members. What ever each member does in the workspace will be informed to all other members.

In a Service there will be service providers and subscribers. Each collaber account can publich any number of services(each different kind). And other contacts can subscribe to these services. Only those subscribed users will be informed of any changes done to the service.

To understand it clearly I need to provide some examples of services…

• Blog service: Other people can subscribe to your blog. When ever you add a new post they will be informed.
• Calendar service: If some one wants to know if you are free on a particular date, or what you are doing on some day,etc they can subscribe to your Calendar service. Your Calendar service automatically talks to all your task and calendar tools in all your workspaces and will update those events on your calendar service.
• Backup service: Using this service you can subscribe to a storage space on your other contacts.

These are just an example services. You can even sell your services to the subscribers. It all depends on what your service is. There is tremendous possibilities of services. So give power to your imagination and develop services for Collaber.

Ooh wait. You need to wait for Collaber 1.0.5 for that.

Rajesh Akkineni New Ideas

In next version of Collaber we are planing to implement some real-time collaboration features. These features include..

• Member activity in the workspace
• Contact status updates
• Simple chat messages
• Navigate together kind of tools and functionality

All of these functionality require the contacts to be online. We don’t need to save all those data in to the network and deliver it at the later time. Because they will loose their validity if they are not delivered at the instant.

To address this problem we want to introduce in memory only high performance networking layer. Using this layer plugin developers can send small chunks of data(most of the time <10k) using an encrypted packet stream. This data will never be stored in files. If the collaber restarts or killed, all the data will be lost. Ofcourse they can be resent at any time.

This communication will only work with members/contacts that are connected either directly or through relay. This uses only TCP. So can not be used for voice packets. We will come back to voice in the future versions.

Rajesh Akkineni New Ideas