Open Atrium Beta 4 Released
With a better core, slicker interface, and stronger community
The Open Atrium Beta 4 release is now available to download. The new release is simpler and easier to use while providing greater flexibility and customizability. Key changes include drag and drop dashboards, a cleaner frontend and admin UI, richer activity streams, and a more efficient feature-building workflow for developers.
User experience
Drag and drop dashboards are the centerpiece of the new release. Site administrators and group managers can create multiple dashboards per group and customize them using existing blocks or create their own using the Boxes module. Regular users can customize their own user dashboard using the same set of tools. The core technologies behind the dashboards also allow developers to build contexts for their features by dragging and dropping blocks into place and tweaking them as necessary.
Per usual I couldn't keep my hands off the interface. Beta 4 condenses and consolidates UI sprawl and also introduces several new components. A special palette region can be used for popup palette blocks and menu items can indicate new content with a small counter. Ginkgo, Open Atrium's default theme, provides several alternative layouts for dashboards and leverages the new DesignKit module for logo and color customization instead of rolling its own solution.
Cutting edge technology
We weren't afraid of using new, and sometimes experimental, technologies in Beta 4. Admin, Context, Spaces, and Strongarm all received major branch or API upgrades. All of these changes are included upstream, and you are welcome to use them in your own projects as well.
Testing
Beta 4 also includes a custom testing AtriumWebTestCase class that extends the default DrupalWebTestCase to provide an Open Atrium install as the baseline for any integration tests. We've added several tests to the Open Atrium core features and expect many more to be added as development continues.
Drush make
We've moved from using a central tracking repository to a distributed drush_make system for Open Atrium. The install profile is on Drupal.org, our custom configuration, theme, and features are on github, and any patches we've applied to upstream projects are transparently documented and applied through our makefile.
Upgrading
Whether you are new to Open Atrium or upgrading your existing site, you will want to read the Release Notes. Open Atrium is still very much beta software so please exercise prudence and caution. Upgrading a previous Open Atrium site without much customization is a weeknight task. Upgrading a site with extensive overrides and custom features is a weekend project. Take backups, make a pot of coffee, and roll up your sleeves.
Contributing
Community.openatrium.com has gotten a tune up and is a great place to collaborate. We've marked the documentation pages that have gotten a bit dusty in light of the new release and we'd love your help getting them up to date. Bugs and feature requests can be filed in the issues group. Eric blogged about the new space on community.oa that makes resources available to shops selling Open Atrium services. The group is the perfect place to collaborate and discuss ways to communicate to others how Open Atrium can benefit their organization.
In the coming weeks we'll be posting our goals for Beta 5 and where we want to be before Atrium 1.0 goes stable for the long haul. But for now we're happy to get Beta 4 out the door and into your hands.
why admin module?
I’d be curious to see a write up or a short justification for the use of the admin.module vs. the admin_menu.module. I know that the admin system has some improvements from the backend of things, but I like the front end usability of the admin_menu.module better. Since I know you guys put a lot of thought into this sort of stuff it would be cool to hear why you think the multiple clicks needed in the admin.module are the way to go with Atrium administration.
Removed privacy per feature
First, thanks a lot for the great development. I started with OA b2 and related with drupal “out-of-the-box” usability improvements are impressive.
I read in changelog:
Any further explanation about the motivation of this change? Will be privacy limited to groups or now Beta4 is groups and nodes?
Thanks !!
Yes, we removed this feature
Yes, we removed this feature as it was overly complicating matters for nearly all of our users and very seldom did anyone make use of the two oddball combinations it allowed: private group with a public feature, or a public group with a private feature. Now, group features simply inherit the privacy setting of the group.
great interface
great interface
Open Atrium is for local network or internet?
Hello,
This remind me on the early Open Atrium notes, which not clearly claim that Open Atrium is for usual internet website (correct me if I’m wrong). So I think Open Atrium is only suitable for local connection.
But on the image, there is “Twitter” in the sidebar. Is Open Atrium created specifically for local network or for both local and internet?
Thanks, Mwebe Nkrumah.
I got the same question
I got the same question. Can Open Atrium used as a website which accessible through internet?
Built for the internet
Mwebe + Jim,
Open Atrium is totally an application for that lives on the internet. When we talk about intranet, we mean a private space for your team to work together, and Open Atrium’s security system lets you restrict access easily, thus you can have your private intranet running out on the internet.
Really, it is best to think of Open Atrium as a collaboration portal, or software that helps make your business more social. You can even make public portals on Open Atrium, like on community.openatrium.com
Thanks. But can I use Open
Thanks. But can I use Open Atrium with Pressflow?
Thanks, Mwebe Nkrumah
Open Atrium has great performance
The caching wins that pressflow will give you will be not work on a site where there are users logged in. That said, you can use it, here is how we swap out pressflow in our Managing News packages: http://developmentseed.org/blog/2010/jan/04/using-varnish-pressflow-make..., that might help. If you want to make sure Open Atrium has great performance, read the performance page here: https://community.openatrium.com/documentation-en/node/518
excellent work
i am testing in my lab and the new version is awesome. easy to customize and intitutive.
Sweet momma!
Can’t wait to install it at work tomorrow! Best regards from Warp, see you back on the community case tracker ASAP ;)
Excellent Work
Keep up the good work … we need guys like you in the world
Love the upgrade heads up
Sounds like a very sweet upgrade though. Kudos to all of you at Devseed!
I am wondering, have you done
I am wondering, have you done any usability testing on Open Atruim. Given the complexity and consistently adding new features. Obviously you get a lot of feedback, but I would love to know how the more difficult drag-drop and other interactions a-like perform.
I appreciate the careful
I appreciate the careful development cycle you all are employing, and the focus on core usability overall and for each Feature. Inspirational!
Great job
Well done guys, I know what I’ll be doing this morning at work. Thanks for working on this great project and for the regular release cycle.