Things are happening with Webforum

Create boards for a specific group

Since we introduced task boards, they have become increasingly popular for visualising work like Questions/Answers or Actions. One of the advantages of having this on a board is that all users with access to the project can see is to make information sharing easier and decrease the risk of important work being missed or forgotten.

Import users to project groups

The possibility to import many users at once is great for customers who onboard large groups, for instance a new contractor. Now it is possible to use the import to assign the users to the correct project and project group straight away.

Deadline for tenders

The tender process is crucial and often surrounded by formalia and rules, especially for public tenders. One important rule is to have a clear deadline by which all offers must have been submitted.

Full control of workflow in boards

With the April release we give administrators the possibility to map our their own workflow on the boards. Just go to the Task module in your project, select the board you wish to modify and click on Edit statuses on the more menu.

Project documents in own node

We clarify the structure by moving project folders to a new “projects” root node. On workspaces that use project statuses, we will also create status nodes so that it is super easy to see if the project is ongoing or archived.

Easier to find the signature receipt

In the April release we introduce a simplified review-tab for Documents that also includes the history of all reviews, approvals and electronic signatures.

Create more boards in a project

Using task boards makes it easy to see what is planned and who is currently working on what. Each board represents an individual work flow or team in a project.

See who has signed and who to remind

Electronic signatures are easy, legal, efficient, and Covid-safe. Just make sure the document is in Webforum and you can send it for electronic signature to anyone.

Take control of your task notifications

Task notifications will now be done in the same way as notifications from issues. When you add a task, become assignee, are mentioned – you will start getting notifications about changes to the task. To stop receiving notifications you can click on a link in the notification email.

More information in the document log

In the January release we add changes to the description and document name to the document log.

Clearer navigation path in Documents

At the top of the list of documents there is a path that shows you where in the hierarchy you are at the moment. This has been a little hidden and cramped by other functions.

Connect your documents to your tasks

We know that your documents are at the core of your workflow. And we know that if your work tasks flow on a board where everyone can follow progress and see commitments you are more likely to succeed on time and within budget. So now we make it possible to connect your documents to your tasks.

More room to focus in Planning

In order to focus on the most important aspects of the plan – dates, status, steering documents, and connections to issues or other activities – we have removed some columns from the Gantt-view in Planning.

An updated look for Documents

To make the coloured folder icons distinct and easy to separate, we decided on a flatter look for the folder icons. Empty folders are shown with just an outline. We also updated some other icons in Documents to align with the new look of the folder icons.

Use colours to structure your folders

With the November release we introduce the possibility to add colours to your folders. Use it to make sure that it is easy to understand the structure. An example could be to colour all folders which contain drawings to make them easier to find.

Saving your conversation drafts

Conversations on the project startpage present a great way of keeping everyone in the project up to date with what is going on and ensuring that no information is lost in individual emails. Nothing is more annoying than loosing the draft you were planning on sending later. We now save your conversations drafts for you.

Add screenshots, pictures and documents to Tasks

Tasks is our new project module for visual management of work. Our customers use it to handle Q&As and other project related tasks for a great overview of who is in charge of what. Now we add the possibility to attach files to the tasks on the board

Update all the document descriptions in a delivery or review at once

In this release we make it possible to update many document descriptions at once via the mass update button on the toolbar or document import.

Make sure your webforms represent you

With the October release, we make it possible to add a logo at the top of your webforms in order to make them harmonise with your branding.

Clear deadlines communicate expectations

The end date of an issue is important information that tells the assignee what your expectations are for delivery. It also sorts the issue in the To do-widget on the start page. Now we make it easier to find by moving it from the bottom of the issue detail to a more prominent position near the assignee on the right hand side of the issue detail.

Easily find all reviewed and approved documents

Quick lists help you find all documents with a certain status, like new documents or documents that you subscribe to. We now include a quick list for documents that have been reviewed or approved to make those easy to find.

Manage your notifications from issues

In order to ensure that all who need get notifications about changes to an issue we introduced the possibility to subscribe to issues. You can add yourself or another user as subscriber to an issue. As of the September release we automatically add assignees and reporters of an issue to the subscriber list. This means you will get a complete picture of who gets notified about changes to the issue when you click on the “subscribers” link on an issue detail.

More space on the issue detail

A while back, we changed multi-line text fields on the project details so that they are smaller when they contain no information. This was done in order to save space for the other fields that have information in them. Now we do the same thing for the issue detail.

Keep track of your deadlines

The tasks board in projects is a great way of visualising commitments in the team. With the August release we introduce two new sought after features:

• End dates are now clearly visible on the card without having to open the details
• Cards can be created in any column (status)

The task boards are under active development and you can expect to see more improvements soon.

Approve the whole delivery with one click

When the review of a delivery is done, it is clever to approve the documents so that everyone understands which is the correct version. We make this easier by adding an “approve”-button to the toolbar in documents so that you can select many documents and approve them in one go.

…and more

The summer has been very productive and we have made many small improvements to the system in August. Here are some:

• When you save a document as PDF, the default is that it is created in the same folder as the original
• It’s possible to search in the text of documents opened in the integrated Prizm-viewer
• The API now supports document aliases
• Clearer icons in the To Do – widget on the start page
• A new shortcut-icon shows links to other folders in Webforum

Transparency in what has been going on with documents

We now give all users with at least “update” on the folder access to document logs of the documents therein. This ensures that users can see what has happened with the document and makes processes more transparent

More integration options

Many of our bigger customers use our public API to automate certain processes or create custom integrations with Webforum. With this release we include code structure custom fields in the api. We also include a new end point for moving documents between folders through the api.

Don’t hold unnecessary data

The issue lists in Webforum can contain all types of different data. Some of our customers have lists that contain personal data that falls under GDPR and that needs to be periodically deleted.

Visual overview of ongoing work

In any project, there are a million little things that need to be completed. Many of our customers are using issue lists to keep track of the structured processes, like QnA or change requests, and make sure nothing slips under the radar. We have started the process of developing an updated tool for tracking workflows in projects, Tasks. This is right now a more light-weight tool that focuses on visual workflows and make it easy to see exactly where we are in terms of planned, open and completed work. As we continue developing the tool and introduce more advanced features, we envision that it will replace most of the current issue lists.

More details from invited users

When users are invited to a project we give them the opportunity to fill in their name and mobile number. This is included in their user account so that other people in the project can see the details, know who they are, and how to contact them.

Clearer read view in project details, issue details and planning

We have had some feedback that is has been hard to understand when certain views are read-only. Especially the issue detail, the project details and the planning views. In this release we add a bar at the top when the view is read-only so users know that they can not save data in these views.

Clear who’s in project groups when setting up permissions

Like I like to say, clear permissions make safe permissions. More and more of our customers work in projects and use project groups to set up permissions. Now we make it easier for administrators to see who is in a project group. When you are setting up permissions for the project the project groups show the first five members on hover. Clicking on the name of the project group takes you straight to the project group page where you can edit who is in it. 

Decide who can use document templates

Document templates can be used when creating new documents in a project or the top level. It is a convenient way to share information between projects and to standardise your documentation. An administrator can just put the documents that serve as templates in the blue template folder in each project, or in documents on the workspace level for templates that should be shared for all projects on the workspace. It’s even possible to create further structure by using sub-folder under the templates folder.

Easier to see which icon is which list

We also improve the tooltip hover for modules in the side bar. This is particularly something that is based on feedback from customers with many issue lists, or issue lists with long names. The new hover text is clearer and better aligned with the visuals of the navigation.

More harmony in the new navigation

We introduced the new navigation in Webforum in November 2019 and now almost all users are on it. Since the start we have collected feedback and many of the changes we do are based on that feedback. Now we soften the red colour of the side bar to make it harmonise better with the rest of the user interface.

Start widget for conversations

The possibility to communicate around a project and its work and documentation is crucial to the successful execution. Therefore, we have the possibility to have project conversations between members on the start page for the project. Now we also consolidate these conversations on the workspace start page – the first page that greets all users in the so that you can easily overview all the conversations that you have been mentioned in. The new widget “My mentions” can be added by workspace administrators and will show each user the posts and comments in which they have been mentioned. Clicking on the text will take you to the relevant project start page. If you are the administrator there will be an “Edit” link at the top right of the workspace start page that will let you configure it – adding and removing widgets for all users.

Possible to set meta data on drag and drop

For a long time our customers who use meta data to structure large amounts of data have been frustrated that it was not possible to seamlessly upload documents through drag and drop and also set up the meta data at the same time. We now add the meta data screen to drag and drop upload through the plugin so now you can complete the upload in one go. This also means that all users can update the description of documents when adding them through drag and drop.

Performance and quality improvements

We continuously work at making Webforum faster and better. In March, we include 21 bug fixes and performance improvements.

Performance and quality

In the February release we have focused a lot on quality and optimisation. We have made a large number of changes that should affect performance and quality in many parts of the system.

Minor updates to the new navigation

The new navigation gives clearer context, especially for workspaces that have projects. It has a modern look and feel and gives you more room for your work by decluttering the navigation interface. Over the next few moths we will be rolling it out for all users. Right now users can choose to test the new navigation and with the February release we also make it standard for new users. We have also fixed some minor problems for specific use cases of Webforum with the new navigation.

Save details about an issue in PDF-format

After an issue, like a change request or damage report, has been dealt with, it sometimes needs to be saved in an archive. Could be for for legal reasons or just to get all papers in the right place.Therefore, you can always print a pdf-version of an issue with the relevant fields included. In this release, we include the possibility of selecting the “created date” for the pdf-print out.

Meta data included in the versioning of documents

Meta data – or information about the file – is very important to structure large amounts of files. Many of our customers rely heavily on meta data that tells them things like: is this version approved?; which building/floor/department does the drawing describe?; does the protocol contain decisions?

Some of this data stays the same through all versions but some of it changes from version to version of the document.

Ensure quality and help your projects by setting up processes in advance

By setting up pre-defined structures and work processes in template projects, you can help your projects get started and ensure that everyone works according to established processes. You can, for instance, set up a folder structure with pre-defined roles and permissions. You can also create the issue lists that represent the most important structured work processes like Q&A or Deviations. In these issue lists we now include the issue posts that need to be in place from the start.

We introduce icons for lists in new navigation

Issue lists are used in Webforum to create structured work processes with a lot of data. A mush more useful way of working that keeping these lists in excel!

Issue lists are used for a great variety of processes, our customers can have a list for handling change requests, one for indemnities, and a checklist of things that need to be accomplished before next board meeting. The lists, or issue types, are shared across a workspace but each project can choose to use one or many of the lists.

Working in projects with the new navigation?

After you have logged in to Webforum, you typically end up on the Start page. From there, you easily reach your project by clicking on “select project” in the header. This will open a list of the projects you have recently accessed with the option of searching for any project. Clicking on a project name will take you to the project overview. Clicking on the small arrow to the right on the project name will open a meny in which you can go straight to one of the modules of the project, for instance the project documents.

Be the first to try our new navigation!

When we launched the project of updating Webforum’s navigation, we had a vision: a modern look, more space for what really matters, and less confusion between the workspace and project levels.

We are now ready to let you try the new look and let us know whether you think we have succeeded in our mission. To turn on the new navigation, click on your name in the top right-hand corner on the screen when you are logged in and click “Test the new look”. The page will reload with the new navigation. The switch between new and classic Webforum navigation is available for all users and can be done as often as you like. It is a personal setting so it does not affect other users on the workspace.

Keep the right people in the loop of an issue

Although we strongly believe in having a single assignee in order to maintain accountability and responsibility, we also know that each issue has a number of parties that need to be kept in the loop. It can be the rest of your group that need to know that you are dealing with an issue or another division who need to get the answer to their question as soon as possible. With the November release, we introduce the possibility of signing up others as subscribers to changes in an issue. Subscribers will get email notifications about changes to the issue. Please note that only project members with at least read access can be added as subscribers.

More flexible issue list

The flexible list view in Issues enables you to set up just the view that is perfect for you and your colleagues. By clicking the columns button in the toolbar in an issue list, you can add and remove columns of data from the issue detail in the list. When you are done, you can save this view for future use or, if you are an administrator, even set it as default for all users.

We have added two more option for selecting data.

Invitation to projects

As of the October release project administrators can invite new users to a project via their email address. New project members can also be added straight into a project group.

Increased performance for quick lists in Documents

Quick lists are an excellent way of finding all documents of, for example, a certain status. We have made some performance improvements to make them load faster – especially for workspaces with a lot of documents.

Use meta data to structure large amounts of documents

In complex projects, shared and consistent meta data is often as important as the content of the documents. We now make it easier to set meta data on a whole delivery. When you upload the documents, you can set the same meta data on all of them.

Updated plugin for improved quality, performance and security

The Webforum document management add-on for Internet Explorer and Chrome provides seamless updating of documents and drag and drop of files and folders between the computer and Webforum.
With the September release we include an updated version of this software. This new version has faster start-up times, bug fixes and no longer supports outdated and potentially less secure versions of .net framework.

Open communication creates efficient projects

In order to collaborate efficiently we need to favour open and direct communication. On the Project’s Start page, you find a conversation flow where all involved parties can ask questions, get answers, and easily access previous communications in the project. Use @ in your comments or posts to mention project members or groups. The people who are mentioned get notified by email.

A picture says more than 10,000 words

To simplify the most powerful way of communicating about an issue you can now paste straight from your computer’s clipboard. Just take a screen shot and then use Ctrl-V to paste it on the issue detail. The screen shot will automatically become an attachment to the issue. This feature works in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

Keep track of what’s what in the tab jungle

Many of our users have a veritable jungle of tabs at the top of their browser window. I know I do! In order to make it easier to understand which Webforum tab contains the content that you’re after at the moment we now display folder name or module name first in the tab.

Overview of all ongoing document reviews/approvals

To the previous quick lists for document reviews and approvals: For me to review and Sent by me for review, we now add a third: All open reviews/approvals. This new quick list shows all ongoing reviews and approvals whether or not you are directly involved in order to give you an overview of ongoing work in the project.

Easier to work with Webforum

We want your work with Webforum to be as frictionless as possible. And that you have better things to do than scroll through lists to find the right person or choice. Therefore we constantly work with small improvements that make your daily work quicker and easier.

Easier, cleaner, and safer

Security and control is mainly about making sure that it is easy to do the right thing.Therefore we work to make the system easier and safer. Here are some of the latest simplifications.

The devil’s in the details

We want to make it easier for you to use Webforum every day. In this release we have included some minor improvements that you have asked for to make your use frictionless.

Share documents and group versions with document sets

Of course you want to put together a bunch of specific document versions and send them to a contractor or vendor and then keep working on the next version of the documents while maintaining a record of which version they got. In Webforum, we solve this by letting you make a document set that can be shared with other users or external parties.

Understand who else is involved

A lot of things need to fall in place in order to have frictionless collaboration in a project. We now introduce a members tab in all projects to make it easier for everyone to understand who else is involved, and in what role.

Don’t add unnecessary data!

From the April release we will hide business and other information about users on workspaces that do not use these fields.

Document templates include meta data

Our popular document template feature gets even better by ensuring that the meta data from the template gets copied to the created document. This means that the relevant meta data fields are pre-populated on a document created from the template.

More features in the BETA for Tasks in projects

Tasks represent commitment management for project groups. To get the best out of your collaboration everyone needs to have a shared view of what needs to be done, who’s in charge of what, and the status of the work.

Structured project settings

Setting up your project should be easy as ABC. We have grouped the settings page in order to make it clearer what the settings affect. We hope you like this Christmas present to all project admins!

What’s expected from me?

On the Startpage of the Workspace, there are widgets to let users see “my open issues” and “my activities”. We make it easier to get a single view of what is expected of you by merging the information from these two widgets into a single “to do” widget.

Faster opening of big plans

Because we have a lot of power under the hood it could sometimes take time to open plans with a lot(2000+) activities. We have found some tweaks to make the plan load faster – so now you have to find another excuse for hanging out at the coffee machine. 

Even safer documents

Versioning documents make sure that simple mistakes do not lead to irrecoverable loss of information. That’s why we now version all documents in Webforum. That way you can feel secure that the old version is always safe when you and your colleagues make changes.

Who’s updated the plan?

Wth the November release we introduce a log of when the plan has been changed and by whom. The log opens when you click on the “change log” button on the toolbar.

Document set subscriptions

Subscribing to documents and folders is a good way of making sure that you don’t miss any information about what’s going on in them. You get email notifications about changes to files and folders that you subscribe to.

Merge PDF-documents

To simplify your life and make you more efficient, we remove many steps in merging PDFs. Instead of downloading and merging the documents on your own computer and then uploading the merged document to Webforum again, you can now complete the entire process in Webforum.

Easier single sign-on

Single sign-on makes user login easier and more secure. Let your own identity provider manage the authentication and spare your users another set of user name/password to remember. We have now implemented a solution that lets your single sign-on work uninterrupted through a certificate update on your side.

Minor improvements

New flexible field for Issues – code structure. This works just like code structure attributes for documents.

Improved notification mail for mentions on the Project start page.

Connect your issues to the plan

Plans are important! It’s your way of getting from where you are to where you want to be. But it is also important to understand what the actual work is that comprises the activities in the plan. Now you can break down your plan activities into actionable issues.

A controlled way of sharing specific versions of documents

Of course you want to put together a bunch of specific document versions and send them to a contractor or vendor and then keep working on the next version of the documents while maintaining a record of which version they got. In Webforum we solve this by letting you make a Document set that can be shared with other users or external parties.

Minor updates

We continually work at making Webforum better for you. Read more about some of the more noteworthy improvements lately.

Better support for integrations

We love to support the way you work. One way of doing that is to allow you to use our open API to integrate with other systems. You can now update a folder via the api (PUT folder end point for techies) and we allow you to change a project number so that it is the same in two separate systems.

Include outside sources

Links are an integral part of how we share and explore contents on the web. With this release you can add links as documents in your project or workspace.

A sense of urgency

In the widget for “My open issues” on the workspace Start page, where you can see all the open issues that you are assigned. To get a understanding of what is most urgent, we now sort the issues according to their end dates. Issues with no end date last and issues will have the date in red.

Improved admin control

With the responsibility of administering comes a need for control – especially on who can see what. In this release we include more ways of seeing permissions for admins. Project administrators will be able to see effective permissions for any user in the project under the user detail in the project’s admintab.

Engage your colleagues in conversation

Nobody likes talking to deaf ears and with this release we make sure that your communication hits the intended target. You can now mention a specific person or group in your post or comment on the project start page to ensure that they get notified about it via email.

Look what’s happening in your project

The activity report is a great way to keep updated on all changes to the documentation on the workspace. To make it easier to understand which project is affected we now split the information per project.

Easier to see and manage project administrators

We have introduced groups on the project level to make this easier and we now implement a system group for Project Administrators. The purpose is to make it easier to see who has complete control over the project, including the permission set up.

Print your big plans in big format

Get maximum info on one page without the need to get out scissors and tape. We now support printing from the plan and project office in A1 and A2 formats.

No more blocks of text on the project detail

Now you can put the full project charter in the description field without taking up the whole project detail page. We have changed so that this field has a preview mode. The first few lines of text are showing with the ability to click in the field to display the full text. 

Easier to work with drawings

Our thumbnail preview for pdf and image documents has cut down frustration and made working with large numbers of drawings quick, easy and delightful.

Communication becomes a conversation

Now that we introduce comments to posts on the project start page you can really step up and make the conversation happen. Reply to your colleague’s posts and give them some credit for the great job they are doing or tell them that you disagree.

Sticky thumbnails

In last release we introduced thumbnail preview for pdf documents It was a great hit. Now the thumbnail view will stay on until you turn it off again.

Use the power of meta

With the April release we introduce the possibility to update meta data for many files without reimporting the file itself. This will make meta data updates in bulk much easier since it will not change the version number of the documents

Look your colleagues in the eye

Did you know that communication can be more efficient if you see the person you’re communicating with? Upload a smiling picture of yourself to Webforum and let your colleagues see who they’re dealing with.

Make it easy to do the right thing by using document templates

Help your projects to be more efficient by using pre-defined templates for requirements and checklists. Stop wasting time setting up the similar documents over and over again – create a template!

Save Excel as PDF

Earlier this year we introduced the possibility to create PDF straight from a document in Webforum. We are now extending the possibility to include excel files. The option to save an excel as PDF can be found in the context menu of the file in Documents under More actions.

Collaborate with or without a Gantt

At Webforum, we believe that the way you work should be in focus and we have therefore made the planning tab (Gantt) optional in any project. The project administrator can access the project settings by clicking on the Admin tab and selecting the area Settings.

Project start page – communications and overview

It is here! Like we told you last month, we are releasing a brand-new start page for projects. This provides a single source of communications and overview of what is going on in the project.

Find the right PDF or image in a jiffy

We now let you preview all pdfs in the same way that you can preview images in Documents. To quickly identify the file you need, turn on the thumbnail view in the folder.

Create text files in Documents (remove docs without a file)

We extended the possibility to include text files as well as the “old” options of word, excel, and powerpoint.

Select multiple values when filtering

We now let you filter on more than one value and quickly find the information you need.

Project startpage – see what’s happened in the project!

We know you want an overview of what’s going on in the project and you need to give the whole project group a place to collaborate and get a joint view of the progress. In February, we will release a beta version for the new Project Start Page.

Prettier PDF printing of issues

The pdf printing of issues is of crucial importance to many of our customers who use Issues and we have spent some time and love on improving this in 2017. We have also made the PDF-printout of issues a little prettier by left-adjusting multi-line text fields.

Save Office documents as PDF

We have made it a little bit easier to create PDFs from the documents that you have stored in Webforum by adding an option to the document menu: Save as PDF.

Introducing role based permissions in projects

We believe in transparency! That said, we also know that access to information – whether in the form of issues/work packages/actions or in the form of documents – usually needs to be structured.Now, we give you the possibility to create groups on the project level in order to maintain an easy permissions structure in the project.

New year and new challenges!

Here’s a summary of some of the most important changes in Webforum during 2017. A total of more than 380 unique improvements, bugfixes and other development packages have been released in 2017 to make this version of Webforum the best ever.