OpenProject 13.0: Baseline comparison, Nextcloud project folders, and much more
We are happy to announce that we have released OpenProject 13.0. It is again packed with many new collaboration features, improvements and bug fixes. One of the long-awaited project management features is Baseline. You will now be able to create a baseline comparison for your projects to easily track project changes and progress. With the Nextcloud integration, project folders will have automatically managed permissions that give access to all project members and even allow you to set up folder structures including documents for project templates. In addition, with OpenProject 13.0 you can subscribe to your OpenProject calendar via the iCalendar format and thus have an overview of all important project dates in your personal calendar. The new PDF Export allows you to create project management plans and other project artifacts that are always up to date. With 13.0 we will again give a feature back to the Community, making the multi-select custom fields now available also in the free-of-charge Community version.
Find out what else version 13.0 has to offer in the following details.
We will update your OpenProject’s Enterprise cloud today, 21st August 2023.
What is new in OpenProject 13.0?
Baseline comparison to track changes for your project (Enterprise add-on)
With the new Baseline feature you will be able to get a quick overview of what has changed over time in your project, making it easier to report on project progress and status. Activating the Baseline for a work package table displays all changes for this view compared to a certain time (frame). This view makes it very transparent which work packages changed over time, are no longer relevant in this view (e.g. have been closed), became relevant for the respective view (e.g. have been added), or have changed (e.g. updates to status, priority, title, type).
The functionality Show changes since Yesterday is part of the free of charge Community version. Comparing changes to a certain period, a specific date, or between two specific dates, is an Enterprise add-on and only available for the Enterprise cloud or on-premises versions.
Multi-select custom fields for the Community
We have published the multi-select custom fields for the free-of-charge Community version. Users of this version will now also be able to configure multi-select fields for work packages or projects and add those to your work packages forms.
Nextcloud project folders with automatically managed permissions
A new home for all your project-related files and less setup hassle: With OpenProject 13.0 you will have no more chaos in your project files nor permissions. Project folders allow to set up automatically managed folders (named according to your OpenProject project) in Nextcloud that will grant access to all project members in a project. These project folders will also allow to set up project templates with a pre-defined folder structure, incl. document templates. File links in work packages will then be copied accordingly.
PDF Export to create up-to-date and accurately formatted work plans
There will always be reasons to have project management reports or other work plans for your projects, such as detailed status reports, lists of requirements, change requests or bugs, feature specifications, and more. To have these documents always up to date and nicely formatted, we have updated the PDF Export in OpenProject. With 13.0 you will now be able to generate reports for your work packages with a well thought out and clean layout. The report will include all filtered work packages with a header table with their attributes (according to the work package table header) and their detailed description. Also, a cover page, a linked table of contents and links back to the work packages in OpenProject are included in the reports. This way, you will keep all master information with their updates and changes in the project management application and have an up-to-date physical document to share with stakeholders if needed.
Subscribe to calendars via URL (iCalendar format)
You can now have your OpenProject calendars with all important work packages and milestones integrated in your personal calendar. Subscribe to a calendar via URL and include this information in your personal calendar supporting the iCalendar format, such as such as Thunderbird, Open-Xchange, Apple calendar or Google calendar.
Global modules are listed on new index pages
We have added a new global menu to access all global modules for your projects. This way you can easily see all your project-overarching information at one place, e.g. for work packages, boards, team planners or meetings. You can directly create new elements from these global pages and assign them to a project. Access these global modules with a click on the OpenProject logo in the header navigation (this will bring you to the home page) or by clicking on the global modules icon in the top right header navigation.
Time tracking button
One of the topics that emerged during our Passion time is a new time tracking button. We added a button that allows you to easily record the time of a work package. Just press the button to start the timer. Your avatar in the header navigation will show the active time tracking. Clicking the button again will stop the time tracking and you can log the time spent on the work package.
-Find out more about the time tracking button
Further improvements and changes for 13.0
We have included many more features and improvements in this new release, such as:
- Introduce Primer Design System
- Allow localized seeding of all seed data
- Show recently viewed work packages in the global search
- Add shortcut to “My activity” link in the account menu
- Enable “Copy link to clipboard” for work packages
- Enlarge the scroll handle for the work package sidebar
- Enable double click on notifications to open details view
- Add Emoji picker to the text editor
Please see a complete list of all features, changes, and bug fixes in our OpenProject 13.0 release notes.
Installation and Updates
- To test the features of OpenProject 13.0 right away, create a free trial instance for our OpenProject Enterprise cloud.
- Prefer to run OpenProject 13.0 in your own infrastructure? Here you can find the Installation guidelines for OpenProject.
- Want to upgrade from a Community version to try out the Enterprise add-ons? Get a 14-day free trial token directly out of your current Community installation.
Migrating to OpenProject 13.0
Follow the upgrade guide for the packaged installation or Docker installation to update your OpenProject installation to OpenProject 13.0. We update your hosted OpenProject environments (Enterprise cloud) automatically.
Support
You will find more information about the new features in the OpenProject Documentation or you can post your questions in the Community Forum, or if you are eligible for Enterprise support, please contact us and we are happy to support you personally.
Release Notes
Please refer to the OpenProject 13.0 release notes for an overview of all the new and improved features, as well as a list of fixed bugs.
Credits
A very special thank you goes to our sponsors for features and improvements of this release:
- Autoliv for having sponsored the new Baseline comparison.
- The City of Cologne for their tremendous support and sponsorship of new features for the Nextcloud integration.
- The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community (BMI) as part of the openDesk (formerly Sovereign Workplace) for sponsoring big parts of this release, e.g. new features for the Nextcloud integration, the new PDF export of work plans, iCalendar subscriptions, and localized seeding of all seed data.
A big thanks to community members for reporting bugs and helping us identifying and providing fixes: Tobias Nöbauer, K T, Various Interactive, Thyago Sanabio, Piotr F, Sven Kunze, Gerrit Bonn, Aidas Kasparas, Christina Vechkanova, Rince wind, James Neale, Daniel Wilke, Philipp Schulz, Heather Burns, M S.
And of course a big thank you to every other dedicated user who has reported bugs and supported the community by asking and answering questions in the forum as well as to all the dedicated users who provided translations on CrowdIn and last but not least the whole OpenProject team.
