planio tricks One of the coolest aspects of Planio is its versatility and flexibility. In addition to its inherent project management capabilities, which are awesome, you can expand Planio’s functionality by taking advantage of our unique integration-partnerships. Basically, we’ve teamed up with some of the most innovative solution providers on the software scene and worked with them to enable you to include unique functionality within the Planio environment.
One of these providers is Pidoco, a software-as-a-service solution that makes it easy for you to quickly create wireframes, interactive software prototypes, and rich specifications without any programming. Thanks to Planio’s integrative features, you can import your wireframe creations directly into your wiki pages! This gives you the opportunity to share development concepts with members of your project team within the Planio environment.
So if you want to save money in terms of development costs while fostering UI collaboration within a singular environment, then Planio + Pidoco is definitely the way to go. Given all this coolness, today’s post will discuss how to configure your Planio environment so that it can use Pidoco wireframing technology. So, without further ado, let’s get to it…
Configuring Planio and Pidoco
Our first step will be to enable Pidoco for your Planio project:
- Browse to your project.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Planio Apps tab.
- Select the Pidoco check box.
- Click Save.
If you haven’t already set up an account with Pidoco, then go ahead and create one now (if you need any assistance with how to use Pidoco, just check out their Support Page).
The last step involves connecting Planio and Pidoco; we do this by telling Planio the “API Key” from Pidoco. Here’s a walkthrough of how to copy the API Key:
- In Pidoco, browse to a prototype page.
- Hover your mouse cursor over the Share envelope icon and click Get a Link to this Prototype.
- The Grab a Link to Embed this Prototype window appears.
- In the PNG field, highlight and copy the provided URL (<CTRL-C>, <Command-C>, or right-click and select Copy). When done, click Close.
…and how to paste the API Key into the Planio environment:
- Browse to your project.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Pidoco tab.
- Click New pidoco API Key.
- In the pidoco API Key field, paste the URL copied from the Pidoco environment (<CTRL-V>, <Command-V>, or right-click and select Paste).
- Click Create.
- If done correctly, the message “Successful creation.” will appear at the top of the screen.
Don’t want to mess around with API Keys? Check out method #2…
- In Pidoco, browse to a prototype page.
- Hover your mouse cursor over the Share envelope icon and click Get a Link to this Prototype.
- The Grab a Link to Embed this Prototype window appears.
- Click Or use this prototype in an external application.
- The Pidoco Partners Apps screen appears.
- Click Add to plan.io.
- Your Planio project list screen appears — click on a project name.
- The Pidoco wireframe will be assigned to your selected project and will be available for use in your project’s wiki.
- All done!
How to Import a Wireframe
Pidoco-made wireframes can now be imported directly into your wiki pages for easy sharing with your team members. Here is a walkthrough of how to do it:
- Browse to your project.
- Click Wiki.
- Enter edit wiki page mode (if you are not already).
- Navigate to the location on your wiki page where you want the wireframe to appear.
- Click the Pidoco icon — the Choose a page drop-down menu appears.
- Select a Pidoco wireframe from the drop-down.
- After selection, the relevant import code will automatically appear on your Edit Wiki Page interface.
- When done editing, click Save.
- The Pidoco wireframe graphic will appear on your wiki page. It’s as easy as that!
We hope that this information has been useful! In our next blog post we’ll introduce the newest member of the Planio team and, in the future, we’ll explore how other integrations work (e.g., invoicing in Planio using SalesKing).
Until the next time!
Update from 3 weeks ago… Brian now knows all the names of the My Little Pony ponies and has memorized the lyrics of 5 cartoons for children. When not playing with his soon-to-be 6 year old daughter, Brian enjoys wearing Lord of the Rings t-shirts and constantly endeavoring to remain a geek (or is it nerd?).
Have you tried out Pidoco wireframes in your projects? If so, tell us about your experiences via a comment below. Remember to share a Like and Tweet while you’re at it! Share the love!!
fun stuff 
by Oliver Widder at Geek&Poke
Did you enjoy today’s comic? If so, share the love with a Like/Tweet below!
planio tricks Over the last year we’ve discussed many exciting features within Planio, many of which are brand new (CC Additional Contacts, New Mini Features), several are quite Project Manager-friendly (Milestones & Roadmaps), and others are just downright awesome (E-Mail Drop Box).
Today I was thinking that it may be a good time to step back and look at a subject that we’ve never discussed here on the blog AND affects every new user: how to create a new project. Yep, believe it or not, we’ve never done a walkthrough of this, the most instrumental of actions for all Planio users.
So, grab some snacks, open a beer, call up all your friends who are new Planio users, and check out the process of creating a new Planio project…
- After launching and logging on to Planio, from your Home screen, click Projects.
- The Projects screen appears — this interface lists all available projects. Click New project.
- The New project screen appears — this interface is used to configure your project’s settings. Note that although the only required fields are Name and Identifier, it’s still good practice to complete as many fields as possible so that your project is meaningful to its members.
- In the Name field (required), enter a name for the project.
- Note that, as you enter a name, the text also appears in the Identifier field; it will be formatted for standardization purposes.
- In the Subproject of field, select a parent project for the new project, if applicable.
- In the Description field, enter a meaningful description of the new project.
- As mentioned, the Identifier field will be populated with formatted text derived from the Name field — the text here can be modified, if needed. Note that, after the project settings are saved, the project identifier can no longer be modified. The Identifier is used to, you guessed it, identify the project in a standardized manner… for example, it is used in the project’s URL address and is also used when configuring Planio’s Firefox toolbar.
- In the Homepage field, enter a URL that is associated with the project (e.g., a relevant company Web page). This information is displayed on the Overview tab when a member browses to your project on Planio.
- In the Public field, select the check box to indicate that the project should be available to every user of the Planio account with a non-member role. Leave the check box unselected to indicate that users need to be a member of a project in order to view/modify its contents. You can visit How to Create a New Role to learn more about roles.
- In the SalesKing client field, select a SalesKing client from the drop-down list. SalesKing is an integrated 3rd party feature within Planio that enables you to export time-tracked activities as line item invoice entries in the SalesKing application. One aspect of the configuration process involves creating clients and products within the SalesKing interface and then associating them in Planio — this particular field is used to associate a SalesKing client with your new project.
- In the Planio apps section, select all applications that you’d like to activate for use within the project. Note that, if you selected a SalesKing client above, then you should likewise select the SalesKing check box.
- In the Trackers section, select all trackers that you’d like to use in your new project. To learn more about trackers, please see Selecting and Editing Trackers and Viewing and Grouping Trackers.
- When done, click Create or click Create and continue to proceed with the creation of another new project.
- After clicking Create, the Settings interface for your new project will appear. You can explore the other project settings tabs (e.g., Planio Apps, Members, Forums, CRM & Helpdesk) or proceed to creating issues for your project (see Got Issues? for assistance).
How to Delete a Project
Tired of your project and want to start fresh? Here’s how to delete a project:
- From the Home screen, click Administration.
- Click Projects.
- Click Delete on the row that corresponds to the project you wish to delete.
- The Confirmation screen appears requesting affirmation of the deletion. To delete, in the Yes field, select the check box.
- Click Delete.
- The project will be permanently deleted from the Planio environment.
How to Archive a Project
Okay, so you’re not really using a project at the present time, but you might use it down the road… what to do? Archive it! Planio offers an archiving function that essentially stores project data and keeps it in reserve for you until you need to access it in the future. The primary benefit is that archived projects do not count towards your plan limit… so you can archive projects, as needed, without worrying about using up the allotted projects for your particular Planio pricing plan.
Here’s a walkthrough of how to archive a project:
- From the Home screen, click Administration.
- Click Projects.
- Click Archive on the row that corresponds to the project you wish to archive.
- A browser window appears requesting confirmation of the archive — click OK.
- Your project is now archived.
…and how to view archived projects and unarchive a project:
- In the Status field of the Projects screen, change the status from active (default) to all.
- Click Apply.
- Click Unarchive on the row that corresponds to the project you wish to unarchive.
- The project’s status will become active and it will be available for use.
We hope that this oft-overlooked information has been of some help to our newer users. For you veterans out there, we’ll have a deeper look at the integration and configuration of Planio apps in upcoming posts. Until then, cheerio!
When not reading, writing, or breathing, Brian is busy playing manly games with his 5-year old daughter… like coloring My Little Pony pages and debating the virtues of pink vs. lavender. Sigh…
Are you a new Planio user? If so, has this article been helpful? Please feel free to share your experiences or Planio wish lists via a comment. Toss us a Like/Tweet as well!
planio tricks A new set of mini-features have been added to Planio and we’re excited to tell you about them! The focus of these new features is the recognition of additional contacts; essentially, Planio now supports the specification of secondary contacts (and CC e-mail recipients) in the CRM & Helpdesk feature.
By the way, if you want to get up-to-speed on all the cool things our CRM & Helpdesk can do, be sure to check out these articles from the Using the CRM & Helpdesk series:
So, let’s kick off today’s blog post with a discussion of our new mini-features:
Auto-Addition of CC Recipients as Additional Contacts
One of the great features of Planio is its capability to use the Issue Management function as a customer communication tool. As many of you already know, when an e-mail is sent to a project’s dropbox address, an issue is automatically created; Planio then examines the e-mail address from the sender and creates new company and customer records (or associates the issue with an existing company and customer, if appropriate).
We’ve expanded on this feature to include CC recipients. When a CC recipient is specified in a dropbox-bound e-mail, the name will also be added as a new customer record and associated with a company if one exists.
Check out the graphic below to see it in action:
Specifying Additional Contacts
Additional contacts works the other way as well: when you are creating or updating an issue, you can specify additional customer contacts — these will be included in outgoing CRM e-mails as copied (CC) recipients. Note that only customers within an indicated company will be available for selection.
Here’s a quick walkthrough:
- Navigate to a project.
- Click New Issue; or,
- Navigate to an existing issue and click Update.
- Ensure that a company is selected.
- In the Additional customer contacts field, click Add contact.
- A text-entry field appears. Enter the first three letters of a contact name — a list of all contacts that match the text will appear.
- Click on the appropriate contact name to specify him/her as an additional contact.
- If necessary, click Add contact to select an additional customer contact.
- Additional contacts will be copied (CC’d) on all outgoing CRM e-mails.
No More Company Drop-Down List!
Lastly, we’ve brought some user-friendliness to the customer company selection field. You no longer need to navigate through a long drop-down list when selecting a company within an issue. Now it’s as simple as typing the first few letters and selecting an appropriate match from a results list, as seen in the graphic below:
Tell us what you think about these improvements to Planio! Also feel free to share a Like/Tweet if you enjoyed this update.
When not writing about Planio, Brian enjoys gardening, although his thumb is definitely (so far) not green.
fun stuff 
by Oliver Widder at Geek&Poke
Did you enjoy today’s comic? If so, share the love with a Like/Tweet below!
planio tricks We’ve recently introduced a trio of new mini-features that are designed to aesthetically please (image attachment thumbnails), keep you up-to-date on upcoming issue due dates (day setting for e-mail reminders), and provide more flexibility with a project parameter (new option to calculate percentage done).
So, without further ado, let’s check them out:
Image Attachment Thumbnails
When attaching an image to your issues, a thumbnail of the image can now appear on your Issue Details screen. This is particularly handy when “role-diagram-2013-v5-5.png” just doesn’t give you that sense of satisfaction that you may expect (or give a clue about what it looks like). A snapshot of the graphic, on the other hand, may make all the sense in the world…
Here’s a walkthrough of how to turn on this spiffy new feature:
- Click Administration.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Display tab.
- In the Display attachment thumbnails field, select the check box.
- Click Save.
Advance Issue Due E-Mail Notification
This new mini-feature enables you to specify the number of days to receive an advance e-mail reminder for upcoming issues that are due. This is a great feature for project managers who just don’t have enough hours in the day to keep track of multiple issues — advance e-mail reminders ensure that you will be notified of due dates in a timely manner. Specifying a value for this feature enables it for both existing and new issues.
Here’s how to turn it on:
- Click My account.
- Take note of the Preferences section.
- In the Due issue email reminders field, enter the number of days preceding an issue due date to receive e-mail reminders (e.g., enter “3” to receive e-mail reminders three days before issues are due). To turn off this feature, leave the field blank.
- Click Save.
Calculate Percentage Done Based on Time
One of the most popular issue parameters on Planio is the % done field — it enables you to easily keep track of issue progress on both the Issues screen and the Gantt chart.
Traditionally, % done has been configured using either the issue field directly or the issue status parameter. We have now expanded te capability of % done so that it can be calculated using the number of logged hours (spent time) and estimated hours, whereby % done = logged hours / estimated hours.
If your users make ample use of Planio’s time tracking capabilities, then using this new feature will enable you to get the most out of the % done parameter.
Here’s how to activate this feature:
- Click Administration.
- Click Settings.
- Click the Issue tracking tab.
- In the Calculate the issue done ratio with field, select Use the logged and estimated time.
- Click Save.
Do you plan on using one or more of these mini-features? Feel free to tell us about it and how they’ve made an impact on your organization. If you liked this article, please share a Like and Tweet as well!
Brian is currently reading The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. A great tome if you like history or a thorough bore-fest if the mere thought about the long slow decline of an Empire puts you to sleep. Either way, it’s either fun or a great paper weight!
About Us Security is one of the main concerns of our clients - and rightly so! Every week, both new and existing customer contacts us here at Planio Support to ask about it. So here’s a little behind-the-scenes view for you to enjoy:
We take the security of the data we are hosting - your data! - very seriously on many different levels: the physical level (our infrastructure is hosted in secure data centers), the technical level (we make sure the software we use is up-to-date and implements the most stringent data access control mechanisms), and even the legal level (all our infrastructure is hosted in Germany, the country with one of the strictest privacy laws in the world).
One thing that gets asked less often - but which is even more important to us - is the safety of the main Planio application itself. Those of you following the news around web technology might have noticed a series of high-profile security vulnerabilities in a popular web framework called Ruby on Rails in the last few weeks. As Planio is built on Ruby on Rails, we have been affected too.
We closely follow the security announcements of all components Planio builds upon. In the case of the Ruby on Rails security warnings we were at work less than 15 minutes after the warnings were published. Less than 4 hours later, we had confirmed and tested the fixes and installed them across all affected Planio applications. Subsequent reviews of server activity also never revealed any suspicious activity that would indicate attempted or successful attacks on Planio in the short time between the publication of the security advisories and our fixes to the affected applications.
Holger and Jan took charge of installing these security fixes, with a little help from yours truly. As the security advisories those last few weeks usually came in in the European evenings, they both have been burning some midnight oil to make sure everyone’s data is safe, big thanks to them!
One last thing I’d like to mention is that each security advisory also prompted us to shine a new light on our custom Planio code, which led us to discovering two more security issues on Planio particular to our setup. Needless to say that we applied the same diligence as described above to fix these issues and have notified upstream vendors where applicable.
In closing, I’d like to thank you for putting your trust in us by hosting your project data on the Planio platform. We highly value your trust and assure you that above all, the safety of your data is our first priority - so you can sleep tight while we’ll continue to take care of the night shifts! :-)
Felix is interim head of customer support here at Planio and the owner of that dark deep voice you’ve probably heard when calling our support phone in the last weeks.
planio tricks The number of calendars we see in our day-to-day lives can be quite ubiquitous; they’re just everywhere! Although it’s important for all of us to (at least) have a general idea of what day it is, Project Managers in particular need to keep a constant eye on their calendar… juggling the myriad number of tasks and assignments requires a level of dedication quite difficult for most of us to master.
This week we’d like to bring to your attention the Planio Calendar. No, we’re not needlessly trying to introduce yet another calendar into your busy life; rather, the Planio Calendar provides a useful option to help facilitate the management of multiple project issues. It’s a great standalone web-based project calendar (especially when you rely on Planio for all of your project management needs) and it’s also a great exportable iCalendar (.ics) that can be integrated into your preferred client (e.g., Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Yahoo, IBM Lotus Notes, and Microsoft Outlook, to name a few).
So, let’s check out some of the spiffier features in the Planio Calendar…
Interface
The calendar’s appearance looks as you may expect—a monthly view organized into daily segments. At the top of the calendar, an Add Filter drop down menu enables you to add new filters to the calendar; the Filter Selection area displays all current filters. The Filter Selection area also includes a month & year selection drop down menu which allows you to jump to a desired month and year combination.
The day cubes are comprised of issues that satisfy your filtered criteria. Text within a cube can be clicked (to navigate to the issue’s Details screen) or you can hover your mouse over text for a brief rundown of the issue.
Let’s have a closer look…
Add Filter Drop Down Menu
The Add Filter drop down menu is used to add a new filter to the Planio Calendar. Simply click the drop down arrow and select a filter—that’s it! After selection, its name will appear in the Filter Selection area along with an operator field; more on that below.
Filter Selection Area
The Filter Selection area is comprised of all current filters. When you select a filter in the Add Filter drop down menu, it will appear here and be automatically selected/active.
To apply a filter:
- Select the check box to the left of the filter name.
- In the operator field(s), select or enter a desired parameter in order to define the filter.
- Click Apply to submit your filter(s).
Examples:
- Status: Select open|is|is not|closed|all, as needed. If is or is not is selected, then a second operator field appears enabling you to select a status type (e.g., “Status is Waiting for review”, “Status is not Complete”, etc.).
- % Done: Select is|>=|<=|between|none|all, as needed. If is, >=, <=, or between is selected, then additional operator fields appear enabling you to define the percentage done (e.g., “% Done >= 50”, “% Done all” [includes all values], “% Done between 50 100” [includes values between 50 and 100 percent], etc.).
Calendar Task Entries
Tasks that begin 
, end 
, or begin & end 
on a given day will appear in the Planio Calendar. To view a summary of the task, simply hover your mouse cursor over the yellow-shaded task entry. In addition, you can also navigate to the task’s Details interface by clicking on the “Task #” text, as shown below:
Exporting the Calendar
The Planio Calendar can be exported as an iCalendar (.ics) file, which is a widely-accepted calendar format that can be used in multiple applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple Calendar.
- To export the calendar as a feed (so that it updates automatically): On the bottom-right corner of the Calendar interface, right-click on ICS, copy the link to your clipboard, and then paste it as a feed source to your favorite calendar application.
- To save a static view of the calendar: Click ICS, save the file to a local or network location, and then apply/import the calendar file to your favorite calendar application (shown in graphic below).
Was this article helpful? Do you rely on the Planio Calendar for your project management needs? Tell us about what you like (or don’t like) in a comment below! If you liked this article, please feel free to share a Like and Tweet as well!
Brian is currently reading Himalaya, by Michael Palin, a great travel author and quite a funny guy (many of you may remember him from Monty Python). He’s also growing tomatoes… Brian, not Michael.
fun stuff 
by Oliver Widder at Geek&Poke
Did you enjoy today’s comic? If so, share the love with a Like/Tweet below!
planio tricks Since forever, Planio has had a very powerful but often overlooked feature: the Blog app.
Seemingly, the problem was that it went by a little less common term called “News” which nobody really knew what to do with. So, now we’ve renamed the feature to what it actually is: a fully-featured project blog. Project members can post articles and comment on them. Atom feeds as well as e-mail updates are included, too.
So, if you’d like a little more blogging going on in your project, be sure to activate the Blog app via Settings → Planio apps.
Hint: You can also configure your Planio project to be publicly available, so that users without a Planio account can follow your blog. Be sure to check out Brians recent article about the CRM & Helpdesk; at the end, he explains how to make a project’s FAQ section public. For the blog it works very much in the same way!
Do you have a public Planio blog for you project? Be sure to post your link here and we’ll subscribe to it!
