Using the Basecamp API to create project reports

Bill Breen, Director of Web Development at SmartMoney.com, writes about using the Basecamp API to create project reports.

We have a weekly managers meeting where we briefly run down all our open projects and their status. The responsible party can then update and if necessary elaborate briefly on specific items within their project. It is a great meeting to have because it gets all parties from various groups in one room where we quickly keep everyone abreast of the projects being worked on. People in theory can get all the same information from Basecamp themselves, but reality is this is not always the case. Having the meeting lets us discuss small items with other groups and departments without having to have a longer time consuming meeting.

To create a report for this meeting, I decided to try the Basecamp API. I figured a quick report that can generate a concise PDF to print out and bring to the meeting will work best. I sat down and used my regular tech community channels to see if anyone has created a Basecamp API module for ColdFusion. Sure enough, I found baseCamp.cfc from Terrence Ryan. It was exactly what I was looking for. It was written for the older Basecamp API, so I had to plug in some new methods, but it was a real time saver because it handled all the requests, and parsing of the responses.

Read the full post for more details.

Report2Base lets you analyze Basecamp data from different perspectives

Report2Base is an add-on to Basecamp that can be queried for milestones, tasks, messages exchanged and hours clocked for a given project or a given client. According to the Report2Base site, features include:

• Intuitive, 'wizard-like' interface for query construction
• Rich, tabbed UI for simultaneous viewing of multiple reports
• Facility to save frequently used queries
• Exporting of reports as PDF / CSV files
• periodic dispatch of reports to specified email contacts
• Charts for visual representation of project data

Learn more.

Highrise helps Inchoo follow-up with prospects

In "Manage your contacts effectively – where have all my post-its gone?", Aron Stanic of Inchoo discusses Highrise.

Let’s say I’ve just received an email inquiry from a new prospect. When sending a response, I can instantly Bcc the email to my Highrise dropbox making the communication transparent and easily trackable for myself and, most importantly, for the rest of the team as well.

I’m able to upload and/or import basic contact information about the new client together with her/his picture (sometimes being good with the names simply doesn’t cut it), corporate information, other notes and – yes – even feed the profile with their Twitter updates so I can see what the client is up to in real time.

While some of these features can strike you as purely cosmetic, there are others that really stand out. I can create task lists for each contact (making sure I don’t forget sending that quote or a follow-up email), add pending and any previous deals to them and tag them accordingly.

It happened a couple of times that I’d make a follow-up on a prospect who needed some small Magento tweak a month ago and decided to go with another developer. He had experienced some problems and was very much relieved to hear back from us and ask for our help with a larger deal that we would then land. Who knows if I’d have remembered to make that follow-up had I not created a task two months ago.

Read the full post.

Burndown: Generate burndown charts for Basecamp milestones and to-do lists

Burndown is a simple tool that takes your Basecamp milestones and to-do lists and generates burndown charts with them.

With Burndown you don't need to repeat yourself. A simple synchronization process is all you have to do to keep daily track of your iteration and generate helpful burndown charts. Forget about bloated so called "agile" software, that requires training to be used. If the "agile" tools you're using require a certification... well probably you're not being as agile as you think.

New File Uploading features in Basecamp

We're excited to announce a batch of improvements to File Uploads in Basecamp. Now it's easier to attach multiple files at once, we've improved our progress bar to show you as each file is uploaded, and you can click thumbnails to zoom image attachments without leaving the current page. These new features make it faster and easier to attach, review and discuss files in Basecamp. Here's a demo video to show you all the improvements.

We hope you like the new file upload features in Basecamp. Thanks as always for your support!

Timy: "An easy-to-use desktop application to fill out your Basecamp timesheet"

Timy is "an easy-to-use desktop application to fill out your Basecamp timesheet."

Complete your timesheet the easy way!
Completing your timesheet can be time-consuming. But no more!
Timy is an easy-to-use desktop application to fill out your Basecamp timesheet.

Efficient and with surprisingly clever features, using a quick and simple interface. Time tracking in 7th gear, so to speak.

Timy is a free downloadable product.

How to adapt Basecamp to an agile methodology

High Notes offers a blog post called "How to do SCRUM with Basecamp?"

About 2 years ago we were sitting at the office trying to figure out which tool to use for project management. I mean, being agile is about being simple, but index cards were starting to get messy...

Of all the tools we tried, the one that gave us the best results was Basecamp. These are the two reasons that we believe make Basecamp great for agile project management:

Simplicity: There is no need for training when you start using Basecamp. In essence Basecamp is a set of message boards, blogging tools, calendars and to-do list trackers. All these tools combined in an intuitive way is what Basecamp is all about. If your team can't figure out how to use Basecamp... you're in troubles. Being agile is about using the simplest tools available.

Interactions instead of Process: The purpose of Basecamp is to promote and enhance collaboration between a team. Basecamp doesn't try to force you into a specific workflow as most project management tools do. You can pretty much do whatever process or workflow you want, and still, Basecamp is going to be helpful. Guess what's the first line of the Agile Manifesto? Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. So instead of thinking "Is ticket 4137 assigned to David or to Paula?", you will see the discussion of a real issue between your team.

The post goes on to give a detailed explanation of how to adapt Basecamp to an agile methodology (they use a mixture of Scrum and XP). Check it out.

Backpack is used to publish points of contact and resources during Toronto's garbage strike

There's a garbage strike currently underway in the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. As expected, the citizens of Toronto are left with only questions about what to do about the garbage that is piling up. Luckily Danyl Sobolev used Backpack to quickly publish a list of useful contacts and resources for this difficult situation.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

Basecamp: Keep track of the hours spent on a task with time tracking

Basecamp time tracking lets you keep track of the hours spent on a task or a complete project (for plus or higher accounts only).

Watch an audio/video tour of Time Tracking to learn more.

Always remember with Backpack Reminders

Backpack can send reminders to you via email or as a Mobile SMS/text message. That means you won’t ever forget to attend a meeting, make a call, or any other task that you have to do. You can even set and schedule reminders for your co-workers too.

You can schedule reminders for you or your team by clicking on the Reminders tab in your Backpack account.

1. Give the reminder a name.
2. Choose a time for the reminder.
3. Select the people to notify.

Backpack will automatically send an email message or mobile text message to the people that you selected on the time and date you have chosen.

Watch a quick video on Reminders.

Getting Real is one of Tim Ferriss' five must read books

Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose Discuss Their Top 5 Must-Read Books:

On Ferriss' list: Getting Real. He says, "It has the potential to change your life and your business...It does have a software focus but all of it can be applied to entrepreneurs in general."

Seth Godin: "Basecamp is the perfect tool for coordinating"

Seth Godin recently launched an alternative MBA program. Unaccredited, residential, free and six months long. A new way to learn about a new way of doing business. One of the lessons of the experiment: Use Basecamp.

Another lesson: We used Basecamp. It’s the perfect tool for coordinating this sort of work.

Read more of the lessons Seth learned from what he called "an extraordinary learning experience."

"Getting Real was a pivotal read for me and my business partners"

Justin Wills on how Getting Real influenced him and his partners at Society6:

I just wanted to drop a note and thank you for writing Getting Real. I can't say I've ever been someone to champion a book or to change the way I operate based on one. That said I have to say that Getting Real was a pivotal read for me and my business partners. The first time I read the book I had many a tearful laugh, having experienced the pitfalls of not Getting Real first hand.

As my partners (Justin Cooper and Lucas Tirigall-Caste) and I developed our new enterprise we were able to adhere to many of the precepts of the book, from both the business and software standpoint. At crucial points in the development of our platform we held true to much of the great common sense in it.

Recently we launched our new company, a platform to create unique opportunities for artists and creative people, called Society6. Our proudest moments have been when new members tell us how simple the site is and we remark to one another about how many features we were disciplined enough to NOT put it into it.

Read Getting Real.

New Basecamp feature: The Daily Digest

We're excited to announce a great improvement to Basecamp. The new Daily Digest feature makes it easier than ever to track the progress of your projects. The Daily Digest is an email that Basecamp sends you once a day. The email tells you about any to-do items or milestones that were checked off or added in the last day. Daily Digests are per-project, so you can subscribe to the projects you really care about without being distracted by any unnecessary information. Now you'll always know day-by-day as work is completed or new work is assigned. It's a really powerful feature.

To subscribe to the Daily Digest for a project, first load the project and click on the Overview tab. You'll see a link to subscribe in the upper-right of your screen:

After you click "Turn on email updates" the following screen will confirm your details and remind you how the Daily Digest works:

Now that you're subscribed, you'll receive an email once each day at 9am. You'll only receive an email if there was some activity on the project in the last 24 hours. Here's a sample of what the Daily Digest email looks like:

We think you'll love how the Daily Digest keeps you on top of your projects step-by-step as they move toward completion. Thanks as always for your continued support and we hope you enjoy the new feature!

Jamie Pittock of ErskineLabs: "Basecamp’s beauty is its simplicity"

In "Project management is easy," Jamie Pittock of ErskineLabs talks about how his team uses Basecamp to manage projects.

THE PROJECT BACKLOG – create a list that you can use to store everything you might need to remember during the project.

WEEKLY REVIEW MEETINGS – at the start of each week get the project team together, review the items in the Project Backlog, and convert the ones you need to work on into actionable tasks.

WEEK-BASED TO-DO LISTS – move these actionable tasks from the Project Backlog into a dedicated to-do list for that week’s work. Make sure anything in these lists are assigned to the person who’s responsible for making sure it’s done.

That’s it for now, if you take anything away from this take the following three points.

1. Don’t fight Basecamp
2. Write everything down
3. Focus on the actionable

The post is filled with good tips. Check it out.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.

"Run your home more like a business" with 37signals tools

101 Tools to Run Your Home More Like a Business:

Home life seems to get more and more complicated as days go by. There are chores, paperwork, and lots of maintenance to deal with, but your home doesn’t have to take over your life. By using tools that streamline the work of businesses, you’ll find that it’s easy to get things done. Read on and you’ll find 101 tools that will make your home run like a business.

Included on the list: Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, Campfire, and Writeboard.

Import Clients, Contacts and Won Deals from Highrise into Harvest

Harvest lets you and your staff track time, log expenses, and create invoices in one simple, integrated workflow. Now you can quickly import Highrise contacts and won deals into Harvest to track time and invoice clients.

Here is a short, 2-minute video to show you how the integration works:

Learn more about Highrise and Harvest integration at the Harvest blog. Sign up for a free trial of Harvest today and give this new feature a spin.

The Star-Ledger: Highrise is a a new breed of CRM that emphasizes simplicity

"New programs can help firms rid themselves of their Rolodexes" [The Star-Ledger] says that while you might think of CRM software as being a tool for mega-corporations (or costing mega-bucks), relatively affordable web-based versions of CRM software are now available. Along the way, Highrise gets a mention.

For many businesses, especially small businesses -- a law firm, say, or a niche retailer -- the idea of embarking on an effort to move to a CRM system can seem like a daunting task. Yet with a new breed of CRM, the emphasis is on simplicity and ease-of-use, as well as helping you run a business without the need to configure and install complex software. You pay a monthly fee, and then you can forget about the technical end of maintaining the CRM software...

Highrise, offers a free plan, for two users and 250 contacts. A $24-per-month plan provides up to six users and 5,000 contacts, while the $149- per-month plan allows for unlimited users and 50,000 contacts. I particularly like the description used by 37 signals, the makers of the Highrise CRM: Highrise is a great way for business to keep track of who talked to whom, what was said and what needs to happen next. The software excels in the way it blends contact management, to-do lists and other features. You look at a contacts page in Highrise, and you have a window into your communications with that person, notes from meetings, background and any tasks related to the contact...

If you're working on your own, you can certainly try to make do with sticky notes, a simple address book and your memory. But if multiple people are working on projects together, maybe even in far-flung locations, then coordination becomes essential. Given that an increasing number of small businesses now operate in a virtual environment, or have telecommuters, the need for tools to know who's doing what is even more important. Just beware: Even these streamlined CRM services won't do much for you unless you actually use and update them.

Read the full article.

Put your Highrise Dropbox address in the BCC field automatically in Mail.app

Want to put your Highrise Dropbox address in the BCC field automatically in Mail.app?
Easy Automatic Highrise Dropbox in Apple Mail offers a hack that will make it so (requires messing with Terminal.app so "buyer beware"):

1. Open Terminal.app
2. $ defaults read com.apple.mail UserHeaders
3. If nothing shows up, you don’t currently have anything set and you should be golden to move to the next step.
4. $ defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders '{"BCC" = "dropbox@YOURDROP.highrisehq.com"; }'
5. Restart Mail.app

That’s it. From now on your email should be automatically BCC’d to your dropbox address and you should get a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Have a neat tip related to a 37signals product? Let us know.

Improving the Basecamp API

We've been working behind the scenes to improve the Basecamp API. One recent change lets developers know whether the person making an API request is from a client or an internal firm.

This went over quite well. Here's the response from the guys behind Outpost:

Noticed this during testing this morning & did a double-take when I realized there were names appearing in Outpost — much kudos for keeping it in line with the existing API, so all us 3rd parties’ apps will just start working now. Very exciting to see progress on the API end.

Fyi, all communication on this topic was done via the Basecamp forum. We're making an effort to stay on top of API issues reported there. And we've also started a 37signals API developer list which is a great place to get feedback on API stuff.

As we come to expect more out-of-browser experiences, good, well-documented APIs are becoming more important. We look forward to continuing to improve the APIs for all our products.

You can check out the updated API documentation for further details:

People API Calls
Companies API Calls

TUAW: "Satchel is Backpack on the iPhone done right"

Satchel is Backpack on the iPhone done right (finally) according to The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Whenever I'm evaluating a client application that interacts with a web-based service via its API, my acid test is the answer to this question: "Could I fully utilize this service using only this application?". Satchel gets you most of the way there. With existing Backpack pages, you can view all of your notes and lists, edit the pages tags and even view attached images and files. You can also create new pages, but the API doesn't allow for creating anything other than Note and List elements within your new page (though, you can email files, etc. directly to it once it's created). The good news is, Satchel also has a "send an email to this page" button, so you can add content to your new page relatively easily. The Satchel crew also really spent some time on the list interface, making it easy to add, remove and reorder list items in a very iPhone-ish way...

While you may be a little hesitant to drop the $9.99US on this one, I can say that it's worth every penny for the true Backpack fanatic. It's gone a long way to removing the barrier for those looking to embrace Backpack as a service, but feeling a little hamstrung by the lack of a decent mobile interface. If you love Backpack, you'll love Satchel [App Store].

"Create a kick ass intranet app using 37signals"

Travis Vocino, a South Florida based technologist, explains how to "Create a Kick Ass Intranet App using 37signals":

I use three 37signals applications: Backpack, Basecamp and Highrise (go go referral links). With these 3 excellent web apps, I’m able to rock out a seriously awesome complete intranet setup for my business.

Just using them is fine but, as usual, I like to take it one step further into better integration with my desktop workflow. That’s where OpenID and Fluid.app come in.

The article goes on to explain how to use OpenID and Fluid.app to "turn this puppy into a desktop-like application."

Having all of these applications in place really creates a great intranet-type workflow. It’s helpful even when working solo but if you have a small team like me it really shines. I also noticed my people used the various apps a lot more once I introduced them to using OpenID to bring them together — as well as putting it all together in Fluid.app...

It’s great for tabbing to your intranet window, adding a calendar entry, and tabbing back to Photoshop, to give a quick example. This is a process that just isn’t as exciting when you’re stuck in Safari.

Read the whole piece for step-by-step details on how Travis set up his system.

The new 37signals API developer list

The new 37signals API developer list is meant to be the new hub for all things 37signals API. A place where developers can discuss their experiences and challenges working with the APIs from Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, and Campfire. We'll try to make ourselves available as best we can to help answer questions and provide clarification on implementation. Sign up now.

txtinn^ is an online SMS application for Basecamp that allows you to create, schedule and monitor mobile SMS campaigns

txtinn^ is a new Basecamp extra. It's a simple SMS application that allows Basecamp users to create, schedule and monitor mobile SMS notifications and SMS campaigns.

It integrates seamlessly into your everyday use of Basecamp, making it simple to schedule SMS broadcasts, associate them with your projects and complete milestones.

"With txtinn^s integration into Basecamp, your SMS broadcasts will be automatically assigned to your chosen project. Each text message will appear as a Milestone in Basecamp and be visible to your teammates and clients, keeping everyone on the pulse of your communications."

It's free to sign up or you can view the different plans available.

Survey says Basecamp is the best project management software

"What’s the Best Project Management Software?" asked Gina Trapani, software and self improvement junkie at Smarterware.

I asked my Twitter followers what project management software they use at home and at work, and how they like it on a scale of 1 to 10...Out of the 97 replies I did get, 17 said they use 37 Signals’ Basecamp (and gave it an 8 out of 10 average rating), 12 said they used Microsoft Project (it averaged a 6.6 out of 10 rating), and, interestingly, 9 people said they like Things (which averaged a 7.7 rating) and OmniFocus (which got a rating of 9), both for Mac OS X.

Some of the responses:

tofumatt says, “We use Basecamp, and can’t imagine a better working system.”

rendini says, “Basecamp. I’d give it an 8 out of 10. Perspective = I’ve used many PM tools & I can’t think of one other that I’d give a 5 to.”

Grodzman says, “we use Basecamp for project management at work and at Walsh College. I love it! 10/10.”

See more responses.

DoneDone: Web-based issue tracking tool integrates with Basecamp

Ka Wai Cheung of We Are Mammoth answers some questions about his team's recently launched web-based issue tracking tool called DoneDone that integrates with Basecamp.

What's DoneDone and why did we build it?
We built DoneDone because we just couldn't find an issue tracking system that we actually liked (free or paid). To us, they all look like dropdown boxes made babies with an Excel spreadsheet. We wanted something better.

We think issues get solved faster if an issue tracker can delegate responsibility better. DoneDone is about real-time responsibility. It's focused on who needs to do what next. Here’s a post that better explains it.

How does it integrate with Basecamp?
That brings us to Basecamp. We love using Basecamp at the start of a project to collaborate with our clients. We love using it during development to communicate and organize our thoughts. But, at the end of a project, when we're tying up loose ends, we need something that feels more dictatorial than collaborative. That's when we use DoneDone.

We're using your API to let users import companies and users from projects in Basecamp over to DoneDone so completing a project is as seamless as possible.

Who's behind it?
Our little company is called We Are Mammoth. We're mainly a Flash/Flex-based software shop but we also write other software on the side and blog.

Thanks!

Learn more about DoneDone.

New in Highrise: Twitter integration

Today we're excited to release basic Twitter integration in Highrise.

Highrise is the best way to keep track of who you talked to, what was said, and what to do next. Twitter integration allows you to have an even better view of what's on a person's mind, what they're saying right now, and what their current interests are.

This is especially handy if you check a person's Highrise page before contacting them again. Now you can check your previous communications history as well as what they are tweeting right now. Tweets are great conversation starters that show you're paying attention to what's going on in their world.

Here's a video to show you how easy it is to add Twitter info for a contact:

We really hope you like this feature! Thanks again for using Highrise!

(Be sure to follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/37signals)

Convert password protected RSS feeds to emails with Feed My Inbox

Want to get your password protected RSS feeds (from Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, or wherever) delivered via email? Benjamin Stangland, Operations Manager at Weber Marketing Group, offers this tip on converting password protected RSS feeds to emails.

I found a free solution that will convert password protected rss feeds to emails that I just wanted to share with you guys. Since this might help other 37signals customers.

Converting password protected rss feeds seems to be a challenge but www.feedmyinbox.com works.

You have to place your username and password into the feed line itself however.
https://[username]:[password]@[domain]/[path]

We use this all the time with Highrise and love it.

FYI: An email will be sent to you each time the feed is updated, but no more than every 24 hours (to cut down on inbox clutter). Whether there is 1 post or 10 posts to the feed in a 24 hour period, you receive them all in one email.

Have a good tip related to a 37signals product? Let us know.

Why The Strategic Incubator chooses Backpack for internal project management

Matthew Scott of The Strategic Incubator just wrote: "Internal Project Management: Backpack Is Our Choice."

Think of Backpack as your small business intranet where you share, store, secure, and discuss everything that is important for your team to accomplish a client engagement.

For example, we are currently working on multiple client engagements. We have an office located in Greater NYC area and one in Portland. Occasionally we have specialty contractors from different parts of country. We needed a shared system enabling each person to access, share, and store information vital to the client project success.

I’ll share a brief overview of how we use Backpack within minutes of partnering with a new client.

When Company-X partners with The Strategic Incubator, a process is set in motion:

• We establish a Backpack page of Company X. It takes us about 10 seconds and then we click one button to send an automatic email and text message notifying selected members of our team that we have a new project page.
• Each team member gets to work adding to the to-do list, notes section, and the writeboard section to brainstorm some preliminary creative ideas.

Before Backpack, we would pick-up the phone and receive a work status a few times a day.

Now, we just open our shared and secured Backpack URL site from any computer and in seconds I can see exactly what our individuals are doing.

The full post also includes lots of sharp ideas for how you can use Backpack for your business.

Sync your Ballpark estimates with Highrise Deals

Ballpark, an app that lets you send estimates and invoices, now syncs with Highrise Deals.

Highrise Deals are a great way to keep track of estimates and proposals and take note of which you’ve won and lost. Avid users of Highrise ourselves, we’ve added the ability to sync your Ballpark estimates with Highrise as Deals. Learn more about Highrise Deals

We use Highrise to keep track of incoming RFPs and emails from clients that need to be shared with our team. With Highrise Deals syncing, we can keep the whole team - specifically team members who aren’t in Ballpark - aware of what projects we’ve won and lost, leave notes about what happened, and keep everyone on the same page.

Learn more about the integration and how to enable it at this post on Ballpark's blog.