Using the administration panel

The administration panel can be accessed by clicking on the Administration link in the upper right corner. This link is only visible if you are logged in as user with administrator privileges.

From the administration panel you have access to the following settings:

Each OpenGoo installation has something we call an owner company (which may be an organisation or simply a group of people as well). The owner company has the same structure as any other company in your contacts. What makes the owner company different from all other companies is the fact that every user which belongs to that company is a potential administrator of your OpenGoo installation. Users that belong to any another company can never become administrators.

In the administration panel the owner company is simply called company - as opposite to the clients (see below).

The owner company is created at the end of the installation process (see OpenGoo installer), so every OpenGoo installation has its owner company. You can update the owner company info at any time, but you can not delete the owner company. ¹⁾

Since the owner company owns the OpenGoo installation there is no reason to lock certain functions or workspaces from this company. As a consequence there is no screen for setting permissions for the owner company.

From here, administrators can create, update and delete user profiles. The options here are the same as in your own user profile, we therefore refer to the page about managing your account.

As an exception from the rule you can't delete your own user account; this safety feature prevents you from locking yourself out from your OpenGoo installation. Plus you are not allowed to delete the user account of the very first user account, which is typically the main administrator.

Clients is just another word for alle companies that are not the owner company (see above).

From the administration panel you can add, edit and delete clients, you can add users to them, and you can manage their permissions. To understand the settings for a company, please read Working with companies.

Groups in OpenGoo is something that is also called roles: It's a set of permissions which can be given to any user. Groups make it easier to manage permissions especially if you have many users.

In the administration panel you can create, edit and delete groups. By default there is one group called “administrators”, and as an exception from the rule you can't delete that one.

From the administration panel you can add, edit and delete workspaces. You will notice that OpenGoo has automatically created a personal workspace for every user in the system (called <username>_personal, i.e. msauter_personal).

For details about editing workspaces see the workspace properties page. For general information regarding workspaces see Working with workspaces.

PLEASE NOTE: There are some restrictions to personal workspaces here:

• You can only assign your personal workspace (but no other user's personal workspace) as a parent workspace.
• You can assign a parent workspace to your personal workspace as well as to all other personal workspaces of administrators (but not to personal workspaces of standard users).²⁾

From here you can edit and delete existing task templates. To create a new task template use Add task template on the main screen of the administration panel.

More information about Task templates.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a bug in OpenGoo 1.0 that creates ordinary tasks instead of task templates. The only way to create task templates in this version is to use the Save as template command in the task detail view.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a bug in OpenGoo 1.0 that converts task templates to ordinary tasks when you edit them. The only way to edit a task template in this version is to create a new task from a template in the task module, to modify this task and to save it as a task template again.

The general seetings are global (i.e. they are the same for all users).

• Enable upgrade check: Checks on a daily basis whether there is a new OpenGoo version available. (If there is a new version, you can download it from the administration panel in the update section - see below.)
• File storage: Let's you choose between storing your documents in the file system or in the database.
• Theme: Let's you switch themes (if installed).

The mailing settings let you control how OpenGoo is sending notification mails. These seetings are global as well. (Don't mix up these mailing seetings with the settings for individual e-mail accounts.)

Options in the mailing settings:

• Microsoft Exchange compatibility mode: If you're using a Microsoft Exchange Server, this should help to prevent some problems.
• Mail transport: Lets you choose the method how mails are beeing sent - by the mailing functions of PHP (requires no further configuration) or by a SMTP server (to be specified below).

Use this simple tool to send test e-mails to check if the OpenGoo mailer is well configured.

A simple tool that lets you send plain text messages to several users at once.

If there is a new version of OpenGoo you can download it here.³⁾

The backup menu lets you create a backup copy of your whole OpenGoo installation, including the database and the documents in the file system, and download it as a ZIP archive to your local hard drive.

The process of backing up OpenGoo constists of three steps:

1. Create the backup file
2. Download the backup file
3. Delete the backup file from the server

PLEASE NOTE: Depending on the amount of data that is stored in your OpenGoo installation creating a backup file my take some time.

For details, simply follow the instructions on the screen: