Bitrix daily :)

As I mentioned before, Bitrix Intranet Portal is now available in three different editions, and two of them include the Extranet module. I shall try to explain in this post what it's designed for and what kind of benefits it can give you in accomplishing your daily tasks at work.

Extranet: what's it for?

Our clients and partners got used to the idea that when you set up and run Bitrix Intranet Portal it is presupposed that you can use only a limited number of users (let's say "employees") within your corporate network. Well, I can say that this statement is now wrong… Twice.

First of all, you have an option to buy Bitrix Intranet Portal with unlimited user licenses. And secondly, the product has a brand new Extranet module that allows third party users (we can call them "non-employees") to access a part of your corporate network and interact with you and your colleagues!

Basically, the Extranet module is a kind of additional story built on your corporate network (Intranet Portal) that can be used as a neutral territory for inviting and working with people who do not belong to your company directly. [CUT]



Extranet: what's it for?


Features available in the Extranet part of your Intranet Portal


Preparing to work with the Extranet


Understanding the difference between the Intranet and Extranet users


Registering new users for the Extranet


Creating workgroups and inviting users from the "outside"


Finishing projects and archiving workgroups


Give it a try - 30-day trial is already available!








Features available in the Extranet part of your Intranet Portal

Besides its main social networking functions (user profiles, workgroups with blogs and forums, file sharing, etc.), the Extranet has a number of other features and tools available for the benefits of your colleagues and the people invited into your Extranet.

	The "Contacts" section displays available contact names of the non-employees (users invited from the "outside") and your company employees who have been granted access to the Extranet;
	Information on absent users, and users' upcoming birthdays is also displayed.
	Blog feeds will be available only to those users who have permission to view this content;
	All users in the Extranet will be able to view the content of the "Documents" section (which is built on the standard bitrix:webdav component);
	Besides general information, the "Company" section contains also a "Subscription" page where Extranet users can subscribe to receive newsletters via email;
	The "Help" section contains both help topics and a webpage on which you can submit a TechSupport ticket. You can modify the TechSupport tickets submission procedure by using the "Wizard - Extranet" component (go to Adminstrative Panel > Content > Information blocks > Information block types > Services);
	Synchronization with Outlook is limited to and regulated by your access permission level to Extranet content, e.g. you will be able to synchronize only the data from the workgroups (incl. workgroup calendars and workgroup tasks) where you have group member status;
	The "Contacts" gadget can be displayed on your Desktop. In the Extranet part of your Portal it is split into two lists: "Members in my workgroups" and "All accessible Extranet users". The number of entries in each of them can be customized in the gadget settings. The most recently contacted person will appear automatically on the top of each list.

The "Contacts" gadget on your Desktop

Preparing to work with the Extranet

You have probably noticed that when installing Bitrix Intranet Portal, the Extranet module is not available by default. To use the Extranet network, you will have to install the Extranet module first.

Go to the Administrative Part > Settings > System Settings > Modules > and then choose to install the Extranet module from the list of all modules available according to your license. After you have install the Extranet module, follow the link shown in the last step of the installation process (or displayed in the Extranet Setup Wizard list menu), and launch the Extranet Customizer (bitrix:extranet).

When using the Extranet Customizer, you'll be able to set all the parameters you need for the proper use of your Intranet and Extranet portals, including the new website ID, its root folder, etc.

When you are finished with creating and customizing your Extranet, it will be then available with for the user groups described above; your brand new Extranet will use the template you have chosen during the installation process and can be changed anytime you want -- just click the "Extranet Configuration Wizard" in the Control Panel.

Important: To avoid "license agreement violation" error code, please disable and remove the Extranet part of your Portal before buying and registering Bitrix Intranet Portal: Office Edition. In this edition you are allowed to have one website only, and the Extranet part of your Portal will count as the second website.

Understanding the difference between the Intranet and Extranet users

So, here is the main question: Can the Extranet users access your company's Intranet? The answer is NO they can't. And that's the point, that's the essence of the Extranet module concept! Your extranet users are persons you want to keep close enough to cooperate with, but still at a secure distance that helps you remain business-private.

All Extranet users (non-employees) have permission to view/modify only the content of the workgroups to which they had been invited. Think of it as of a separate room inside your company where people from the "outside world" have been invited to discuss a project with some of your colleagues. They use a backdoor and cannot see the rest of your company's adjoining premises or other employees

But what about the Intranet users wanting to get access to the Extranet part of your Portal? It's not a problem at all! Any Intranet user with appropriate user permissions is able access the Extranet part of the company's Portal. For employees, access restrictions are controlled by standard mechanisms that you use for the Intranet Portal: all you have to do is bind a user to a user group to limit (or grant additional) access permissions.

But then how is the access to the Extranet limited for the non-employees? If the user is not bound (assigned) to any of the Intranet Portal user groups, then after authorization they will be recognized by the system as "non-employees" and will be automatically directed to the Extranet.

Registering new users for the Extranet

There are different Extranet user groups that regulate access permission level for employees and non-employees of your Corporate Portal that can be registered as Extranet users. When creating a new user you can choose whether or not they will have access to the Extranet part. It can be done when managing User group membership settings, here:

Administrative Panel > Settings > Manage Users > User List > ... Create New User … "Groups" Tab

Different Extranet user groups

As I've already mentioned, the Extranet is specifically created to help connect employees and non-employees. Users from either of these two groups must be assigned to the “Extranet users” group which can be modified in the administrative part of the Intranet Portal

Administrative Panel > Settings > Manage Users > User List > ... "Groups" Tab

Important: Remember that the Intranet users have to be assigned to the " Extranet users" group as well to be able to switch to and use the Extranet part of their company's Portal.

Users (both employees and non-employees) can create workgroups in the Extranet only if they are assigned both to the "Extranet Users" group and to the "Allowed to create extranet user groups" group.

Users assigned to the "Extranet Support" user group have access to all TechSupport requests submitted from the Extranet.

Users with "Extranet Site Administrators" access permissions can manage all third party users' accounts (non-employee accounts with access to the Extranet); these users will be able to view and edit all data present on the Extranet pages and sections, as well.

Also, a new option in the Custom Fields / Additional tab in the user profile customization window has been added, Public Extranet person (called "Visible to all in Extranet" in the updated version). If you check this box, the user will become visible to all Extranet users whether the user is a member of any workgroups or not. "Public Extranet persons" can be contacted by any employee or non-employee having access to the Extranet.

Administrative Part > Settings > Manage Users > User List > ... "Custom Fields" or "Additional" Tab

Public Extranet User / Visible in Extranet checkbox

Creating workgroups and inviting users from the "outside"

Logged in as a Portal Administrator or as a user with appropriate access permissions (e.g. when bound to the Allowed to create extranet user groups user group), you will be able to create workgroups in the Extranet, and invite users from the Intranet or people from the "outside" to join these workgroups.

We have developed a new component for creating workgroups within the Extranet Portal, called bitrix:extranet.group_create. Using this component, you can create a new workgroup in two simple steps:

- create a group (name, description, group image, keywords);


- build up members of the workgroup by inviting your colleagues (users who are your company's employees and who have access to the Intranet Portal) and by inviting users form the "outside" (by sending email notifications containing links and authorization instructions). Just have a look at the screenshots, below:

Creating a workgroup

Inviting people to join the workgroup

If you need to cancel invitations or invite more people to join the workgroup, click the "Group Invitations" link on the workgroup main page. A new page will appear containing the list of all persons who had been invited to the group but haven't accepted the invitation yet. You can modify the list of the invited persons by cancelling invitations or inviting new people to the group.

Important: When you invite a company employee (an Intranet user) to join an Extranet workgroup for the first time, they will be automatically assigned and bound to the "Extranet users" group. However, the "Extranet" button will appear in their Intranet site's upper navigation bar only after they log out and authorize into the system again.

Finishing projects and archiving workgroups

When a project’s goals have been reached and it comes to an end, the workgroup can be archived. By archiving a workgroup in the Extranet, you will make sure that its content will never be modified and that there will no longer be any new notifications sent to the former group members.

Important: Despite the fact that a workgroup once created in the Extranet was closed and archived, all users invited to join this workgroup from the outside will be able to view the content of the Extranet further on until you decide to remove them from the "Extranet Users" group manually.

Give it a try - 30-day trial is already available!

Hope this post helped you understand some of the advantages of the Extranet module your company could benifit from. Don't forget that is available in Bitrix Intranet Portal: Extranet Edition and in Bitrix Intranet Portal: Enterprise Edition, only. You can try for free either of these editions by downloading and installing a 30-day trial.

I will be glad if this new module will help you more easily and flexibly accomplish your everyday business tasks and effectivey re-organize ways you communicate with your partners and clients. Your comments will be very appreciated!

Read more...

Greetings!

I hope you all enjoy using new tools and features available in the latest version of Bitrix Intranet Portal. I know that the majority of our clients are business-oriented professionals who know the real value of time. That's right - time is money! And I am going about to tell you more about new and exciting features and cool extensions introduced in the Event Calendar.

In the beginning I am going to make a brief list of major changes made in the Event Calendar:

• Event Scheduler - it is an absolutely new tool now available in the Event Calendar;



• Now you can book a meeting room directly from the Event Calendar;



• HTML-editor now can be used for each event description;



• New event notifications are now sent through the Social Network module;



• The Event Calendar interface was improved and made even more user friendly.

I will try to explain not only the stuff that I've just mentioned, but also some other important things related to the Event Calendar.

[CUT]

Event Scheduler

Event Scheduler is a convenient tool for managing everyday group events that must be organized as quickly and flexibly as it can be. We wanted that the workgroup moderator(s) could see whether and when the group members are available or not right on the calendar grid where a new event could be fit into. It saves you a lot of time, because you will no longer need to do redundant communication to the group members asking them if they have time when a new event was supposed to be planned.

The Event Scheduler is placed in the New Event dialog window > "Guests" tab. You can first add the persons you want to participate in this event, and then click the Event Scheduler link to set a specific date and time, or add (remove) the invitees inside the Event Scheduler. Have a look at the screen shots:

New Event dialog window: Event Scheduler link inside the "Guests" tab

The scale or duration of an event can be set both by filling out the time fields (Start, End or Duration), or by stretching using the mouse. Look at the green area inside the Scheduler: it means that none of the invitees is occupied during the time you plan this new event to take place. The selected area will become red if any of the invitees has already planned something for the time you are planning to set for a new event:

Green color: Event can be planned for this time period, both participants are available.

Red color: Event cannot be created, one of the participants will be occupied with some other tasks (events overlapping).

As I mentioned, you can use the Start, End or Duration fields to set the event duration (will be automatically displayed on the time grid). Also, you can change the scale of the event time grid:

You can set a location (the place where the new event will take place) using the preset meeting rooms of your company. This option can be enabled in the Social Network: Users component settings:

After you have enabled this option in the Social Network: Users component, you will be able to choose a meeting room from the list of all meeting or conference rooms available in your company:

At the very bottom of the Event Scheduler dialog window you will find two useful links that allow you to add invitees in two different ways: you can add "+ All Group Members" (when you create an event within a workgroup) or you can add employees "+ From Company Structure" (available when you create an event in any calendar).

When developing the Event Scheduler, we tried to make it business-friendly and intuitive. Next time we'll probably include automated time adjustment for new events in the Event Scheduler, and other useful stuff. We are continuing to polish up our products, so if you have any comments or suggestions, I would be very thankful to receive them from you!

New interface for adding and modifying events

The dialog window for adding and modifying calendar events has been greatly improved. Now it has four tabs:

1. The "Event" tab allows you to set the core parameters, like name of the event, time and place where the event should take place (e.g. a meeting room, if this option is enabled in the Social Network : Users component, see more details above); The Availability parameter is crucial in time management. Also, we created a new field with a drop-down list from which you can choose a Location where the event should take place.



2. On the "Description" tab you can make a description of the event, include pictures (e.g. location map print screen), use text formatting in HTML;



3. The "Guests" tab has a link to the Event Scheduler that help you find out whether the people you invite will be available for this particular time; here you add the guests and an invitation text;



4. You can make the event recurring or set a reminder on the "More" tab.

Tab: Event	Tab: Description
Tab: Guests	Tab: More

Note: If you choose a meeting room from the list on the first tab, then, if not occupied, the meeting room will be booked for the time you set for the event. If the meeting room is occupied, then when saving the event, this field will be cleared . That's why I recommend you to use the Event Scheduler found on the 3rd tab.

Also: To display the event previews (shown as a tooltip) on the calendar grid correctly, you will have to make sure that the Proactive Protection module is installed and enabled. If not, then the XSS filter will simply block all the HTML content and you won't be able to see any pics or HTML-formatting in the event previews. It will be improved, but for know I just wanted to let know about it.

Invitations through Notification Manager

The Social Network module has a built-in Notification Manger that can be used to send invitations throughout your corporate network. This method of notifying your colleagues about upcoming meetings or planned business negotiations is very convenient and mobile.

You can accept the invitation (confirm attendance) or reject it right inside the Notification Manager that will show up on any page you are when you are online.

Personalizing your calendars

Now each employee has an extended set of calendar option that can be used for making your calendars personalized.

There aren't many options in the calendar settings yet. To tell you the truth, there were only two additional option added to what we'd previously had in the calendars. The "Invitation Calendar" option (now you can choose the calendar where all invites will be added), and the second option added is the checkbox used for making the non-confirmed events blink in red, i.e. "Visually highlight non-confirmed events":

Blinking of the event that are not yet confirmed is set by default. But we thought it might be quite important for some of your colleagues to be able to switch off the blinking while they may find it more annoying than useful ) That is why we included this option, as well.

For Website Developers

Despite the fact that there is still no calendar API documentation, you can nonetheless modify some features of your calendars. Also, you can submit TechSupport Tickets for receiving professional help or just for commenting on the product's functionality. For example, the latest update included two new event options to the Event Calendar module, as it was suggested by one of our business partners:

OnRemindEventCalendar - pops up when a new invitation reminder is sent to the recipient;


OnSendInvitationMessage - pops up when a new invitation is sent to the recipient, when the invitation was modified or cancelled.

There are many ways to improve or adjust the calendar settings the way you want. For instance, you can customize the Calendars' setting to be able to receive an SMS-notification when a new event is created or modified.

Not all of the bugs have been fixed yet, but we are working hard to get rid of these electronic parasite insects and, hopefully, next updates will prove that we were really industrious in making the Bitrix products bugs-free, intuitive and user-friendly.

Read more...

That's right - it is time for Christmas and New Year Discounts! We have presents both for Bitrix Intranet Portal and Bitrix Site Manager users! Learn more about all Bitrix Christmas and New Year 2010 Discounts here...

[CUT]

Read more...

Bitrix Site Manager is getting productive





The outcome of continuous collaboration between the Bitrix team and our partners and clients is the unique set of CMS tools inside Bitrix Site Manager. The newly introduced modules and features included in version 8.5 help detect problems caused by insufficient hosting environment or improper website or CMS configuration. Now you can easily determine all bottlenecks that hamper your website efficiency and get rid of them very quickly. The main goals that we wanted to achieve in this new product release are Search Engine Optimization and advanced performance analysis.





Intelligent Search Engine Optimization





Among all the modules, features and improvements in version 8.5, I would like to draw your special attention to the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization) module. This module was highly anticipated by all Bitrix Site Manager users. The SEO module will give you important data and insightful SEO analytics that you can employ for optimizing your web projects. The new SEO module functions allow website editors and system administrators to reduce the time required to prepare the site content for indexation by search bots, allowing them to focus on more creative tasks.


[CUT]












The following information is displayed in the SEO module:

• link ranking;



• reference sites;



• total number of web links;



• keywords;



• search engine indexing

Performance Monitor and Bitrix benchmarking system





The Performance Monitor module helps you measure and analyze the "speed" of your web projects.  It lets you determine in absolute values how well your web project is configured. You will also be able to compare the results with the Bitrix benchmarking system that is provided with Performance Monitor. It was all designed to help you analyze the overall performance of your website based on Bitrix platform and identify ‘problem areas’. This tool shows what can be done to improve each problem area, whether it is the website structure, the content management system itself, website configurations, improper integration or poor hosting services.










But what is exactly displayed and processed using the Performance Monitor module? Here is a brief summary:

• statistical analysis for pages, requests, as well as database and PHP-errors;



• database server statistical analysis (MySQL, Oracle);



• access to the database (allows you to select, filter and sort down the processed data);



• top-to-bottom database hits analysis (grouped by web pages – hits – hit – query);



• syntax code highlighting using the geshi library;



• PHP-error log can be stored (includes all notifications and warnings suppressed with “@” symbol);



• data on file-usage by webpages, data on memory and time used for generating pages and processing queries.

Comparing results to the Bitrix Benchmarking System





The Bitrix benchmarking system used in this module provides recommendations for solving problems resulting from errors that are common during web project development. Basically, it is a set of values acquired from tests performed using Bitrix Virtual Appliance VMware Edition, which creates an optimal environment for Bitrix products. I would like to remind you that the Bitrix Virtual Appliance VMware Edition of charge from our website.





Site Explorer now includes Media Library





All editions of Bitrix Site Manager 8.5 now include Media Library. It is a fast and handy media manager that now is an integral part of the . The Media Library menu item is also displayed right on the Control Panel for fast access to media management functions. I would   say it is essential and very convenient, for example, for content managers who might use a lot of graphical or audio/video data on their web resources.

Media Library as seen from the Administrative Part

Business Processes module and Social Network improvements





We are also continuing to advance communication and workflow control tools for Enterprise 2.0 web projects. Thanks to the Business Processes module introduced in Bitrix Site Manager 8.5, all business users can now control business processes with remarkably intuitive visual tools directly on websites or intranet portals. This module can be used for creating multilayer workflow and dataflow schemes as well as visual representations of all changes and modifications made in a document or a project. You can pre-determine what kind of changes a document or a project must undergo, who is responsible for modifications, deadlines and who should be notified after changes. It is a hybrid of a decision-making tool and continuous dataflow tracker that are not bound to a single location. I will try to make a more thorough description of this module in a separate post as soon as possible.





The updated Social Network module allows you now to perform a search according to access permissions assigned to specific user groups and user profiles which was not possible in older versions of Bitrix Site Manager. The Proactive Protection module and its Web Application Filter were upgraded and improved.





The Public Section now shares more features previously available only in the Control Panel:

• webpage execution time statistics is now available for content managers (depending on access permission settings);



• website style templates are now available  in the Visual Editor when accessed directly through the Public Section|



• Site Structure management panel, Search re-indexing and SEO buttons.

Get free upgrades or try out Bitrix Site Manager 8.5 at no charge!





All new features, modules and bug-fixes are already available through the . Bitrix clients who run current versions of Bitrix Site Manager can update their products at no additional charge. I would like to make a small announcement for all Bitrix partners as well: depending on your partner status you can buy this software product with a discount rate up to 50%, so don’t miss this opportunity!





Bitrix Site Manager v 8.5 is also available as a free 30-day trial version that has no functional limitations. Ready to try it out? Click here...

Read more...

Hooray! The all new Bitrix Virtual Appliance is there! The Bitrix Virtual Appliance v1.3 is a free and a very reliable product that has been developed especially for PHP applications and is fully compatible with VMware Player. It is based on the new concept of Cloud Computing that is being widely used by a large number of independent software vendors. The Bitrix Virtual Appliance greatly increases speed and productivity of all Bitrix software products and makes the process of installing and deploying more understandable and easy.

But what does Cloud Computing actually mean? The all-knowing Wikipedia defines it the following way: "Cloud computing is a paradigm of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. [...] Cloud computing customers do not generally own the physical infrastructure serving as host to the software platform in question. Instead, they avoid capital expenditure by renting usage from a third-party provider. They consume resources as a service and pay only for resources that they use. Many cloud-computing offerings employ the utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional utility services (such as electricity) are consumed, while others bill on a subscription basis.[...] Clouds often appear as single points of access for all consumers' computing needs."

[CUT]

© Oliver Widder

To put it simpler, it is like a virtual online office full of useful programs that you can access and use whenever a need arises. For instance, you want to edit a photo but the need to make changes to a graphic or a photo is so rare, that it is wiser not to buy an expensive graphical suite like Photoshop, instead – you can use a graphical application somewhere online which has been installed and configured in advance! Or think of it as of a cab that can be used once in a while. When using a cab you won't need to buy or maintain your own vehicle... The Bitrix Virtual Appliance is the 'cab' that's going to drive you to the Bitrix software products really fast, absolutely safe and... for free!

Not only will it make the whole process of installing and deploying the Bitrix products easier and much more faster, but also it will allow you to run them more efficiently in terms of speed and productivity. For instance, even the main page of the Bitrix Intranet Portal, full of different kinds of social network components and gadgets, loads 8-10 times faster if run inside the Virtual Appliance!

© Oliver Widder

The Bitrix Virtual Appliance can be very useful when you consider changing your hosting provider. If you need to migrate/relocate your web project from one server to another, you will no longer need to re-configure the Bitrix products. They remain intact and fully customized because the environment of the virtual space remains the same. It does make you more independent, don't you think?

Moreover, the Bitrix Virtual Appliance can be used for other PHP application testing purposes. It's locked from the inside by itself so that any mishaps in trying out a new software product that might lack trustworthiness won't harm your host environment (i.e. your server or a PC/Mac) in case it really turned out to be harmful. Free, fast and secure! The Bitrix Virtual Appliance v1.3 features great stuff like Ubuntu operating sysrem, MySQL5 with InnoDB support, MC File Manager and enhancement tool, HTTPS support and much much more!

We do have a lot of customers and partners around the globe who really enjoy using our applications and business tools. They really appreciate our commitment and desire to make our products and services better. That is why we decided to spend our time and money for developing free products as a gesture of our thankfulness and appreciation towards the growing Bitrix community. By the way, we are planning to make some modifications to the Bitrix Virtual Appliance really soon. For example, the interface of the Virtual Appliance will be more user-friendly. Also, we are planning to make the Bitrix Virtual Appliance compatible with Amazon EC2, Parallels Virtuozzo and MS Azure!

You can download the free Bitrix Virtual Appliance .


The VMware Player is available for free download here.

It would be really great to read your comments and receive your feedback on the Bitrix Virtual Appliance.

Enjoy the Clouds!

Read more...