There are different approaches to software development. I think what FengOffice (I preferred OpenGoo FWIW
has right now is a very good core. Since this will be the framework upon which everything in the future is built, it is doubly important to make sure it works very well now. That said, it can at time be difficult to draw the line between stabilizing and micro optimizing.
It is also quite possible that Feng Office (the parent company) is focusing on generating sales. At the end of the day, for any open-source project, either people donate a lot of their time for free (and I used to do this before I had 3 children) or they become highly selective in where they allocate their free time. I looked into a feature addition in the past and Feng was very reasonable in pricing and also in options (it could be a private feature or made available to the community). Unfortunately the feature didn't get the final OK from my client at the time but I will without a doubt pursue it with Feng if it is tabled again.
Where I see a bit of a problem is perhaps with engagement of developers seeking to contribute code. I've offered up some patches here and there but have not seen any feedback on the forums with respect to them. Perhaps if the core team could respond to these (not just for my postings) as to whether the patch is accepted or rejected then that could go a long way to alerting users that a particular problem has been solved and is being integrated into the next version. Perhaps even the creation of a Patches board to where patches can be posted so that they can streamline the review process. We can always link the patch to the original thread that introduced the issue. I also sent a message to the
contribute email address yesterday, so I'm interested to see about contributing to the project. With a clear roadmap on how to do so I might even tackle a module
Now looking at your lovely list since I'm here... I may as well list which ones I think are truly important for improving the collaborative experience:
- FOLDERS
- wiki
- who's logged on
- chat module
- integrated ticketing system
- gantt charts
I would REALLY REALLY like to see folder support. Currently I've hacked my Feng Office to abuse Workspaces as folders by not having parent folders show the aggregated list of theirs and child folder contents.
The wiki would be an interesting thing. Tethering it to a workspace essentially makes for a forest of wikis since each would be distinct from any other workspace.
The who's logged on and chat module are highly related since you need to know who's on to be able to send a chat request. The chat module is also not as simple as you might think. I don't know how other people use the application, but it is important to me to prevent information linkage between users that shouldn't be aware of one another. Feng currently handles this well in projects and so I would imagine something similar would need to be done for chat... I guess a chat room could be tied to a workspace, that should make it easy to configure. Oooh... chat rooms as objects... nice idea if I might say so myself
The other options are fairly obvious.
With respect to other options you listed, I'd like to address some of those a little since it may seem odd I didn't include them.
working spreadsheetThis, while nice, to me isn't greatly important since I'm not sure too many people would trade up their OpenOffice Calc or MS Excel to use a web based one.
an email client with all the features people expect: rules, etc.I've not used the email system much, I prefer my main client currently. Although it did cross my mind that combined with a ticketing system this could be very powerful.
printing option for all objectsWe're trying to save trees with the online world
file viewers for other document typesNot sure what was meant by this.
publicly publishable objectsDidn't strike me as important for collaboration/office. But maybe you could elaborate on some use cases.
a forumWitht he ability to comment on pretty much everything it seems a forum is somewhat redundant. Though I can see the advatge of dedicated forums tethered to a workspace with specific hierarchy boards/information.
customizable dashboardThis is just candy IMHO
IM integrationIMs have always decreased my productivity since then people just ping you constantly for updates or to chat while your trying to work.
data exportingThere's already some data exporting support so this would appear to be a work in progress.
custom tabs with custom contentThis seems to be more candy
reporting module that actually does what it shouldThere are some deficiencies in the current reporting module, but otherwise I find it has a great deal of utility. One major problem I have with it is that there's no support for
Workspace or
Workspace Path field so multiple elements with the same name but in different workspaces can be a bit uninformative. Another thing would be prefilled state for a condition... including support for macros. As an example I use the report module to show a list of all calendar events in the future (this should really be a feature of the calendar itself since I can't click on the objects in the report [maybe we could have that too
]). The problem is I can't just have it automatically show all elements after today. It would be nice to have something like the following:
Fields:
Field, Condition, Value, Parameter, Special Value
Values (Future events):
Start, >, , Yes, Today
So in the above example the default value with which to initialize the report would be whatever date "Today" is. Then the user could still change the date since parameter was set to yes.
Similarly having special values of 'This Year', 'Last Year', 'This Month', and 'Next Month' could also be very handy.
Finally, in closing on this overly long post, I would like to commend the Feng Office team on a fantastic product to date. The interface is beautiful, the functionality is smooth, and I have no shame in suggesting it to all kinds of people. Congratulations. I hope you have continued growth and I hope to be able to aid in contributing.
Cheers,
Rob.