openCRX is the leading enterprise-class open source CRM suite. openCRX is based on openMDX, an open source MDA framework based on the OMG's model driven architecture (MDA) standards. This guarantees total openness, standards compliance, a state-of-the-art component-based architecture, and virtually unlimited scalability.

1.1 Who this book is for

The intended audience are openCRX users.

1.2 Tips, Warnings, etc.

We make use the following pictograms:

Information provided as a “Tip” might be helpful for various reasons: time savings, risk reduction, etc. - it goes without saying that we advise to follow our guides meticulously

meticulous \muh-TIK-yuh-luhs\, adjective:
Extremely or excessively careful about details.

You should carefully read information marked with “Important”. Ignoring such information is typically not a good idea.

Warnings should not be ignored (risk of data loss, etc.)

2 Prerequisites

It helps if the reader is somewhat familiar with openCRX even though this is not a requirement.

3 Activity Management QuickStart

This guide gives an introduction to the activity management of openCRX.

3.1 Introduction

The activity management of openCRX supports a wide range of use cases. Starting from a simple issue and bug tracking system it can also be used to track sales activities or help desk tickets. The activity management can be used interactively through its GUI or by programs and workflow engines through its open API. openCRX supports the following types of activities:

Incident
Meeting
Sales Visit
Task
Phone Call
E-Mail
SMS
MMS
Fax
Mailing
Absence

An activity can be assigned to one or more activity groups. This allows to group and structure activities by user-definable criteria such as projects, milestones, teams, etc. The most important attributes of an activity are:

Name: a short description of the activity.
Description: A more detailed description of the activity.
Assigned-to contact: contact who is responsible for handling the activity.
Reporting contact: contact who initially reported / created the activity.
Scheduled start, scheduled end, due by date: these dates allow to schedule an activity.

The life cycle of activities is controlled by activity processes. Activity processes define in which states an activity can be and which transitions can be applied to an activity in its current state. Activity processes are user-definable and are typically setup by an administrator or project manager.

The life cycle of an activity is as follows:

Create: an activity is created by a user using a pre-configured activity-creator. The newly created activity is set to the initial state defined by the activity process.
Manage: an activity is processed according to the states and transitions defined by the activity process.
Close: the last transition closes the activity, i.e. percent complete of the activity is set to 100% and the activity status is set to closed.

The next sections describe how to ...

... find existing activities
... create a new activity
... manage activities (including closing of activities)

3.2 How to find an existing activity

The easiest way to find an activity is by selecting an activity group (such as an activity tracker, category or milestone) and sort the activities assigned to this group by a criteria such as Creation date, Scheduled start / end, Due by date, Open / close status, etc. Searching for activities requires to perform the following steps:

Step 1: Navigate to the activity management
Step 2: Search for activities using pre-defined and ad-hoc filters
Step 3: Define default filters (this step is optional)

3.2.1 Step 1: Navigate to the activity management

Figure 1 shows how the activity management is selected. In the root menu click on Activities as shown in Figure 1.

Frame3

Figure 2: Activities management showing activity creators, activity trackers and resources.

As shown in Figure 2 the main screen of the activity management shows the activity creators, activity trackers and resources.

Before you can search for activities you must select either an activity group (one of the tabs Activity Trackers, Categories, Milestones) or select the tab Activities which shows all activities. In the following example we want to search for activities assigned to the activity tracker openCRX:QuickStart. Figure 3 shows how to select the tracker openCRX:QuickStart.

Activity trackers are created by administrators and project managers and not by end users.

Figure 3: Select activity tracker openCRX:QuickStart.

Figure 4 shows the detail screen of the activity tracker openCRX:QuickStart. It shows all activities assigned to this activity tracker.

Figure 4: Detail screen of activity tracker openCRX:QuickStart.

3.2.2 Step 2: Searching for activities

The activities assigned to the selected tracker are shown in the grid Activities. The activities can be sorted by clicking on the sort icon (,,) of the corresponding column. If you want to search for activities by a specific keyword (e.g. publish) you enter the keyword in the search field and then click on the title of the column Name as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Searching for activities by keyword.

If you know the activity number you can enter the activity number in the search field and click on the title of the column # as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Searching for activities by activity number.

openCRX offers standard filters which allow to select and sort activities with a single click. Figure 7 shows the predefined filters.

Select Created at [chronological order]. Activities are sorted by their creation date.
Select Created at [reverse chronological order]. Activities are sorted by their creation date in reverse chronological order.
Select Modified at [chronological order]. Activities are sorted by their modification date.
Select Modified at [reverse chronological order]. Activities are sorted by their modification date in reverse chronological order.
Select Open [Due / Priority]. Only open activities (percent complete < 100%) are selected. They are then sorted by their due by date and priority.
Select Open [Modified At / chronological order]. Only open activities (percent complete < 100%) are selected. They are then sorted by their modification date in chronological order.
Select Open [Modified At / reverse chronological order]. Only open activities (percent complete < 100%) are selected. They are then sorted by their modification date in reverse chronological order.
Select Open [Priority / Due]. Only open activities (percent complete < 100%) are selected. They are then sorted by their priority and due by date.
Select Open [Scheduled Start / Due]. Only open activities (percent complete < 100%) are selected. They are then sorted by their scheduled start and due by date.

A default filter is selected as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Selecting a predefined filter.

3.2.3 Step 3: Define a default filter

openCRX allows to set default filters for every tab. Every time you re-enter a detail screen, the sort and filter criteria defined by the default filter are restored. The following example shows how to define a default filter which selects all open activities and sorts them by their scheduled start in reverse chronological order.

The simplest way is to select in a first step the predefined filter Select Open [Scheduled Start / Due] as shown in Figure 7. This filter shows all open activities sorted by their scheduled start in chronological order. The activities can now be ordered by their scheduled start in reverse chronological order by clicking two times on the order icon of the column Sched. Start as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Ordering activities by their scheduled start in reverse chronological order.

The filter settings can now be saved by clicking on the Set as Default filter icon as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Set default filter.

If the default filter should be restored the next time you log in to openCRX you must make sure to save the user settings as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Saving the current user settings.

3.3 How to create a new activity

This section describes how you can report and create new activities. Creating an activity requires the following steps:

Step 1: Navigate to the activity management
Step 2: Select a predefined activity creator
Step 3: Select the menu item New activity and fill out the new activity form

3.3.1 Step 1: Navigate to the activity management

In a first step navigate to the activity management by selecting the item Activities in the root menu as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Navigate to the activity management.

3.3.2 Step 2: Select an activity creator

Unlike other items in openCRX, activities are not created with the New-operation New-->Activity. They are created by activity creators. Activity creators serve as templates and allow easy creation of new activities. Activity creators are typically created by an administrator or project manager. They allow easy creation of new activities. Figure 12 shows the tab Activity Creators. Activity creators should have names and descriptions which allow the user to easily select the desired creator. In the example, the creator openCRX:QuickStart creates openCRX:QuickStart-guide activities.

Figure 12: List of activity creators.

In order to create an activity, select and open the creator as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13: Select an activity creator.

Figure 14 shows the details of the activity creator. As already mentioned, an activity creator serves as template for newly created activities. A user creating new activities should NOT modify activity creators. Creators are typically managed by administrators or project managers.

Figure 14: Details of an activity creator.

3.3.3 Step 3: Create the activity

After having selected the activity creator, a new activity is created by selecting Actions-->New Activity as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15: Create a new activity with Actions-->New Activity.

Next you have to fill out the New Activity input form. As shown in Figure 16 the input form requests the following fields:

Name: Name of the newly created activity. The name is not required but it is a good practice to provide an activity name.
Description: Description of the newly created activity. The field is optional.
Detailed description: Detailed description of the newly created activity. The field is optional.
Scheduled start: The scheduled start of the activity. If left empty the scheduled start is set to the current date by default.
Scheduled end: The scheduled end of the activity. This field is optional. It is set to empty if not specified.
Priority: Priority of the activity.
Due by: The due by date of the activity. The field is optional. It is set to a date vary far in the future if not specified (openCRX takes care of this automatically to ensure that sorting based on due dates yields the expected results).
Reporting contact: Select a contact who should appear as reporter of the new activity. If left empty the reporting contact is set to the logged on user.

Figure 16: New activity input form.

After clicking OK the activity is created and a link to the created activity is displayed as shown in Figure 17.

Figure 17: Successfully created activity.

A click on the link displays the activity details as shown in Figure 18. The fields of the activity are initialized as specified by the activity creator and by the values provided in the New Activity input form. The fields Name, Description, Detailed description, Scheduled start / end, Due by, Reporting contact and Priority contain the values provided in the New Activity input form. The field Activity type and the tabs Assigned Groups and Assigned Resources contain the values defined by the activity creator. Activity state is set to the initial state defined by the activity process.

Figure 18: Details of activity after creation.

3.4 How to manage activities

The most common tasks when managing activities are:

Edit activity details
Perform a follow up / Add a note
Upload and view media attachments
Complete an activity

3.4.1 Edit activity details

An existing activity can be modified by putting it into edit mode. Select Edit-->Edit as shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Edit an existing activity.

The edit mode allows to modify all non read-only properties of an activity as shown in Figure 20.

Figure 20: Activity in edit mode.

The changes are made persistent by clicking the Save button. Clicking Cancel ignores the modifications.

Properties such as Assigned to, % complete, Actual start, Actual end are set automatically by openCRX. Users are allowed to modify the values, however it is not recommended and normally not necessary.

3.4.2 Perform a follow up

An activity is always in a process state. An newly created activity is in the state New. Performing transitions on an activity allows to bring an activity into a new state. This can be done with the operation Actions-->Follow Up. Figure 21 shows the input form of the Follow Up operation. The drop-down field Transition shows all available transitions. The list of of available transitions is derived from the current state of the activity and the activity process (defined implicitly by the activity type).

Figure 21: Input form of follow up operation.

It is a good idea to describe the transition by supplying a title and a descriptive text. After clicking OK, the selected transition (Assign) is applied. The activity is set to the new state (In Progress) and the follow up information is added to the Follow Up grid of the activity as shown in Figure 25.

F
igure 22: Activity after executing the first follow up.

Because the activity is now in state In Progress, a next follow up shows the transitions Add Note and Complete in the drop-downs as shown in Figure 23.

Figure 23: Available transitions if activity is in state In Progress.

Table 1 shows the states and Table 2 the transitions of the Bug and feature tracking process available with the standard distribution of openCRX.

State	Description
New	The activity is newly created.
In Progress	The activity is complete and can be reopened again if required.
Complete	The activity is complete and can be reopened again if required.
Closed	The activity is closed and can not be reopened anymore.

Table 1: States of Bug and feature tracking process.

Transition	Description
Create (New --> New)	The activity is created. After creation the activity is in state New.
Create (New --> New)	The activity is created. After creation the activity is in state New.
Assign (New --> In Progress)	The activity is assigned to a person, the assigned-to contact field of the activity is set to a contact. After assignment the activity is in state In Progress.
Add Note (In Progress --> In Progress)	The progress of an activity can be documented by adding notes to the activity. This way the reporting contact (and other persons) are always informed about the progress of an activity.
Complete (In Progress --> Complete)	The assigned-to contact can set the activity state to complete if he/she has finished the work on this activity and wants to inform the reporting contact about this fact. After completing the activity is in the state Complete.
Reopen (Complete --> In Progress)	The reporting contact can reopen a complete activity, i.e. it can set the activity to the state In Progress. Reopening an activity is a signal to the assigned-to contact that there is probably more work to do on the activity before completion.
Close (Complete --> Closed)	If the reporting contact considers the activity as finished he/she can mark the activity as closed.

Table 2: Transitions of Bug and feature tracking process.

Figure 24 shows the process as defined in openCRX.

Figure 24: Bug and feature tracking process.

3.4.3 Upload and view media attachments

openCRX allows to attach media (any kind of binary file) to activities. The upload can easily be performed with the Media Upload wizard. The wizard is available in the Wizards-->Upload Media menu as shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25: Select the upload wizard.

The wizard requires to enter a description of the media to be uploaded and the location of the media file as shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26: Uploading a media attachment.

After the successful upload, the media can then be viewed by selecting the tab Media as shown in Figure 27. The media can be downloaded and viewed by clicking the link of the corresponding media in the column Content.

Figure 27: Media tab containing one media attachment.

4 Next Steps

You might want to have a look at some of the additional documentation published at http://www.opencrx.org/documents.htm.