Impressions from a new user (installation, terminology, UI)
Hi,
I just downloaded, installed and tried out Project Pier. It looks like a great project!
Sometimes it's useful to hear comments from a new user. Here are some notes:
Installation was easy, with just one problem. I have PHP 5/MySQL 5 installed on my PC. The only problem I had was that my MySQL 5 runs on port 3307 (MySQL 4 runs on 3306). For the host name, I tried localhost:3307 and got through. I don't know how many other people would be able to figure this out.
On the hosting system I use, MySQL 5 is reached using a socket, not a port. I'm not sure how I would enter that.
I set up a test project. Then I thought I would add a client. I was confused about the terminology. Was I entering a person or a company? I tried entering a person and then realized it should be a company. After working with this for a while, I saw that the terms "company" and "client" were both being used for the same thing. When you add a client, the submit button says "client", but when you edit a client, the submit button says "company".
Another terminology confusion is "people", "users" and "members". Could you just pick one term?
Finally, I'm guessing "owner company" refers to the company that installed and operates the ProjectPier site.
Since I'm the one complaining, I feel I should offer some alternatives. I cheated by looking to see what SugarCRM does: the use the term "Account" where you use "client" and "company". The use "Contact" to refer to a person working for an "Account". The use "Employee" (and sometimes "User") to refer to a person working for the "owner company". The don't really have a substitute for "owner company".
The only other thing I had trouble with in my short time experimenting is that I thought I would add a "user" and then assign the "user" to a "client". I quickly realized this was wrong and that I should add the "user" after creating a "client". For what it's worth, I have one person I work with who has multiple companies, all of whom are my "clients". In a database, the association of "user" to "client" should be many-to-many, otherwise I have to enter his information several times.
Anyway, I hope these comments are somewhat useful. I realize I could have read the documentation and avoided some of my confusion, but the ideal interface is one where you don't need a manual.
I hope you find these comments useful. I'll let you know more if I run into further problems.
Hi there,
A few points:
- MySQL automatically connects with a socket when using localhost
- There are two types of Companies in ProjectPier: The "Company" and the "Client"
- The "Company" is the owner of the installation (as you put, "owner company"), and because of this there is only ever one.
- A "Client" is well... a client company. All Clients are linked to the owner Company.
- Clients, as well as the owner company can have users. Users can login.
With regards to "people", "users", and "members" there is a distinction between the use of all of these terms.
- "People" is used to refer to users linked to projects.
- "Members" is used to refer to users linked to the owner company.
- "Users" is used more generally to refer to users linked to a company or client.
Making the user to company association a many-to-many relationship would be quite difficult given the current codebase. e.g. permissions are directly related to whether or not you are a member (or even *the* member) of the owner company (not to mention it gets even more complicated when you factor in project permissions too).
Perhaps it would be simpler in your case if you just treated your user as the client, rather than the member of many clients, and left the distinction between which company he is working for to projects?
Thanks for your comments.