Hi hacknplanners!

This new update is all about data entering and leaving the system. We finally added GitHub integration for HacknPlan Studio users, which allows you to connect your project to your GitHub repository and link commits to tasks in a very useful way. On the other hand, we added two features for everyone that have been requested for a long time: reporting time/points to a task instead of manually updating the cost, and a CSV exporter to provide you with a copy of your content in a structured and processable way. Let’s review the details.

Features and improvements

GitHub integration (Studio): 

With the integration of GitHub, you can now link your commits to HacknPlan tasks in a way that you can easily review which changes were introduced when resolving each of your tasks. This is extremely useful when you are solving bugs and want to come back to old changes to see what they were about, or when you are doing some code review of one task other developer worked on, to name a few benefits. The list of commits is displayed under a new tab in the task editor, called Source Code.

Another interesting thing is that, when a commit is linked to a task, you can be notified and this action is also registered on the activity log.

Logging hours to a task

If you want to know more about how the integration works, you can read the documentation.

Work log:

Many of you gave us feedback requesting to log time/effort to the task instead of having to modify the final cost of the task manually, and we agree this is the way to go. Not only is easier to input, but also allow us to have a proper log of the cost of the work of each user individually, which will be very useful for producing new metrics and reports in the near future. You can log work in two different ways: using the task card context menu (right click on the card or left click on the gear icon), and clicking on the Log work button on the task editor.

Take into account the current/final cost field is no longer editable; you can only modify that value by logging work and, in case you need to correct it somehow, you can enter a negative value to do so.

CSV export:

Example of tasks CSV file

You can now download a copy of your project data in CSV format, as many of you requested. It seems many people feel safer having a local copy of their data (we understand, but we can assure the safety of your data is a priority for us), and these files could also be useful in order to process them for different reasons, like moving your project somewhere else. We don’t want you to stay with us just because is a mess to move if you want to, our goal making you happy enough that you never want to leave 🙂

You can export your project data from the project administration page, Data section. You need administration rights to do so.

The exported entities are:

• Project
• Project users
• Milestones
• Tasks
• Subtasks
• Task users
• Categories & subcategories
• Design element types
• Game design model elements

There are some other things we are not currently exporting, but we might add in the future:

• Attachments
• Comments
• Activity log
• Commits

Other improvements:

• We have modified how the sections of the task editor work. Instead of having a full dedicated page for each one, they are now embedded on a panel at the right, keeping the task main details always visible. The default tab will also be configurable in the future, so you will decide what is more important for you to see when you open a task, maybe comments, sub-tasks or even commits. We also redesigned the tabs using icons, which frees so much space for future features, relocated the task action buttons and some other little changes.
• We added a button to close the milestone from the task board once all tasks are completed. Many people didn’t realize you can actually close milestones, so this is a way to discover it in a more intuitive way. You can reopen tasks from the board too.
• The tasks in the GDM were displayed with no specific order, but now they are sorted by milestone deadline, so you can actually see the roadmap for that element. This sorting method will be configurable in the future.

Bug fixes

• Small alignment issue on task card title.
• Another misalignment, in this case in the user avatar on the activity log.
• Bug on permissions after the new update access level, which prevented some allowed users from adding comments and some other actions.
• Missing padding on the empty comments message.
• The tabs on the design element editor didn’t look good on small devices.

What’s next?

We have good news for Personal users. We will implement one of your most requested features: be able to assign tasks on creation. We will also improve how milestones work by tracking the scope changes after they are started and keeping the original estimations even when you remove tasks or send them to another milestone. This will make milestones a bit more strict but also more accurate and will allow us to build a proper burndown chart among other metrics.

We will also bring you some news about the pre-order and early access program of HacknPlan Studio in a few days, stay tuned if you are interested.

Happy planning!