System Admin Module

Module Overview

System Admin is where you control the system’s core settings and general maintenance. Only users with access to the System Admin module can open it.

System Admin Index

The System Admin page is split into these sections:

System Status

• System Configuration
• Reminders that need your attention: Set the Admin Email Address while it is still the default, Apply System Updates when database updates are waiting, Select a Timezone when the server time zone isn’t set, and Upgrade Available! when a newer release is out

Preferences

• Default User Preferences
• System Lookup Keys
• System Lookup Values
• Custom Field Editor

Modules

• View Modules

Language Support

• Translation Management

Administration

• User Roles
• Users Permissions Information
• PHP Info

Budgeting Setup (only when Display Budget Information is on)

• Billing Code Table
• Setup Budgets

Apply System Updates

After you upgrade, Apply System Updates runs the database migrations that haven’t been applied yet. It lists any SQL errors it hits; a clean upgrade reports none. See the Installation Guide.

Translation Management (translate)

Translation Management lets you edit the strings of each installed language, module by module. It only saves to languages and modules that are installed, and the locales/ folder must be writable by the web server while you work. Full details are in Translation Management.

Additional language packs are mostly contributed by users and are available from the locales repository.

System Configuration (systemconfig)

The settings are grouped by area. Hover over the (i) icon next to each setting for a short description.

System

• Company Name: shown at the top of the sign-in box.
• Debug Level and Show Debug Messages: see Turn on Debugging. Leave them at 0 and off on a live system.
• Enable Gantt Charts: turns the Gantt charts on or off. They need PHP’s gd extension.
• Host Locale: the default language for the site.
• Log Changes: no longer used. Changes are recorded in the History module whenever that module is active.
• Page Size: the number of records per page in long lists.
• Page Title: shown in the browser’s title bar.
• Memory Limit for Gantt: raises PHP’s memory limit while drawing Gantt charts, for example 64M or 128M.
• Site Domain: used to complete e-mail addresses entered without a domain.
• Server Timezone: the time zone of the server itself. Each user also sets their own time zone in Preferences.
• System Administrator Email Address: where system messages, such as new sign-up notices, are sent.
• Check for Official Updates?: checks for a newer release and shows Upgrade Available! on this page. Last Check for System Updates shows when it last checked.

Users

• Activate External User Creation: shows a sign-up link on the sign-in page. It is on by default; see Security Notes before you leave it on.
• Admin Username: the login name of the administrative user.
• Minimum Password Length and Minimum Username Length.

User Authentication Settings

• User Authentication Method: “Standard web2Project” (the web2project database), “LDAP” or “PostNuke”.
• Postnuke login also allows Standard Login: with PostNuke authentication, also accept web2project logins.

Budgeting

• Currency Symbol.
• Display Budget Information: shows budgets on projects, tasks and other modules, and adds the Budgeting Setup section to this page. See Project Budgeting.

Calendar

• Calendar Start Hour and Calendar End Hour: the working day, from 0 to 23.
• Calendar Minute Increment: the steps in the calendar’s time pickers.
• Show MiniCals in Day View.
• Calendar Working Days: a comma-separated list where 0 is Sunday. Monday to Friday is 1,2,3,4,5.
• Daily Working Hours: the length of a working day, for example 8.0.

Files

• Maximum File Size for Indexing: files larger than this (in kilobytes) aren’t indexed for searching. A negative value indexes every file.
• Default File Indexing Parser, MS Word Indexing Parser, Html File Indexing Parser and PDF Indexing Parser: the programs used to extract text from uploaded files for searching, for example /usr/bin/strings or /usr/bin/pdftotext.
• Preserve File Settings on CI and Allow Editing of Previous Versions belonged to file check-in and file versions, which v5.0 removed. They no longer do anything.

LDAP Settings

• LDAP Host and LDAP Port (389 by default).
• LDAP Version: leave at 3 unless your server needs otherwise.
• LDAP Base DN: the base Distinguished Name for searches.
• LDAP User Filter: how to find a user, for example (uid=%USERNAME%).
• LDAP Search User and LDAP Search User Password: the full DN and password of an account that can search the directory.
• Full LDAP Connect String: if set, overrides most of the settings above.
• LDAP also allows standard login: also accept users who exist only in the web2project database.

See Active Directory below for a worked example.

Locales

• Translation Warning: marks strings that have no translation.
• Translation Alert String: the marker added to them, ^ by default.

Email Settings

• Email Prefix: added to the start of every e-mail subject.
• Email Transport: “PHP Default” (PHP’s mail()) or “SMTP”.
• SMTP Host, SMTP Port (25 by default) and SMTP Secure (“(None)”, “TLS” or “SSL”).
• Host requires login, SMTP Username and SMTP Password.
• SMTP Server Timeout: in seconds.
• SMTP Debug: shows the SMTP conversation on screen. Leave it off on a live system.
• Queue Email for later sending: puts e-mail in the event queue. It is sent when queuescanner.php runs from cron (see Server and Database Configuration) or, with Scan Event Queue on Session Garbage Collection on, when old sessions are cleaned up.

Projects

• Use ProjectDesigner to View Projects by Default.: opens projects in ProjectDesigner instead of the project view.
• Restrict Project Colour Selection: limits project colours to the ProjectColors lookup values.
• Template Projects Status Id: the ProjectStatus value used for template projects (6, “Template”, by default).

Session Handling Settings

• Session Handler: “web2Project Extended Sessions” stores sessions in the database (the default); “PHP Default” uses PHP’s own sessions.
• Session Idle Time (default 2d) and Session Maximum Lifetime (default 1m): in seconds unless followed by h, d, m or y. Only one letter is allowed, so 28h is valid and 2d4h is not.
• Scan Event Queue on Session Garbage Collection: processes the event queue when old sessions are cleaned up, as an alternative to cron.

Start Up

• Default Module, Default Submodule and Default Tabbed Subview: the page users see after they sign in. The default is the Calendar’s day view.

Tasks

• Overallocation Checking: an unfinished feature. Leave it off.
• Check Task Dates: requires start and end dates on every task.
• Default Company Filter (“All Companies” or “Active User’s Company”) and Default Task Filter: the filters the Tasks list starts with.
• Edit Multiple Task Assignments: lets users change assignments for a block of tasks from the Tasks list.
• Restrict Task Time Editing: only the task owner, the project owner or an administrator can change task times.
• Show All Task Assignees: lists every assignee in task lists instead of the first one and a count.
• Send Task Reminders: e-mails the assignees when a task is due and every day it is overdue until it is complete. It needs the cron job.
• Number of days warning for due tasks: how many days before the due date the first reminder is sent.
• Maximum number of reminders to send: the total number of reminders for one task, including the early warnings.

Default User Preferences (addeditpref)

These are the preferences new users start with. Changing them doesn’t change existing users; each user can change their own under Preferences in the user menu at the top right, and an administrator can change them from User Admin.

• Locale
• Tabbed Box View
• Short Date Format and Time Format
• Currency Format
• Timezone
• User Task Assignment Maximum
• Default Event Filter
• Task Notification Method: whether the task or event owner is included in notifications
• Task Log Email Defaults: which boxes (Email Assignees, Email Task Contacts, Email Project Contacts) start ticked on a new task log
• Task Log Email Subject
• Task Log Email Recording Method: for example Append to Log
• Show Parent Tasks Expanded by Default

v5.0 removed the “User Interface Style” preference, because there is now only one theme.

System Lookup Keys (keys)

System Lookup Keys and System Lookup Values are used together to build drop-down lists, tabs and similar pre-set choices.

Warning: Unless you are a programmer we strongly recommend that you do not modify this section!

System Lookup Values (syskeys)

System Lookup Values hold the choices themselves. This includes standard drop-down lists and tabs such as those on the Projects list.

For example the Projects list tabs come from the “ProjectStatus” values:

0|Not Defined 1|Proposed 2|In Planning 3|In Progress 4|On Hold 5|Complete 6|Template

Changing these values changes the tabs, but you can’t change the “All Projects”, “All Active” or “Archived” tabs, which are built in.

Other commonly edited lists are FileType (the Files categories), BudgetCategory (billing and budget categories) and ResourceTypes (the Resources types).

It is strongly recommended you do not modify these settings unless you are comfortable with what you’re doing. Modifying the wrong system values could have undesired results.

Custom Field Editor (customfields)

The Custom Field Editor lets you add your own fields to Companies, Projects, Tasks, Calendar (events), Contacts and Users without programming.

• Select the add icon next to the module.
• Enter a Field Name/Identifier (no spaces) and a Field Description, which is the label users see.
• Choose the Field Display Type. For a list, enter the List of Options.
• Choose whether it is published (Field Published) and its Field Display Order.
• Add HTML Tag Options if you need them.

The new field appears on that module’s add/edit form and view.

Billing Code Table (billingcode)

Billing codes put a cost on time, mainly when creating a task log. Each code has:

• Billing Code: usually an accounting code
• Value: the cost per hour
• Description: something to identify it easily
• Billing Category: one of the BudgetCategory values
• Company: optional; limits the code to one company

Saved codes appear in the task log’s cost code drop-down. This page is only linked when Display Budget Information is on.

Setup Budgets (budgeting)

Sets budget amounts per company, period and billing category. See Project Budgeting.

View Modules (modules)

View Modules lists the installed and available modules. From here you can install, activate or disable, upgrade, configure and remove modules, change their order, and choose whether each appears in the navigation.

• The arrows move a module up or down, which also changes its position in the navigation.
• Select “visible” or “hidden” to show or hide it in the navigation.
• Some core modules, such as Reports and Resources, are installed but hidden or disabled by default.
• Add On modules are uploaded with Select a module to upload, if the modules folder is writable, or copied into modules/ by hand. Check them against Updating Add On Modules for v5.0 first.

User Roles (roles)

Roles are an asset to the comprehensive permissions system built into web2Project. You can specify roles for specific types of users or users groups to allow or deny access to various features within web2Project.

Roles make it easier to apply permissions to a user or set of users rather than applying individual permissions to each user.

To create a user role for a group of users click on the User Roles link on the System Admin page.

You will see a table.

To create a new role give the role an ID in the textbox located at the bottom of the second column. Then type a brief description in the second textbox located last in the description column.

After you create a role, click on the lock icon to add permissions to it.

Visit the permissions page for more information.

System Admin Permissions Result Table (acls_view)

The permissions result table gives a more comprehensive look into the permissions for each. You can filter the view by user, module, or by action.

When you visit the page and select a filter it will display a table.

Configure web2project to use Active Directory accounts

First, create a service account in Active Directory. It only needs to be a member of the Domain Users group to search the directory.

Then go to System Admin → System Configuration and set:

• User Authentication Settings
  • User Authentication Method: LDAP
• Users
  • Activate External User Creation: off (optional, but recommended)
• LDAP Settings
  • LDAP also allows standard login: on, so the admin account keeps working
  • LDAP Host: the IP address or fully qualified name of a domain controller, for example dc.peanutbutter.com
  • LDAP Port: 389, the default port for Active Directory
  • LDAP Version: 3
  • LDAP Base DN: your domain, for example DC=peanutbutter,DC=com for peanutbutter.com
  • LDAP Search User: the full path to the service account, for example CN=project,CN=Users,DC=peanutbutter,DC=com. Use OU for an organizational unit and CN for a container; CN=Users is the default “Users” folder created when you install Active Directory.
  • LDAP Search User Password: the service account’s password
  • LDAP User Filter: sAMAccountName=%USERNAME%

Now your users can log in with their Active Directory usernames and passwords. The first time someone logs in, web2project creates their user account and contact, with no role; give them a role in User Admin before they can do anything.