Tine 2.0 groupware adds human resources management module

The Tine 2.0 developers have released another major update to their open source groupware and customer relationship management (CRM) solution. Version 2012.10 of the software, code-named "Joey", includes a new human resources management module, security guidelines for ActiveSync, PostgreSQL support and improvements to the calendar features.

Written in PHP and JavaScript, Tine 2.0 was based on the EGroupware solution but split from that project in early 2008. The collaboration software offers an address book, a calendar, a project and a task manager, an email component, a time tracking module and a CRM as well as a new human resources management module. This module can hold data such as employees' private addresses, bank details, insurance information, weekly work hours and remaining annual leave.

The Tine project has already updated its demo implementation to the current version, "Joey" Coloured tags have been added to improve the clarity of the calendar view. Users can choose their own colours and can now mark calendar items as "preliminary". The developers have also extended the calendar's alarm features: users can now define a default alarm for new calendar items, but they can also set alarms for individual appointments. Tine's data link feature offers new data filters and search options. For example, contacts can now be linked with CRM data.

The ActiveSync interface of Tine 2.0 has been extended to provide improved security, allowing the implementation of security policies such as the mandatory use of passwords on mobile devices. In addition to MySQL, Tine can now be used with the PostgreSQL open source database. The software interoperates with Outlook 2013 and the calendar app of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

All new features are listed in the change log. Tine 2.0 "Joey" (2012.10) is available to download in a number of languages from the project's web site. For users interested in trying out Tine 2.0, an online demo is also available. Tine 2.0 is developed by Hamburg, Germany-based firm Metaways and uses various licences, but the majority of the software is licensed under the AGPLv3.

(crve)