Best RoR developer freelance tools

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi,

Was wondering what are the tools that freelance developers are using to track time, project progress and collaboration?

I'm sure there are plenty of Rails based online apps but which are the best and why?

Cheers,

Costa

2

I'm very happy with redmine[1] And for a different perspective, you can try pivaotal tracker[2], but it's only available online, you cannot set it up on your own server.

[1]http://www.redmine.org [2]http://www.pivotaltracker.com/

3

I mainly use On the Job, but that is single user. I would use basecamp if I was working with others.

Trausti

4

For time-tracking I like `punch` (gem) -- light and simple.

5

Hassan Schroeder wrote:

Was wondering what are the tools that freelance developers are using to track time ...

For time-tracking I like `punch` (gem) -- light and simple.

I'll check that out. I've been using Redmine and an app called TrackMyTime. When I'm not using Redmine, I'm partial to WorkTimer.

-- Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com twitter: @hassan

Best,

6

I use http://slimtimer.com to track my time working on a project, but I’m starting to feel its not the optimal way to go ahead.

David

7

I'm using http://www.getharvest.com/ for time keeping and invoicing.. I also has a great iPhone app that you can use to keep your time or check your records on the go...

8

Since everyone is sharing... I've been using Billings (mac only) for
about a year. Menu icon for starting/stopping/switching timers.
Pretty invoices. Tracks payments/checks, etc. Is *NOT* enough by
itself to do all your books though.

Has a nice feature where if you are running a timer and go away it
will notice you're gone and see if you want to remove that time...

-philip

9

We use Pivotaltracker.com and it is good . I recommend that one .

Best Wishes, Saideep Annadatha

10

Punch is nice, but is it being maintained?

I'd used it some time ago, but when I tried to install it recently I found that it only works if certain gems like main and it's dependencies are installed with significantly older versions.

11

Costa Nicolaou wrote:

Hi,

Was wondering what are the tools that freelance developers are using to track time, project progress and collaboration?

I'm sure there are plenty of Rails based online apps but which are the best and why?

Cheers,

Costa

I'm using redmine. What I use most are the wiki, which I use to create and share documentation with customers and coworkers, the issue tracker and the repository. The forums are also useful sometimes. Furthermore it's an open source Rails application that I can read and customize easily if I have to.

A couple of customers of mine use basecamp. It's easier to start with but I miss the wiki a lot and not having an integrated repository manager is an annoyance. However its ability to assign unstructured todo tasks is a nice feature. Overall I think that basecamp it's more for (light) project management and communication than for software development. Redmine is much better at that.

Paolo

12

I use clockingit. You can install your own version or use it online at clockingit.com.