Tutorials
Using Google Sites for Project Management
In this tutorial, I am writing with the following hosting and registrar configuration: registrar is for domain registration only. Hosting provider is where I have control over my email (MX Records) and domain redirection (CNAME Records). I use GoDaddy as a registrar and Bluehost for hosting (though this also applies to HostGator).
History
Google Apps have been around a while, and we've seen more than a few of these "apps" come and go, like Orkut. The mainstays have survived the test of time and been improved upon to the point where they are becoming indispensable, at least to me. First, of course, is Gmail. While you might not think of it as one of the Google apps, it is indeed an application, albeit a common one. There are several web based email applications to choose from (Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.), and some may have better features than Gmail, but these are not part of a suite of applications, and therefore not integrated.
Google Docs has been part of the Google Apps family since 2007, and has slowly developed into a fairly robust word processor. While it lacks some of the more dynamic features of Microsoft Word, its cloud based nature has made it far more useful for collaboration. The ability to share documents online is something Microsoft has only very recently begun to mimic.
Google Sites is a relatively recent addition (2008) the family, and for the purposes of this article, the most important. With Google Sites, you create a workspace that people of all levels of technical expertise can use to collaborate on projects of nearly any size. Project managers can quickly set up an environment where the people collaborating can immediately begin to share documents and comments, upload files of any type, and be notified when any changes or additions have been made to the site. I saw Google Sites as the key element in this mix to free myself of having to wade through my inbox for instructions, comments and attachments relating to a project. It also saves me from opening one email at a time to see the progression of an idea or task over time.
Use
The biggest initial obstacle to getting clients and collaborators to adapt to this system is, in my mind, the need for a Gmail/Google account. With clients especially, sometimes asking someone to remember a new username and password for another email account is like asking an acquaintance to help you move (see Keith Hernandez on Seinfeld). Collaborators, especially fellow web developers, should have no problem with using their existing Gmail account or adding a new one. Fortunately, if you set up a Google Apps account with your domain name, you can create email accounts for your users on your own, and simply set the email account under your domain to forward to their favorite email address. When the project is over, you can simply turn off the email forwarding and/or remove the user's access to the project. Deleting the user will eliminate their existing emails, so this option should be used with caution.
With the Standard Edition of Google Apps [http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html], you can create 50 users/email accounts. The Premier Edition has more features, but most of these aren't necessary for any given project management environment. It also costs money.
Set Up
Setting up the Standard Edition of Google Apps, is mostly a straight forward process. There a few parts, that can be dicey for web developers who don't have much experience with making adjustment to the DNS Settings or hosting controls, but I will guide you through the steps that I needed to take in enough detail, that you should be able to make sense of it with most combinations of registrars and hosting companies.
Overview
With this setup, you can keep you existing website, but your existing email account(s) will now be routed through Google using the user account(s) you set up. Your Google Sites will be private, and only accessible to the user you choose.
Sign Up
First, you need a domain name. Don't worry if you have a website at that domain already. That will stay as it is. Your email accounts associated with that domain name will all be going through Google once your done. If you have several email accounts under your chosen domain, you will need to replicate them after you migrate to Google. If you don't want to log in and out to read the emails in all of these accounts, you can set them to forward to your main account (like This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ). Just remember, that if you respond to an email sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. from within your info@ account, the reply address will now be info@.
Change the CNAME Records
Changing your CNAME Record isn't necessary. All it does is make the URL easier to remember. It's important enough to web developers I know, so I included it in this tutorial.
I recommend you complete your verification processes before doing this, mostly because this step isn't necessary and partly because this step if done incorrectly can break your existing site. The main reason for changing the CNAME Records is to have nicer URLs. It's the difference between: http://sites.google.com/a/mydomain.com and http://sites.mydomain.com.
- Sign in to your domain hosting service.
- Navigate to your DNS Management page. The location and name of this page will vary by host, but can generally be found in Domain Management or Advanced Settings.
- Find the CNAME settings and enter the following as the CNAME value or alias:sites
- Set the CNAME destination to the following address: ghs.google.com
- Save changes with your domain host and click "I've completed these steps" below.
Email URL
http://mail.google.com/a/mydomain.com (default)
http://mail.mydomain.com/ (custom)
Calendar URL
http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/mydomain.com (default)
http://calendar.mydomain.com/ (custom)
Docs URL
http://docs.google.com/a/mydomain.com (default)
http://docs.mydomain.com/ (custom)
Sites URL
http://sites.google.com/a/mydomain.com (default)
http://site.mydomain.com/ (custom)
To enable your custom URLs, you must create CNAME records with your domain host.
After the sign up, choose to verify your ownership of the domain by uploading an HTML file to mydomain.com. The file should be named googlehostedservice.html and contain the alphanumeric code specified by the instructions during your sign up. Once you verify with the file upload, Google says it may take 48 hours to complete. You don't need to wait for this to change the MX Records for your email accounts, but your email won't start working with Gmail until the verification process is complete.
Change the MX Records
For the purposes of this tutorial, I will assume you have your email accounts set up through your hosting provider, not your registrar.
In Cpanel on your hosting company, look for MX Records or MX Entry. Select mydomain.com. This will open a page where you can change settings for email routing, add a new MX Record and change existing MX Records. You may only have one MX record, or you may have a few, depending on your hosting company's control panel and whether or not this domain is an addon domain or your primary domain for this hosting account. Once you are finished with this process, Google says it may take 48 hours to complete. So now you have two things set (domain name verification and MX Record change verification) that you will have to wait for, but we can go ahead and continue to set up our project management area. If you are setting this up with a previously unused domain, the email should take about an hour to complete.
Create Users
First name, last name, username and password...
User account information for Ron Burgundy:
- Your username is rburgundy. The administrator has set your password.
- Your new email address is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sign in to domain services:
- Email - http://mail.google.com/a/mydomain.com
- Calendar - http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/mydomain.com
- Docs - http://docs.google.com/a/mydomain.com
- Chat - download Google Talk client
- Sites - http://sites.google.com/a/mydomain.com
Create a Site
Each site will be a project. Because you can choose whom you share each site with, feel free to make a suite, we'll call it "HQ", just for yourself. Every other site will be project oriented. HQ will be your "writeboard".
Once you create your site, you'll be staring at your home page. In the upper right corner of your screen, you'll see three buttons; Create Page, Edit Page and More Actions (pull down menu). I usually put basic instructions here so the clients or colleagues will have some instruction ono how to use the site. You can do this by hitting the Edit Page button. This makes the title (Home) and the area underneath editable. When you're in Edit mose the three buttons disappear and are replace by Save and Cancel buttons. When you're done editing, hit Save.
The next thing you'll do is create a few pages. What types of pages you choose will depend on your style of management and the project itself. I'll list the different styles of pages and some ideas for their uses, but you should feel free to explore and be creative with your own ideas.
Web Page: Like the home page, it's just a basic page that can be edited and commented on. You can also add attachments. This can be used as an alternative to email. You establish what the page is about, then add comments and attachments like you would in an email conversation.
Start Page: I don't have much use for Start Pages. It's basically a Web Page that you can add "Gadgets" to. Gadgets are essentially the same thing as the Widgets you can add your iGoogle home page. Weather, News, Converters, etc... There might be some gadgets you might like for your project management, so check them out when you get a chance.
Lists: These pages can be used for creating punch lists or milestones for a project. This is good for complex projects with multiple people and tasks. For simple projects, a list created on a Web Page should suffice, especially if only one person is being assigned tasks.
Announcements: This is another good one for complex projects. It's a great way to update the team from time to time on shifting priorities, progress being made (or not being made), kudos, reminders, etc... It somewhat blog like in that each post is self contained, meaning that comments and attachments are specific to each post. Also, posts are show in reverse chronological order (newest first).
File Cabinent: This is for document storage with limited commenting (the comments are not related to individual files). It operates like Google Docs in that you can upload pretty much any file and add a small text description.
Sharing and Subscribing
This part is easy. You already have your users and your site is private. All you have to do is share your site with others. The only catch is that everybody you share with will need a Google account. Because we used a domain name and set up users ahead of time, that part is already finished. If you need to add somebody else to the project who isn't a user, and someone who doesn't want a new email account (basically someone stubborn), as long as they have a gmail account they can be a part of the team. When you invite someone outside of the domain, you will see an alert that you are about to share wiht someone outside of the domain. You're cool with that, so you say OK.
