Reflecting on 2024 and Looking Ahead to 2025

While 2024 may not have seen any major new feature releases, here at Group-Office, we've been hard at work behind the scenes preparing for our next major release. One of the most exciting updates to come in this release is the complete rewrite of our calendar module. But that's not all - we've also revamped our email server and introduced a new projects and time tracking module.

Expanding our workforce

In addition to our technological advancements, we are also growing our team. We welcomed Joost to our development team in November, He will help us to implement the new user interface framework in Group-Office.

Next version number

We have been stuck at version 6.x for too long, unable to move forward with out plans for version 7. We chose the Angularjs framework but it turned out not to be the right decision for us. Now that we're going strong with the new GOUI user interface it's time for a new version numbering strategy. The first digit will be the release year, the second will be incremented when there's a new feature release, the last digit will increment for bug fix releases. Using that pattern, the next version will be 25.0.1.

Calendar

The calendar has been rewritten completely. The new calendar will support every feature the current module does but also:

• Mobile-friendly UI: Manage your calendar on the go with our newly optimized mobile interface. Now, you can effortlessly access and update your schedules from your smartphone or tablet.
• Split view: When selecting multiple calendars you can easily view them in the split view.
• Year View: Gain a broader perspective on your plans with our new year view feature. Easily navigate through long-term plans and identify key events at a glance.
• Invite Participants: Simplify the process of inviting participants to your events. With the upgraded calendar module, you can now invite individuals without having to add them as contacts first. Collaborate effortlessly and streamline your communication.
• Additional Calendar Integration: Seamlessly incorporate remote calendars into your Group-Office system by adding ICS feeds or utilizing CalDAV. Now, you can avoid compatibility issues and stay organized across multiple platforms.
• Special calendars: Add national holidays, tasks and contact birthdays
• Calendar subscriptions: Organize your calendar list by subscribing only the ones you want to see
• Sync: Of course CalDAV and Microsoft ActiveSync have been reimplemented

Mail server

The mail server has gotten some major enhancements:

• Mobile friendly UI: Complete new user interface
• DNS verification: settings will be verified and visualized in the interface. It will check MX, SPF, DMARC and DKIM settings.
• DKIM: Easliy manage DKIM keys in the web interface
• Quota warnings: E-mail warnings will be sent when mailboxes are close to reaching their quota
• Full text search: Find your mail fast by searching the whole message using Xapian full text search.
• Master accounts: Configure accounts to access all of the accounts of a domain
• Auto cleanup: Automatically cleanup spam and trash after a configurable amount of days

Projects & Time tracking

Our projects and time tracking modules are currently in beta. You are welcome to try them out but not all features have been implemented yet. What is new is:

• Simplified: The design is simpler. The old module had a lot of features but also duplicated features that were also in other modules like the tasks and finance module. The new module uses the tasks module and finance module to accomplish better workflows
• Finance: The financial side is implemented in the finance module. So the financial manager can view it all from there and others don't have access to that.
• Tasks: Project tasks can be added and grouped in milestones. The project tasks can also be subscribed in the tasks module.

What's still missing is:

• Hours approval
• Registering expenses

Looking forward

Next week we will release 25.0.1 beta in the testing repository for Debian and Docker. As we look ahead to 2025, we are excited to continue our journey of innovation and growth, and we thank our dedicated users and team members for their support in making these advancements possible. Let's make 2025 a year to remember!