LAUNCH: Campfire and Basecamp integration - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

LAUNCH: Campfire and Basecamp integration Jason 05 Jul 2006

28 comments Latest by Ken Rossi : CivilNetizen.com

Ever since we launched Campfire back in February we’ve been getting a steady stream of requests for Campfire/Basecamp integration. People wanted to be able to add a Campfire room to their Basecamp accounts so they can chat with their team and clients in real time.

Your wish is granted.

Today we officially announce Campfire/Basecamp integration. Both are still separate stand-alone products, but you can now use them together. Read about the integration or watch a movie demonstrating the set-up and integration (Quicktime).

This is version 1 of the integration. We have plans for even deeper integration with the files and transcripts feature in Campfire in the future, but for now we wanted to nail the core chat functionality.

Special thanks goes to Marcel for his hard work hooking this up. As simple as it looks on the surface, this was a challenging project. If we have some time we’ll do a detailed write-up of the hurdles and challenges we faced during the development of this integration.

So, we hope you enjoy the new Campfire/Basecamp integration! We hope it makes your projects more successful — it certainly has with ours.

28 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Long Time Listener - Repeat Caller 05 Jul 06

Yay!

Now can we get some progress on the calendar in Backpack?

matt Carey 05 Jul 06

Great! My only wish is that the chat room would retain the basecamp navigation tabs (the same with writeboard). I know there is a jump between apps, but sometimes it feels too much when you loose the consistent elements. But I’m getting picky now!

nate 05 Jul 06

I’m still holding out for pony integration.

Fred 05 Jul 06

I was updating my Basecamp projects today and there was a new ‘Chat’ tab. Two clicks later, Campfire is integrated.

Thanks - I’m glad to get rid of the untidy workaround I was using. Is there still a limit of four users, though?

RS 05 Jul 06

Is there still a limit of four users, though?

The free plan is limited to four simultaneous chatters.

Ken Walker 05 Jul 06

Great work, signals! I won’t ask about your other projects, but I’m glad this is done so you can spend more time on them. ;-)

Peter Jennings 05 Jul 06

As Matt said, I’d also like to see the Basecamp tabs retained at the top of the chat window - it would save a few clicks a day.

Also, would it be possible in a future version to show the latest chat entry on the project overview (ignoring entries where someone has just entered or left a room)? In this way it would be easier to see from the dashboard if there is something to be looked at in Campfire. I guess that this may be a lot more difficult to integrate, but it would be very useful (if not essential for ‘complete’ integration).

Hopefully these will be in Version 2 … :)

warren 05 Jul 06

Job well done, it could add a nice additional dimension to collaborating.

Wasn’t a user before (separate products just confuse things) hoping to roll it into what we do now

Well done guys

SR 05 Jul 06

Great Start! Looking forward to the write-up on how it was done.

ken 05 Jul 06

Sure hope the calendar is soon to follow…

Forgot to say what a great job you are all doing so far!!

Cliff Spence 05 Jul 06

Glad to see you are beggining to connect the two.

I have noticed one issue: if I’m already signed into the chat room, Basecamp signs me in again, so now there are two of me listed in the chat room.

Matt Wigham 05 Jul 06

Can’t wait for a shared file section.

Sara 05 Jul 06

I constantly read 37signals proclaiming to keep things simple and not do what Microsoft does and introduce feature bloat.

Why is the addition of Campfire in to BaseCamp not an example of this … feature bloat?

J 05 Jul 06

Why is the addition of Campfire in to BaseCamp not an example of this � feature bloat?

Because it’s entirely optional. If you don’t want to use it you can turn it off. Campfire is also a separate product. BC and CF integrate together but they are separate products. You can use them together if you want.

Jay 05 Jul 06

As Matt/Peter said, I would also prefer to see the basecamp tabs remain.

It’s just better integration overall, I never use the writeboard feature because it takes me away from basecamp to use it.

Since I never use Writeboard, can we have a setting to remove that Tab (turn off that feature)?

Kurt 05 Jul 06

Jason,

Your Basecamp homepage says:

“Do you offer a live chat solution?

Basecamp doesn’t have chat built in, but we do offer Campfire group chat for business.”

Kurt

lisa 05 Jul 06

Awesome. I can’t wait to try it out. Just rescheduled a dreaded conference call as a Campfire chat. Thanks!

Hal 05 Jul 06

Beautiful!! Its time has come - fantastic.

Thanks guys!

Jonas 05 Jul 06

Great! This really simplified the projects we are running with basecamp, simply better and easier collaboration.

Frank 05 Jul 06

@Sara

I am also a person who never uses Writeboard and feel like it is bloat.

I also would like to see a setting option to “turn-off” (disable) Writeboard from my Basecamp account … much like how Campfire is done.

Andreas 06 Jul 06

very nice! This is a really valuable addition for us!
Thanks!

P.S and I definitely do not see any feature bloat here.

Sebastian Gr��l 06 Jul 06

mhm. It is just a tab and a link.
i thought it would be more. like a todo list-section in campfire or files uploaded in campfire apear in bascamp and versa. this would be cool, but for now i still have to have two tabs opend…

Hmm 06 Jul 06

Yeah i’m confused as to what was so complicated here, it does just feel like a link. I’m also kind of confused what I should use chat for in my project management.

Dave C 06 Jul 06

I think the reasons are pretty well explained here

on the campfire site

For us, live chat during conf calls is probably the most compelling reason, so all chat is captured for others who are not there.

Dave

dave c 06 Jul 06

Oops - here’s the URL:

http://campfirenow.com/examples/

Ken Rossi : CivilNetizen.com 06 Jul 06

SUHWEET…. just what I needed. I have been hoping that you would make basecamp a base for the other products. I think a hook into tadalist so that individuals can manage their own private to do lists as an option would be all that I would need to have basecamp be the one stop shop.

Thanks 37s…. well done for listening to your users.