Collaboration Hub: Configuration Guide

Configure Collaboration Hub [Admin]

The configuration process for the Collaboration Hub leverages TaskRay's Configuration Hub and the Salesforce Setup menu. The Configuration Hub is the central place to manage relevant settings and it provides guidance whenever it is necessary to switch over to the Salesforce Setup menu. Therefore, certain configurations, such as installing the Collaboration Hub package or managing certain settings through the Salesforce Setup menu require Salesforce Admin privileges. That said, many Collaboration Hub settings and customizations can be managed by a designated TaskRay Admin directly through the Configuration Hub.

Collaboration Hub - Licenses

The Collaboration Hub requires licenses for external stakeholders. For more information, contact your CSM or success@taskray.com to learn about Collaboration Hub licensing.

Collaboration Hub - Configuration Permissions

The following additive permission set is required to manage Collaboration Hub settings:

• TaskRay - Admin Access

Collaboration Hub - Data Requirements

The Collaboration Hub relies on Accounts and Contacts objects for granting external collaborator access. You will find more details on this throughout the configuration guide and within the Collaboration Hub: Internal User Guide.

Configuration Overview

Below are the high-level steps for configuring this feature:

1. Pre-Requisites
   • Pre-Requisite: Digital Experiences Settings
   • Pre-Requisite: Role Hierarchy
2. Steps to Configure
   • Install the Collaboration Hub Package
   • Set Up and Apply Customer Profile
   • Features and Customizations
   • Digital Experience Site Builder Customizations
   • Set Up External User Access
3. Testing Collaboration Hub Configurations
4. Using the Collaboration Hub

Review the configuration process in this interactive guided tour:

Pre-Requisites

Pre-Requisite: Digital Experiences Settings

Before you install the Collaboration Hub Package, it is required that the following is in place:

1. Enable Digital Experiences. To confirm and/or enable Digital Experiences, navigate to Setup > Digital Experiences > Settings. If Digital Experiences are not enabled, you will see an Enable checkbox. Select the checkbox and save.
2. Enable ExperienceBundle Metadata API. To confirm and/or enable this setting, navigate to Setup > Digital Experiences > Settings and locate the ExperienceBundle Metadata API checkbox (in the Experience Management Settings section). If not already enabled, select the checkbox and save.
   
   Note | Refresh 
   If you are completing the second item right after enabling Digital Experiences, you might not see the settings right away. To make the settings appear, you will need to re-open the Settings page again by navigating to Setup > Digital Experiences > Settings (refreshing the page will not make the settings appear).

Pre-Requisite: Role Hierarchy

Since the Collaboration Hub leverages Digital Experiences technology, it also requires role hierarchy to be configured in the org. More specifically, for users to have the ability to add external collaborators to projects, set owners of related Account records must be assigned roles.

Steps to Configure

Step 1: Install the Collaboration Hub Package

The first step of the configuration process is to install the Collaboration Hub package.

This part of the setup requires full Salesforce Admin permissions. 

1. Using the app launcher, navigate to the TaskRay Configuration Hub.
2. In the left sidebar of the Configuration Hub, select External Collaboration > Collaboration Hub.
3. This will open the landing page for the Collaboration Hub. If the package is not installed in the org, you will see an overview page with the option to Go to Install Package.
   
4. Once you click on the Install Package button, you will be redirected to the installation page for the Collaboration Hub package. When installing the package, select the option to Install for Admins Only, which will help simplify the process of managing permissions in the org.

Installing the package creates a new Collaboration Hub site in the org. This site is created with some TaskRay branding and basic configurations applied by default. 

Once the package is installed, you can return back to the Configuration Hub to continue the setup process for the Collaboration Hub.

Step 2: Set Up and Apply Customer Profile

The next step is to set up the profile for TaskRay external users and apply it to the Collaboration Hub. Salesforce provides a default customer profile for Digital Experience users. As a best practice, it is recommended to clone that profile to make a copy that can be tailored for TaskRay.

This part of the setup requires full Salesforce Admin permissions.

1. From Setup, navigate to Users | Profiles.
2. Locate the Customer Community Plus User Profile and select the option to Clone.
   
3. On the following screen, enter the Profile Name (e.g. "TaskRay Collaboration Hub User") and click Save.
   
   Note | FIles
   If you plan on leveraging the Files functionality in the Collaboration Hub, then it is recommended to enable the following system permission on the custom profile: API Enabled. To do this:
   

   1. Open the new custom profile that you created.
   2. On the profile setup page, click on System Permissions.
   3. On the System Permissions page, click Edit.
   4. Locate the API Enabled setting, select it, and Save.
4. Return to TaskRay Configuration Hub (such as via the App Launcher) and click on the Collaboration Hub > Settings tab in the left sidebar.
5. Click into the Customer Profile field and select the new TaskRay External Collaborator custom profile.

This will apply the new profile to the Collaboration Hub. Additionally, this profile will be automatically assigned to external Collaboration Hub users when they are granted access. 

Step 3: Features & Customizations

The next step in setting up the Collaboration Hub is to customize the experience according to your organization's external collaboration requirements. This section of the article covers settings found within the Configuration Hub in the Collaboration Hub Settings utility in the Features & Customizations section.

TaskRay Views Available to Customers

Here, you have the ability to select specific TaskRay views that will be visible to external stakeholders within the Collaboration Hub. As a general best practice, it is recommended to keep the app configurations as simple as possible to allow for a streamlined experience for external collaborators. In other words, only select the views most applicable to the external user workflows. 

TaskRay provides the following options for the Collaboration Hub: My Work, Kanban View, and Plan View. 

To make your selections for the Collaboration Hub, use the Visible Views field.

Customize Branding & Notifications

By default, the Collaboration Hub is installed with some TaskRay branding applied automatically. This includes the Collaboration Hub site and the notifications that are sent to external users. In this section, you have the ability to set notification defaults, as well as tailor the appearance of notifications to match the branding of your organization.

To expose the settings in this section, toggle the control in the section header.

In the Customers Receive section, you can manage the defaults for the notifications that external collaborators will receive. You can toggle the defaults for the following out-of-the-box TaskRay email notifications: Project Team, Task Assignment, and Daily Planner Email. Note that every external user will also have the ability to change these preferences for themselves.

You can also customize the email address from which the TaskRay notifications are sent to external users. To set an email address, use the From Address for TaskRay Notifications field.

Additionally,  you have the ability to set the Brand Color and upload a Company Logo, which will be reflected in the email notifications sent to external users (e.g. Task & Project Assignment, Daily Planner Email).

Collaborate with Chatter

Using the control in this section, you can disable or enable Chatter in the Collaboration Hub. If enabled, this will allow internal and external users to collaborate directly on projects and tasks that they have access to in TaskRay.

Collaborate with Files

When working on projects, files can be an important element to ensure that team members have the necessary information for managing assigned work. Using the control in this section, you can disable or enable the ability to work with Files in the Collaboration Hub.

Collaborate with Time Tracking

If your organization leverages time tracking as part of the work management process in TaskRay and you would like to incorporate time tracking for external collaborators, that can be enabled in this section. Enabling time tracking for the Collaboration Hub will allow external users to log time spent on TaskRay projects and tasks.

Step 4: Digital Experience Site Builder Customizations

Since the Collaboration Hub leverages Salesforce Digital Experience Sites, it is possible to customize the styling through the Site Builder in Salesforce Setup.

To access the Experience Builder, you can either click on the Launch Experience Builder link in any of the callouts on the Collaboration Hub setup page, or you can navigate to Setup | Feature Settings | Digital Experiences | All Sites, locate the Collaboration Hub site, and click on Builder. You can read more about all possible customization options in the following Salesforce Help articles:

• Customize Sites with Experience Builder
• Brand Your Identify Experience

Email Customizations

Whenever external users are added to the Collaboration Hub, they will receive an email instructing them to complete their account setup. That being said, the email will come from Salesforce using a generic template. If you would like to customize the email, you can do so by creating a custom email template and then applying it within the Digital Experience Site Builder in the Administration > Emails section. 

Site Customizations

While Salesforce provides a variety of options for customizing the site, there are a few TaskRay-specific pointers that you should consider to create the best experience for your external collaborators.

• Components: TaskRay provides a set of Lightning components that can be used to customize the Collaboration Hub. To manage components, navigate to the Builder, look to the icons in the top left corner, and select the Lightning (Components) icon. 
• Theme: The default theme of the Collaboration Hub can be customized to match the look and feel of your organization's branding. To customize, you can click on various areas on the page within the builder (e.g. the top banner, navigation bar, etc.), as well as select the Paint Brush (Theme) icon in the top left corner and manage settings, such as the font, colors, and company logo.
• Login Page: The first page that every external TaskRay user will see when accessing the Collaboration Hub is the login page. By default, the login page is set up with some generic Salesforce branding applied. As a best practice, it is recommended to customize the login page to match your organization's branding, so that your external collaborators have a seamless experience. For information on how to customize the login page, see the following Salesforce Help article: Configure Your Login Page.
• Navigation and Page Structure: It is also possible to customize the navigation and page structure within the Collaboration Hub. To manage these settings, navigate to the Builder, look to the icons in the top left corner, and select the Page Structure (3 Bars/List) icon. Note that you can only reference TaskRay components and data when managing pages within the Collaboration Hub site.

Step 5: External User Access

The final step for configuring the Collaboration Hub is configuring elements pertaining to external user access. Specific to the Collaboration Hub, this incorporates specifying the permission set that will be used for external TaskRay users and defining the criteria for when external users should lose access to the Collaboration Hub. 

This section of the article covers settings within the Configuration Hub in the Collaboration Hub setup utility in the External User Access section.

Pre-Requisite: Site Activation

It is recommended to do this step of configuration after all other customizations for the Collaboration Hub are complete. 

To access the Experience Builder to activate the site, you can either click on the Launch Experience Builder link in the callout within this section of the page, or you can navigate to Setup | Feature Settings | Digital Experiences | All Sites, locate the Collaboration Hub site, and click on Builder.

To activate the site:

1. Once within the Site Builder, click on Publish in the top right corner.
2. In the confirmation screen that appears, click on Publish again.
3. Once published, go to the menu into the upper left corner and choose Administration
4. Under Settings, look for the status then click Activate

Granting Access

The Granting Access section in the Configuration Hub requires selecting a permission set that will be used for external collaborators. Using the Customer Permission Set field, select the permission set that will be used for external TaskRay users.

Out of the box, TaskRay provides the TaskRay External - Standard Access permission set designed specifically for external TaskRay users. This is the recommended permission set to use for this purpose.

The applied permission set will be automatically assigned to external collaborators whenever they are added to project teams. You can read more about the process of adding external users to projects in this article: Collaboration Hub: Internal User Guide.

Removing Access

The final step of the Collaboration Hub configuration is to define when access should be removed from external collaborators. TaskRay provides the ability to automatically remove external collaborator access when the projects where they are on the team reach certain criteria, such as being marked as complete or archived. If the external collaborator is added to multiple projects, they will continue to have access to those projects until all of the projects reach the defined criteria for removing access (or until they are manually removed from the team).

When an external collaborator's access is removed, their Salesforce user record will be marked as inactive and their license will be available for use with other external collaborators.

Using the When Project Status Is field, select one or both of the following options: Completed and/or Archived.

• The Completed option will remove external user access once the project is marked as complete.
• The Archived option will remove external user access once the project is archived. 
• If both options are selected, external user access will be removed whenever the project reaches either state (completed or archived); whichever happens first.

Testing Collaboration Hub Configurations

It is always a good practice to test configurations before rolling out new functionality to the organization. In this section, we summarize key tips for testing the Collaboration Hub

The Collaboration Hub relies on Accounts and Contacts for granting user access. Therefore, you will need to set up a test Account and user to confirm how the Collaboration Hub is functioning end-to-end. 

1. Create a test Account and a test Contact related to that Account. The test Contact must have an email address specified.
   
   Tip | Test Email
   For this purpose, enter your own email, so that you will be able to log in to the Collaboration Hub for testing.
2. Create a test TaskRay Project.
3. To add the test external user to the project, navigate to the Test Project Details modal and open the External Access tab. 
4. In the tab, you should see a list of all related Contacts from the linked Account. Using the checkboxes, select the test Contact and click on + Add to team button.
5. Once the test external user is added to the team, you should receive an email at the address specified on the test Contact record.
6. From the email, set up the external user test credentials and log in to the Collaboration Hub.

Now that you have a test external user, you can navigate around the Collaboration Hub and confirm needed configurations.

Using the Collaboration Hub

External Access Tab & Permissions

Once the Collaboration Hub is set up, you will see an External Access tab within the Project Detail modal. This tab will allow adding external users to project teams.

Internal users will need to have one of the following additive permission sets assigned to see and use the External Access tab:

• TaskRay - Project Manager Access
• TaskRay - Admin Access

Additionally, you will need to add either/both of these permission sets to Members in the Collaboration Hub site settings to allow internal users with these permission set(s) to manage external user access. To do this:

1. From Setup, navigate to Feature Settings | Digital Experiences | All Sites.
2. Locate the Collaboration Hub site and click on Workspaces next to its name.
3. Click on Administration.
4. Click on Members.
5. In the Select Permission Sets section, locate and select the TaskRay - Project Manager Access and/or TaskRay - Admin Access permission set(s) and move the selection to Selected Permission Sets.
6. Click Save.

Data Requirements

Before your organization can start adding external users to projects and working with them via the Collaboration Hub, there is one final step to review, which is confirming that the data is set up correctly. Typically, this is done by the teams responsible for working with external collaborators and you can read more about the specifics in the Collaboration Hub: Internal User Guide.

Additionally, TaskRay provides the ability to designate tasks on projects as internal only. For more information, refer to the Internal Tasks section within the Collaboration Hub: Internal User Guide.

Adding & Removing External Collaborators: Behind the Scenes 

As external collaborators are granted access to the Collaboration Hub, there are a few things that will take place in the background. As a reminder, external collaborators can be added directly from projects via the External Access tab by referencing Contacts through the related Account records. This process does not require admin permissions and is typically done by internal TaskRay users.

Salesforce User Record

As an external collaborator is added to the team and they set up their account, a Salesforce user record will be created and set as active. Additionally, a TaskRay license and a permission set will be automatically assigned to that user.

Once the access for the external collaborator is removed (e.g. such as when the project is completed or archived), the corresponding Salesforce user record will be automatically marked as inactive and the TaskRay license will be removed from the record.

TaskRay Resource

TaskRay will automatically create TaskRay Resource records for added external users, which you will see in the Configuration Hub. While there is no required action to take with these records, you do have the option of filling out Resource details if necessary for your workflow.

For example, if the external collaborators are responsible for managing work on projects on an ongoing/repeat basis, then you could consider building out their Resource profiles to streamline the process, such has to assign Roles or link Business Schedules to define their availability.

Whenever the external collaborators are done with work and their projects are closed out to remove their access, their Resource records will be automatically marked as inactive.

Supporting Resources

As you roll out the Collaboration Hub to your organization, the following resources are available for your team members:

• Collaboration Hub: Internal User Guide: Share this resource with your internal TaskRay team. This guide covers key processes for setting up Account and Contact data, preparing projects for the Collaboration Hub, and adding external collaborators to project teams. The guide also provides an overview of the process of working with external collaborators on projects.
• Collaboration Hub: External User Guide: Share this resource with your external TaskRay collaborators for an overview of key functionality available to them in the Collaboration Hub for managing assigned tasks.
• Collaboration Hub: External User Deck: This resource is available to you if you would like to share information about the Collaboration Hub with external users in a slide deck format. The provided slide deck can be customized and tailored to reflect the functionality configured in your instance, along with any specific instructions and information on your process. Use the following link to copy and save the deck (Google Slides format): Copy External User Deck.