“The voice of the people” and reports rating

Cerebro has added a new feature to like or dislike messages. Now anyone can express an attitude to any post whether it is a colleague’s report or a supervisor’s review. All likes and dislikes are anonymous.

Besides the likes, there is a new feature to rate reports using a 5 grade scale. In comparison with the likes, only users who are assigned with special rights can rate the reports.

You can assign such right to supervisors or team leads, so that they will be able to do their “objective” evaluation.

Rating

User rating is calculated based on likes and dislikes of reports as well as on an “achievement”. This feature is available in users statistics.

There are new six columns added in statistics: overdue in hours, overdue in days, reports rating, likes, dislikes and user rating. You can choose which criteria to include in a rating calculation, as well as normalize rating using 10 grade scale.

Normalization makes sense only for user groups analysis.

We believe it would be great to reward the best workers  😉

Archived tasks

 New features allow to archive not only the whole projects, but also some selected task threads using a button “Archive” on the task panel.

Archived task threads is useful in “endless” projects. Tasks added in archive become invisible in all lists, besides statistics and search. You can add criteria “Archived tasks” in the search window to exclude search in it.

You can check and restore archived tasks in the Navigator. Main menu -> View -> Show archived tasks

Shifts

 If your workflow consists of shifts, you can switch a time displayed to shifts inside Cerebro. Any changes of the time displayed is available in an application setting. Mainmenu -> Cerebro -> Settings

Put in the shift duration and all values connected to hours will be calculated and displayed in shifts, according to duration specified by you.

Login as other user

Now an administrator can login to Cerebro with their colleagues’ accounts. You can do it by opening an Administrator window, choosing Users tab, then choosing an user and push the button “Login as”

The right to login as another user is set by right “Login as other users”

Columns administration

 We added a new column picker, which allows to quickly hide and show needful columns in the lists of the tasks.

This button is located above each task list. After pushing it, there will open a new window with a list of the columns, where you can include/exclude displaying of any of columns, as well as columns with the project tags. You can also save different sets of columns to switch between it quickly.

Plugins distribution

 Cerebro plugins can be distributed among users of your companies by the system itself.

To find more, please read the documentation (LINK)

Application usage statistics collection

To improve quality, functionality and usability we have implemented statistics collection on application usage.

Usage statistics includes general information about settings, user interface features usage, response rate and memory usage. Personal data are not collected in usage statistics. 

Please, give Cerebro an access to send usage statistics to Cinesoft. It will help us to know which features we should improve.

More information

Release Date: Mar 16, 2016

You can read this short release notes or read Full one

In this release we concentrated on an improvement of our planning tools. We call it Cerebro exacto.

Couple of words about our new style of a main screen*

The main pa

Basic panels are switched using a  tabulator on the left. On the right there are buttons which open/hide a Forum, Task Properties and Assignments. The main panels may detach from the main screen by dragging a tabulator button.

* If a new interface does not suit you, you can switch to an old one by choosing an option in a Main Menu View  -> Go back to an old style

Gantt Chart

We have a new Gannnt Chart in Cerebro

Task tree is displayed on the left side of a panel, awhile its graphic representation is on the left side .The graphic part shows the duration and relative positions of tasks on a timeline as well as their connections

In the graphic region you can arrange and assign tasks. You can also perform  the same operations as on the  Navigator panel  i.e create, move, delete, copy tasks, etc..

Links

A panel of links is an additional window, where you can check your links in graphics.

You can change the time of assignments and delete ones you don’t need using the Assignments panel.

Planning Tool

Planning tool allows you to arrange your tasks on a timeline. The planning tool now indicates when new users are added.

 To move any user’s task for a specified time, there is a panel displaying all tasks assigned to the user..

Calendar

Calendar is an additional way to view user’s tasks in graphics.

Yo can also create your tasks on the calendar.

Mirada

 Mirada has finally learnt how to draw straight lines, ellipsis, and rectangles, with vector editing enabled.

We have also added extra speed to work with h264 codecs and enabled working with DVCAM codecs.

Full release notes

Release Date: Oct 14, 2015

For everyone – New Cerebro Client for Windows, Mac Os X and Linux

Server componentes:
– Database structure updated
– Cargador component updated

Server Components Installation Guide

Download Cerebro client

Download server components

Optimization

Database interaction was optimized to speed up adding, copying, moving tasks, assigning employees, editing time parameters for tasks.

New style and icons

Application looks and icons were changed. You can also configure your icons as you want them.

To do that, open Styles window (Main menu -> Cerebro Serpens ->Styles…) and add a new style.

Mirada

– New “Dripper” tool allows you to get a color of a pixel from an opened media file and use it in “Brush” and “Text label” tools;
– Onion Skin mode changed: drawings counter is no longer linked to original media frames, but rather to the amount of drawings in the timeline;

– Mirada now uses new dynamic library ffMpeg which allows for simler and easier video playback;

– Bugfixes: Review with empty drawing couldn’t longer be sent, support for tablet pen presses;

New notification system

Notification system in Cerebro went through major overhaul. Now you can configure notifications on Company / Project / User levels;

New notifications added, e.g. “Expired task notifications” and notifications for every status;

Notifications for client and e-mail are now separated;

Notificcations can be configured for every role;

You can read about new Notification system in more detail here

Task manager

Task Manager is a tool for performing different actions on tasks, posts and attachments conveniently – namely, navigation, copying, moving, etc. Task Manager is a twin-panel GUI application.

To launch Task Manager, use item in Main menu -> Tools -> Task manager.

You can move / copy tasks and messages between panels, view and change task properties. More details here

Attachment list and parent task forum toggle

Forum now has two new panels – “Parent task forum” and “Attachments”. They can be toggled with buttons on bottom panel.

Parent level forum is helpful when you need to post messages on different levels of tasks, and your employees can also access it without excess clicking.

Attachments panel allows you to see all post attachments on the specified forum.

Embedded Filter window and new Filter parameters

Task filter window can now be embedded into Task list.

New filters were added

• Unwarched tasks
• Projects
• References

Filters can also be applied to Statistics windows.

Also:

Limited visibility policy changes

Users with limited permissions now can view posts in parent tasks. This is to allow viewing of posts which are used for general guidelines and technical specifications, and users with limited permissions might require that.

Permission configuration for several tasks at once

Добавлена возможность установления прав доступа для нескольких выделенных задач.

Make Unique

Links could be made as full-functioning tasks.

Text is now saved as you type your post

If you accidentally close Message window, text now will be saved and will reappear once you open the window back.

Fast Search criteria toggle and lots of new criterias

You can toggle search criterias without deleting them now.

There’s also a new criteria – task last level.

Task tracking statistics

Task tracking now has statistics table for all tracked tasks – how many tasks are ready, how many are in process, how many haven’t begun yet, etc.

Intermediary reports and statuses in active task window

In Active tasts window you can make an intermediary report without removing task from the list.

Additionally, you will be offered to change task status while adding / removing task to Active Tasks tab, and your choice will be saved.

Client API, buttons, new events

Important! PyQt5 is now used instead of PySide:

Since migration to new QT version, support for PySide for graphical interfaces is no longer possible. PyQt5 is now used instead of PySide, a package is provided with distribution. If you used PySide in your plugins, you should make changes to your plugins replacing PySide with PyQt. In most cases all you need to do is replace PySide with PyQt5 and QtGui with QtWidgets. In case of any problems, contact our technical support.

Embedded buttons and menus

API for embedded buttons and menus is now changed. Old version is still supported.

New system allows you to embed not only menus, but buttons into panels on program interface.

New events

New events are added to process hashtag changes for tasks, messages and attachments. There also are events for changing client visibility for posts and reports.

Server API, multi-requests, task copying, hashtags

Important! psycopg2 for python3:

Due to major changes in database module we were obliged to refuse supporting py-postgresql module for python3, and replace it with psycopg2. If you used server API module for python 3.x, you shold install psycopg module (http://initd.org/psycopg/) when updating.

Multi-requests in database module.

All functions that change task properties, and some others,  now can accept an array of tasks as an argument.

If you need to set a similar parameter to several tasks, you preferably should use an array of IDs instaed of cycles, it will drastically improve performance.

New functions in database module:

Module has some new functions implemented:

• task_attachments, to get a list of all attachments in task
• copy_tasks, for copying tasks respectively
• hashtag interaction functions for tasks, posts and attachments
• task_by_url, returns task ID using its URL.

Examples

Since API is updated, examples of using API are now updated too. There are also new examples of importing / exporting tasks from spreadsheets.

More information here

Today the old version of Administrator Account is no longer available (Web client menu, Account -> Buy Cerebro). New User Account is located at the top of the web page. Web client is still available as usual.

New features compared to old version:

• Ability to easily obtain your licenses if you are using Factory plan
• Automatic recurring payments by credit card
• Precise end date selection
• Possibility to change your pricing plan if needed
• Card transactions are handled by Stripe transaction service

Account in our Administrator Account system is created automatically after registering a new universe. We already created Administrator Account logins for all of our current administrators. If you do not have one, ask your colleagues to create it or contact our support staff.

Note that after invoice request, you will immediately receive a temporary license for two weeks, you will receive a license for the entire period after completing the transaction.

You can refer to our documentation for details.

If you have any questions, please contact us at Live Chat or support@cinesoft.ru

Hashtags

Hashtags are textual markers used to mark tasks, messages, and attachments. A hashtag is a specific word, but a given item can have several such markers. Hashtags can be used to perform searches either in the address bar or in the search tab.

If you need to find all the tasks with the hashtag, you need click to the hashtag while holding the Control key. If you want to find the tasks with several hashtags, you can select those hashtags and pick “Find for hashtag” from context menu.

Mirada Updates

Drag-n-drop markers on timeline

Edit the lifetime of paintings in review by dragging and dropping their markers on the timeline.

The range of in-out frames can now be changed in a similar way.

Onion Skin Mode

Onion Skin Mode can now be activated when reviewing video files. This mode is designed for creating animated paintings in the review layer. To do this, activate the Onion Skin checkbox in the review toolbar. The mode’s other settings, which you can use to set the range of visible paintings before and after the current frame, as well as their transparency, will then become available.

Mirada Pro is now Free

Since support for Mirada Pro is no longer available, all of its functions have now been transferred to the standard version:

• saving reviews to the hard drive;
• color correction tools;
• online reviews of media files;
• viewing and review stereoscopic images (pictures and video files).

Other Changes

The control bar now has a button for fast-switching between media libraries. It is active only for formats that can be opened by more than a single supported library, e.g. QuickTime API and .ffmpeg.

The review toolbar now has a button for sending a review to Cerebro without closing Mirada (useful when working with several files in playlist).

New languages: Simplified Chinese, Japanese

New interface languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese.

Full release notes

Task references in the task navigator

Task references allow you to place the same task in several project branches without copying it.

All the reference properties and the forum are inherited from the original task. It means that any message change/creation in reference or property change lead to the change in the original task. The only exception is the reference name which can differ from the original task name.

There are two buttons for task reference creation on the task toolbar:

– Copy task as reference. Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+X

– Cut task and leave reference. Keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+C

For details please refer documentation.

Search tasks, messages and attachments in the address bar

You can search tasks, messages and attachments in the address bar now.

Simply enter text to find and Cerebro will look for it in all its data. Since the “smart search” is used there is no necessity for the full text match.

Spell checkers in posts

Spell check is available now when writing messages.

Inbox, favorites and filter by subscription

The “Followed Tasks” tab is renamed to “Inbox” which is more close to its meaning. Also now you can mark individual tasks as favorite to filter the inbox list by this criterion later.

Enable the “Show only my subscription” radio button to hide everything that is not interesting for you.

External insert, multi renaming and replication of tasks

External task insert means inserting of “outside” objects such as files or text strings from the clipboard or by dragging into the “Navigator” window. New tasks are created on the basis of these objects.

To insert external objects from the clipboard select the objects and copy them to the clipboard, then switch to the “Navigator” window, find suitable location for new tasks in the task tree and click the  “Paste” button in the task toolbar.

In the case of text insertion one or more tasks will be created in the Cerebro system depending on the text contents. The text must be in the CSV format to insert several tasks, it means that it contains a list of new task names separated by a line break. For example you can copy to clipboard one column from the Excel   spreadsheet and paste it in the “Navigator” window. After that Cerebro will prompt you to create new tasks named corresponding to the pasted text. In this way you can insert new tasks from other text documents such as Word, txt-files or a web page.

Insert tasks with files

On pasting several files Cerebro will prompt you to create new tasks on their basis.

Multi-rename tasks

Multi-rename feature allows to rename selected tasks on the basis of a predefined template or regular expressions.

Select the tasks to be renamed and click the   “Multi-rename tasks” button (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+M). The same command is also presented in the context menu.

Replicate task

The replication feature allows you to create the required number of duplicates the selected task.

Select a task to replicate and click the  button (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D). The same command is also presented in the context menu.

For details please refer documentation.

Active Tasks

The “Active Tasks” window contains a list of tasks for which you are planning to work during the day.

You can add a task in this window by clicking the “Start work” button in the forum window.

The task will appear in the list and a corresponding timer will be started. The list may contain several tasks but only one of them is allowed to be active at a time.
You can switch between tasks in the list during the day or pause your work. Each task time is stored and after the task completion click the  “Stop work and write report” button. After that the report creation window will arise with the time spent on the task specified.
It is not mandatory to use this window for time management, you can just put your actual task there to have them always “at hand”.

Notifications about switching task status

You will get e-mail notifications about task status switches now. To configure this notifications please go to your Cerebro profile (“Cerebro Serpens” / “My Profile…” main menu item).

Project filter

The project filter feature is present now in the Administrator pane.

Downloading and uploading files in multiple threads

The functionality of the Cargador service was updated to perform multi-threaded file transfer. This feature allow to significantly increase the speed of uploading and downloading from the Cerebro file storage.

And also

Copying tasks between universes

If you are working with several companies and you need to transfer information back and forth, now you can copy tasks between universes freely. In this case task copying is limited only by your access permissions.

Buttons to download and open files in the forum

Buttons to download and open a file appear when you hover the mouse over it in the forum.

Elimination of illegal characters

Most of previously illegal characters in the task name are allowed now. Only “/” and “” characters still remain prohibited.

More details about update

Task filter

In the Navigator, in the “To Do List” and “On control” lists the possibility of filtering on the next properties has appeared:

– The universe for those who are in multiple universes;

– Task start time;

– Progress;

– Statuses;

– Activities.

For each task from the list a unique filter is used.

The filter window is opened is pressed , which is located on the top panel in the list .

The filter runs in the interactive mode, that is, when you change some filter options, it will immediately appear in the task list.

If in the filter window some filtering options are chosen, the filter opening button will change its color

If there were some filtered rows in the task list, then in the status bar at the bottom of the main window, an indicator with the number of filtered tasks will display.

Clicking on this indicator will open the filter window of the current list.

More information about task filtering here.

User Tracking

A new view (tab) is developed – “User Tracking”.

It enables a bird’s eye overview to determine whether or not your colleagues are working, and if they are, on what tasks they are now working exactly.

In the top line you can filter users belonging to a particular group or type of activity, and also to select the task status.

But most importantly – and this is something for which this representation was created – it is the «Switching Time» column.

It shows the date and time when the user changed the status of the task (in other words, “took to work,” or vice versa “completed and waiting for comments “). If a cross is displayed in this column, it means the user is currently free.

After having selected the status on the top line, which says “work done, waiting for comments” (in our example – «Pending Review»), we will immediately see whose works require supervisor comments, and how long they are in this status:

More information about User Tracking here

API Changes

Added server and client side API for statuses and tags.

Check out the whitepapers on these updates on http://cerebrohq.com/docs/en/index.html, in Cerebro API Documentation section.

Fixes

– If the file transfer service CARGADOR is installed locally on the file server of your company (this is true for almost all tariffs, except «Home»), we strongly recommend your system administrators to update the service. The new version of CARGADOR provides a far more stable file transferring process than all previous versions.

– Pereodical stop of  file downloading from remote file storages;

– Wrong calculation of summary statuses on tasks with subtasks;

– Improper working out of the rules of tasks status change with the links between the tasks of the various branches and links between tasks with subtasks.

Task Status

Finally, now a task has the so desperately wanted parameter – STATUS.
What does that mean?
Status – is a task property that describes its current state. With the help of status it is possible to adjust the sequence of working stages on the task.
What kind of statuses there might be ?
Any.
We have set up a list of statuses by default, but in no way we are limiting your right to remove unwanted and add new statuses to suit your production workflow.

The statuses are managed in the “Administrator” window on the “Status task” tab.

Status Parameters

– Name;
– Icon and colour: they appear in different representations of tasks (Navigator, Gantt charts, etc.) when the task is in a particular status;
– The “Inherited” means that the status can be set directly on the branch of tasks, and the status will be inherited by all sub-tasks. Inherited, by default, is the status of “paused”, “complete” and “closed”;
– Status categories: Waiting, in the work and stopped means the global status of the task. They are necessary for the collection of statistical data.
Statuses also have the order which affects the display of the lists,  task switching proposals to the next status and also it participates in the rules of automatic task switching (more on that below).

Access rights

The ability to switch the status of the task exists when the user has permissions to create a particular type of message in the forum. For each element of the access list, you can configure the available switching circuit.

Rules for automatic switching of related tasks

When changing the task status then the status of its dependent tasks are being changed also – in accordance with a given set of rules. Each rule contains a set of conditions under which it switches the status of dependent tasks in a new value.

By default, we made two rules:

– Change the task status into “ready to start”, if all predecessors have received the status of “complete” or “closed”;
– Change the task status into “paused”, if any of its predecessors get switched into anything but “complete”.

You can also edit and add rules to your own needs.

Statuses in the task lists

Updates are accumulated on the upper levels and are shown in the Navigator in the form of column colored rectangles proportional to the amount of certain statuses of tasks within the branches, starting with the status with the lowest order.

Statuses in the task lists

All  status switches are recorded in the forum in the form of messages.

In the final message on the status switch, a button is located with a proposal to switch the status to the next status depending from the rights for switching status.

Regarding the progress bar

“Progress? Who the heck need it?!”  –  opinion of one of the developers.

Statuses are substitutiong the progress bar.

Indeed statuses show a more realistic picture of the production process. While opinions on this matter is not at all ambiguous, and therefore we left it without changes. If with the adding of new status features, throughout the time using  the progress bar in the form in which it is presented will come to nothing, we will remove / change it.

Based on the progress bar we added up the statuses on tasks, that is why now you may not use the progress bar anymore.

Recalculation occurred in the following manner:

– tasks with the progress of 100% given the status of “complete”;
– tasks in which there is at least some progress is assigned as status “in progress”;
– tasks with the old status “closed” status were assigned a new status “closed”;
– tasks with the old status “paused” given the new status “paused”;

Task order

The order of tasks allows you to arrange tasks in order of their execution (or any other convenient manner.)

In the Gantt chart, all the tasks are sorted now just by the order.

Change the task order it is possible either in the task properties

or by dragging tasks in the Navigator. In this case, tasks in the navigator must be sorted by order.

Note, now using drag and drop,  you can move tasks.

Folder Tree

In all linear lists of tasks, such as “To Do List”, “Followed Tasks”, etc. The folder  tree appeared for fast finding the correct tasks.

Colors activities

In activities now there is an opportunity  to set the color.

Now, in the Navigator and in the Gantt chart, it is possible to highlight with the color of activity of a tasks that have been assigned to them.

To customize the display of all panels a new button appeared . Clicking on it will open a window ” task displaying”:

So far in it only brightness adjustment is available, but soon there will be other various display settings.

Column of estimation costs calculation

In statistics, on projects, column for prior payroll has appeared.

It is calculated based on the scheduled hours, the rates of the people assigned to the tasks and the default rate on the project (if there is no one assigned on a task).

Default rate can be set in the “Administrator “m in the projects tab.

Sorting in the forum

Now you can sort the messages in the forum, in reverse chronological order (as in social networks).  sorting can be switched

with the button  on the panel forum.

The possibility of choosing the level of tracking

On the task tracking panel there is an opportunity to choose the level of tracking

The button “Read all” in the tracking tasks
On the panel “Followed Tasks” a new button appeared “Read all”

At that perhaps for now. Enjoy your work and even more enjoy your holidays

Sincerely, Cerebro developers team.

More information here

Task Tracking

Following the large amount of requests from the VFX and animation studios, a new tab – “Task Tracking” – has been created. It is designed for more intuitive “matrix” displaying the current situation on the project, divided into standard process steps.

In order that this tab function properly, the project must have a tree-like structure with a depth of at least three levels, for example: “Sequence” -> “Shot” -> “Task”. In this case, when “Sequence” is selected in Navigator, then the rows of the table will show “Shots”, and columns – “Tasks” (note: it is not a “Task” name that is used as a column heading but a task-related “Activity” name).

At the bottom of the window task progress statistics can be displayed on the Activities within the observed threads of the project and also the number of tasks that are marked with some tag.
For a correct collection of these statistics it is required that tags must be appointed at the “Shot” level, and “activities” – at the “Task” level. Statistics display is switched on / off by the   button.

The  button is to pin down the current thread displayed in Task Tracking window, i.e.,  when the button is turned on, the transition to the other task threads in the Navigator does not affect the contents of the Task Tracking window.

The  button switches the type of data displayed in the cells: when it is turned on, the cells display the names of allocated users, with off – the numeric value of the progress of the task. By default, the button is on.

Same as the Navigator, the Task Tracking window supports inline-editing of table cells.

A double left-click will select the same cell (task) in the Navigator.

New Notification Types

With the introduction of a new task displaying filter in the users ToDo lists(see below), similar filters are introduced also to the e-mail notification system. The configuration is done in the user profile properties window. For this to happen, two new fields are introduced: “E-mail Notification Settings on new assignments available” and “E-mail Notification Settings on upcoming assignment start time”.

Thus, the user can choose the most convenient mode of getting notifications that new tasks are available to him, as well as warnings for the approaching start of the planned tasks.

Assigned Tasks Filtering

On the “To Do List” tab, a new filter  has appeared to hide the assigned tasks, which are currently unavailable to start working on.

The logic behind the filter function is as follows: if a task is connected to the predecessors tasks, and currently they are not finished / not closed, then, it is considered that it is impossible to take over the task and start working on it. If all the predecessor tasks are completed (closed) or non-existent, then the task is available for execution and does not get hidden by the filter.

The filter is useful when a user is working on a long-time project with a large number of interconnected tasks.

Documentation Updates

Two new sections are published in the technical documentation for Cerebro SDK, namely:

• Python API to the Memoria database and to the Cargador service,
• XML-RPC API to the Cargador service.

For the next release the following chapters are being prepared:

• SQL API to the Memoria database,
• HTML API to the Cargador service.

Besides, the new Cerebro Installation Guide has been issued.

We gladly present a new Cerebro Serpens version.

Its major difference from the previous versions is a possibility of two-way communication in the Forum between Cerebro users and the people who do not have full accounts in Cerebro (for more understanding we will call them “Email users”). See below how it works, and also about other innovations inside this new version.

A New Type of Users: Email User

In fact, a Cerebro email user is just an email address registered in the system to which copies of messages from the Forum are sent. Files attached to the Forum messages are not transferred as files, but they are sent as download links. The letter, usually, looks like this:

In this screenshot you see that this letter comes from Cerebro  to the  user’s email , and the answer to this letter is automatically published back in Cerebro, in the corresponding thread of the Forum, together with its attachments  (if those were added to the answer):

Email users’ accounts are free of charge but their amount is limited, it is equal to the amount of the “standard” user accounts in your universe. See the “Universe” tab of the “Administrator” panel to get the amounts of used/unused accounts of both types.

Check out the official whitepaper to know more about this feature.

Inline editing

Editing the task properties, previously possible in a special “Task properties” tab only, now is accessible in all table interfaces displaying such properties: in the Navigator, in Statistics, in the «ToDo» and «Followed Tasks» lists.

Inline editing, from the user point of view, is similar to data editing in spread sheets:

It is possible to edit all the tags and task properties, including lists of allocated performers and “followers”.

Other New Features

• Expanding a task tree in the Navigator by a single click.
• A new option – forced file upload by Cargador (available if Cargador service is running on a file server, not on a workstation).
• Repeated creation of tasks with identic properties. Two new buttons – «Save and Close» and «Save and New Task» are replacing the “Save” button.
• Binding serial tasks into a Gantt chart sequence. Check the «Link the next task to this task» checkbox to use this option.
• A status bar appears in the main interface. It displays the amount of tasks/items selected/unread, alongside with some filter indicators.
• Instant tag setting for a range of selected tasks.
• Tweaking default amount of planned work time for newly created tasks (in the project properties).
• New features of the “User Statistics” interface:
  • Unlimited depth of detailing.
  • Any column can be exported to Excel.
  • Progress percentage, time and budget amounts are summed up on higher levels by the selected users.

• Much faster performance due to optimized database queries.
• New search criteria introduced:
  • By task status: «Task is Event», «Task is paused», «Task closed».
  • By names of deleted users.
• Password reset disable option.
• Definition can be copied from one task to another and pasted to an empty Forum thread.
• Default task start time selection: new tasks start either in the moment they are created or at the same time when the project was created. You can select the proper option in the “Projects” tab of the “Administrator” panel.
• Login window displays the current build number.

More information

A new Cerebro Serpens (Constellation of the Snake ) version has been released in order to change the old Cerebro Astro version that you were working with since 2010. The reason we call it Serpens: Serpens version if to compare with Astro version, will be a Software development Kit on the Python API base.

Software Development Kit

SDK allows to develop custom functions for the system that were not available in the standard version, also to automate interaction between Cerebro and another Software, that is used (we will not be afraid this word) in the pipeline in your studio.

SDK consists of two global parts: Client API and Server API.

With the Help of «Client» API you can add points to the main menu, to the context menu – in the navigator and also to the forum. It is necessary to notice that API is realized on a so-called « trigger approach», or «system of events». That means with the help of client API you can launch various scripts in a response to the user actions or the system events, and thus make routine operations even more automatic, for example: to provide data transmission between several systems, or to conduct new control functions – to supervise correctness of the name of spread files, file types, etc.

Server API- Is used as a database access. In an automatic mode it allows to create/edit records to the database, for example: tasks and messages, and also it allow spreading files and links.

More detailed documentation about SDK is still in progress, but some sections are already available to inquisitive “Python-coders”. Follow our updates on our website in the “Support” section. New articles about SDK are updated almost daily, and we hope that the final documentation will be finished approximately by the May 15.

New Replication Server

In order to increase our system’s general reliability, we have launched an additional Cerebro’s replication server. That means, if the main server will not respond, users will be automatically switched onto the reserve server, and they will be able to continue their work at no problem. Replication server provides data synchronization in the real time, therefore switching between the servers will not be noticeable for users.

Note: Such data synchronization is available only on SaaS-plans. Local system clients still must manage their backup data on their own.

Generally, if you want a real reliability for free- welcome to the «cloud»!

New iOS Client version.

It happened! The beta-version of a long-awaited «Cerebro for iPad/iPhone 2.0» has finally being finished and soon it will be released. Currently, the app is being sent to the App Store. We hope that in 2-3 weeks it will be available to all the happy Apple (iPad and iPhone) owners.

A new iOS-client, compare to the old one, provides full compatibility with the new Cerebro Serpens databases.

Besides, in the new version the interface has been updated so that it improves the user experience when tracking your projects on an iPad.

New Mirada

Besides SDK, new version of Cerebro also includes an updated version of a Mirada player. Besides a standard Quick Time API, FFmpeg libraries, that considerably expands the list of supported codecs and containers. Thus the user can choose what library to use for playing one of these formats.

In general, from now on your favorite h.264 will run more smoothly and more precisely. Of course MiradaPro supports FFmpeg.

And that’s not all!

Aside the described innovations above, we brought some more extra options, which in the essence are described in one word «Convenience! ».

First, it is a new license activation principle in locally established systems. If in the previous versions  our system administrator had to «to climb under a cowl» and to replace a certain special file in a certain special place, now it can be imported simply directly from the Cerebro interface. New interface displays   much more information now when you manage your licenses, than it was available earlier – for example, the maximum number of users, validity periods of each license, etc.

Second, new Cargador.  It is able to switch automatically from a local cache of files to the network storage and back – depending on, whether the network storage at the moment of login is available. Imagine that you have a laptop that periodically moves with you from your house to your office and back.  While “Old” Cargador at first would download to your laptop those files which are in the network storage, but are absent in your local cache. While «new» Cargador instead of wasting time on downloading- it will simply automatically connect you directly to the file server, straight away you will be able to work with them, while saving time and space on your hard disc. However, if you are more comfortable with the “Old Cargador” and you don’t want to change anything, then it is possible to switch this function off.

And third, we have improved our search system. Now as criteria for search it is possible to set not only available parameters, but also the absent ones. For example, it is possible to look for tasks not only with the put-down tag, but also tasks where tag is not set.

The new Cerebro Serpent is already available for those users that use Saas-Demo version and SaaS-Private Studio. But users that use local versions (Business and Corporate) will have their shipment after «May holidays», starting from May 15; a process of getting demands form system administrators.

More information about release here

Sincerely and have a pleasant «May holidays»!

New Visibility Policy For Groups And Users

A new visibility policy takes effect in the current version. Visibility determines if a user is allowed to see other groups / users in various interface elements and whom he/she would see in particular. Visibility is configured on a separate Administrator panel tab – «Who Sees Whom».

Visibility options are the following: the user may see everybody in the universe, or the user may see definite groups only, or the user may not see anybody in the universe.

Visibility options for a user profile can be set up during its creation process as well.

Previous visibility policy was the following: only group-mates were allowed to see each other, i.e. the users had to belong to one and the same group for that. Now this rule is abandoned and group membership doesn’t affect visibility: it is not necessary to be included in a group to see its members and, vice versa, group-mates do not see each other until allowed by Administrator.

New visibility policy release will not affect current visibility settings for existing users though it is recommended to update Cerebro to manage visibility for new users.

Project Templates

You can select one of the existing projects to use it as a template for a new project. Select the project to be a template and select its content and settings you wish to transfer to the new project.

New Wizards

Several new wizards are added to help create new items in Cerebro, such as projects, users, groups etc. The wizards make it easier to create and configure those items. As a rule, a wizard guides you through several quick steps to specify all parameters for an item being created.

The item’s most essential properties are configured on the first step while minor properties are laid back to other steps. So it is obligatory to complete the first step only while the rest steps may be postponed or skipped.

New Administrator Window

The main feature – new Administrator panel works much faster. And some minor improvements were added, such as item renaming by double-click.

User Invitation

Invitation function is back! Its interface can be found here: Administrator -> Users. After the invitation is accepted by the user you get a notification in Cerebro and can set up the user profile parameters to take him/her on board right away!

New Task Alerts

Cerebro sends out e-mail notifications on different events to whom they concern. A new type of event is added – New Task Created. E-mail notification settings are configured here: Main Menu -> Profile.

Personal Data

A user can choose whether to open his/her personal data (e-mail, phone number etc.) to colleagues or not. This option is set up in user profile (Main Menu -> Profile).

Forum Text Zoom

A new feature – text zoom in/out is added to forum threads. Zoom is changed by the buttons in the upper forum panel. Besides, Shrink/Expand All Messages buttons are added onto this panel.

Bugs Fixed

• Report cannot be created by user with peculiar access rights;
• Incorrect task naming if created by file(s) drag-n-drop onto Navigator panel;
• Session could be lost in database;
• Cerebro crash while working with user statistics.

More information here

Access Rights Management Upgraded

Access rights can be global (granted to the whole Universe) or local, task-specific.

To adjust task-specific access rights pick the task (or project), go to   Task Properties tab and press the button .

A new window will open:

The upper list displays current groups and users who have access to the task. There you can change Role and Access Rights Inheritance Pattern. A Role is a combination of separate access rights which allows a user certain type of activities in the project structure. Access Rights Inheritance Pattern defines the scope of Role application. The patterns can be the following:

1. To the current task and all lower levels (sublevels)

2. To the current level only

3. To the sublevels only

The access rights highlighted with bold type are not inherited from upper levels (parent objects) and therefore can be changed. Inherited access rights cannot be altered. If you need to alter inherited access rights you must uncheck Inherit Access Rights from Parent Objects checkbox first. All current inherited rights will be changed to direct and ten set to zero. After that you can edit/delete these access rights in the particular task.

You can customize access rights for a picked group/user in the upper list by checking / unchecking the appropriate checkboxes in the lower list.

To add a group / user to the upper list press Add a Group/User button.

A dialog window will appear where you’ll be able to select Groups/Users to add to the list.

Pressing Role button calls a window with list of roles and their specific access rights settings.

Here you can see and edit current role settings and create new roles.

Global access rights are set up in Administrator window (Main menu/Tools/Administrator) on Universe tab

Global access rights are being set up the same way as described above except one restriction: they can be set up for groups only (not for separate users).

Access rights management is one of the most sophisticated matters in Cerebro therefore we strongly recommend you to read the latest User Manual on this matter before making any changes. ССЫЛКА

The latest access rights management system is not guaranteed to be compatible with the previous one. An issue noticed: if you edit access rights in the latest version of Cerebro, they can be displayed incorrectly in previous versions.

Bugs Fixed

Large files export to Cargador error (all platforms) – fixed

More information here.

You may select the UI language Cerebro directly at login screen.

You may choose avatar display option to show them (the menu Cerebro Astro – Settings – Display Settings):

• – on the left, center or right of the message header
• – or disable altogether.

There is a new export Review option appear in MiradaPro (menu Review / Export Track to MOV). You may save Review track with voice comments in separate QuicktTme MOV file. The feature available on Windows and MacOS platforms. (Windows: Unknown problem was detected when export file targeted to Desktop)

Corrections to the server component:

module Sirena was updated. File deletion error was fixed.

Bug Fix in Cerebro:

The First Steps Wizard assigns default file storage for a new project immediately. This will eliminate “Site list is empty” error message.

Bug Fix in Mirada:

Saving of long (more than 3 minutes) reviews was fixed. They are correctly stored and shipped in Cerebro now.

More information here.

CineSoft Ltd. launches a new version of the most popular Cerebro plugin – Mirada player.

A new version of Mirada, named Mirada Pro offers four advanced features:

• Stereoscopic 3D support,
• Online reviewing sessions,
• Color grading,
• Reviews saved as standalone files in a user defined folder.

1. Stereoscopic 3D Support

Cerebro professional users get a unique tool for watching images and videos in stereoscopic 3D format and what is more noticeable – this tool allows to draw stereoscopic comments as well, i.e., they are parallax adjustable!

Mirada Pro supports 5 stereoscopic modes:

–  OpenGL Quad Buffering Mode based on NVIDIA 3DVision Pro hardware technology.

This mode requires an  NVIDIA Quadro series graphic controller as well as shutter eyeglasses and an emitter (NVIDIA 3DVision Kit).

– Anaglyph Mode. You’ll need special eyeglasses with red and cyan color filters.

Alongside with the described above modes Mirada Pro offers a special mode for preview theaters (review rooms) – Dual Screen Output. This mode allows to project two separate videostreams via paired projectors and filter the streams by polarized eyeglasses. A dual video output graphic controller is required to run this mode.

If a user’s graphic controller doesn’t support any of the above modes Mirada Pro offers two monoscopic modes – Source and One Side Only. The first one displays the picture “as is”, the second one displays a half of it, either “left eye” or “right eye” depending on user’s choice.

2. Online Reviewing Sessions

Mirada Pro offers a special tool named Online Reviewing Session. This tool allows several remoted users to establish an Internet connection, share the session link and watch simultaneously not only the content played back by Mirada Pro but each other’s actions as well (mouse cursor movements, timeline shifts, picture zoom and pan).

This mode is based on more progressive technologies than trendy screen sharing, and they makes it possible to share and review high quality images or videofiles on pretty slow Internet connections.

3. Color grading

Tools -> Color Grading menu adjusts Gamma and Exposure and switches on/off Linear to Logarithmic mode:

OpenGL library makes it possible for Mirada Pro to use Color Grading even with RAW formats (or other formats with more than 8 bits per color channel).

4. Reviews Saved as Standalone Files

This option lets a user save a review as a separate file to a defined folder if for some reason he (she) doesn’t want to publish it immediately in a Cerebro forum thread.

More information

• Mirada Versions Comparison Mirada и Mirada Pro
• Full documentation about Mirada Pro

How Do I Get Mirada Pro?

Starting with build 5794 by June 17, 2011 Mirada Pro is included in standard Cerebro installation packages for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Pro functions unlock after a special product key activation. Mirada Pro is available for all Cerebro pricing plans, including Free Demo.

A product key can be purchased by either of two possible ways:

1) Via Cerebro Web Interface (Main Menu -> Account -> Buy Mirada Pro);

2) Contacting CineSoft directly.

Product keys can be issued for 1, 3, 6, 12 months of validity or for an unlimited time.

Please note that Mirada Pro product keys are “node-locked”, i.e., bound to a particular workstation – this policy is opposite to Cerebro traditional “floating licenses”. We must take into account that unlike Cerebro, Mirada Pro is a highly specialized toolkit required by a comparatively small part of a whole facility. So, this licensing approach seems to be more economically effective in terms of company’s software assets and investments. Besides, Pro functions have rather specific hardware requirements and therefore it doesn’t make much sense in installing Mirada Pro on every PC in the house.

User Avatars

User avatars can be added to a user profile here:
Main menu -> Cerebro Astro -> Profile…

Universe administrators can attach avatars to material resources on Resources tab in Administrator window.
Main menu -> Tools -> Administrator…

Now every message in a forum can be identified by its creator’s avatar.
You may change Avatar size in Main menu -> Cerebro Astro -> Preferences.

Getting Started Wizard

This wizard helps create and set up a new project structure.

The wizard consists of several steps to create Users, Groups, Projects and set up permissions & access rights
It’s not obligatory to make all those steps, the wizard can either be closed at any moment or skip several steps and switch to, for example, creation of a new project.
The wizard shows automatically at the 1st time Cerebro starts up. After having been closed it can be launched again manually either in the Main menu -> Tools -> Wizards

Performance Improved

Cerebro speed is drastically increased while:

• tasks browsing,
• task properties editing, esp. while multi-task editing
• task copying, duplicating and multi-task creation by files drag-n-drop into Navigator.
• messages posting

and all the rest functions work much faster now!

Material Resource Usage Reports

A new feature developed – material resource usage reporting.

Advanced Copying Features

First, a copied (duplicated) task preserves all the links between its sub-tasks.

Second, now a copied task can be pasted in two different ways: ordinary Paste (Ctrl+v) and Special Paste (Ctrl+Shift+v).

In this realise we and may other features and updates .

More information here

Message type can be selected/changed in the Add or Edit dialog windows. 
Files can be dragged-and-dropped right onto a forum thread. 
And it calls an Add message dialog window with the dropped files attached to it.
Every forum message now has 2 new buttons, Edit and Reply.

Locked docks
All docks (Navigator, Forum, Gannt chart, etc.) are now locked by default, i.e. they can’t be detached and moved.
To unlock the docks you must uncheck the box View -> State docks-> Fixed docks.

Bugs Fixed
Incorrect connection via a proxy server.
A zero hash file upload error.
Crash caused by date/time adjustment in the New Task dialog window.
Crash caused by Navigator’s Panels style.
Invisible parent tasks for the Restricted Worker role.

More information here

User Profile Edit
Administrators are enabled to edit user profiles. If a user belongs to one and the only universe Administrator can edit any profile field, including user e-mail and password.
Users are enabled to edit their logins.

A Deleted Account Restoration
It has been made possible to restore a deleted user account by his/her e-mail address.

Pop-up Tooltips

Columns in task lists (Navigator, Interesting Tasks list) have pop-up tooltips now, e.g., pointing to one of the Planned costs/Actual costs/Balance columns causes a pop-up tooltip with detailed info on all 3 parameters.

Tags

Columns with tags now have headlines. These headlines are preserved while being exported to Excel.

User Statistics
A click on a task on the User Stats page makes Navigator switch to the same task.
Statistics re-calculates after pressing Calculate Statistics button.

More information here

Many small bugs Fixed!

More Information…