Assembla Support

FAQ

The following page contains FAQs by topic. You can scroll through the page to read all the FAQs or click the bookmaked links below:

General Questions about Assembla

What does Assembla do?

Assembla provides tools and services for building software with high-velocity global teams.

What does “inspired by open source mean”?

We have adopted the best practices from open source development, and applied professional recruiting and management. The result is fast, iterative development with globally distributed teams.

You can make up new ways to use it. Our first mission is to provide the tools for assembling and managing global software teams.

What about "inspired by Web 2.0"?

This means we release early and release often, with fast reaction times that aspire to be instant. It also means letting users add and manage content and ideas, since they are faster and smarter about it than we are. It means investing in a great product experience, rather than excess sales and marketing. It means making adoption free, fast, and fun.

Is the service free?

Yes, the online service is free for individuals and small groups. We make money when we have larger groups that need premium tools, portfolios, and private servers.

Is it really open source?

Yes. You can download the source code and run it, modify it, and redistribute it for development purposes. You can also add tools or join the development team.

Can I get my own version of this software?

Yes, you can license your own server or custom versions of the software.

What technical tools do you use?

We use Ruby on Rails. The development system works on almost any platform. Our production system runs on a cluster of Debian Linux servers with a MySQL database.

What are you guys working on right now?

Check out the Trac task list. It is a list of all the features we are currently working to implement.

How do I report a bug or suggestion?

Add a comment to this list, and we will look at it, prioritize it, put it on the Trac task list, and implement it.

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

Emails and Alerts

How do I disable the email updates on every change I make to the wiki?

Go to Alerts tab of your space, expand Notification Settings and uncheck "Wiki edits". Click Update settings.

How do I reduce the number of alert emails?

When you become a team member in a space, we set your account to receive email alerts about all events on that space. You can change this setting using the Settings panel at the top of the Alerts page in the space. At the bottom of every email is a line that says "Click here to change or remove your alert setting for this Assembla space." Click on that link, and it will take you to the Settings panel of the Alerts page in the space. You can turn off specific classes of alerts, or turn off all email alerts by selecting "Email me: Never".

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

Personal Profile

Can everyone see my name and address?

Your name and address data is tightly controlled. Other people can only find you if you make that information public.

How can I create a way for people to find me on Assembla?

Assembla allows you to create free public workspaces. If you create a personal workspace just for you and then start adding wiki pages to it, your pages will turn up in search results. This is a good way to create sites within the Assembla site. The following would be good ways to use a public workspace:

  • An informal way to advertise contracting services
  • Build an online user community around a technical product or service
  • Coordinate a volunteer effort in your community

Create a personal space now

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

HR and Payroll

Providers

If my buyer disputes a statement, and it turns out that I actually did the work, will I still get paid?

Ideally, this will not happen with our payment system. However, you are protected in this case. Your contract is with Assembla, and we will pay you if we find that you did the work.

How do I get money out of my Assembla account?

You can request a withdrawal at any time by bank wire to a non-US bank account, by transfer to a US bank account, by Paypal, by check (not as convenient), or by transfer to an Assembla ATM debit card. We process withdrawals each night. See Receive Payment for more information.

Do I have to pay a fee or percentage of the project I work?

No. All fees are paid by the buyer.

Can I get paid in euros or some other currency other than dollars?

No. At present all payments and all financial considerations on our site are computed in US dollars.

Do I have to pay taxes on my earnings from Assembla? Do you withhold taxes? Am I an employee of Assembla?

You are an independent contractor. We do not withhold any taxes. For US citizens and foreign residents, Assembla will file a form 10-99 (or similar) if you have earned $600 or more in a calendar year. For foreign nationals, please check with your appropriate governmental agencies regarding your tax responsibilities.

Do you have to pay me as an individual? Can I set up a company and be paid through that because it is more advantageous from a tax perspective?

That is up to you. We can make payment to an individual or to a corporation. Please consult your legal and tax professionals and inform us of how to pay you.

How much should I charge for my services?

That is a question that you need to answer based on your needs, experience, skill, local conditions etc. Information on pay rates and salaries is available is numerous places, and can also be approximated by looking at rates and salaries noted in various job listing sites. Each Assembla user is free to charge or pay whatever rates he or she chooses.

Buyers

How do I put money in to an Assembla account?

You can transfer money immediately by paypal or bank wire, or by sending us a check.

I work for a big company, and they will not pay in advance or provide a credit card. Do you have corporate credit options?

We can offer corporate credit for qualified buyers, at the "pay later" margins.

What are the rules for working with a Provider I found on Assembla without using Assembla?

If you found a good job/talent, you should pay us something. We helped you, and it cost us money to do it. If you used Assembla to set up your job, you will be liable for the Assembla fee, even if you do not use our billing and payment system. However, we want you to have good long-term relationships with your job/talent. You can buy out this arrangement and contract directly for a reasonable fee, which is listed in the MSA.

How does it work at Assembla?

Why does Assembla.com offer work trials?

Work trials are a form of working interviews, but adapted to suit the work model of a remote team. Assembla believes that a working trial is the most relevant, productive, and efficient way of determining long term success in a development relationship. Most Assembla jobs will forego a lengthy interview and review process in favor a paid trial.

Here is how trials generally work:

  1. Trials generally last for 2 weeks (sometimes up to 4) and focus on your ability as a developer to handle coding and design tasks in a distributed and agile environment.
  2. All trials are PAID trials. We discourage developers from offering to work for free work during a trial. If you are working, you should be paid. Trials are also paid at the requested or agreed upon rate; discounts during trials are similarly discouraged.
  3. Trial tasks (and the billable trial period) begins with work that you do, including setting up a development environment, researching methodologies, reviewing code and structure, etc. Once you have gone beyond the qualifying and review conversations and you have agreed to begin a trial, you will be compensated for the work you do.
  4. Based on the successes of the trial, you may be offered long-term contract or permanent position.

Do I get paid during the trial? Do I get paid for setting up the development environment and downloading?

Yes and yes.

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

Workspace Management

How do I create a new space?

Register and select Create a Space from your start page.

How do I delete a space?

Go to the Admin tab on the space, and go to the "Delete" subtab. You will find a link there.

What happens when I invite someone?

When you create a space, you can invite new team members from the Team page. We send them an invitation email message with your name on it. If they do not click through and register, we send them one reminder after 4 days, and another reminder after 7 days. They can decline the invitation and be deleted, and will be deleted after 14 days without a response.

What are View, Edit, and All permissions?

View permission allows you to see the space and its related objects – wiki pages, flows, files, team members. Edit permission allows you to edit them. Space owners get All permission, which allows them to delete things and change team member lists. The two most common permission settings are Public=View and Team=Edit (for a public project), and Public=None and Team=Edit (for a private project).

What is the “Watch This” button, and what is a Watcher?

When you select “Watch This”, you add a Space to your Spaces list where you can find it easily. A Watcher does not get team member permissions. However, if you are on the watcher list, it is easy for the Space owner to promote you to a member.

What does “Flows” mean?

Flows are bits of information that come in time order, like discussion messages, issues, and blog postings. Breakout gives you the opportunity to see them all in one place, or filter just the items that you are interested in.

How do I prioritize tasks and issues for my team?

See our Milestones Feature Page for a more detailed discussion. You can tag any comment or flow item as an issue by giving it a non-zero priority. Our priorities go from 1 (top priority) to 5 (lowest priority). You can list your issues by choosing the Priority sort on the upper left of the Flows page. When issues are assigned to team members, they appear on the user Issues list. So, when you need to get some work done, set a high priority on the message where you brought it up. When you are ready to work, pull an issue off the top of the priority list.

Can I use Google to search Assembla?

You can use Google to search the public areas and workspaces of Assembla (try it here). Google cannot search your private workspace. Please use our integrated search function to search private workspaces.

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

Tools

What are Tools?

Tools are features or applications that you can add to a Space. They appear in a new tab on the top. The permissions are set so that Team members have the correct permission to use attached tools.

Are Tools really On-Demand?

Yes. Just go to the space Admin page, find your tool in the Tools tab, and click on "Add this tool". We give you a complete application a few seconds later.

What Tools can you provide?

Lots. We offer Subversion, a source code management system, and Trac, a software ticketing and project management system. If you select the Trac tool, you get both of them integrated. The full list of all our tools and features can be found here.

How do I login to a Tool?

Use your Assembla login name and password. Many tools will automatically log you in if you are logged in to Assembla.

I accidentally deleted my tool. Can I get the data back?

We have a secret backup directory where we keep deleted tools. Try not to make us use it.

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

Trac and Subversion

How can I import or export a subversion repository? Trac tickets?

You can find forms for importing and exporting svn repositories in Trac. Go to your Trac and log in as a space owner. You will see an Admin tab on the top right. Select Admin, and select “Data Import/Export” from the left menu. There is a link to export the svn repository, and a form to upload a zipped Subversion repository dump. There are also forms for uploading and exporting trac directories. We currently use trac 0.10.4.

I get a "propfind error" when I try to commit. How can I fix it?

This error happens when you try to use subversion from behind a proxy firewall that does not allow web dav requests. You can bypass the proxy by using "https" with your subversion URL, instead of using http.

Can I back up my Trac instance or Subversion repository?

We have never had an instance of data loss.

  • We backup internally every day.
  • Subversion, on the new servers, is backed up in real-time after every commit.
  • You can back up your trac and svn data from the Trac admin menu. Go to trac and log in as a space owner. Select the Admin tab in the top right. Select "Data Import/Export". You will find options to export your subversion repository and trac database.
  • If you subscribe to commercial spaces (for a low monthly fee) we will automatically send your subversion repository to your Amazon S3 account every night.

Can I edit my Subversion repository to remove a version, or remove old files from old versions?

No. Subversion does not support an "obliterate" command that removes old versions. This is a subject of some controversy in the Subversion community.

To get rid of your old versions, you will need to create an empty subversion repository, commit the current version of the code to it, and then import it over the old repository. You can do this locally, or you can make a new space on Assembla with a blank repository.

In Assembla, the Subversion import and export are in the Trac/Admin tab, in the Import/Export submenu.

All the svn entries on the trac timelines are in GMT. Anyplace I can set the timezone appropriately?

Yes. Trac does not have a feature for setting user time zones, but Assembla does.You will see the same ticket and svn events on the Alerts page of the related space, adjusted for your user time zone. Please remember to set the time zone in your user profle.

Back to Top | Ask a Question

 

Use the Comment form below to ask us a question. We appreciate all feedback.

View Page History
Print this page