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Support & Documentation

Get started with Redmine and our plugins

How can we help? Find answers to common questions, installation steps, and licensing details below.

The 5 Steps to Success

1. Prepare Your Hosting

Redmine needs a server environment to run. You have several options depending on your IT knowledge:

1. In-House Hosting: You can install it on your own hardware, like a company NAS (Synology, QNAP) or even a standard Windows/Linux machine running Docker.
2. Managed Hosting: If you prefer not to manage servers, you can use a managed Redmine hosting provider who handles the infrastructure for you.

Security & Privacy

If self-hosting, ensure your server is behind a secure firewall and mapped to a private VPN or heavily secured public domain. Your company's data is only as secure as the server it sits on.

2. Setup Redmine & Database

Once your server is ready, follow the official Redmine documentation to install the core application and link it to a database (like PostgreSQL or MySQL).

Pro Tip: This is the perfect time to link Redmine to your external authentication service (like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) so your team can log in with their existing company credentials.

Security & Privacy

Database security is critical. Ensure your database password is long and complex, and absolutely never expose the database port (e.g., 5432 or 3306) to the public internet.

3. Install Plugins & Migrate

Download your purchased .zip from your Client Account and extract it into Redmine's plugins folder. Then, via your server terminal, you must run the migration command:

bundle exec rake redmine:plugins:migrate RAILS_ENV=production
Don't panic! The word 'migrate' might sound scary, but it will never delete your existing Redmine data. It simply tells the database to safely instantiate the new, isolated tables and columns that our plugin needs to function.

Security & Privacy

Always backup your database before running any migration commands, just as a universal industry best practice. We take maximum care to ensure our plugins are completely non-destructive.

4. Initialize & Define Roles

Restart your Redmine server application so it recognizes the newly injected plugin. Log in as an Administrator and head to the 'Roles and Permissions' screen. You will see brand new permissions created securely by our plugin.

Assign these permissions to your existing Redmine user roles (like 'Manager' or 'Developer'). Check your Client Account for plugin-specific "getting started" notes for deeper configuration instructions.

Security & Privacy

Follow the Principle of Least Privilege. Only grant advanced permissions (like deleting configurations or bypassing rules) to users who absolutely need them to perform their organizational jobs.

5. Run Your Business

That's it! Your users can now navigate to their projects and instantly start utilizing the new Makes Sense Software features.

There's no need to train them on entirely new parallel platforms or sync data across external cloud tools. Everything lives right where they are already working every day.

Security & Privacy

Because everything runs seamlessly inside your existing Redmine instance, your data never leaves your infrastructure to be processed by third-party vendor servers. You are in total control of your privacy.

Frequently Asked Questions

I want Redmine but I don't have it, what should I do?

Redmine is a free and open-source project management application. If you don't have it installed yet, we recommend using Docker to get started quickly or choosing a managed Redmine hosting provider. Once you have your Redmine instance running, you can easily install any of our Makes Sense Software plugins to extend its capabilities.

How do I install a Makes Sense Software plugin?

How does the '1 Year of Updates' license work?

Still need help?

If you're experiencing a bug or need specific technical assistance with your plugin, our team is here to help exactly when you need it.

Contact Support