How do I build an issue tracking system in TWiki?
Reopening an old issue (HowToBuildBugsTrackingSys) that I think needs a better answer: How does one go about building a Bug or Issue Tracking System using TWiki?
I am being somewhat facetious or tongue in cheek when I ask this: I know how to do it.
I know how to set up forms, queries, etc.
But, it sure would be nice if TWiki came with some protototype web that could be used as a template for an issue tracking system.
And/or with some tar.gz files that contained consistent examples of an issue tracking web.
... ok, TWiki does come with such a system - e.g. Plugins.BugsContrib. But for various reasons (not least of which is that I am not doing bug tracking, but issue tracking), I may not want to use Plugins.BugsContrib. How do I go about rolling my own issue tracking system?
I suppose that I am morphing this support request into a mini-tutorial on how to do this...
... I'll create a new support item (inviting others to add).
Randy Kramer's Response: Issue Tracker = Standardized Data + Search
Sorry, I won't give you the detailed step by step, I think there is actually a page that does that but I haven't tried searching for it (I may be thinking of a set of instructions for something more like a todo list).
AndyGlew: I'm looking for that master page. Haven't found it yet. But then, I've only been searching 4 hours.
Anyway, this is not that hard (I know, that's easy for me to say), but you may have to learn some new terms or concepts.
Basically, there are two steps involved:
On each page that you want to include in the Bug Tracking List, you need to include one (or more, if you want to get tricky) terms that you want to classify the pages by. For example, the Bug Tracking list uses terms like: (I'll get back to this in a minute).
BugAssigned
BugReports
BugResolved
BugDuplicate
BugRejected
Then, on a page named (for example), BugAssigned, you create a formatted (structured? I forget the preferred TWiki terminology) search that looks for all pages containing the term "BugAssigned" and displays (selected) key data about each of those pages according to the format you specify. Go to BugAssigned and view the page in raw format (or edit it) to see the search "command" used.
Back to putting the term on each page you want listed. You can do this in any way you want. You might just include the term anywhere on the page (you then have to take pains that pages like this, which include the term but aren't really what you are looking for, are not included in your search results), you could hide the term within HTML comments on the page, like <!--BugAssigned--> so the classification term is not visible.
But, the best and most common way is create a TWiki form to be included (automatically) on each page (in one or more webs). On that, you create a "formfield" (IIRC the terminology — it used to be "category", I'd call it a (data) field) of the type that creates a drop down box (you should find this when you find the documentation on creating TWikiForms (on the TWiki web)), and include the five (or more) possibilities (BugAssigned, BugReports, ...).
If you do that, then when somebody creates or edits a page containing a bug, they will be able to choose one of the possibilities by selecting it on the displayed TWiki form, and your search command on the appropriate page will be able to find that page and include it on the list.
Hope this gets you started! If you have specific followup questions, ask them here (or on a more appropriate existing page), and somebody will answer.
PS: Look at this page — see the table labeled WebForm at the bottom? That's the type of TWiki form I'm talking about. Try editing this page and look at the similar table displayed then — click on the down arrow next to SupportStatus and note how you can select alternate statii — that's the kind of TWikiForm you want to create for your pages.
PPS: As you find other resources useful in this effort, how about adding links on this page (and whatever else you find out), to help the next newbie attempting this.
-- RandyKramer - 20 Oct 2003
Thanks for the reply. I've got it now.
By the way, how to use a html form instead of "Edit" button to reply message?
Thanks a lot.
-- ChrisWong - 22 Oct 2003
You're welcome!
Sorry, I don't think I understand your follow up question, and I'm pretty sure I don't know the answer — maybe somebody else? Hmm, or maybe your looking for (IIRC) the comment plugin? Try looking for that in the plugins web, it lets anybody comment on a page without editing the page.
-- RandyKramer - 22 Oct 2003
When I post a new message to a tracking system, I can use the following html form to do it: