Jim,
You can learn more about the ticket reports here...
http://trac.roundcube.net./trac.cgi/wiki/TracReports
You can see how to add new queries. You can also set the priority and severity as well as associating it with a milestone. Among those 3 pivot points there is a good deal of planning we can do. I think the voting idea would work but we can simply put up a vote on specific issues occasionally. On Apache projects they do it simply by posting an email to the list and letting everyone vote on each item. The team lead keeps track of it and adjust the priorities based on the results. That way it stays within the team.
I do like the idea of a few test environments. I think we can do it all on the same server. It just needs a separate website per install with a separate db for each one. I have a FreeBSD server and could set up a test environment. Perhaps you could help me with an automatic provisioning system to deploy updates daily or weekly and automate some tests using Selenium. Dropping the db and rebuilding it with the latest update, generating a series of test emails and loading up the Selenium tests would not be all that difficult. And that does not require programming experience, but with your SA background you would know what to do.
What I do not know yet is how to run the Selenium scripts on a server like FreeBSD or Linux. I suppose I could have a job run on a Windows server which has FireFox and MSIE installed so it can run the Selenium scripts. Of course someone could start the Selenium tests manually.
But I also do not have time till mid January.
Brennan
On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:17:59 -0500, Jim Pingle lists@pingle.org wrote:
Thomas Bruederli wrote:
Looks like the others are getting closer:
Gmail like AJAX powered Web 2.0 version of IMP http://janschneider.de/news/25/252
Duroty System (BETA) is the open source Gmail http://www.duroty.com/en/index.jsp
They may be getting closer, but they'll never be RoundCube. :)
The main problem of RoundCube is the project manager's lack of time and as a consequence of that the bad project organization, both my faults. If somebody thinks he or she could afford some time (actually it's a full-time job) and who has some experience in project management, I'm willing to give away the "power" and become a regular developer (that's what I really am).
I've been trying to contribute time where I can, checking the trouble tickets for dupes, tickets that should have been closed long ago, and trying to get more information out of the people who opened the tickets. (Not to mention while doing that I have run across a few other bugs.) The less duplicate/invalid tickets that are out there, the easier the job is for the developers.
On occasion, I get into coding a bit. Unfortunately, getting enough free time to get that far into a project is rare during this time of year. I had a course in college on project management (I have a BS in Information Systems), but in my day job I am a sysadmin at an ISP and to a lesser degree a developer. I could help a little with project management, but not enough to take on the whole thing. I can probably help contribute more in some other areas, though.
My boss loves RoundCube and so does every user I've let try it. Due to that, I *might* be able to provide some sandbox setups for testing different IMAP server/OS combinations if people think it's worth it and my boss approves. Hardware isn't a problem.
I also do a bit of tech writing. If there are areas of documentation that anyone thinks could use some work, I'd be happy to help out there, too.
I think it would be a big help if the ticket system was used more effectively. An unfortunate limitation of Trac (or my knowledge of it) is that it doesn't allow you to order the tickets by their last update. The timeline is nice, but tickets can sort of get lost if they're not checked periodically. I have been "babysitting" a few tickets to see if anyone responds to them. If I update a ticket a year after someone opens it, odds are they aren't going to be responding soon with more information.
Also, it would be nice if there were some sort of a rating/grading on the tickets (Though I suppose this more of an issue for the people who make Trac...). Something to the effect of voting for a ticket, or a button someone can push to say "me too" without having to actually post to the ticket. If enough people vote, it might get nudged higher in priority.
Also, the tickets are listed by priority, but is it documented anywhere if 1 is the highest (as in most important) priority or 10?
Let me know if you need anything,
Jim