[whups] new to whups

[Chuck Hagenbuch]

Quoting Gary Weinreb <gweinreb@rocksolidsystems.com>:

> I've been messing around with it, modifying it as a Projects management
> app,, rather than a Bug tracking app.

I'd be curious about what kinds of things that you were changing.

> Some parts, such as the Query Builder, don't make any sense to me, are
> incomplete, or I've yet to discover their workings.

The Query Builder is for putting together complex searches that you can
save, edit, and re-run later. I seem to be talented at breaking it, but as
of my last commits, it was actually working quite well.

> Same with the Reports section.

Try it as of yesterday...

> Basically, you have the following data elements:
> 
> 1)     Modules - top level, I use this for Client Name.
> 2)     Type - I use this like a template for Project Type, as each Type
> has
> a set of:
> 2.1)  States - I think of this as the Stages of progress that a Project
> goes through...
> 2.2)  Priorities - I use this to indicate whether things are on track
> timewise, i.e. I use Priorities like Normal, Rush, Super-Rush, or more
> recently, I use Green (OK), Yellow (Caution), Orange (Warning), Red
> (Danger), Blue (Excellent).  (If you see where I'm thinking of going with
> this vis-a-vis Horde Categories, you're right on!)

This is all pretty accurate.

> 2.3)  Subjects - I don't use these, but you can set up key words which
> can apparently be queried against...

It's the summary. I hated not having a one-line tag for what each
bug/ticket/entry was.

> 2.4)  Responsible Users - For me, authenticating via
> Imp-CyrusIMAP-SASL-PAM-MySQL, these are horde_users who have  Identities
> set up through Imp.  There may be other ways to have responsible users,
> you can add any name you want in Whups, but the only users for whom the
> notification (see below) mechanism works, are those with Imp Identities. 
> I would like to rework this to include Internal Users (as is), and 
> External Users, for some notification events.

Yes, we need much better support for public users; we'll need this for
having Whups run bugs.horde.org.

> 3)     Versions - I use this to set up time oriented sets of Tickets
> (Projects).  i.e. I set up a version for each Project Cycle.

Yup. Also intended pretty specifically for horde uses, so that we can track
RELENG_1, RELENG_2, HEAD, etc. for each application inside the same Module.

> 4)     Tickets -  This is an Instance (in OOP parlance) of a Type.  I call
> each of these a Project, rather than a Ticket, and I use several Projects
> with the same Module (Client) and Version, to manage a set of Projects
> for a recurring creative process, such as a creative production process 
> which recurs on a weekly cycle and requires Audio Production tasks and 
> Graphics Production tasks, as well as Administrative Tasks.

Yup, I can see all that. Same thing more or less for bugs/tickets.

> Basically, one creates a Ticket (Project), and for each change of State,
> Assignment (to a User), Priority, or addition of a Comment, responsible
> Users are notified via email, and an Audit Trail is maintained.
> 
> Whups integrates with Hermes (time-tracking) in the following
> manner:  Hermes seems to use the whups_modules table as it's data source
> for what is called Client:Job.  The other data element in Hermes that
> could integrate with Whups is called Job Type, which seems like it should 
> be mapped to whups_types, but currently isn't.

There was a reason I didn't do this, and I don't remember what it was.
Brain? What brain?

> So, I'm looking for guidance/input/comments/collaboration on fleshing
> Whups out as a Project Management App. in a manner which I can share back 
> with the Horde Project.  It may be, as Chuck has indicated previously, 
> that Whups as a Project Module should be a separate module.  I don't know 
> the answer to that.  I know that I don't understand how to make even the
> simple changes I'm making to the interface elements (human readable 
> references to data elements, calling Tickets: "Projects", for instance) 
> work with the Internationalization mechanism in a reasonable manner.  It 
> seems that we would need multiple sets of translations.  I can imagine 
> that different industries use different terminology for aspects of their 
> work flow, and that the existing framework of Whups lends itself to a 
> variety of Process Management/Procedural Delegation type applications.  It 
> seems that to make it as flexible as possible, Admins would be able to 
> name what they want to call at least some of the data elements for their 
> implementation, i.e. Ticket-Project-Job-Process-Class-Session-Appointment.

That makes sense; I'm not sure if modifying the en_US translation would be
enough for you, but it's described here:
http://www.horde.org/faq/admin/config/index.php#c6

(or is that not quite the right entry - Eric?)

> I'd also like to have the ability to fine-tune what happens at various
> events, i.e. When a Project of Type ABC, goes from State 01 to State 02,
> Notification is sent to Internal Users Joe, Sue, and Mary, and External
> User Client_Tom; but when it goes from State 02 to State 03, only the
> Internal Users Joe and Sue are notified.

That sounds great; a workflow like that would take some work to develop, but
could be widely applicable if it was generic enough.

> Likewise, when a Project changes State, I'd like to automatically
> generate a certain set of Tasks (Nag integration), and request a specific 
> User assign them manually, or assign them based upon some algorithm.

Oooh. :)

> I'd like to have the State change when all of it's Tasks are Completed,
> or conversely, resist changing State UNTIL it's Tasks are all Complete.

Also oooh :)

> I'd greatly appreciate some guidance on this, and would be honored to
> contribute back to Horde.

I'd encourage you to keep discussing what you'd like done, and hopefully get
to the point of patches; we can get you CVS access to whups if you start
doing heavy work on it. The workflow stuff sounds especially exciting to me,
as you may have figured out.

-chuck

--
Charles Hagenbuch, <chuck@horde.org>
"People ask me all the time what it will be like living without otters."
 - Google, thanks to Harpers