[Mailman-Users] Using MailMan for issue/bug dialogue tracking

2007-03-29 Thread Simon Hoffe
Hi All,

*Intro*
I'm trying to come up with a best-fit and easy-to-use system to track 
issues/bugs.

There are plenty of good web-based trackers out there. BugZilla (the old 
stalwort), Mantis, Trac, FlySpray, etc, etc.

However, my employer produces made-to-order electronics and my division 
writes embedded C. When a bug report comes in from a customer, what 
usually follows is a lengthy email dialogue as we try and reproduce the 
bug, pull in 3rd parties, verify the fix on their side, etc.

I'd like to have that dialogue captured as part of the bug history, and 
I don't want to tell everyone that they're going to have to use some web 
interface when they all know and love their email and the Reply-All 
button.

One promising candidate for this functionality is Roundup - the bug 
tracker recently (Oct 06) adopted by the Python project, though I think 
it's still in Beta. (See http://psf.upfronthosting.co.za/roundup/meta/) 
Another which may support it is ZenTrack, but I still need to verify 
what functionality it offers.

Roundup doesn't quite have the polish and some of the nice-to-haves 
(like multiple modules/projects) found in more established tools like 
Trac or Mantis.

*So what I want to do:*
Use MailMan as a backend, and once a bug is registered, the Mailman 
managed address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] gets cc'ed on every email that 
relates to the bug. In the subject line there needs to be a [ID:] 
field, but the rest of the subject must be free to change. (even better, 
be able to cc [EMAIL PROTECTED])

Whoever wants to be in the loop on all bugs can just subscribe to the 
list. By visiting the web archive interface you can see exactly what's 
going on. And by including a link to a particular thread 
(automatically?) in the Trac/Mantis database you can link there directly.

*Where I need some advice:*
How does MailMan sort out threads. Does it use the whole subject line, 
and resolves tree depth from the number of Re:'s?
How easy/hard would it be to make the thread sorter sensitive only to an 
[ID:] tag in the subject?

Is the idea of [EMAIL PROTECTED] an easy-to-implement option?

I'm pretty sure that MailMan will allow anonymous/non-subscriber posts, 
but can I toss out all email which hasn't been correctly tagged.

Finally (and this is probably in the FAQ, so I'm being lazy by 
asking...) - what is the best mechanism of backing up a complete MailMan 
installation?

Many thanks,

Simon

--
Mailman-Users mailing list
Mailman-Users@python.org
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py
Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/
Unsubscribe: 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org

Security Policy: 
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=showamp;file=faq01.027.htp


Re: [Mailman-Users] Using MailMan for issue/bug dialogue tracking

2007-03-29 Thread Brad Knowles
At 11:51 AM +0200 3/29/07, Simon Hoffe wrote:

  One promising candidate for this functionality is Roundup - the bug
  tracker recently (Oct 06) adopted by the Python project, though I think
  it's still in Beta. (See http://psf.upfronthosting.co.za/roundup/meta/)

We're working on it.  I have some more changes to the mail system for 
python.org that need to be implemented before we can take the next 
step.

  *Where I need some advice:*
  How does MailMan sort out threads. Does it use the whole subject line,
  and resolves tree depth from the number of Re:'s?
  How easy/hard would it be to make the thread sorter sensitive only to an
  [ID:] tag in the subject?

Mailman uses the contents of the References: and In-Reply-To: 
headers, not the Subject: line, although it will do some trimming 
on the subject line to try to keep it more sane.

  Is the idea of [EMAIL PROTECTED] an easy-to-implement option?

Within Mailman?  No, not really.  At least, not so far as I know.

Why not just use a different topic for each bug?  That way people who 
want information on all bugs can subscribe to the list and not track 
specific topics, while others who want information on just that one 
bug can track that one topic.

  I'm pretty sure that MailMan will allow anonymous/non-subscriber posts,

Yup.  It's just a configuration option.

Of course, then you have to worry about everyone getting hit by spam 
which is addressed to the list.

  Finally (and this is probably in the FAQ, so I'm being lazy by
  asking...) - what is the best mechanism of backing up a complete MailMan
  installation?

Yup, that's in the FAQ.

-- 
Brad Knowles [EMAIL PROTECTED], Consultant  Author
LinkedIn Profile: http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu
Slides from Invited Talks: http://tinyurl.com/tj6q4
--
Mailman-Users mailing list
Mailman-Users@python.org
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users
Mailman FAQ: http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py
Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/
Unsubscribe: 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org

Security Policy: 
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=showamp;file=faq01.027.htp