OSS Project Ben Miller
Version 1.0
10/06/00

What I use most:
Web Browsers, E-mail, Text Editors, Video Player, Image Viewers, FTP, Telnet, Audio Player, Mac formatted discs with Linux (Can it happen??), Instant Messenger, Jitterbug

Opinions on existing OSS:

I have had trouble when trying to use netscape mail. It seems to crash often when trying to use the address book. I also know that netscape uses more memory than microsoft's explorer. Mozilla may be the solution to this problem.

I am a frequent user of Jitterbug. I have thought of a few small features that I would like to add to make the software easier to use. I have not noticed a problem with functionality or realiability yet. However, I have read about some functionality problems from the author.

Which OSS Project:

Jitterbug

What I would like to add or change: add phone number in the summary field, refesh the page automatically every ___ minutes, if a particular user has something in their directory that is going to receive a follow-up allow the follow-up to be sent to their e-mail account along with still sending it to Jitterbug

Andrew Tridgell plans are: (I am not aware yet if these have already been completed)

1) convert JitterBug to a template based system. I did a template system for a web based medical practice management system for my brother and it worked really well. The idea is to separate the html content from the logic of handling the data. All the html will be in "template" files that reside in a .templates/ directory. Each template file will be part of a html page and will contain %VARIABLE% bits where data (and other html fragments!) is substituted. The JitterBug C code will then use an associative hash to substitute in before display.

The big advantage will be that JitterBug will become much more easily customizable. Users will be able to edit the html in the template directory without having to fiddle about with the C code. The C code will become a lot cleaner.

2) add arbitrary enumerated types. I want to be able to put the following in a /etc/jitterbug/ config file:

• attributes = Class(sw bug, doc bug, change request, support) \
• Priority(low, medium, high) \
• Severity(non-critical, serious, critical)

to create a "Class", "Priority" and "Severity" tag for every message with the specified possible values. These would then be searchable and would appear as select lists on messages and as bold text in the last line of the subject column of the message view (or, with templates, anywhere you like)

3) per directory customization. I want a "preferences" screen per directory that allows you to set things like:

• - what email address will replies from that directory be from?
• - should followups to that directory automatically move the message to another directory?
• - is the whole directory private?
• - the notification list for the directory
• - the description field for a directory

Version 2.0
10/11/00

Bug Tracking Software

• What other Open Source bug tracking programs are out there?
• Bugzilla

Features:
Status Writing Board - used for writing short notes about the bug
Keyword Field - stores keywords related to the problem
Target Mildstone - enumerates when different features are expected to be completed
Dependency - list what bugs depend on each other to find order of fix
Attachments - attach log files or otherr related pieces of info
Resolved - once a gub is fixed it is marked resolved


• GNATS (aka PRMS)

Features:
Enumerated - this field contains: Confidential, Severity, Priority, Class, State, Number
Text - this field contains: Submitter-Id, Originator, Synopsis, Category, Release, Responsible, Arrival-Date
Multitext - this field contains: Organization, Environment, Description, How-To-Repeat, Fix, Audit-Trail, Unformatted


• Debian Bug Tracking System

Features:
All manipulation of reports done by email
Developers do not need on-line web access or accounts on the host system
Each report has a separate email address for submission of additional information
WWW listings of bugs can be mirrored by email or HTTP
Core functions do not require CGI scripts


• Jitterbug

Features:
Very simple operation. No maintenance to do, just use it via the web
Built in mailer for answering bug reports
Built in ability to create/use/modify FAQ entries
Each user can edit (via the web) their own preferences for screen layout, colors etc
Guest and non-guest interface
Logs an audit trail for each message

Summary:
I would like to work on Jitterbug for a couple of reasons. First of all I think that it is a useful tool that is used by a number of people for bug tracking. It does not seem to have any less features than any of the other programs out there now. I would also like the experience with the code so that someone on our campus will have a little knowledge about what is happening in the backgroud. This will be useful for the college so that we can make the changes that we see fit. I think the next step is to figure out where the development process is right now.

Additional Info:

a) Age and history
JitterBug is a cgi-bin tool for problem reporting and tracking developed by Andrew Tridgell for the Samba Team. I have not been able to find out the age of this piece of software yet but I did read that the changes which are listed above in the previous version are from March of 1998.

b) Who is leading the project now
Samba is in charge of the development now. They have there own email address (jitter-bugs@samba.org) or there is a mailing list which is also publicly available.

c) A reasonable estimate for the number of users and developers
Here is a list of some of the users: Gnome, rsync, The GIMP, linux-patches, ProFTPD, Willows, Java Linux, WindowMaker, mod_ssl, GnuCash. I am sure that there are many other users like Earlham which the developers do not know about.