In my company we are now looking to start using an issue tracker. So far we've been using our task management system for issue tracking, and now we need something more advanced.
We found out that we have lots (1000s) of small issues that we can automatically generate, and we want to handle them based on a prioritized queue. Such small issues are usually content issues. Sometimes issues are outright errors that come up, and we want to prioritize these based on how critical the error is and how many users encountered it.
Another feature we are looking for is the ability to aggregate issues that are identical, based on some identification string we can generate. We would also like it to be possible to aggregate issues manually - i.e. mark two issues as duplicates in an easy way via the UI.
Finally, we are interested in the issue tracker to have a usable set of tools for managing issues manually - prioritizing, setting owners, generating reports, etc.
My question to you is: what issue tracker would you recommend we use?
If the question is still active, I am a developer # bontq.com. It is an issue tracking system with both web access and Win/Mac desktop apps, SVN, GIT integration, public API, prioritisation and a bunch of other useful features, which you have not mentioned in your question. You can create a free account there and try the system - maybe it is the one you are looking for.
If you will have any questions regarding the system (especially web interface and API) - you can ask me here. I will gladly help you.
PS: this response is not an advertisement - just trying to be helpful.
Related
Following this
question I want to ask one more clarification:
I have a project. An application that I host on two different machines with two different domains for two different clients.
I have two applications registered in the Google Analytics portal.
Can I add the both tags as explained in the linked question and will I get data for the different application depending on which server I have hosted the app or, no matter the client, if I log into the first system, i will be registered on the second as well?
I am asking as the project is already build and packaged when I do the differentiation which goes to which server and am looking for quicker solution.
A quicker solution would be using one GA property for tracking all your applications and having a user-level custom dimension there indicating which application it is.
An alternative, would be using N properties each for its own application and then use a rollup property: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6096167?hl=en
Your case doesn't sound like a case justifying using two properties at the same time on each of the apps. Please elaborate your case better if you still believe you have to use double tracking. Double tracking is a brutish solution and there are almost always more elegant solutions.
I am wanting to upgrade a site to universal analytics, which is a simple process. But it will be too time consuming to go though our content management system and pick out every single copy of the old code "_gaq.push..." etc (I will be doing my best here but we have a massive amount of legacy HTML in our content management software).
I am wondering if one of the older code snippets appears for our customers will it cause a javascript error in the browser or will universal analytics just ignore it. And if we get a javascript error on a page we will stop the site working on that page for users, as we use a lot of javascript on the site.
In phase 1 of the switch to universal analytics https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/upgrade/#phase-1 Google mentions that the older code will be valid for a period. Can we use a bit of both or do we have to stick to one or the other.
Here are a few helpful resources pertaining to the migration process, which will hopefully answer your questions.
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/universal-analytics/
http://www.swellpath.com/2013/11/migrating-upgrading-universal-analytics/
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1032400?hl=en
Generally speaking, it's better to have just one version of the code running so that your data is consistent. Given this opportunity, you should also consider using GTM which streamlines your analytics management process. It may take a slightly larger effort but it pays off in the end.
Hope this helps.
I am in the process of creating a payment gateway for drupal / wordpress / magento. I already have clients who want to use my plugin. Because this is a paid piece of work, I want to protect it from being used on other websites.
I have also seen that many vendors who sell themes, modules and plugins are required to put in the API key.
How can I do the same. What do I need on my server side. I know how to create modules, but I don't know to sell them securely and deliver regular updates.
If there is a book regarding this please let me know.
I'm not familiar with any books on the subject, but I'll tell you what I've seen as one of a founders of a component / plug-in marketplace that has many such plug-ins.
There are a few approaches -
Some plugins do not require an API key at all. Either the plug-in is only available after purchase, or has some limitations on the free downloadable version that encourages people to pay for the commercial version. This approach relies more on people's integrity and low motivation to try and hack the free version into the commercial one, especially if they are not technical users (as many CMS users are).
Set up a check against your server that happens periodically. You do not need a full blown API for this, just set up an endpoint on your server that the plug-in can send the API key and according to the response allows the use of the plug-in. You need to plan it so that this check doesn't happen every time the plug-in is run, especially if it a plug-in that runs on the public site and not only in the administration panel - it will seriously degrade the performance of the site using it and create unnecessary load on your server. Use some kind of time based checked - either absolutely or from the time of the last check.
In addition to or instead of doing an API check, some people will obfuscate their code to make it harder to modify and bypass the check. This often requires that the server has a module installed that can parse the obfuscated files - this requirement often makes it less viable for most people. You can see some examples of obfuscators in another question.
Personally, I lean more toward the first option, as someone determined enough will break whatever protection you put (people break much more complicated solutions in no time). This is one of the problems of delivering source-code instead of binaries (and those are broken just as easily by more experienced hackers). Let those who are willing pay, and the others just let them do what they want as you won't be able to create something truly secure anyway.
I'm working for a company where I develop systems purely for internal use. There are only a few developers but we use redmine for issue tracking & feature requests. However, the only people with access to the issue tracker are team leaders, everyone else is meant to feed their suggestions through their team leader.
The idea is that this will reduce developer workload and give management more control over the features being developed. The reality is that we get emails sent directly to us from people experiencing small bugs, or feature requests.
Is this a sane way to manage user feedback or a known bad practice? I've not seen any articles which discuss managing internal issue tracking, so thought I'd ask you.
You can allow your users to access Redmine and create them a special role where they can only create new issues with a new status then the project managers or the team leaders can priorize the issues and assign them to the right people.
It will imply that your users have to be trained to use the tool to create efficient reports and search before creating a new one. But if it's an internal project it will be "easier" because you can train everybody.
It sounds sane to me. If you have end-users giving you feedback then that's a good thing. I've no experience with redmine but if there's a learning-curve associated with it then end-users may be reluctant to bother giving feedback at all. Also, you may end up with defect targets such as 'it has to triaged with X days, and fixed by Y days'. By having such an informal feedback process you avoid this. Also, your team could take a somewhat Agile approach and write bugs/feature requests onto scorecards and stick them on a wall so everybody can see them, including managers - who get to see how end-users are really using your product, and choose to fix/implement them as your team sees fit, with the priority that you choose yourselves.
Of course, your source control system will have the history of all fixes and new features!
We're looking into implementing an issue tracker for our web agency. The problem is that most issue trackers seem to revolve around the assumption that an issue is a bug, whereas in a web agency environment, a lot of the issues (request, or whatever you want to call them) are about changes and additions to a current web site.
It also seems to me that a lot of issue trackers assume that you're working on one main software project, and uses that project as the focus of the tracker. A good issue tracker for a web agency would be one which puts each separate client and their issues at the heart of the system, making it easy for them to track and report issues.
Does anyone know of a good issue tracker for the web agency workflow? What are other people using?
In my experience, issue trackers are so closely coupled to the workflow of the organisation that what works in one place may be a complete misfit in another. That said, could basecamp work for you?
We are using Gemini very flexible with the ability to have workflow at the project level.
But where Gemini really helps us is the cross project views. You can view your work across all projects with really good fitering.
Have you had a look at fixx at all? Obviously, being the developer of fixx, I will want to plug it but I know from first-hand experience that a lot of our customers are web agencies who work in a service-oriented environment and need to track more than just "software development" projects.
With fixx, you can define custom issue types (for example "change request" or "Copy changes") and track work against that type.
Unfortunately, fixx still does suffer from the "project-centric" view but a lot of our customers work around this by defining a project per client/website. So, if you were doing web/maintenance on stackoverflow.com, you would have a project called "stackoverflow.com maintenance" and would assign all your users from that company to that specific project. From there, using notifications and filters, it would be very easy for clients to keep track of progress on their specific issues.
FogBugz – it's simple by default, but extensible; it's got an integrated wiki, charts, tags, and you can even tie it to your source-control system (and they also offer their own integrated source control system, Kiln, which is pretty amazing with FogBugz).
Are you using other applications to manage the rest of your business' operations?
I ask because WORKetc has great issue tracking software, and this software is combined with other aspects of business management which can simplify the management process. So not only could you manage all support inquiries and responses in one place, but also your projects, finances, and contacts. Most importantly, it would allow you to use one central contact base for your entire company, while allowing you to reference that contact information (as well as lead information) while working on support inquiries, projects, invoices, etc.
WORKetc's support system works around email integration and simple ticket system (as well as prioritizing) and directly integrates with projects, contacts, and other aspects of the system so that you can save time while responding and managing tickets.
I think especially for the use case of a web-agency, where it's not really about bugs, but mostly (visual) feedback and all of it happens on the web, a visual feedback tool might be the thing you're looking for. Most of these tools will create a screenshot of the webpage and include the given feedback on it.
Some of them also have some kind of dashboard where you can discuss further, or have integrations to other tools like Basecamp (and some them do both).
Here's an article from smashing magazine, which describes a lot of them, e.g.: TrackDuck, BugMuncher. Another great tool the article doesn't mention, maybe because the article is a bit dated, is Usersnap – this one even includes browser extensions.