Flyspray - The bug killer!

The Flyspray Manual ( http://www.flyspray.org/manual/ ) does not even hint of it, and as long as i am not logged in there's no indication anywhere in the interface that i would eventually get to do it after i manage to log-in.

In fact, i've come here to learn how to use your software, considering the fact that the site where it was deployed did not provide much help. And after i logged in into that site ( http://www.uzbl.org/bugs/ ) i still don't see any "add new task" option. That's IMO a discover-ability fail, and it originates in your own design: disabled features should not be hidden, lest users think you didn't bother to code such features. Also, you say i shouldn't report bugs against versions earlier than 0.9.9.7, but how do i know which version of Flyspray are they using?

This could be done by a textarea field (like comment text or task description) on the myprofile page and stored in a new field (of type text for instance) in the user table.

This allows the user to introduce himself to the other users.

Should be restrictive, for instance only simple text allowed, no html or tags.

On the user page

/index.php?do=user&area=users&id=*
or
/index.php?do=user&area=users&id=*&project=1
or
/index.php?do=user&area=users&id=*&switch=1 (project switch select)

an info could be shown how many votes a user has given.

Maybe show the tasks on mouse hover (:hover) if permission to view them exists.

Needs to be considered:

• Show count only for current project or all projects? (project param is optional on user page)
• counts of hidden, closed or restricted projects (user permission)
• How to handle votes of private tasks?
• Show votes of closed tasks too? (votes on closed tasks should don’t count for max votes per project)
• When personal “max votes per project” (open tasks) is active, this is of more value.

Thomasz wrote:
The other thing that I cannot find how to make the text to be visible in the whole column (as with the summary I get the ... at some point of the text).

The root of this is found in scripts/index.php in function tpl_draw_cell():

case 'summary':
            $value = tpl_tasklink($task, utf8_substr($task['item_summary'], 0, 55));
            if (utf8_strlen($task['item_summary']) > 55) {
                $value .= '...';
            }
            break;

We live in a world now, where the view port ranges from 320 pixel width mobile screens up to 4k+ wide tv screens, the amount of columns is configurable from minimal to all available fields of a task. We currently let the browser automatic decide how wide he renders each column depending on table content and available window size.

Well, that ellipsis problem can be handled at different levels:

• motivate the task creators to use short task summary if possible (e.g. show a hint/tooltip when typing the summary gets over a limit, in our case the hardcoded limit is 55. ). Short task topic/summaries are easier to read/scan for the users.
• replace the hard ellipsis by a pure css solution, that adapts to users browserwindow size/space in in the columns for summary
• drop the ellipsis thing complete, task summary always shown full length, table rows adapt in height automatically.

Possible CSS solution:

• text-overflow now works in all big browsers. For instance see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2108740/how-do-i-indicate-long-text-into-a-smaller-fixed-column-with-css
• Combined with :hover on the shortened summary the full summary can be shown without the list table starting to flicker/resize.

If a project has no versions defined yet and there are also no 'global' versions defined,
there is not need for displaying the version selects.

Same for categories. If no categories in project and no global categories then no need for displaying a cat select.

Maybe a tooltip/hint in the extended search form to inform the user that the fields were hidden for that reason.

need add option for can set default Severity and Priority of new creating tasks

Need add view of grouping in Task List by Category

“Markdown is a lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name.[6][7] Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor.” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown

Currently the task list columns are used, which are choosed by admin or project manager for the task list view.

We have no API yet for Flyspray.

But someone could write a simple php-file that can be called by a github.com auto notification, whenever:

• a commit on github.com for Flyspray/flyspray is made

Github.com provides the configuration of such notification for a possible target like

https://bugs.flyspray.org/api/github.php

or

https://bugs.flyspray.org/api/github.php?project=1

in the settings of a project.

What the file needs:

• import some of the existing Flyspray classes from includes/
• config or load the secrets that are provided by github.com in the setup for the automatic notification
• check that secrets and more for authentication and authorization of requests coming from github.com
• parse the messages for Flyspray identifiers like ' FS#1234 ' or 'fix  FS#1234 ' or 'related to  FS#1234 '
• take actions on the results of that message parsing like making adding comment or modifying a task status

splitted from FS#1697 as own task

Hello!

Today i was installed flyspray from git master and found some error.

Any user interface missing any fields to set parent task. Show parent field options was added in “fields when add/edit/view task” field at preferences page for project, but no affect.

Screenshots:

http://joxi.ru/vAWVOKGS9Y812W http://joxi.ru/D2P6dY7h0MnKr3 http://joxi.ru/1A5RGxwSVoM0rE

Flyspray version: Github master branch

Please support Central Authentication Service, thank you.

At several places it could be useful to let the user view available tags:

1. When editing a task a toggle popup could show a list of selectable and existing tags.

I found several nice vanilla-js-multiselect-with-autocompletion scripts, but none yet that still works at a basic level when javascript is turned off.

My plan is now:

• Keep the current basic input text field for input tags and show current assigned tags like exampletag1;exampletag2;exampletag3 separated by ‘;’ that is sent to the server when saving the task and server handles evaluation of that string (validation, duplicates, removed, added, creating new tags if allowed for current user)
• A CSS only toggle that shows available tags that can be assigned (works even with js turned off), similiar to other places within Flyspray like advanced search toggle.
• If js turned off, the user must type the tag - not as fancy, but at least works. (I thought also about using a html select with multiple=”multiple” attribute, but was not convinced due styling not possible in modern browsers without js)
• If js is enabled, more fancier stuff is possible:
  • The input text field is hidden by display:none and instead the styled tags are shown.
  • The current added tags also get a little x to remove a tag by clicking it. The content of the hidden input text field is updated to reflect the current editing status. (click eventlistener)
  • A generated text input field for typing with autocompletion list shown of matching availbale tags. An unknown tag is added to the list if user is allowed to create tags. Clicking a item in the autocompletion list adds the tag and resets the autocompletion input text field for the next autocompletion action.
  • The tags within the toggle list with all available tags get also a click event listener, so clicking it adds them to the hidden text input.
  • Not sure yet if an added tag should be removed from the all available tags list or just make an CSS indication that a tag is still added, currently I tend to keep the list untouched, just highlight used tags of the task.

• Optionally make the all available tags sortable by:
  • list_position (default)
  • alphabetic
  • global or project level
  • popularity (count of tasks using a tag (n + unnumbered private)), requires adding a data attribute.
  • group by detected prefix like shape:triangle shape:circle shape:rectangle could show a group of tags as: shape: triangle circle rectangle

1. Make the list of tags searchable for the advanced search. added with FS1.0-rc10 by just using search key words also for searching list_tags table.

Hello,

When i put a link in Discord for example, it detects “Flyspray, a Bug Tracking System written in PHP.” as title. How to change it ?

Edit by peterdd: adapted task title/summary to the root of the problem.

There was a question on the mailing list:

I have a suggestion, even though I don´t know if it´s possible to do it. But if it is, it would be great!
In the comments list of a given task, is it possible that the comments appear from the newest one to the oldest ones, and not as it is now, with the new ones coming at the end of the list? This is because I deal with long comments list for a given task, and it is becoming difficult to reach the last one, that is, the newest comment, because the order in the comments is on the top, the older ones. If this could be altered it would be great. Kind regards
Ana ...

Quick anwsers:

1. Users can use ‘End’-key and ‘Pos1’-key on their keyboard to scroll to bottom and top of page. (lame anwser I know)
2. Another quick anwser is to just reverse the comments array in the appropriate template themes/CleanFS/templates/details.tabs.comments.tpl :

Replace

<?php foreach($comments as $comment): ?>

with

<?php
$comments_latestfirst=array_reverse($comments);
foreach($comments_latestfirst as $comment): ?>

But the real problem I think is that the details page (and others too..) is not optimized for todays wide screens (landscape views). Laptops have FullHD or higher but the Flyspray users still have to scroll to get an overview of a task.

And for narrows views too (mobile phones, tablet portrait view)

The attached screenshot shows moving the task details tabs beside their task description if the display width is over 1200 css pixel. (and the reversed comments too ). Done with pure css media query:

E.g. add to a custom stylesheet file custom_detailswidescreen.css in folder themes/CleanFS/ :

@media only screen and (min-width: 1200px) and (orientation: landscape) {
.details .tab.active{
        display:inline-block;
}
 
.details .tab{
width:44%;
padding-left:0px;
/*margin-top:60px;*/
box-sizing:border-box;
}
 
.details .commenttext pre {
overflow:auto;
}
.details .comment_container .comment {
width:auto;
margin-left:30px;
display:block;
}
.details .comment_avatar {
position:absolute;
}
.details #comments .fa.fa-user{
font-size:30px !important;
}
 
#submenu li a{margin-left:0;}
 
.details #submenu{
display:inline-block;
position:absolute;
padding:1em 0 0;
margin-top:26px;
}
 
.details #content{
display:inline-block;
box-sizing:border-box;
vertical-align:top;
width:55%;
}
 
/* just a temporary fix: should be redone in theme.css with class instead ids*/
#comments, #related, #notify, #remind, #effort, #history {margin-top:72px;}
 
}

(Has still some problems with current 1.0-rc1 when the project selector wraps. Also tab labels wrap if not enough width available and tab content do not adapt.)

What do you think? How should the details page look on different display sizes? How can it improve the workflow of the user?

Problem: By replacing just the project_id of the closed task it is possible the task then has invalid field values within the target project.

Possible scenarios:

1. Ignore invalid values within the target project
   • Pro: Easy to do, an immidiatly revert back to the old project would “heal” the task properties.
   • Contra: may effect accuracy and reliability of other parts like searching, listing, statistic calculations
2. Silent change task field values to valid field values of the target project if necessary
   • Pro: relative easy to do
   • Contra: a bit loss of information, little side effects
3. allow user to modify the fields that must be changed so that every field of the task has valid values within the target project
   • Pro: accuracy
   • Contra: a bit loss of information(fallback to default values) if there are no similiar field values selectable within the project
4. allow user to modify the fields, fields or field select values that do not exists in target project will be automatically created.
   • Pro: accuracy
   • Contra: target project may be cluttered with too many fields/field values
5. ???

If someone with ‘edit comment’-permission wants to edit a comment, the edit comment form is shown on an extra page.

This is not optimal, because the editor cannot see task details or the other comments while modifying the comment.

Possible Solutions

It would be great to be able to configure a slack webhook that would post to a channel any task creation/deletion/modification.

The register spam by probably bots in 2016 is annoying.

I ticked the setting, that an admin must accept a new registration. It helps to reduce spam task, but now admin must decide if the registrations are ok or just spam bots.

Beside the need of antispam-plugins, the management of users can be improved:

• column sorting of user list, similiar to the tasklist
• filtering user list, similiar to the tasklist
• pagination of user list (25,50,100,200,all?)
• more columns like ‘last login’, ‘last activity/tasks/comments created/votes/edit’ that may help to decide what status or settings a user should have in future.
• show time zone setting and language setting of users implemented in userlist now

• mass accept/deny of a list of user registrations waiting for admin approval.

Maybe this is not an issue, but my problem is: upload images approximately 3000 px x 2000 px and this image appears larger than the monitor
is it possible that the image is automatically resized to 800 px x xxx px size

(reported by Ivan Cilic)

We have some private Tasks in our FS-bugtracker to hide them from normal reporters. But we also have some external beta-testers in a betatesters-group and they should be able to see (and check) the private tasks without giving them a project manager status. So it would be good, if there is a switch in the group option to give specific groups the right to see private tasks.

If i set up a custom css in the main FS settings the style doesn’t get applied to all nested projects. I have to set the css to all projects explicitly to get the stylings work on all project pages.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to first load the css set in the main dialog and after that load an additional css specified in the sub project? Then it would be possible to specify general stylings for all projects and project based stylings also.

Currently all attached files get renamed (like “screenshot331.png” → “attachments/14_72a4ca580abcdef69f60b1f”) and they could be downloaded only throught the php script (”/index.php?getfile=1234”) which requires that user must be logged in to view the file.
It is not very convenient when you need to show a file to some person who is on mobile phone at the moment or using not a work computer. Also sometimes you might need to share a file with anyone without having them to register at your bug tracker.

I suggest you to add a checkbox like “create a direct link” when uploading a file, which will save the file with original name and extension but adding some random generated prefix (like “screenshot331.png” → “attachments/14_72a4ca580abcdef69f60b1f.screenshot331.png”).

However this poses a high security risk so there should be a list of allowed file extensions (e.g. “jpg,png,txt,pdf,doc,zip”) - only these files could be saved with the original extension. This list should be accessible by the main administrator only, thus the safest option would be storing it inside the “flyspray.conf.php”.

So, there would be great option if we can set permission to users to see and post only in specific opened projects in bug tracker.

Idea is, that user has all right to all projects, but in some cases we want that user can see only projects which is allowed and also to publish new tasks to only allowed projects.

In that case tasks overiew is locked and user must be logged in to see opened tasks.