WebIssues 0.8.2 review

WebIssues is a system for tracking bugs and other information across the Internet with a fast and easy to use graphical client. Th

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 516K Developer: Michał Męciński

0

WebIssues is a system for tracking bugs and other information across the Internet with a fast and easy to use graphical client.

The client requires KDE version 3.4 or newer. The server requires PHP and MySQL. Both programs are licensed under the GNU General Public License.

Note that WebIssues is still in an early stage of development and a lot of work has to be done. See the Roadmap section for a list of features that will be implemented. The documentation is not complete and there is no user's manual yet. However the application is designed to be as simple as possible and the target audience of this system is mostly application developers, so I think it shouldn't be a problem for anyone to play with it.

Also note that WebIssues is not going to compete with more specialized bug tracking systems like Bugzilla. It won't be effective for large development teams and also cannot be used by regular application users to submit bugs. It's mainly aimed at small teams which don't need to set up an elaborate bug tracking system and in practice often don't use one. WebIssues is easy to deploy and customize and can be used almost instantly. It is also much more comfortable to use than a web-based interface common to most existing systems.

The purpose of this application is to store information in an organized and easy to access way. It is by no means limited to bug tracking, it can be used to store requirements, tasks, features or any other kind of information. It can also be used for discussion and sharing thoughts on various topics or even organizing documents and other files.

Requirements:
Client:
KDE version 3.4 or newer

Server:
An HTTP server supporting PHP version 4.3 or newer
MySQL database server version 4.0 or newer

Client Installation:
Unpack the source package and execute the typical sequence of commands:
./configure
make
make install

Server Installation:
Installing the server basically requires configuring a database, copying some files to a directory available for the HTTP server and running a setup script using a web browser.

See the detailed instructions in the INSTALL file included in the package.

What's New in This Release:
This release contains many functional and usability improvements of the WebIssues client application. Columns in the folder view can be customized and attribute values can be displayed directly in the list. Folder contents is cached for faster updating. The main window can be docked in the system tray. Password can be remembered and the application can automatically restore connection at startup or when restoring a session.