Scarab as part of a bigger solution ? Some ideas ...
Hussayn Dabbous <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.java.scarab.devel |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Hi;
I have recently been asked about some Scarab enhancements.
In particular we are now evaluating/planning to setup an
integrated issue tracker/FAQ/Wiki ...
Well, there has been some discussion about making Scarab
embedable into other solutions. I am not sure about the project
status here. But i guess, i still know some details about
Scarab (although i haven't been active since over a year now ;-( )
Anyways... I have the oportunity to setup an internal Scarab project
within the next few months. Although i am aware of the fact, that
Scarab still needs some polishing ... (a new release is more than
needed to tell the world, Scarab is not dead). But the health status
of Scarab is not of major concern in the heads of my customer.
But they want to get some explicit features into the system. I believe,
that can be done with minor modifications of Scarab. So for now i try
to find a solution, which helps my customers and in parallel makes Scarab
more appealing in terms of usability and stability.
So the main use case i have in mind is as follows:
1.) Customer enters new issue
2.) Scarab checks for similar issue in its database
This already exists, but IMHO it needs dramatic
improvements here (not to be discussed now, this is
an isolated problem)
Scarab returns a linklist to possibly already fitting
"solutions" (see point 6 below for definition of "solution")
The link list contains short texts of the solutions.
click on a short text -> jump to solution.
3.) If no solution fits, Customer proceeds with the new issue
and gives detail information. Finally the issue is stored
with status "new" into the database (No derivations from
existing Scarab here)
4.) Issue is processed by developers as usual.
5.) If Issue is classified as "typical customer problem", it can be
marked as such (can be done with standard Scarab using a checkmark-field).
In addition a new (longtext-)field "solution" can be filled out by the
developer (or qa manager).
This new field (as i want it) is almoust doable with standard Scarab.
But it should be a Wiki-enabled text with all wiki formating
we support (radeox enabled field).
The solution field could be a simple long text field in first
approach, but it shall be possible to create "structured fields"
in a later stage. A structured field is basically a field,
which itself can host field attributes. I believe, this idea
has been discussed some time ago. I am not sure, if it has
been taken into development ...
6.) In addition a "solution" field shall be accessible through
a new user interface. It shall be possible to display
Only the solution field of an issue. My idea here is to provide
"customized views" to issues. Such that it will be possible to
enter a view, where only a subset of the issue fields is displayed.
Such views possibly could be connected to the permission system later.
But for now i would already be satisfied with beeing able to create
such "custom-views" and choose the view-type from a pulldown list.
Scarab could also be advised via request parameters to display an issue
in a specific view. So i would create a "solution" view which shows
me exactly the solution details of an issue, but not all other stuff,
which Customers might not be interested to see...
To make this perfect, a "customized view" should possibly be completely
free concerning layout. (well, there could be 2 levels of support: level
one is a clickable interface, where you can choose, which fields shall be
displayed and Scarab does the layout. IN addition, the admin could specify
a velocity-template which shall be used in connection with the view)
So i could create a very special customized view, which makes Scarab look
like a read only wiki ...
Then it is possible to maintain (edit) issues as usual, but automatically
"publish" relevant informations to the "solutions-view",
or whatever the local admins have choosen to provide.. Even multiple
views with different content are possible...
7.) To make the solution view even more valuable, it may be possible to
navigate to "related solutions" or to search within the solution
database. The latter is basically a search in the issue database but limitted
to the fields, which are displayed in the current view.
The related solutions could be an enhancement in the "related issues" segment
of Scarab. What about widening the definition of "related to" associations ?
e.g. it could be possible to relate an issue to a web content or to an attachment
of another issue or in my case an issue could be related to a "solution", which
here basically means: The relation definition not only gets a pointer to
the related issue, but also a hint for the preferred view (here the "solution" view
of the related issue). So, when navigating to that related item, it will automatically
be displayed in the anticipated view (here the solution view).
8.) Now to the FAQ ...
This could be basically something like "Show me multiple issues on one page"
When combined with the "customer view" idea, only a subset of the issue fields
would be displayed.
Now a FAQ typically is structured like this:
first a set of links (using short text fields as link description)
then one faq after the other
That sounds like a simple thing to implement.
needed feature summary:
- add "wiki enabled longtext fields"
- add "custom views"
- add enhanced relationships (to webcontent or attachments of other issues)
- improve search for "similar issues" at the enter new issue stage
So...
Any feedback available ?
Maybe parts of my ideas are already in development ?
Is there a better approach ready available ?
Does it make sense to put the described functionality into Scarab ?
thanks for you feedback
regards,
hussayn
--
Dr. Hussayn Dabbous
SAXESS Software Design GmbH
Neuenhöfer Allee 125
50935 Köln
tel.: +49 221 560 11 0
fax.: +49 221 560 11 20
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.saxess.de
http://www.saxess.com
http://www.saxess.org