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Table of Contents

Whishlist Features of a new Issue Tracking System

Lists are in no particular order (yet). Once ideas are all listed we should group them by “must have”, “nice to have” and so on. Seems unlikely all of the items listed will be found in any one software and some items are completely subjective.

Technical

  • Anonymous reports without spam
    • Captcha maybe?
    • Having a (non-publicized) email address of submitter would be nice, to follow up and at least to know the reporter will get notified (ex. if more info is needed).
  • File/diff/image attachments
  • Email notifications
    • For individual bugs
    • For whole tracker category
  • Status field(s) (ex. fixed, rejected, deleted, etc.)
  • Ability to add own custom fields
  • Tags/keywords/labels (ie to make filtering/search easier)
  • Groups/categories
    • Not having two different trackers for bugs & features, just different categories
  • Integration with VCS/Git
    • Ability to auto-close bug through commit message (ex. “Fixes #12345”)
    • Ability to refer/link with commits (ex. showing what commit fixes the bug)
  • Advanced/powerful search option
  • Tie duplicates together or merge them into one item
  • Suggestion of “possible duplicates” (based on tags and/or smart algorithm) before user submits item
  • Markup or at least plain-text with clickable hyperlinks in bug description and comments
  • Extensible/Hackable (at least if self hosted on geany.org)
    • Written in popular language (ex. Python, PHP, Perl) we have some expertise in and extensible/common backend (ex. MySQL, PostgreSQL) for ease of export and hooking in scripts (ex. mail/irc/etc).
  • Have a template for guiding submitter what info to include (I think Google Projects does it). Like to prefill some titles in description like “steps to reproduce”, “expected result”, “actual result”, etc.
    • Or least a place to put instructions that is prominent when filling out reports.
  • Migration path/import from existing tracker would be nice

Non-Technical and/or Subjective

  • Fast (hosting and software efficiency)
  • User-friendly for both reporters and admins/devs
  • Visually appealing and modern
  • Open source (at least if self hosted on geany.org)
  • Easy searching with good algorithm

Trace: • Wish List Features of a New Issue Tracking System

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