DaveDevelopment::Dave Marshall

We recently started using Redmine as our issue tracking software and we’re very pleased with it. I trialled several alternatives, both open source and commercial, including Jira, FogBugz, Mantis and Trac, but decided on Redmine. Jira and FogBugz look like excellent products, but I don’t feel we would use the extra functionality that warrants the price tag. Mantis looks a bit dated and although it’s been a while, last time I tried to install and configure Trac, it was a bit of a nightmare.

First thing first, here are some of our requirements for an issue tracker:

• Multiple Projects
• Time tracking
• Notifications (email, rss, im etc.)
• Wiki
• SCM integration

Redmine does all of this and a little more, but we haven’t used the other features that much. It does what we want really well, so that’s good enough for us.

What I like

Editing issues in bulk is fantastic. We deploy our application fairly casually, and when we do we set all the issues that have been deployed as closed and assign them a version number. Highlight the issues, right click and set the version number.

The SCM integration does all we need it to. If we add Fixes #500 or Implements #500 to a commit message, issue 500 will be set to resolved and 100% complete and the revision number and commit message appears on the issue’s page. Alternatively, just putting Refs #500 will show the revision number and commit message in the page, without changing the status.

Issues themselves can have custom fields, but we don’t use them all that much. We do make lots of use of the descriptions and notes as they both take wiki markup, meaning we can enter rich text including source code highlighting and images, linking to changesets, wiki pages, target versions, source code and other issues. I like the ability to embed screenshots and call graphs in issues.

What I don’t like

Here’s a couple of things that bother me, if I shift my arse I might look into creating patches for the simple ones.

No API! It would be really nice to have an API and there’s one in the works, but it’s sounds like it’s a bit of a ballache changing fat controllers into fat models.

I often wish a few more items where ‘clickable’. For instance when viewing the issue list, I’d like to be able to click the Category name in one of the rows and see a list of issues for that category.

You can save filters on the issue list, which is ace, but it would be nice if you can ’save as new’. I often create lots of very similar queries and have to build up each one from scratch.

Deep Fried Bytes

As previously noted, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts recently, here’s my first review

Deep Fried Bytes is an audio talk show with a Southern flavor hosted by technologists and developers Keith Elder and Chris Woodruff. The show discusses a wide range of topics including application development, operating systems and technology in general. Anything is fair game if it plugs into the wall or takes a battery.

The first thing I’ll say about this podcast is that it’s fun! The goofy intro music and southern accents are a breath of fresh air, especially for me being over on this side of the pond.

Woody and Keith never seem short of questions to ask and usually keep their guests engaged, often making them work pretty hard to explain their points. They make a point asking their guests to back track a little, getting them to give their slant on an acronym or buzz word that they have used.

Considering I’m an open source advocate, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed all the .net topics that have come up. While Deep Fried Bytes wants to be a Technology Podcast, as Keith and Woody are both currently .net guys, lots of their discussions and guests are based around Microsoft technologies. I think of the 9 episodes so far, only episode 4 with Joe Stump of Digg fame, has not involved some sort of Microsoft employee or MVP. This may be enough to put some non-Microsoft fans off, but I’d advise against it. Like I said, the shows are very interesting, good fun and might even give someone like me a little insight on what it’s like on the Microsoft side of the fence.

Another thing worth mentioning, the podcasts usually have a sponsor, it currently plays for about 10 seconds part way through the cast, is fairly unobtrusive and isn’t annoying or aggravating.

Conclusion

Definitely worth a subscription, doubt you will be disappointed. 8/10