Bugs Dashboard Announcements

Do It With PHP!

16 Apr 2011 06:46:54 GMT

Do It With PHP!

Version 3.4.5 will include the ability to create widgets using PHP. You can create a simple PHP page, such as the following:

<?php echo "<h1>Hello from the PHP test page</h1>" ?>

Then, create a widget entry that points to your php page, such as the following:

portlet41.title=PHP Widget
portlet41.package=com.wmpnj.bugz.widgets.PhpWidget
portlet41.method=getText
portlet41.stylesheet=phpwidget.css
portlet41.javascript=plainajax.js
portlet41.desc=Allows Ajax calls to PHP.
portlet41.call=
portlet41.restrictTo=
portlet41.parameters='http://bugsdashboard.com/phpTest.php'

You can reuse the above widget as many times as you wish by changing the title and url in the "parameters" property (the dwr.xml file will need to be updated with your new widget title (if configuring manually, use of the admin tool will do this for you).

The result of the above is the following in your dashboard.

You can use the above to test your configuration, then change the url to your own.

v3.4 Released - New Administration Suite

9 Sep 2009 06:38:35 GMT

v3.4 Released – New Administration Suite

Posted by Bill on September 8th, 2009

We are pleased to release Bugs Dashboard v3.4 with our new Administration Suite! All properties can now be edited in a web browser, defining portals is as simple as drag-and-drop, and portlets are defined once in a "Portlet Registry".

In addition to the introduction of an Administration Suite, v3.4 includes:

Added ability to extend the Reports menu.
Added ability to extend the "Manage Bugs" menu.
Organized the /classes directory through the use of sub-directories.
Updated the Side-by-side portlet to check for a null value before outputting headers.
Corrected an issue with the query for the "By Resolution" report.
Updated 3rd party software, e.g. jFreeChart, iText.
Updated the Wizard to use the new Admin menu structure and use a new navigation interface. Updated several of the options which can be set using the Wizard.
Added the ability to add Custom Menus to the menu bar.
Reorganized and updated the "About" menu items.
Added an "information" icon which when hovered over will display the description provided for each portlet, with a few exceptions, such as HelloWorld or External Links.
Corrected the SQL for Priorities and Severities of the Tag Cloud portlet to not include bugs which have been closed (i.e. RESOLVED).
Corrected the Scrum Sprint portlet to show the column headers properly.

Administration Suite

The Administration Suite now allows you to edit all the properties of Bugs Dashboard from a web browser. Although you may still tweak them by hand if you so desire, there is no need to use a text editor on the server any longer.

Configuring Dashboards

The Administration Suite now allows you to specify how you wish to see a dashboard simply by dragging-and-dropping objects into columns. You define the layouts (formerly styles) for the dashboards and then construct your dashboard of portlets graphically.

Portlet Registry

Dashboards no longer contain a list of the portlets defined for that dashboard with each of their attributes. There is now one listing, a registry, of portlets with their attributes. The dashboard then contains a simple list of which portlet will appear in which column at startup as defined when you configure your dashboards (see above).

Localization

We are also pleased to facilitate the localization of Bugs Dashboard for our foreign customers. All strings are now presented in a web browser allowing you to easily convert each string. The file is then saved in the proper Locale.

Installation Wizard

The installation wizard has also been updated to match the look-and-feel of the Administration Suite as well as capture additional properties at the time of install.

Preview of Version 3.4

3 Aug 2009 08:04:01 GMT

Preview of Version 3.4

Posted by Bill on August 2nd, 2009

We have had a lot of progress lately on the next version of Bugs Dashboard and wanted to share a preview of what's to come. Version 3.4 will include:

A new Administrative Toolset allowing configuration of all properties from a web browser
The ability to extend the "Manage Bugs" and "Reports" menus with your own reports
The ability to add additional menus to the menu bar for further integration capability
An updated Installation Wizard with more options which can be set at the time of installation

Administrative Toolset

The new Administrative Toolset will allow administrators to install, configure and update all properties of Bugs Dashboard from a web browser.

From the menus, an Administrator will be capable of configuring any of the property files, including those of the default portlets.

Updates to Installation Wizard

The Installation Wizard has undergone a redesign and additional properties have been made available at the time of install.

Additional properties have been added to the Installation Wizard to aid in the installation.

A few of the options have been reorganized to aid in the installation.

New Templates Available

18 Jul 2009 07:23:36 GMT

We're pleased to announce the availability of new templates with a greatly updated Portlet Development Guide. You now have fully commented and documented templates to help you create portlets that will display:

An HTML table of values such as the count of priorities by product
A bar chart
A pie chart
A time series chart
A portlet with images of thermometers summing up counts such as the number of bugs by assignee

A download with all templates and the Portlet Development Guide is available here.

Portlet Development Guide And Templates Now Available

12 Jul 2009 21:46:20 GMT

Extending Bugs Dasbhoard with your own portlets is now easier than ever! We're pleased to announce the availability of our Portlet Development Guide and three heavily commented templates. You can download them all in one zip file from here.

The Portlet Development Guide will walk you through the Anatomy Of A Portlet, explain the Lifecycle Of A Portlet, then provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to create your own portlet from the templates provided. Each template is heavily commented with instructions on what to change. Replace the logic with your own and you can publish a portlet easily.

Templates are provided for two displays; HTML tables and jFreeChart reports. Each Enterprise demonstration is pre-configured with a new Dashboard: Development Templates. These let you see the default behavior of the templates. Replace the logic in them with yours and preview your portlet before publishing!

You or your team can be extending the value of Bugs Dashboard to your organization quickly and easily. The templates and guide are provided for you, all you need to supply are your ideas!

Bugzilla v2.2.0 to 3.3.4 Demonstrations Available

5 Jun 2009 06:27:59 GMT

We are pleased to make available over NINETY Bugzilla demonstrations available to the public, one each for v2.2.0 to 3.3.4 connected to MySQL and PostgreSQL and v3.1.3 to v3.3.4 connected to Oracle. Many of these already have a Bugs Dashboard version configured to allow you to peruse the features of Bugs Dashboard against that particular version of Bugzilla.

We are working with our host to support the additional load of 90+ Bugs Dashboard demonstration versions on a server (or cluster), but many of the more recent versions are already wired. If you have a request for a specific version, please contact us.

v3.3.0 Released

5 Jun 2009 06:27:06 GMT

We're pleased to announce significant advancements in Bugs Dashboard, including the release of v3.3.0 of Bugs Dashboard. These include the following features and updates:

Bugzilla v3.3.x Compatibility
Oracle Database Compatibility
SiteMinder Integration

Bugzilla v3.3.x Compatibility

The Bugzilla team has made a significant change in the method by which passwords are created beginning with v3.3.1. The new method is much stronger than the previous and required changes on our part to match. While Bugzilla creates a "digest" using Perl, we create a digest using Java and then compare to that which is on file in Bugzilla. If there is an exact match, the user is "authorized" in Bugs Dashboard, but more importantly, we have the user's profile by which we can determine whether they are authorized in Bugzilla to manipulate priorities, severities, etc. through the use of groups which are then defined in the Bugs Dashboard properties.

We are very pleased with both the new security measures and the latest interface in Bugzilla v3.3.4! You may preview both the Bugzilla 3.3.4 and Bugs Dashboard 3.3.0 versions here.

Oracle Database Compatibility

Bugs Dashboard v3.3.0 now supports Bugzilla installations installed to an Oracle 10g database. Those using Oracle as the Bugzilla database will need to supply the JDBC driver (e.g. ojdbc14.jar) either to the Servlet container (e.g. Tomcat) or Bugs Dashboard (e.g. /bugs/WEB-INF/lib) from either their server or client installation. The updated Installation Guide and Wizard will walk you through the proper configuration. You may see Bugs Dashboard v3.3.0 working against an Oracle 10.2.1.0 database at the above preview link.

SiteMinder Integration

At the request of an existing customer, we updated Bugs Dashboard to include the abilityto specify the use of Computer Associates' SiteMinder as the source of authentication for user credentials vice the Bugzilla database. Configuring Bugs Dashboard to pick the user ID from the session object as updated by SiteMinder allows for single sign-on across the applications. The updated Installation Guide covers the configuration required for the use of SiteMinder.

The use of SiteMinder does not eliminate the need to configure the connection to the Bugzilla database. The only change SiteMinder introduces is that we lookup the user ID using that passed to us rather than constructing an encrypted password for comparision with the database.

Available For Trial Demonstrations Today

Bugs Dashboard v3.3.0 is available today for download or online demonstration!

New Support Center Available

21 Sep 2008 08:10:27 GMT

We are pleased to announce that we have licensed the Kayako Support Suite for use as the Bugs Dashboard ticketing system, knowledgebase and trouble shooting support center.

Over the next few weeks, we will be populating the Knowledgebase, Downloads and News sections. The suite includes tools which alert us when tickets are submitted, parse e-mails to support@bugsdashboard.com and sales@bugsdashboard.com inserting tickets alerting us and automatically responding to you with the ticket number, and a live support capability including not only chat, but voice-over-ip. We are very pleased with the capabilities of Kayako's support center and look forward to it helping us provide you with superior support!

New Pricing Structure Announced

21 Sep 2008 08:09:38 GMT

InfoStatus Corporation is pleased to announce the following change to the Bugs Dashboard pricing and options effective immediately:

Personal Edition License now $99.00

Professional Edition License now $499.00

Enterprise Edition License now $999.00

The Enterprise Edition will no longer include the full source code, however, the source code is available for an additional licensing fee. Please contact sales@bugsdashboard.com for additional information.

Version 3.2.4 Released

21 Sep 2008 08:05:42 GMT

We're pleased to announce the release of v3.2.4 which introduces the ability to assign bugs through the same easy drag-and-drop interface used for setting priorities and severities. If you need to reassign workload due to an emerging situation, an employee departure or to balance responsibilities, you can quickly see what the current workload is and easily "trim the sails".

You may see the new functionality in our online demonstrations or download your own evaluation copy

Version 3.2.3 Released

18 Aug 2008 06:29:11 GMT

We're pleased to announce version 3.2.3 which includes four new portlets:

Counts by Priority

Counts By Priority Portlet

The Counts By Priority portlet differs from the Top 5 Priorities by reporting on all priorities, not just the top five.
Counts by Severity

Counts By Severity Portlet

The Counts By Severity portlet provides a table of the number of bugs by severity for each product.
Counts by Status

Counts By Status

The Counts By Status portlet provides a table of the number of bugs by status for each product.
Side By Side Comparison

Side By Side Comparison

The attributes of any two bugs can be compared to one another with the differences appearing in red on the right.

The online demonstrations have been updated as have the downloads.

Version 3.2.2 Released

9 Aug 2008 06:54:58 GMT

Version 3.2.2 of the Bugs Dashboard is now available for evaluation and licensing! We are very pleased to bring printing and individual refresh capabilities to each of the portlets with this release. Demonstrations of its capabilities can be seen at Bugs Dashboard.

This update includes the following:

Changed the default name for the "Bugs" menu to "Reports"
Changed the menus from splitting Set Priorities and Set Severities to a tab named "Manage Bugs" with sub-menus for setting priorities and severities
Changed the default name for the "Portals" menu tab to "Dashboards" .
A new property has been introduced to the portals. The "params" property allows the passing of additional parameters such as DWRUtil values, navigator.appName, etc. This eliminates the need for static variables in the portlets. You can still use the old method of calling a JavaScript method first, but this is not preferred due to the need for static variables in that methodology.
New "print" and "individual refresh" buttons added to all appropriate portlets. Those portlets which have an option with a "Go' button do not have a refresh button as the "Go" button serves the same purpose. You may elect to include the Auto Refresh Portlet and allow it to refresh all portlets at a given time interval, but the individual refresh buttons are presented to provide you with the assurance that you are looking at the most up-to-date numbers in that portlet. The print option brings the portlet up in an individual window and immediately invokes the print dialog. You may wish to cancel the dialog and resize the window (or new tab) before you print as some portlets are set to 100% width and will look differently in a full size window. Additionally, using the print button is a bit like first using the individual refresh for that portlet followed by the print button. It's not possible to get the contents of the portlet directly from the web page (it can be too lengthy), so the print Servlet calls back to the class of the portlet and gets the current numbers - as if you had just refreshed the portlet.
Restructured the menus:
Changed "Developer" edition to "Personal" and added a "Professional" edition. The Personal edition offers an individual a dashboard and reporting on their assignments. The Professional edition offers a team or small organization a dashboard and reporting on all assignees. The Enterprise edition continues to be unlimited in dashboards and reporting.
Changed the Denied Reviews Portlet to report on all products if not restricted to an individual product by the portal definition or the Restrict Portal Portlet and changed the column from "Count" to "Date of Review".
Changed all reports and portlets to report on the real name of the user, not their login name.
Changed the Links Portlet:

Added graphics from FamFam Silk collection for use with Links Portlet added a background to the span for the link to display the graphic.
Added a links.css for styling the links
Changed the links_en_US.properties to include a property for the graphic for each link.

Changed the ScrumSprint Portlet to:
- sort by bug_id
- changed to the use of datediff() for date calculations
- Updated the property file to include a "db" property to specify which vendor is used (for proper date calculations).
Corrected the Big Reporters to report only those users who have submitted more than 500 entries.
Changed Top Ten Attachments column headers to more clearly reflect the contents.
Corrected the style for the Added Attachments portlet.
Changed the By Age and By Resolution reports by adding an option to show only the most recent entries for bugs or all entries, suppressed any repeating bug ID and age and adding the date of entry for the description.
Updated the By Priority report's sort order
Dropped the use of the Classic menu

Version 3.2.1 Released

8 Jul 2008 08:29:57 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of version 3.2.1 with the following updates:

Added an "Activity Graph" for graphing new, assigned and/or resolved bug activity.
Added the ability to define multiple portals per page.
The following have been changed to resize to 100% of the portlet width if the image size allows:
1. Responsibilities
2. Severities
3. Bug Burn Down (the remaining four require updating the property file)
4. Product Burn Down
5. Bar Chart
6. Pie Chart
Updated the Tag Cloud portlet:
1. Removed the anchor tag from the Tag Cloud
2. Updated the Tag Cloud css file to stop tags from overlapping.
3. Added the count per tag in parentheses to each tag
Updated the Old Bugs report:
1. Cleaned up the "Display issues" text to use only 1 line
2. Added a select to BugsInfo to get the list of bug_status rows
3. Added a dropdown to allow the user to select the status to be reported on; all or one specific status.
4. Added a "Printer Friendly" hyperlink to redisplay the page with no heading or selection criteria. Requires the use of the browser's back button after done printing.
Updated the Dynamic Drive tabbed menus:
1. Changed "Old Bugs" to "Bugs" with a dropdown for Dynamic Drive menus
2. Changed "Old Bugs" in the dropdown to "By Age"
3. Added a "By Priority" to the dropdown
4. Added a "By Severity" to the dropdown
5. Requires updated strings_en_US.properties file
New Reports (with Printer Friendly option; requires new strings property file)
1. Added a report of bugs by priority and status
2. Added a report of bugs by severity and status
3. Added a report of bugs by resolution
4. Added a "My Bugs" report of those bugs assigned to the person logged in

Change of Face

4 Jul 2008 19:14:31 GMT

Bugs Dashboard will be changing in the next few days and not in feature set, but in sales and marketing. Some of the changes we will be introducing include:

A new distributor - InfoStatus Corporation (ISC) replaces Little Cayman Labs, Inc. We are excited to be with ISC!
A new pricing structure - effective with the change to ISC, the price for Bugs Dashboard has changed. You will find our new pricing in the e-store on our website.
Reseller and Independent Contractor agreements will be available for those who wish to join us in implementing Bugs Dashboard for process improvement in software development at organizations big and small.
A two-day Quick Start will be available shortly to aid new customers with the installation, configuration and training in Bugs Dashboard to get them up-and-running fast. The Quick Start will be available on site or virtually through GoToMeeting and audio conferencing.

We will have further announcements as the changes occur during this exciting time of growth!

Individual Workload Portlet Released

15 Jun 2008 08:52:59 GMT

We are pleased to announce the addition of another portlet to the Community Portlets - the Individual Workload portlet. This portlet presents the workload of each user for all products or the product to which the portal is restricted. The portlet presents both the total number of open issues being worked and the percentage of the total each person is working on. The portlet presents the workload in three views, available from a select list; bar chart, pie chart and HTML table.

The bar chart will show the total bugs assigned to an individual via the bar and the percentage of the total the person is working in the label.

The pie chart view presents both the count and the percentage in the label.

The HTML table view presents the numbers for each user in alphabetical order.

This portlet is an excellent example of how to create a portlet which returns the visualization of the data in any one of a number of different options. It uses JFreeChart for the bar and pie charts and a URL connection to return the HTML table from the same helper Servlet.

Auto Refresh Portlet Released

15 Jun 2008 01:47:55 GMT

We are pleased to announce the addition of a new portlet to the Community Portlets - the Auto Refresh portlet. This portlet allows you to specify a period of time after which ALL portlets on that portal will be refreshed.

The portlet will display the countdown in the window status bar. (Note: if you have too many extensions in FireFox, the status may not display).

This portlet may help those who wish to configure a portal and then project that or use a large monitor where team members can easily see it. The portlet will keep the information up-to-date without further intervention.

Please see the notes in the readme included with the portlet for further information on the use of this portlet.

Version 3.2 Released

14 Jun 2008 07:42:23 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of version 3.2 and thank all those who assisted us during the beta period.

Version 3.2 provides the following:

Introduced the "Wizard" to provide the ability to edit the setup and configuration files from the browser in orderly steps.
Introduced the Severity Counts portlet displaying bug counts by severity in thermometer graphics.
Introduced the login and logoff features using the Bugzilla profiles table for the login validation.
Modified the behavior of the Set Priorities and Set Severities features to allow only those users authorized within Bugzilla to manipulate the priorities and/or severities. This is controlled through a new set of properties which replaces the "loginName". By specifying the name of a valid group in Bugzilla to which members who you are authorizing to edit priorities and severities belong and the name of any product or all products (designated with an asterick, e.g. *), the Bugs Dashboard will now restrict the ability to update priorities and/or severities to only members of that group which you specify for a given product. If you wish, you may use an asterik for both product and group to indicate all products may be edited by any team member.
Cleaned up the various menu styles to present the logo and header information more cleanly.
Broke the About page into seperate components when any Dynamic Drive menu option is selected. The About page will continue to show all components when the Classic menu option is specified.
Changed the default menu from Classic to Dyanmic Drive's SlidingDoors.
Added the UsersGuide.pdf to a docs directory and linked that to a new Help menu for any use of the dropdown menus. Added links to the How-To articles and Frequently Asked Questions from the Help menu.
Removed the ability to select all products and/or severities in the Set Priorites and Set Severities pages respectively. This is in keeping with the assignment of groups of one or more individuals with the authority to address particular products.
Changed the Priorities Counts (Thermometer display) from displaying five thermometers based on the properties passed in to displaying one thermometer for each priority regardless of the number of active priorities on file.
The web service feature has been updated such that it no longer attempts to load any html, including any required JavaScript or style sheet. Therefore, if you intend to use a portlet from another application, you must load the Direct Web Remoting (dwr) engine, any required javascript and any required style sheet in the header of that application. You can load these from the deployed directory of the Bugs Dashboard (i.e. /bugs) assuming that you have not locked those directories down (i.e. used htaccess files to prevent access from another source). Additionally, the web service feature will now attempt to write the results of any portlet back to an element whose id matches that of the portlet being called. For example, if you wish to display the latest issues opened from another source, you would call the Issue portlet, using a div or span wrapper in your html whose id is "Issue" (we will have a separate post on this).
The authentication servlet will no longer respond to an HTTP GET by attempting to log someone in with the values passed in the URL. This has been done as one means of preventing SQL injection attacks. Any attempt to use a GET method will now result in a warning dialog.
The images for the error, information and warning dialogs have been added back to the images directory.
The portlets_en_US.properties file which holds the information necessary for the web services to properly display and invoke portlets has been updated with the latest portlets as well as the descriptions for all portlets offered.

Demos Made Easy

3 Jun 2008 04:36:28 GMT

We are pleased to offer you the ability to evaluate the Bugs Dashboard using your own database from our servers. To do so requires minimal effort on your part:

Send us an e-mail request
Please state the company, or organization abbreviation in your e-mail. The purpose of this is to allow us to install a copy of the Bugs Dashboard with a URL to that abbreviation. For example: WMPNJ Software would be installed to /bugs_wmpnj
Open the appropriate port for your database.
The port must be open for the Bugs Dashboard to communicate from our server to your database. In the email you will receive from us (see below), we will provide the command necessary to allow requests only from our server to your database. (This assumes you have not issued any other command that would open your database to requests from outside your network.)

We will install a two-week evaluation copy of the Bugs Dashboard to our servers configured to a URL as close to your abbreviation as we can. We will then notify you of the availability of your private demonstration. Included in our e-mail will be:

The MySQL command you need to execute if you are using MySQL to allow requests from our server to hit your database as well as the PostgreSQL modification you need to make should you use PostgreSQL.
The URL of the installation for your private demonstration.

Once installed, you may walk through the Wizard at the location we provide you and establish your properties. Thereafter, you login to your database from our server; no muss, no fuss!

How-to Use The Web Services Feature

1 Jun 2008 22:11:10 GMT

The Bugs Dashboard offers a feature known as "the web service". In the truest sense of Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT), this is not a "pure" web service. However, it is an easy-to-use methodology of allowing you to access portlets from outside the Bugs Dashboard via the web. We have recently implemented the use of the web services ourselves through the "Issue Dashboard" now available on our website. Selecting "Issue Dashboard" from the Support menu will present you with a few of the portlets from a Bugs Dashboard implementation on our host called from the php pages of our WordPress site.

How-to Setup the WordPress PHP page

We use the WPREMIX theme for our WordPress site and we cannot share the source code of the individual pages. What we can show is our own code.

Including Appropriate Files In The Header

The first order of business was to include all the necessary JavaScript, CSS and third-party files in the header - a separate file from the body of the page. In the header.php, we added the following block of code (note: we're able to include this code in the WPREMIX page thanks to the ExecPHP 4.7 plugin from Bluesome and we're able to display it with appropriate highlights for the syntax thanks to the Code Highlighter Plugin from IdeA thinKING):

if (is_page('bugs-dashboard-portal'))
{
echo '
 
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/javascript/prototype.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:0--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/javascript/effects.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:1--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/javascript/builder.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:2--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/javascript/dragdrop.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:3--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/engine.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:4--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/util.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:5--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/interface/Severity.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:6--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/interface/Priority.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:7--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/interface/Issue.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:8--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/interface/BarChart.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:9--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/dwr/interface/PieChart.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:10--></script>
 
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/javascript/barchart.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:11--></script>
<script src="http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/javascript/piechart.js" type="text/javascript"><!--mce:12--></script>
';
}

Note the use of the "base" tag to set the base href to the /bugs home. This is necessary when using the Bar Chart and Pie Chart as we are. It is also necessary if you wish to include any portlet using the thermometer graphic, etc. The reason is that some portlets use a relative URL to fetch a JFreeChart image. As the page itself is being executed from a /wp path, it is necessary to set the base to the /bugs path for these portlets to appear correctly. This can have an affect on your WordPress (or other application) page if you intend to use relative URL's elsewhere on the same page.

Configuring The Body Of The Page

Within the page that we chose to use (see the Issue Dashboard), we inserted the following code within a php block at the appropriate place within the WPREMIX tags:

echo '
<div style="width: 98%;">
<h2>Bugs Dashboard New Issues</h2>
 
<span id="Issue">';
$remote = fopen("http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/webservice?pcWhich=Issue", "r");
fpassthru($remote);
echo '</span></div>
 
';
 
echo '
<div style="width: 98%;">
<h2>Bugs Dashboard Priorities</h2>
 
<span id="Priority">';
$remote = fopen("http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/webservice?pcWhich=Priority", "r");
fpassthru($remote);
echo '</span></div>
 
';
 
echo '
<div style="width: 98%;">
<h2>Bugs Dashboard Severities</h2>
 
<span id="Severity">';
$remote = fopen("http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/webservice?pcWhich=Severity", "r");
fpassthru($remote);
echo '</span></div>
 
';
 
echo '
<div style="width: 98%;">
<h2>Bugs Dashboard</h2>
 
<span id="PieChart">';
$remote = fopen("http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/webservice?pcWhich=PieChart", "r");
fpassthru($remote);
echo '</span></div>
 
';
 
echo '
<div style="width: 98%;">
<h2>Bugs Dashboard</h2>
 
<span id="BarChart">';
$remote = fopen("http://bugsdashboard.com/bugs/webservice?pcWhich=BarChart", "r");
fpassthru($remote);
echo '</span></div>
 
';

Note that this method requires that your server hosting the PHP execution have fopen enabled. There are other methodologies that might be implemented if you are unable to use this.

Same Origin Policy

When using the fopen() method above, it was necessary to ensure that we used the same domain, port and protocol to fetch the portlet. Not doing so results in the dreaded: Permission denied to call method XMLHttpRequest.open error. If you are not familiar with the Same Origin Policy, check out these resources:
Joomla Knowledgebase
Wikipedia
Note that there are ways around this limitation (e.g. JSON or a proxy server), but that is beyond the scope and intent of this document.

ElementId

Note in the second code snippet above that we wrap the fopen() method with a span tag. The span tag has an important id - one that matches the name of the portlet we are loading in that span. This is necessary because the webservice in Bugs Dashboard uses the getElementById to write the string returned by the portlet to the innerHTML of that element:

function setPriority()
{
  dwr.util.setEscapeHtml(false);
  Priority.getText("","","",function(data) {document.getElementById("Priority").innerHTML=data;} )
}

The above method of returning the data using the getElementById is new to version 3.2rc2. You may find the notes and download link at our post announcing v3.2rc2.

Online Issue Tracking Now Available

1 Jun 2008 22:09:57 GMT

We have installed Bugzilla 3.0.4 on our LunarPages host and have made it available for tracking issues in the Bugs Dashboard. If you have an enhancement request, a bug to report in the Bugs Dashboard or a community portlet or wish to comment or vote on an open issue, you will find a new link under the Support menu - Issue Tracking. This will open to a new tab or window (depending on your browser preferences) with Bugzilla 3.0.4. You will be required to register if you wish to vote, comment or enter issues.

We have also added a link in the Support menu for "Issue Dashboard". This will display a few of the portlets called via the web service to display counts and facts from the Bugzilla 3.0.4 database.

Version 3.2 Release Candidate 2 Available

1 Jun 2008 22:08:47 GMT

We are pleased to announce v3.2rc2 is available for download (user name is beta and password is thanks4yourhelp). This version includes the following updates:

Webservice Updates
The web service feature has been updated such that it no longer attempts to load any html, including any required JavaScript or style sheet. Therefore, if you intend to use a portlet from another application, you must load the Direct Web Remoting (dwr) engine, any required javascript and any required style sheet in the header of that application. You can load these from the deployed directory of the Bugs Dashboard (i.e. /bugs) assuming that you have not locked those directories down (i.e. used htaccess files to prevent access from another source). Additionally, the web service feature will now attempt to write the results of any portlet back to an element whose id matches that of the portlet being called. For example, if you wish to display the latest issues opened from another source, you would call the Issue portlet, using a div or span wrapper in your html whose id is "Issue" (we will have a separate post on this).
Authentication
The authentication servlet will no longer respond to an HTTP GET by attempting to log someone in with the values passed in the URL. This has been done as one means of preventing SQL injection attacks. Any attempt to use a GET method will now result in a warning dialog.
Missing images re-added
The images for the error, information and warning dialogs have been added back to the images directory.
Portlets property file updated
The portlets_en_US.properties file which holds the information necessary for the web services to properly display and invoke portlets has been updated with the latest portlets as well as the descriptions for all portlets offered.

Thank you to all who have assisted us with testing version 3.2 release candidate 1!

Next Up...version 3.3

27 May 2008 04:28:26 GMT

Yes, we just announced the release of version 3.2’s first release candidate. You might expect that we are totally consumed with the release, but the fact is, the development is done and we’re fixing small things as they pop up so we are focused on the next significant release - version 3.3.

There are three significant improvements we are working on at this time:

Portal Wizard
We are working to bring the same ease that the Wizard offers for configuration of the application to a Portal Wizard that will allow you to configure the portals from the browser.

Multiple Portals Per Page
An update from Xilinus provides the ability to define multiple portals per page. This could allow you to define a 20/80 over top a full-width (100%) portal, for example.

Oracle (in anticipation of Bugzilla 3.20)
We know the use of Oracle is forthcoming and we are working to ensure that the application and portlets work within an Oracle installation.

If you have other ideas that you would like to see in a future version, please leave a comment!

Version 3.2rc1 Released

27 May 2008 03:57:09 GMT

We are very pleased to introduce the first release candidate for version 3.2! It is now available for download. We are very excited about “the Wizard” as it alleviates the need to manually edit many of the configuration files. Changes in version 3.2 include:

The “Wizard” provides the ability to edit the setup and configuration files from the browser in orderly steps.
The Severity Counts portlet displays bug counts by severity in thermometer graphics.
The login and logoff features use the Bugzilla profiles table for the login validation.
Modified the behavior of the Set Priorities and Set Severities features to allow only those users authorized within Bugzilla to manipulate the priorities and/or severities. This is controlled through a new set of properties which replaces the “loginName”. By specifying the name of a valid group in Bugzilla to which members who you are authorizing to edit priorities and severities belong and the name of any product or all products (designated with an asterick, e.g. *), the Bugs Dashboard will now restrict the ability to update priorities and/or severities to only members of that group which you specify for a given product. If you wish, you may use an asterik for both product and group to indicate all products may be edited by any team member.
Cleaned up the various menu styles to present the logo and header information more cleanly.
Broke the About page into seperate components when any Dynamic Drive menu option is selected. The About page will continue to show all components when the Classic menu option is specified.
Changed the default menu from Classic to Dyanmic Drive’s SlidingDoors.
Added the UsersGuide.pdf to a docs directory and linked that to a new Help menu for any use of the dropdown menus. Added links to the How-To articles and Frequently Asked Questions from the Help menu.
Removed the ability to select all products and/or severities in the Set Priorites and Set Severities pages respectively. This is in keeping with the assignment of groups of one or more individuals with the authority to address particular products.
Changed the Priorities Counts (Thermometer display) from displaying five thermometers based on the properties passed in to displaying one thermometer for each priority regardless of the number of active priorities on file.

This version expires 15 June 2008.

Additionally, we have updated all v3 demonstrations to use v3.2rc1. Please follow the login instructions as all demonstrations will require you to login.

3D Bar And Pie Chart Community Portlets Released

25 May 2008 04:24:55 GMT

Two new portlets have been added to the Community Portlets page; the Bar Chart and Pie Chart Portlets.

The Bar Chart Portlet

The Bar Chart Portlet provides a 3D image of the number of priorities or severities on file. If the portlet is restricted to a single product, it will report the counts for the components within that product.

If the portlet is not restricted to a single product, it will report on counts for all products.

The portlet can also report on the number of severities.

The Pie Chart Portlet

The Pie Chart Portlet provides a 3D image of the number of priorities or severities on file. If the portlet is restricted to a single product, it will report the counts for the components within the product.

If the portlet is not restricted to a single product, it will report on all products.

The Pie Chart Portlet can also report on Severities.

Severity Counts Portlet Included In Version 3.2b3

24 May 2008 07:10:43 GMT

A new portlet has been created and is included in version 3.2b3; Severity Counts. Like the display of Priority Counts using the thermometer graphic, Severity Counts will produce a thermometer graphic with the count of bugs in each severity.

The Severity Counts portlet is included within the application and thus not available as a separate download.

Next Up....The Wizard

18 May 2008 04:59:53 GMT

We’ve almost completed the feature set for v3.2 and will be releasing another beta round shortly. The third beta round will introduce the Wizard, a step-by-step web interface for configuring all the properties in the Bugs Dashboard. Borrowing from another of our products, the Wizard interface guides you through the process of configuring the Bugs Dashboard to work with your installation of Bugzilla in five easy steps. Using screen shots from our latest sprint, you can see four data entry steps and a confirmation.

Step 1: Defining Your Installation of Bugzilla

The first step involves the properties related to Bugzilla itself, such as what version you have installed.

Step 2: Database Connection

In step 2, you define the properties that allow the Bugs Dashboard to connect to Bugzilla.

Step 3: Bug Select Criteria

The third step is probably best defined as the select criteria that Bugs Dashboard will use when fetching details from Bugzilla and displaying them in Bugs Dashboard.

Step 4: Bugs Dashboard Defaults

The fourth step is to define the defaults used by the pages within the Bugs Dashboard.

Step 5: Confirmation

The fifth step is a simple confirmation before the property files are written by the Wizard.

The Wizard will write out the property files just as if you had opened them with a text editor and edited each individually. You may run the Wizard more than once since it writes out all property files each time. However, to run the Wizard, you will need the proper permissions as the form is protected by BASIC Authentication. Version 3.2b3 will detail how to setup the proper permissions.

Version 3.2b3 is expected to be the last beta release with new features. We’ll begin issuing release candidates thereafter as we address any outstanding bugs.

Product Burn Down Chart Portlet

17 May 2008 08:52:49 GMT

A new portlet has been added to the list of available community portlets: the Product Burn Down Chart Portlet. This portlet was constructed to provide a Scrum like “burndown” chart for an entire project.

The portlet creates a “time series” of events for each bug of the selected product by selecting from the bugs_activity table for events that set the estimated_time and then any work_time. Note: It is possible that the number of bugs on file is greater than a the chart might easily handle. You may wish to modify the source code to show only open bugs.

This portlet is provided to provide an example of how to create a time series chart. By changing the select statements, you could easily create a chart showing other events from bugs_activity by using the appropriate fielddefs events.

v3.2b2 Released

17 May 2008 08:38:41 GMT

Version 3.2b2 is now available for download. Included in this version are:

The community portlets have been updated to work with version 3.2 and are included in the download.
The community portlets have been updated to display a message should there be no bugs matching their selection criteria.
The latest community portlet, Product Burn Down Chart, has been included with this version.
The view-only version will no longer display the comments or submit button.
The Bug Burn Down Chart was fixed to stop the display of an error upon load.

This version expires 15 June 2008.

Additionally, we have updated all v3 demonstrations to use v3.2b2. Please follow the login instructions as all demonstrations will require you to login.

Version 3.2 Beta Program

12 May 2008 06:49:10 GMT

Using Bugzilla To Determine Authority

Version 3.2 introduces individual user authentication and access. It uses the Bugzilla profiles table along with the user_group_map to authenticate you and determine your authority to set priorities and severities. You do not have to setup user accounts in the Bugs Dashboard. You must, however, designate a group in Bugzilla whose members will have the authority to set priorities and severities.

During the first beta program, a single group will be used to manage the access to the Set Priorities and Set Severities. We will evaluate the use of an array of products and groups based on participant’s feedback for a possible future update.

Once your group is added, edit the users you wish to grant the privilege to and update their profile in Bugzilla.

After adding the group in Bugzilla, you must update your sql_queries property file. A new property, groupName, replaces the old loginName property.

After matching your Bugs Dashboard property to your Bugzilla group name, you’re set to login to the Bugs Dashboard. This new feature of version 3.2 accepts your username and password and matches them to the Bugzilla database.

After successfully authenticating with your Bugzilla credentials, the Bugs Dashboard will either present the Priorities and Severities as a view-only static page or allow you to manage (update) the bugs if you are a member of the group set in the property file.

Other Changes In Version 3.2

The following changes have also been made in version 3.2:

Modified the behavior of the Set Priorities and Set Severities features to allow only those users authorized within Bugzilla to manipulate the priorities and/or severities. This is controlled through a new property which replaces the “loginName” property: “groupName”. By specifying the name of a valid group to which members who you are authorizing to edit priorities and severities, the Bugs Dashboard will now restrict the ability to only members of that group.
Cleaned up the various menu styles to present the logo and header information more cleanly.
Broke the About page into seperate components when any Dynamic Drive menu option is selected. The About page will continue to show all components when the Classic menu option is specified.
Changed the default menu from Classic to Dyanmic Drive’s SlidingDoors

How To Participate

Our interest now is to find partners who have real-world scenarios with which to examine version 3.2 and attempt to answer various questions such as:

What is the best method of restricting access to the manipulation of priorities and severities? Would it be a single group (such as v3.2b1) or do we need multiple groups, one for each project?

What is the best method of individual developer access? Currently, developers can see all new issues, past issues, etc. This is in keeping with the goal of the Bugs Dashboard to provide open communication of where projects are. Should that goal be restated to where the individual developer is now that we have user logins?
What is the best manner in which to ensure that portlets honor the user who is logged in?

If you would like to test version 3.2b1, please complete the following information. As per our terms of service, we will not disclose your information to a third-party except under those terms. We will work diligently to protect your information. (Please see our website to sign up!)

Version 3.1 Released - New Menu Options!

21 Apr 2008 03:40:15 GMT

We are pleased to announce version 3.1 which introduces new CSS menus from Dynamic Drive and a few fixes (see below).

You may now specify a property designating one of the following for your menus:

Sliding Doors

Blue Tabs

Dynamic Drive Color Tabs

Glow Tabs

Half Moon Tabs

Fixes in Version 3.1

The following fixes have also been included in version 3.1:

Corrected the spelling of PortalE.css
Removed all unused widget_portal_ definitions from the page and portal css files
Changed all portals to not exceed 98% total width to prevent IE7 from wrapping the third column

All evaluation downloads and demonstration pages have been updated to version 3.1.

Enjoy!

Note For Safari Users

21 Apr 2008 02:42:13 GMT

During our work on version 3.1, we found an issue with the presentation of the menus under Safari on a Windows XP installation; namely that the menus were not appearing. This issue is with the third-party CSS menu used by Bugs Dashboard as its exclusive menu option up until version 3.1. With the new version, we have introduced more CSS menu options which appear to work well across Firefox, IE7, and Safari. If you are using Safari and experiencing any issues with the menus, please download v3.1 and follow the “upgrade” instructions in the README file.

Enterprise Editions Now Include Full Source Code

12 Apr 2008 08:46:33 GMT

We are pleased to announce that every purchased Enterprise license includes the full source code for Bugs Dashboard. The new license for Enterprise editions can be found here or our About menu. It is also included with each download. It allows for the licensee’s use of the code without redistribution or disclosure.

Bug Burn Down Chart Released

9 Mar 2008 05:11:58 GMT

Many Scrum practices provide a “burndown” chart showing the progress of work efforts against an estimated total amount of work in a sprint. Using that same concept, we have created a new portlet, the Bug Burn Down Chart Portlet, which tracks the work recorded against an individual bug, using the estimated work as the starting point.

The following image is a very, very simple chart showing an initial estimate for a bug and then several 1 hour entries against the bug.

You have the option of using a dropdown (see above) listing the bug id’s on file or a text input file. Although you can restrict the portlet to a single product, it is still possible that the number of bugs on file is greater than a dropdown might easily handle. A property file allows you to change from a dropdown list of bug id’s to a text input box like that shown below.

The concept is that you record an estimated amount of work in Bugzilla as shown below.

As your work progresses, you record the hours spent against the bug (simply edit the bug, enter the hours worked, add a comment and commit). This writes a record to the bugs_activity file which we pick up to show the “burn down” over time. If you change the estimated time after working on the issue, the graph will change so that the beginning point on the left is the new estimate. The burn down is calculated as the estimated time less the time worked at each entry and a new point on the graph is drawn.

For additional information, please see our Portlets Download page.

All Pages Are Now SSL

6 Mar 2008 09:30:40 GMT

Several people have asked us why our checkout page was not served via SSL (i.e. https://www.bugsdashboard.com/). This was due to the wp-ecommerce Wordpress plugin that we use. Rest assured that the details of your transaction are encrypted at the PayPal site, but wp-ecommerce does not have an SSL option. We always have had an SSL certificate, and given that we can put the entire site into an SSL state easier than the checkout page, we’ve chosen to do so.

If you receive a message that the certificate does not match the site, it’s only because of the manner in which Wordpress changes the URL from “www.bugsdashboard.com” to “bugsdashboard.com”. The certificate is set for www.bugsdashboard.com. We’re checking with our host, LunarPages, to see if there’s a simple fix for this.

Integrating Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro and Bugs Dashboard

4 Mar 2008 00:25:40 GMT

Over the past three years, I have served as the ScrumMaster for an ongoing, evolving project with two different teams. The project transitioned from R&D at one company and is currently in the stages of implementation in a production environment at another company. During my work on these projects, I have employed either the Basic or Pro version of ScrumWorks. It is a tool I appreciate not only for its features, but for its simplicity. Do not let the simplicity fool you, however, as there is a lot of power in the tool.

ScrumWorks Pro has the ability to interface with Bugzilla, which makes it perfect for working with the Bugs Dashboard as well. One issue that a Scrum team faces is dealing with the unplanned, unexpected events which arise during a sprint. For example, if a bug is found in a previously released product update, the time required to address it affects the velocity of the team. This impact is difficult to predict and varies from sprint to sprint. In many Scrums, this is an invisible impact as it is not recorded against the product backlog. ScrumWorks Pro helps to make the issue visible within the sprint by importing the issue from Bugzilla. It helps to keep the team focused on issues and allows the team to determine the necessary trade-offs if the impact becomes too great. This can aid in planning and review meetings where you break down the tasks required for the sprint.

My Goal For Integration As A ScrumMaster

I use a custom field in Bugzilla which allows me to correlate issues noted in Bugzilla with sprints in ScrumWorks Pro and a portlet in the Bugs Dashboard. What I am looking for is the impact issues raised in Bugzilla have on the current and imminent sprint. By keying the portlet on a custom field, I can easily track the estimated impact of a Bugzilla issue as shown below.

The portlet shows me what the estimated work required is, how many days remain in the sprint to accomplish what is required and the urgency (priority and severity) of the work. I can easily use this information to communicate with the Product Owner, stake holders, customers, senior management, etc. using the other features of the Bugs Dashboard, e.g. Set Priorities.After importing the Bugzilla items into ScrumWorks Pro, I can use the custom field to associated the Bugzilla item with the proper sprint (through drag-and-drop) as show below. Now, I have the information necessary to conduct a planning meeting with the team using the importance of the Product Owner to provide the necessary context to go with the issue.

I actually conduct several planning meetings during each sprint. The initial planning meeting is long enough for us to get the necessary details for the expectations of the sprint and the initial, immediate goals. I then hold other planning meetings as issues, such as unplanned tasks arising from bugs, come to light.Integrating Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro, and Bugs Dashboard allows me to manage the tasks expected in each sprint. You may ask how the Bugs Dashboard plays into this - where is the link?

The Importance of Bugs Dashboard To The Process

When issues arise during a sprint, they impact a team in many ways. They may affect morale if they appear to indicate a poor quality product. They may affect team dynamics if it is perceived that the bugs come principally from one person’s contributions. They almost always increase the pressure on the team through an increased sense of urgency to meet the previously stated goals of the sprint (which may already include other Bugzilla entries) and the new “pop-ups”.

The Bugs Dashboard aids in classifying the issues as a matter of the product owner’s point-of-view vice the report. For example, someone may feel that a relatively obscure bug is preventing them from using the system because it affects something they have an emotional attachment to. I say obscure because few users utilize that same function and thus there is not a great many users requesting the “fix”. The team’s desire to address that three weeks from now, in the next sprint, could be viewed negatively by the end-user. By allowing the Product Owner to specify the importance, I have the ability for the user to express their view, the team to express theirs, and the choice to be the Product Owner’s. With the Bugs Dashboard and ScrumWorks Pro, I can give the Product Owner the information necessary to make the tough choices. Perhaps something must be given up in the current sprint to meet the emergent need. Perhaps the emergent need can wait or perhaps additional resources must be authorized to deal with the need. Bugs Dashboard provides the right information and the right tools for these decisions to be made with minimal pain.

How-To Integrate Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro and Bugs Dashboard

Physically, it is simple to integrate the three products: just follow our “How-To” guide. The reason I direct you to a separate page is because there are over 20 screen shots to guide you step-by-step at that page.

Mentally, it may not be as easy to integrate the three. That is because you have to “herd the cats”. The bug reporter has a say in how a bug is interpreted and may need to be consulted further, but handled gingerly while separating the emotional ties to the issue. The team may need to be consulted to ascertain the expected impact of addressing the issue - an interruption to their current work knowing you will be asking them to perform the new work. The Product Owner may need to be consulted to provide the give-and-take on expectations for the sprint - and giving up expectations is never an easy thing.

My Approach

There are several approaches to how to handle interruptions of this nature. The one I favor is to create a separate product backlog item in each sprint for “unexpected events” from the very start. Initially, this is a low budget item - perhaps 4 hours in a 4 week sprint. As the sprints build, this number usually increases due to more functionality that must be maintained, a large installed base, larger code repository, etc.

Unexpected events can include bugs which arise and are deemed urgent enough to be addressed in this sprint. It can also include technical debt which must be paid back through refactoring, increased demand for documentation, loss of work due to sickness, etc. The cool thing is that the team can fill any unused time with additional tasks from the uncommitted backlog should they get the opportunity. Only the team can add items to a sprint after it has started.

Must Haves

Each of us has a style and we all have our individual preferences. For me, and I may be biased - I admit it, the best approach I have to managing the complexities of a project in a simple fashion is to use Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro and Bugs Dashboard. these are all “must haves” for my toolbox!

How To Deploy Under Ubuntu 7.10 - Method 2: Tomcat Manager

25 Feb 2008 06:39:47 GMT

In a previous post, we looked at how to deploy under Ubuntu 7.10 by downloading, decompressing, and then moving the “bugs” directory to the Tomcat webapps directory. In this post, we will look at deploying with the Tomcat Manager.

Prerequisites

All steps to download, decompress, and configure the Bugs Dashboard are the same as those found in the above post. Follow that until you have successfully configured your copy of the Bugs Dashboard.

You must have at least one user configured in Tomcat with the manager role. It is assumed you can login to the Tomcat Manager.

Process

When you are ready to deploy the Bugs Dashboard, you are not going to move it to the webapps directory as you was detailed in the first method of deploying under Ubuntu. In this scenario, you are going to use the Tomcat Manager to deploy it from the directory in which you configured it.

Open a browser and navigate to the Tomcat Manager page (in our case this was http://localhost:8080/manager/html).
Scroll down to the “Deploy” section of the Tomcat Manager page. You are going to provide two of the three requested pieces of information for the deployment; the context path (/bugs) and the directory URL (the full path to the directory being deployed).
You should receive back a message at the top of the refreshed page stating that the deployment was “ok”.
Open a browser window and navigate to the portal page (e.g. /bugs/portal). If your configuration was successful, you should see the first portal. If there are any issues, refer to the troubleshooting steps in the README or the Quick Start. You may also contact us at support@bugsdashboard.com.

How To Install Under Ubuntu 7.10 - Method 1

25 Feb 2008 05:55:02 GMT

The following are steps we take in deploying the Bugs Dashboard to a test platform running Ubuntu 7.10. Under this method, we do not use the Tomcat Manager to deploy; we’ll look at that in another post.

Prerequisites

Tomcat has been successfully installed (see Installing Tomcat 6 on Ubuntu at the How-to Geek)
MySQL (see the Ubuntu Guide) or Postgres (see the Ubuntu Guide and supriyadisw dot net) have been successfully installed
Bugzilla has been successfully installed in one of the above databases and can be reached via a JDBC connection from the Tomcat server

Steps

Download the latest Developer or Enterprise version of Bugs Dashboard and either a) save it to disk or b) open it with the Archive Manager and then Extract the contents. We chose to save the zip file to the desktop.
If you did not use the Archive Manager in step 1, navigate to the downloaded file, right-mouse click on the file and select Extract Here.
Extracting the file locally will result in a new directory named “bugs”.
Open the bugs directory. Inside, you will find the README (read it, please!), the documentation (under the docs directory), the license, and the bugs.war file.
Right mouse cick on the bug.war file and choose Extract Here.
This will create another ‘bugs’ directory and this is the directory you will deploy.
Open the bugs directory. In it are the css, images, javascript and WEB-INF directories. Much of the modification which you must do to configure the Bugs Dashboard will be done in the WEB-INF directory.
Follow the steps at the Quick Start post or the How-to Configure pages to configure your copy of the Bugs Dashboard.
When your configuration is complete, move the second bugs directory (the one we stated you would deploy above) with the WEB-INF directory in it to the Tomcat webapps directory. In our case, this was under /opt/apache-tomcat-6.0.16/webapps.
In our testing, we found that it was not necessary to bounce the Tomcat server for the Bugs Dashboard to deploy. Open a browser and navigate to your local installation (this might be http://localhost or your domain name, in our case, it was http://localhost:8080/bugs/portal) and open the portal page (it will open to the first portal in the portals_en_US.properties file). If, for any reason, the page does not come right up, review the troubleshooting tips in the Quick Start” guide.
Should you need to change your configuration, it may be necessary to stop and restart (i.e. bounce) Tomcat. You can do this by opening a terminal window, switching to root (sudo -s) and navigating to the Tomcat bin directory. Execute the shutdown script (./shutdown.sh), make any necessary changes, and then execute the startup script (./startup.sh).

Quick Start - Minimum Steps To Install Bugs Dashboard

25 Feb 2008 05:22:44 GMT

The following is for experienced web masters familiar with deploying war files under a Servlet container. You will also find these in the README for version 3.0 and later.

QUICK START
If you have experience with Tomcat (or an equivalent Servlet container), then you can follow these steps to quickly install and setup Bugs Dashboard. The relevant pages from the Installation Guide are noted at each step should you need additional information.

1. [page 2.1] Unzip bugs.zip and create a directory called “bugs”, copy the war file to it and then unpack the war file (i.e. from the command line: jar -xvf bugs.war)
2. [page 2.3] Open /bugs/WEB-INF/classes. If you are outside the United States, copy all files that are “_en_US” and change the copies to your language and country. You will edit your files, not the _en_US files in the following steps.
3. [page 2.3] From the classes directory, edit db_en_US.properties and change the following properties (a property is a name followed by an equal sign, e.g. name=; you will change what is on the RIGHT side of the equal sign). All property files are heavily commented so read them if you have a question about a property.

a. uncomment the name of the database you are using
b. set the username and password properties (Oracle testing only)
c. uncomment the url which corresponds to the database in (a) and change everything in brackets to match your database.
d. save and close

4. [page 2.7] From the classes directory, edit dashboard_en_US.properties and change the following:

a. defaultProduct
b. defaultAssignee (optional)
c. default priorities (i.e. P1 - P5)
d. uncomment the appropriate bugURL and set it to your system
e. save and close

5. [page 2.10] From the classes directory, edit sql_queries_en_US.properties and change the following:

a. version
b. loginName
c. save and close

6. [page 2.13] From the classes directory, edit strings_en_US.properties and set the title to your organization then save it.
7. [page 2.17] From the classes directory, edit portals_en_US.properties and change the following:

a. portal0.name
b. portal0.restrictTo
c. If you are setting up an Enterprise edition, change the following:

i. portal1.name
ii. portal1.restrictTo

d. save and close

8. [page 2.24] If you are setting up an Enterprise edition, from the classes directory, edit the projectA_portlets_en_US.properties through projectF_portlets_en_US.properties files validating the names and restrictTo values in each.
For example, in projectD_portlets_en_US.properties, you will want to change the following for both portlet groups:

a. title
b. restrictTo
c. save and close

You will then want to open the projectF_portlets_en_US.properties file and change the following:

a. title for every portlet
b. restrictTo for every portlet (use global replace)

9. If you plan on using the SVNLog portlet to query your Subversion repository, from the classes directory, edit svnLog_en_US.properties and change the following:

a. all titles
b. all paths
c. save and close

10. If you plan on using the Links portlet, from the classes directory, edit the links_en_US.properties and change the following:

a. change all names
b. change all urls
c. save and close

11. [page 2.30] Move the bugs directory you created in step 1 to the /webapps directory and restart Tomcat (or the application via Tomcat Manager).

TROUBLESHOOTING
1) The View Priorities page is blank

Look at dashboard_en_US.properties and be sure you have uncommented and set one of the two bugURL property lines.

2) Only one or two portlets show values on a page

Edit the appropriate portlets property file (e.g. projectA_portets_en_US.properties) and look at the group characteristics for the first portlet to fail (it will be the next in line after the last to load correctly). You may have missed a property or inadvertently deleted a property.

3) All pages, including the About page, are blank.

Edit the db_en_US.properties file and verify the database property at the top and ALL of the components of the proper url string (e.g. for mysql, the dbname, username, etc.).

4) If all else fails, stop Tomcat and edit the log4j.properties file in the /bugs/WEB-INF directory.

a) Change the first line from “fatal” to “debug”
b) Change the path on line 6 to an existing directory. For example, our Ubuntu installation of Tomcat was under /opt/apache-tomcat-6.0.16. Thus, our path to the logs file is /opt/apache-tomcat-6.0.16/logs/bugs.log.
c) save and close the file
d) restart Tomcat
e) try any page
f) open the bugs.log in the logs directory and scroll to the bottom. Read back up the file until you see an error reported. If it’s something simple like “Can’t find resouce for bundle” followed by “key bugURL” then you must edit that property (i.e. it wasn’t uncommented).
g) if you are unable to determine the error or how to fix it, contact us immediately at support@bugsdashboard.com

RestrictPotal Portlet Released

24 Feb 2008 18:58:34 GMT

This portlet allows you to restrict all portlets on a portal to a specific product. This allows you to not restrict the portal initially, but later focus in on only one particular product or to move from product to product in a review meeting. To use this, download the zip file http://www.bugsdashboard.com/portlets/v3/restrictPortal_v3.zip and follow the instructions in the readme_restrictPortal.txt file included in the zip. Note: This portlet will only work with Bugs Dashboard v3 and later.

Version 3.0 Changes

24 Feb 2008 18:54:13 GMT

The following are the changes which you will find in version 3.0.

Retired the "Classic" Dashboard. All dashboards are now driven by a Portal configuration with one or more portlets.
Added the ability to remove all headers from a page by passing the parameter pbHeadersOn=false to the page. This will allow you to wrap a page with your own navigation (i.e. intranet) and/or call the page from another application for display in that application.
Added the ability to define a default product and assignee for the View Priorities and View Severities pages. This allows those with a large number of bugs (several hundred or more) on file to work with individual projects rather than attempting to pull down the complete listing each time the page is first opened. Those organizations with very large numbers of bugs across multiple projects can still elect to view All from the dropdown list after the page initially loads. It does, however, take time to spool all that text down to the browser.
All portlets now ship with each version. The Enterprise version uses all of them on different menu tabs (i.e. Project A, Project B). The View Only version now uses a single portal (since the Classic dashboard is gone). Both the View Only and the Developer editions can be set up to show all portlets on the one portal they’re allowed to use.
Resolved an issue with the display of long priorities or descriptions flowing beyond the borders of the containing box for an issue in the View Priorities and View Severities pages.
Removed the preferences from dashboard_en_US.properties for what is to be displayed on the Classic dashboard (e.g. showThermometers, show Priorities) as this is now controlled by the portlet properties for each defined portal.
Added a thermometers property file that allows the user to control the ranges on the thermometer, the colors of the ranges, etc.
This allows you to setup an unlimited number of properties to control how a thermometer will appear if the total number of bugs reported for that thermometer is less than the threshold you set. Thus, you can define a range of every 20 bugs for anything reporting less than 100 bugs total with a critical threshold of 80 (anything above 80 will cause the “mercury” to appear in the color you choose) while using a range of 200 with a warning threshold of 600 and a critical threshold of 750 (example numbers only) for anything reporting bugs greater than 100 (your previous threshold) and less than 1000 (your next threshold).
Moved additional styles to external stylesheets to speed transfers after the first download.
Fixed an issue with the SQL query appending a where clause for a blank name if no projects were to be excluded.
Added the ability to define an individual portal to a specific project. All portlets will receive a string parameter telling them to restrict their results to that specific project name. All default portlets have been updated to behave properly.
Added the ability to restrict portlets to a specific project. This allows you to use multiple instances of the same portlet on a portal reporting on a specific product in each and using a title to let you know which portlet is reporting on which product. The portal restriction overrides any portlet restriction.
Updated all fifteen community portlets to work with the restriction to a specific product by accepting the two new parameters.
Added a new community portlet which presents all products by name in a dropdown and allows the user to select the product to which they wish to restrict a portal. This allows the user to rotate through products after the page has already loaded.

Bugs Dashboard Version 3.0 Released

24 Feb 2008 18:51:12 GMT

We are pleased to bring you Bugs Dashboard version 3.0! This milestone sees the”retirement” of the Classic Dashboard view. All Dashboards in version 3.0 are now portals you design. Updated documentation provides examples of different configurations including side-by-side comparisons, single portlet portals and multiple column multiple portlets portals. You can now restrict an entire portal or individual portlets to report on a single product making it easier, in the Enterprise edition, to have multiple tabs on the menu bar representing individual projects. We have also included a new portlet that can be placed on any portal and provides you with the ability to change the product all portlets are restricted to “on the fly”. The complete list of fixes and features can be found here. All online demonstrations have been converted to version 3.0. The documentation has been updated and is now available online for your perusal prior to downloading. You may peruse the User’s Guide and the Installation Guide online in PDF format. Each document is also included in every download.

Testing of Bugzilla 3.1.3 has begun

11 Feb 2008 00:01:38 GMT

We have installed Bugzilla 3.1.3 and are actively testing the Bugs Dashboard with MySQL (5.0.45), PostGres (8.2), Oracle 10g (10.2.0.1.0), and Oracle 11g (11.1.0.6.0). We can tell you that Bugzilla 3.1.3 will not work with Oracle 10.1.x due to the use of the NLS_COMP=LINGUISTIC command. We’re sure that the use of Oracle is documented somewhere, but we were unable to find it, so we are offering a few tips here. In the localconfig file, the db_name parameter is the SERVICE_NAME and the db_user is the Oracle user who will be the schema owner for the Bugzilla objects. Also, there were two additional grants necessary for the Oracle user. This is how we setup the Oracle user after connecting as the user SYS with SYSDBA privileges: create user bugs313 identified by "testing"; grant connect, resource to bugs313; grant select on ctxsys.ctx_preferences to bugs313; grant execute on ctx_ddl to bugs313; We’ll continue to document our testing in future posts as we move along. Bill

New RSS Editor In Use

12 Jan 2008 21:15:24 GMT

For those who may have noticed a quick turn-around updating the feeds from Bugs Dashboard, we apologize. We've finally had enough with our old feed editor and threw it out. We tested a few others and have chosen (tenatively) to use ExtraLab Software's Feed Ediitor. We've noticed a potential discrepancy in the display of publication dates in their preview, but the XML looks good. We hope our troubles with the creation of the feeds are over and that you'll enjoy a pleasant experience from this point forward!

Earn A Free License To A Developer Edition Of Bugs Dashboard

Bill Hamilton — 12 Jan 2008 21:13:26 GMT

We are pleased to announce a promotion whereby you can earn a copy of the Developer Edition of Bugs Dashboard. The rules are simple and can be found at http://www.bugsdashboard.com/wp/?page_id=66 If you ever wanted to see a particular report or function from your Bugzilla repository that you can easily access or you just have a brilliant idea for a feature, now is your chance to create that simple portlet for the community! It’s easy, fun, and could get you started creating premium portlets to be listed along with the community portlets!

Bugs Dashboard Website Relaunched Using WordPress

Bill Hamilton — 12 Jan 2008 05:00:29 GMT

Welcome To Our New Website!

We have been blogging with WordPress for some time and were impressed with its capabilities. We regretted having a blog separate from our website, but there were obstacles to overcome in combining one with the other. That is, until we found the WP Remix theme and combined it with the wp-ecommerce and wp-forum plugins!

We welcome you to the relaunch of the Bugs Dashboard website now powered by WordPress! Using the above three tools, we are pleased to offer an integrated solution that houses all our information under one impressive site. Our thanks to all the third-parties (see the Credits page) for making this possible.

Enjoy!

svnLog Portlet Released

Bill Hamilton — 21 Dec 2007 05:39:37 GMT

This portlet is for those who use Subversion and want to find log entries in Subversion which are related to a particular bug. Note that this requires that Subversion be located on the same server as the portlet (so that it can execute the svn commands) and that the repository be available to the file system as a direct PATH, not a url.

This portlet allows you to define the path and title of repositories you wish to appear in a dropdown list. You may then choose which repository to list, either all log files (no search term entered) or those l

v2.2 Released

Bill Hamilton — 25 Nov 2007 06:46:53 GMT

v2.2 was released today! It introduces the ability for the Enterprise edition to manage multiple portals. Enterprises editions can be configured to add tabs to the menu bar, each of which defines a separate portal. Each portal can define the portlets to be displayed within it. This allows enterprises to separate portlets by project, milestone, etc.

This version also introduces a restriction to the View-only edition. The View-only edition will no longer display a Portal Dashboard, only the Classic Dashboard. The Developer edition will display only one Portal Dashboard regardless of how many are defined. The first definition will be used in the Developer edition.

Enjoy!

Eleven New Portlets Added

Bill Hamilton — 6 Nov 2007 06:46:02 GMT

The "Query Cookbook" at http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/queries.html has a list of queries that they like to keep handy for use with Bugzilla. We have uploaded eleven portlets which address the following queries:

1) Count how many bugs each person has added attachments to.

2) List the top 100 bug reporters.

3) Count how many unconfirmed bugs people closed as INVALID, DUPLICATE or WORKSFORME. Sort in descending order and list only the top ten.

4) Bugs assigned to people with disabled accounts.

5) Bugs whose QA contact is disabled.

6) Count how many times a bug has been marked FIXED.

7) List all of the people who have granted or denied a review in the Bugzilla product in the last 6 months.

8) Count how many bugs each person has confirmed. List the top 20 people in descending order.

9) List the top ten largest attachments.

10) See who triages the most newly filed bugs by counting the number of times each person has changed bugs from the UNCONFIRMED state in the bug activity table. This includes confirming bugs and closing bugs without confirming them first (e.g. marking as duplicate).

11) Count how many bugs each person has verified as INVALID.

New Portlets Available

Bill Hamilton — 5 Nov 2007 02:45:27 GMT

Three new portlets have been added to the Forum "Share Your Portlet". They are:

HelloWorld - an example which returns the string "Hello World"

Links - an example which reads a properties file and displays a list of hyperlinks. This may allow you to take internal or lengthy links with you when you're on the road and using someone else's browser.

TopReporters - an example which demonstrates the use of the ConnectionPool, log4j, and reports on the number of bugs opened by each user.

v2.0 Released

Bill Hamilton — 4 Nov 2007 05:05:12 GMT

v2.0 introduces a new view to the Dashboard, the Portal. You can now create portlets, small applications which return HTML strings, and add them to the portal. You can also drag-and-drop the portlets to arrange the view to meet your desired state. Currently, you can create Java classes to create the portlets, but we're working hard to make it possible to call PHP pages as well!

v1.4.2 Hot Fix Released

Bill Hamilton — 31 May 2007 02:44:29 GMT

v1.4.2 has been released with a fix to the localization feature. Attempts to use a localized db_XX_XX.properties file would fail as the application would always look for db_en_US.properties. The work-around is to populate the db_en_US.properties file despite the locale. Anyone evaluating Bugs Dashboard who has encountered an issue with connection to their database or a blank dashboard presented to them may request a copy of v1.4.2 for evaluation.

v1.4.1 Hot Fix Released

Bill Haimlton — 25 May 2007 04:54:37 GMT

v1.4.1 fixes an issue with the ConnectionPool which resulted in orphaned connections that were not properly closed.

v1.4.0 Released

Bill Hamilton — 15 May 2007 17:06:14 GMT

v1.4.0 adds a dropdown to the View Priorities and View Severities pages allowing you to narrow the search to just one assignee if you choose. This version also discontinues the support for Bugzilla 2.18.x due to the Bugzilla desupport notice for that version.

Bugs Dashboard Announcements

Do It With PHP!

Do It With PHP!

v3.4 Released - New Administration Suite

v3.4 Released – New Administration Suite

Administration Suite

Configuring Dashboards

Portlet Registry

Localization

Installation Wizard

Preview of Version 3.4

Preview of Version 3.4

Administrative Toolset

Updates to Installation Wizard

New Templates Available

Portlet Development Guide And Templates Now Available

Bugzilla v2.2.0 to 3.3.4 Demonstrations Available

v3.3.0 Released

Bugzilla v3.3.x Compatibility

Oracle Database Compatibility

SiteMinder Integration

Available For Trial Demonstrations Today

New Support Center Available

New Pricing Structure Announced

Version 3.2.4 Released

Version 3.2.3 Released

Version 3.2.2 Released

Version 3.2.1 Released

Change of Face

Individual Workload Portlet Released

Auto Refresh Portlet Released

Version 3.2 Released

Demos Made Easy

How-to Use The Web Services Feature

How-to Setup the WordPress PHP page

Including Appropriate Files In The Header

Configuring The Body Of The Page

Same Origin Policy

ElementId

Online Issue Tracking Now Available

Version 3.2 Release Candidate 2 Available

Next Up...version 3.3

Version 3.2rc1 Released

3D Bar And Pie Chart Community Portlets Released

The Bar Chart Portlet

The Pie Chart Portlet

Tag Cloud Community Portlet Released

Severity Counts Portlet Included In Version 3.2b3

Next Up....The Wizard

Step 1: Defining Your Installation of Bugzilla

Step 2: Database Connection

Step 3: Bug Select Criteria

Step 4: Bugs Dashboard Defaults

Step 5: Confirmation

Product Burn Down Chart Portlet

v3.2b2 Released

Version 3.2 Beta Program

Using Bugzilla To Determine Authority

Other Changes In Version 3.2

How To Participate

Version 3.1 Released - New Menu Options!

Sliding Doors

Blue Tabs

Dynamic Drive Color Tabs

Glow Tabs

Half Moon Tabs

Fixes in Version 3.1

Note For Safari Users

Enterprise Editions Now Include Full Source Code

Bug Burn Down Chart Released

All Pages Are Now SSL

Integrating Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro and Bugs Dashboard

My Goal For Integration As A ScrumMaster

The Importance of Bugs Dashboard To The Process

How-To Integrate Bugzilla, ScrumWorks Pro and Bugs Dashboard

My Approach

Must Haves

How To Deploy Under Ubuntu 7.10 - Method 2: Tomcat Manager

Prerequisites

Process