Issues/Server-side/Bug tracker for the Directory

Closed: We have developed our own tracker.

This page has to many bugs to effectively organize them. We need a dedicated bug tracker for the Directory.

The concept for public bug trackers for FSF run websites has been posted in Directory-Discuss mailing-list.

Matt Lee said that he back in January 2017 but nothing happened and he never replied!

Ian discussed this with Ruben who suggested GitLab Community Edition since ruben has used it for the trisquel.info. Ian is willing to adapt it but found [some problems with it regarding the license fields]. Ian plans to submit a patch programmed in Ruby to solve the issue.

Bug Tracker Comparison by Sonali

GitLab

    Famous
    Attractive Web UI
    Can appoint multiple assignees per issue
    Set Milestones
    Categorise and filter Issues
    Granular user roles
    Community edition is free
    More features than just a bug tracker
    Very versatile and extensive features


Trac

    Minimalistic web ui
    Used by VideoLan (https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ticket/19703)
    Allows wiki markup
    Has main features
    Written in python
    Lacks some collaborative features present in GitLab
    Not very user friendly: for the people who have a habit of
    working on GitHub and similar platforms


Redmine (demo on http://demo.redmine.org/)

    Very less content visible unless logged in 
    Simple web interface
    Multi language support though translations may
    not be up to date (written on their site)
    Provides a Gantt chart
    Base design isn’t as flexible
    Setup of ruby and rails require some expertise 


Debbugs

    Used by Debian (https://www.debian.org/Bugs/Reporting)
    Tickets open only through emails
        Might be hard for people who work only on web based platforms
    Useful for people who are already familiar with it
    Search is mainly based on looking up the email threads 
    May be hard to keep track

Debbugs + mailing list

"As previously discussed on bug-gnuzilla, the Bug Tracker for GNUzilla on Savannah is now closed [(Fri 20 Dec 2019)] to new issues, and new issues are to be reported to our bug-gnuzilla mailing list, now integrated with the Debbugs-based GNU Bug Tracker.

Note that this Bug Tracker is currently not in a complete read-only state, and commenting on existing items is still enabled." - https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?57455

Has the FSF discussed whether the same solution should be used for the Free Software Directory? --David Hedlund (talk) 12:07, 6 February 2020 (EST)

My opinion: the new BackLog works well and we don't need a dedicated bugtracker, since it would only increase the attack surface. --LorenzoAncora (talk) 12:55, 7 February 2020 (EST)