Bug/Feature tracker
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This has been mentioned before and now HISE is reaching its 7th year I think it's about time we had a proper bug and feature tracker. It's very cumbersome to look through the forum to see which issues have already been reported, and it's annoying when the same issues have to be reported multiple times because they have become lost, hidden in old threads.
My vote would be for an open source solution with a web interface that uses our existing HISE forum accounts for access and can integrate with github.
Having a web interface means anyone can join in from any device without having to install additional software.
Having it open source provides control over the software and security assurances.
Using forum accounts for accessing the bug tracker means we don't need another set of credentials and new users to the bug tracker will also be new users to the forum.I've done a little research on this and the most suitable candidate seems to be MantisBT. This is the same bug tracker used by Ardour. I don't know if it would support using our HISE forum accounts though. If anyone knows of a better solution or has other suggestions please chip in your ideas.
It would be cool if there was a bug bounty system as well, this might attract additional developers.
I know both Christoph and Dominik are very busy, I'd be happy to have a go at setting up a bug tracker myself, but I need Christoph's approval and we need to discuss where it is to be hosted and the URL.
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I'm using OpenProject here for bug tracking.
https://www.openproject.org/collaboration-software-features/bug-tracking-software/It looks to be a bit more complicated than Mantis due to the fact that it contains full project management. Mantis might be easier to use.
What framework is the HISE forum running on? There is a plugin to sync wordpress user accounts to Mantis, so user account database sync is possible.
Dan Korneff - Producer / Mixer / Audio Nerd
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Yes, I also think that the current solution is not the best organized way so yeah let's talk about a better solution. However I'm a bit hesitant to add another place where people can report their problems because I think it just scatters the information even more. Right now there are two places where bugs get reported:
- The GitHub issue page
- The forum
The problem with the forum is that the bug reports are not organized and gets buried under all the other discussions.
Generally I would love to use the GitHub issues for this because it directly connects to the repo, and if I commit something like
fixing issue #132, that one gets automatically closed. Plus I think everyone that is doing serious HISE work has a GitHub account (correct me if I'm wrong).I could add a label called
valid bug reportor something that will be applied if the bug report meets certain requirements (which we can discuss here).Because the only problem with the GitHub issues is that it gets polluted by stuff since anyone with a GitHub account can create an issue and we really want to find a way to limit the list to confirmed bug reports that meet a few requirements (eg. having an example that confirmes the bug) so that when I have time available for bug fixing, I can just filter the list and chew my way through it. If there are bug reports that do not met the criteria we come up with, we can just remove this label until it's valid (right now I would have to close the issue which is a bit passive aggressive).
So is there anything that another bug tracking solution offers over the GitHub issue system?
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@christoph-hart said in Bug/Feature tracker:
So is there anything that another bug tracking solution offers over the GitHub issue system?
Mantis has github integration so changes on github are updated in Mantis.
I think the github issues system is a good choice, it's a simplistic list which can get out of hand quite quickly but with good use of labels it can become more manageable.
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Alright, so let's try dusting off the GitHub issues list. I think we need to talk about a set of requirements that needs to be met for all bug reports that minimizes the time for me to reproduce (because it highly increases the chances of it being actually fixed).
So:
- exact commit that is used (the SHA as link, GitHub should resolve that automatically)
- A HISE Snippet as formatted code block. If the example needs external resources, a Zip file containing the minimal project folder (I think you can upload ZIP files in a GitHub issue).
- an exact description of what's not working as expected (with a video screencast only if it's really necessary (eg. UI blips or other interaction bugs that are hard to describe in words).
If all these criterias are met, you can add the label
Valid Bug report. I'll take one of the more recent bugs listed here as an example (probably the SliderPack thingie), this should act as a good blueprint. -
I like it!
@christoph-hart said in Bug/Feature tracker:
A HISE Snippet as formatted code block. If the example needs external resources
Would it be difficult for snippets to inline included js files?
Oh might be a good idea to setup an issue template for bug reports - https://docs.github.com/en/communities/using-templates-to-encourage-useful-issues-and-pull-requests/configuring-issue-templates-for-your-repository
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@d-healey yes that templates thingie is a good idea, I'll check it out.
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@christoph-hart I PM'ed you to help finding a solution recently with no answer, I hope now we're getting somewhere reliably
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@ustk yeah sorry I forgot to respond but you definitely laid the seed in my brain for this subject ;)
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Alright, I've added an example issue for one of the most recent bugs (plus I'll post a "moved to GitHub Issues" to the forum topic so we know it was taken to the next level...
SliderPack does not update when invisible · Issue #250 · christophhart/HISE
Forum discussion https://forum.hise.audio/topic/5074/sliderpack-issue/4 Commit ecd5f15 Conditions to reproduce the bug OS: both macOS / Windows HISE: yes Compiled Project: yes Problem Description Knob from interface to a sliderpack in a ...
GitHub (github.com)
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@christoph-hart said in Bug/Feature tracker:
you can add the label Valid Bug report
I think only the repo owner can add labels
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@d-healey Nice, even more power for me!
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@christoph-hart So this system is adopted?
Your are lucky I don't have much time at the moment but the list is ready, right there...
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Keep thinking about this and maybe it's a good idea to still report a bug first in the forum and then if it's really confirmed, we move it to GitHub.
I'm just trying to think of ways to keep the GitHub issues a super clean list of (rather high priority) bugs I need to work through, because I can imagine that if everybody just writes every bug ever there we're back at square one.
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@christoph-hart said in Bug/Feature tracker:
maybe it's a good idea to still report a bug first in the forum
Maybe back to the Mantis idea so issues can be organized?
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@christoph-hart That's what I imagined. Bug have to be confirmed by the community first as eligible to open an issue, so the git isn't cluttered by false alarms.
I agree that a priority tag should be attached to the issue. If it isn't a problem with a small list it becomes to be a problem with 30 lines, where high priority bugs have the risk to be drowned. -
@christoph-hart Low priority should also be listed so they aren't lost, and people can see it as already been raised at a glance. So definitely a more adapted tool would be better (I don't know Mantis).
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Alright, then we have a
Confirmed Buglabel for each bug report that goes through the "bug vetting process" (issue raised in the forum and confirmed by multiple parties). When a bug report is raised in the forum, we'll discuss it and decide whether to stick aLow Prioritylabel or aHigh Prioritylabel to it. When this is done, the forum topic will be closed and I'll move it to GitHub issues.Sounds good? This gives us enough flexibility to talk and discuss while keeping the issue list clean and organized.
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@christoph-hart said in Bug/Feature tracker:
the forum topic will be closed
Closed = still viewable and no new replies?
