Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of TracWorkflow


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Timestamp:
10/23/12 10:01:53 (12 years ago)
Author:
trac
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  • TracWorkflow

    v1 v1  
     1= The Trac Ticket Workflow System =
     2[[TracGuideToc]]
     3
     4The Trac issue database provides a configurable workflow.
     5
     6== The Default Ticket Workflow ==
     7=== Environments upgraded from 0.10 ===
     8When you run `trac-admin <env> upgrade`, your `trac.ini` will be modified to include a `[ticket-workflow]` section.
     9The workflow configured in this case is the original workflow, so that ticket actions will behave like they did in 0.10.
     10
     11Graphically, that looks like this:
     12
     13[[Image(htdocs:../common/guide/original-workflow.png)]]
     14
     15There are some significant "warts" in this; such as accepting a ticket sets it to 'assigned' state, and assigning a ticket sets it to 'new' state.  Perfectly obvious, right?
     16So you will probably want to migrate to "basic" workflow; [trac:source:trunk/contrib/workflow/migrate_original_to_basic.py contrib/workflow/migrate_original_to_basic.py] may be helpful.
     17
     18=== Environments created with 0.11 ===
     19When a new environment is created, a default workflow is configured in your trac.ini.  This workflow is the basic workflow (described in `basic-workflow.ini`), which is somewhat different from the workflow of the 0.10 releases.
     20
     21Graphically, it looks like this:
     22
     23[[Image(htdocs:../common/guide/basic-workflow.png)]]
     24
     25== Additional Ticket Workflows ==
     26
     27There are several example workflows provided in the Trac source tree; look in [trac:source:trunk/contrib/workflow contrib/workflow] for `.ini` config sections.  One of those may be a good match for what you want. They can be pasted into the `[ticket-workflow]` section of your `trac.ini` file. However if you have existing tickets then there may be issues if those tickets have states that are not in the new workflow.
     28
     29Here are some [http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/WorkFlow/Examples diagrams] of the above examples.
     30
     31== Basic Ticket Workflow Customization ==
     32
     33Note: Ticket "statuses" or "states" are not separately defined. The states a ticket can be in are automatically generated by the transitions defined in a workflow. Therefore, creating a new ticket state simply requires defining a state transition in the workflow that starts or ends with that state.
     34
     35Create a `[ticket-workflow]` section in `trac.ini`.
     36Within this section, each entry is an action that may be taken on a ticket.
     37For example, consider the `accept` action from `simple-workflow.ini`:
     38{{{
     39accept = new,accepted -> accepted
     40accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     41accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     42}}}
     43The first line in this example defines the `accept` action, along with the states the action is valid in (`new` and `accepted`), and the new state of the ticket when the action is taken (`accepted`).
     44The `accept.permissions` line specifies what permissions the user must have to use this action.
     45The `accept.operations` line specifies changes that will be made to the ticket in addition to the status change when this action is taken.  In this case, when a user clicks on `accept`, the ticket owner field is updated to the logged in user.  Multiple operations may be specified in a comma separated list.
     46
     47The available operations are:
     48 - del_owner -- Clear the owner field.
     49 - set_owner -- Sets the owner to the selected or entered owner.
     50   - ''actionname''`.set_owner` may optionally be set to a comma delimited list or a single value.
     51 - set_owner_to_self -- Sets the owner to the logged in user.
     52 - del_resolution -- Clears the resolution field
     53 - set_resolution -- Sets the resolution to the selected value.
     54   - ''actionname''`.set_resolution` may optionally be set to a comma delimited list or a single value. Example:
     55     {{{
     56resolve_new = new -> closed
     57resolve_new.name = resolve
     58resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
     59resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     60resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix
     61     }}}
     62 - leave_status -- Displays "leave as <current status>" and makes no change to the ticket.
     63'''Note:''' Specifying conflicting operations (such as `set_owner` and `del_owner`) has unspecified results.
     64
     65{{{
     66resolve_accepted = accepted -> closed
     67resolve_accepted.name = resolve
     68resolve_accepted.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     69resolve_accepted.operations = set_resolution
     70}}}
     71
     72In this example, we see the `.name` attribute used.  The action here is `resolve_accepted`, but it will be presented to the user as `resolve`.
     73
     74For actions that should be available in all states, `*` may be used in place of the state.  The obvious example is the `leave` action:
     75{{{
     76leave = * -> *
     77leave.operations = leave_status
     78leave.default = 1
     79}}}
     80This also shows the use of the `.default` attribute.  This value is expected to be an integer, and the order in which the actions are displayed is determined by this value.  The action with the highest `.default` value is listed first, and is selected by default.  The rest of the actions are listed in order of decreasing `.default` values.
     81If not specified for an action, `.default` is 0.  The value may be negative.
     82
     83There are a couple of hard-coded constraints to the workflow.  In particular, tickets are created with status `new`, and tickets are expected to have a `closed` state.  Further, the default reports/queries treat any state other than `closed` as an open state.
     84
     85While creating or modifying a ticket workfow, `contrib/workflow/workflow_parser.py` may be useful.  It can create `.dot` files that [http://www.graphviz.org GraphViz] understands to provide a visual description of the workflow.
     86
     87This can be done as follows (your install path may be different).
     88{{{
     89cd /var/local/trac_devel/contrib/workflow/
     90sudo ./showworkflow /srv/trac/PlannerSuite/conf/trac.ini
     91}}}
     92And then open up the resulting `trac.pdf` file created by the script (it will be in the same directory as the `trac.ini` file).
     93
     94An online copy of the workflow parser is available at http://foss.wush.net/cgi-bin/visual-workflow.pl
     95
     96After you have changed a workflow, you need to restart apache for the changes to take effect. This is important, because the changes will still show up when you run your script, but all the old workflow steps will still be there until the server is restarted.
     97
     98== Example: Adding optional Testing with Workflow ==
     99
     100By adding the following to your [ticket-workflow] section of trac.ini you get optional testing.  When the ticket is in new, accepted or needs_work status you can choose to submit it for testing.  When it's in the testing status the user gets the option to reject it and send it back to needs_work, or pass the testing and send it along to closed.  If they accept it then it gets automatically marked as closed and the resolution is set to fixed.  Since all the old work flow remains, a ticket can skip this entire section.
     101
     102{{{
     103testing = new,accepted,needs_work,assigned,reopened -> testing
     104testing.name = Submit to reporter for testing
     105testing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     106
     107reject = testing -> needs_work
     108reject.name = Failed testing, return to developer
     109
     110pass = testing -> closed
     111pass.name = Passes Testing
     112pass.operations = set_resolution
     113pass.set_resolution = fixed
     114}}}
     115
     116=== How to combine the `tracopt.ticket.commit_updater` with the testing workflow ===
     117
     118The [[trac:source:trunk/tracopt/ticket/commit_updater.py|tracopt.ticket.commit_updater]] is the optional component that [[TracRepositoryAdmin#trac-post-commit-hook|replaces the old trac-post-commit-hook]], in Trac 0.12.
     119
     120By default it reacts on some keywords found in changeset message logs like ''close'', ''fix'' etc. and performs the corresponding workflow action.
     121
     122If you have a more complex workflow, like the testing stage described above and you want the ''closes'' keyword to move the ticket to the ''testing'' status instead of the ''closed'' status, you need to adapt the code a bit.
     123
     124Have a look at the [[trac:wiki:0.11/TracWorkflow#How-ToCombineSVNtrac-post-commit-hookWithTestWorkflow|Trac 0.11 recipe]] for the `trac-post-commit-hook`, this will give you some ideas about how to modify the component.
     125
     126== Example: Add simple optional generic review state ==
     127
     128Sometimes Trac is used in situations where "testing" can mean different things to different people so you may want to create an optional workflow state that is between the default workflow's `assigned` and `closed` states, but does not impose implementation-specific details. The only new state you need to add for this is a `reviewing` state. A ticket may then be "submitted for review" from any state that it can be reassigned. If a review passes, you can re-use the `resolve` action to close the ticket, and if it fails you can re-use the `reassign` action to push it back into the normal workflow.
     129
     130The new `reviewing` state along with its associated `review` action looks like this:
     131
     132{{{
     133review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
     134review.operations = set_owner
     135review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     136}}}
     137
     138Then, to integrate this with the default Trac 0.11 workflow, you also need to add the `reviewing` state to the `accept` and `resolve` actions, like so:
     139
     140{{{
     141accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
     142[…]
     143resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
     144}}}
     145
     146Optionally, you can also add a new action that allows you to change the ticket's owner without moving the ticket out of the `reviewing` state. This enables you to reassign review work without pushing the ticket back to the `new` status.
     147
     148{{{
     149reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
     150reassign_reviewing.name = reassign review
     151reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
     152reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     153}}}
     154
     155The full `[ticket-workflow]` configuration will thus look like this:
     156
     157{{{
     158[ticket-workflow]
     159accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
     160accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     161accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     162leave = * -> *
     163leave.default = 1
     164leave.operations = leave_status
     165reassign = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> assigned
     166reassign.operations = set_owner
     167reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     168reopen = closed -> reopened
     169reopen.operations = del_resolution
     170reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
     171resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
     172resolve.operations = set_resolution
     173resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     174review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
     175review.operations = set_owner
     176review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     177reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
     178reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
     179reassign_reviewing.name = reassign review
     180reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     181}}}
     182
     183== Example: Limit the resolution options for a new ticket ==
     184
     185The above resolve_new operation allows you to set the possible resolutions for a new ticket.  By modifying the existing resolve action and removing the new status from before the `->` we then get two resolve actions.  One with limited resolutions for new tickets, and then the regular one once a ticket is accepted.
     186
     187{{{
     188resolve_new = new -> closed
     189resolve_new.name = resolve
     190resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
     191resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     192resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix,duplicate
     193
     194resolve = assigned,accepted,reopened -> closed
     195resolve.operations = set_resolution
     196resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     197}}}
     198
     199== Advanced Ticket Workflow Customization ==
     200
     201If the customization above is not extensive enough for your needs, you can extend the workflow using plugins.  These plugins can provide additional operations for the workflow (like code_review), or implement side-effects for an action (such as triggering a build) that may not be merely simple state changes.  Look at [trac:source:trunk/sample-plugins/workflow sample-plugins/workflow] for a few simple examples to get started.
     202
     203But if even that is not enough, you can disable the !ConfigurableTicketWorkflow component and create a plugin that completely replaces it.
     204
     205== Adding Workflow States to Milestone Progress Bars ==
     206
     207If you add additional states to your workflow, you may want to customize your milestone progress bars as well.  See [TracIni#milestone-groups-section TracIni].
     208
     209== some ideas for next steps ==
     210
     211New enhancement ideas for the workflow system should be filed as enhancement tickets against the `ticket system` component.  If desired, add a single-line link to that ticket here.  Also look at the [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin] as it provides experimental operations.
     212
     213If you have a response to the comments below, create an enhancement ticket, and replace the description below with a link to the ticket.
     214
     215 * the "operation" could be on the nodes, possible operations are:
     216   * '''preops''': automatic, before entering the state/activity
     217   * '''postops''': automatic, when leaving the state/activity
     218   * '''actions''': can be chosen by the owner in the list at the bottom, and/or drop-down/pop-up together with the default actions of leaving the node on one of the arrows.
     219''This appears to add complexity without adding functionality; please provide a detailed example where these additions allow something currently impossible to implement.''
     220
     221 * operations could be anything: sum up the time used for the activity, or just write some statistical fields like
     222''A workflow plugin can add an arbitrary workflow operation, so this is already possible.''
     223
     224 * set_actor should be an operation allowing to set the owner, e.g. as a "preop":
     225   * either to a role, a person
     226   * entered fix at define time, or at run time, e.g. out of a field, or select.
     227''This is either duplicating the existing `set_owner` operation, or needs to be clarified.''
     228
     229 * Actions should be selectable based on the ticket type (different Workflows for different tickets)
     230''Look into the [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin]'s `triage` operation.''
     231
     232 * I'd wish to have an option to perform automatic status changes. In my case, I do not want to start with "new", but with "assigned". So tickets in state "new" should automatically go into state "assigned". Or is there already a way to do this and I just missed it?
     233''Have a look at [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/TicketCreationStatusPlugin TicketCreationStatusPlugin] and [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/TicketConditionalCreationStatusPlugin TicketConditionalCreationStatusPlugin]''
     234
     235 * I added a 'testing' state. A tester can close the ticket or reject it. I'd like the transition from testing to rejected to set the owner to the person that put the ticket in 'testing'. The [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin] is close with set_owner_to_field, but we need something like set_field_to_owner.
     236
     237 * I'd like to track the time a ticket is in each state, adding up 'disjoints' intervals in the same state.