Only Issue - External Submissions

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:16 am

We've been using Dragnet over here for a few weeks now and the consensus is that it is extremely easy to use and much cleaner looking that other systems. We're very happy with it.

There is however one issue that would preclude us from switching to Dragnet (from FogBugz); external submissions.

We need some method of accepting external submissions. These are items emailed in by end-users or, more importantly, automatically submitted by our application.

When we have an error today, the system generates a bug report in our FogBugz database. And if the customer cannot do this for some reason, emailing to our bugs email address will create an entry in FogBugz.

- Marc

ericsink · Post by **ericsink** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 9:54 am

I agree this issue is really important. Can you tell us exactly how you think the feature should work?

Dragnet would provide a back door way to add a bug without being logged in.

Can these anonymous guests also do queries and look at the bug list? I assume no.

Can the anonymous guest see the status and comments of the bug that he himself logged? I assum no.

I assume the admin can turn the feature off?

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Fri Nov 12, 2004 12:43 pm

Dragnet would provide a back door way to add a bug without being logged in.

Yes. I was thinking that a very simple WebMethod that took in the required fields for an item without needing a login. This would let me consume the web service in my application. I could even write an app to poll POP3 email boxes if I wanted to go so far.

Can these anonymous guests also do queries and look at the bug list? I assume no.

I wouldn't need this. I can see where someone may need such a "Limited User", but as an ISV I need only collect information for development.

Can the anonymous guest see the status and comments of the bug that he himself logged? I assume no.

I don't think so. That goes behind the scope of this and into "Limited User" territory.

I assume the admin can turn the feature off?

Absolutely. And if it would be enabled/disabled per project, even better.

nalenb · Post by **nalenb** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 2:58 pm

I'm wondering if this method generates a lot of noise entries. It seems like if the user can just email any old thing in, there would need to be a lot of cleaning up of issues in the database. I'm wondering if going through the db is easier than going through the support emailbox and pushing stuff over manually is better. Perhaps a topic for a new thread?

djMax · Post by **djMax** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 1:19 pm

I'll toss in my opinion that this is the #1 missing feature from Dragnet right now... Especially when compared to FogBugz's great email integration. The solution proposed with a consumable web service is a nice one because it might allow SourceGear to get the rest of the community to do the work for them.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 3:25 pm

Kinda along the same lines (External Submissions) but different

EMAIL EMAIL EMAIL!

You should add lots of email capabilities, and soon!
- external submissions emailed into the system for new requests (w/o having to have a user account)
- email to update existing issues
- email to keep users informed of status of issues (to which they are a member, including the person who opened the request externally)
- uh... more email?

That's just off the top of my head

Overall it's good, but not $100 per user good. yet. i hope you add features very quickly!

Also, i like the interface look. But the naviagtion seems a bit confusing.
i mean there's about 4 differnt ways to get around the site.

there's the Server home, help, about, logout navigation
there's the Item Tracking, Project Admin, Preferences navigation
there's the Recent Items, Add, Query, Summaries, Open, My Open, My Recent navigation
there's the modify, audit, printable navigation
and the submit, cancel navigation at the bottom of each edit page

And they're all in different locations, spread out over the entire screen. Kinda hard to figure out where to click.

Post by **jclausius** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:30 pm

The tough part about parsing email messages is nailing down a message format that everyone agrees with. The format would have to work for all countries. Maybe an defining an XML based submission? Anyone want to chime in on this one?

So, for right now, Mary Jo has provided some samples for adding items for those eager enough to provide their own parsing routines. - See Examples for AddItemExternal() Web Service API

For the notification, personally, I think email is becoming passe'. Anyone given the RSS feed a try? ( https://SERVERHOSTNAME/dragnet/feeds/bu ... ROJ%20NAME )

Post by **jclausius** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:53 pm

One quick follow up - The URL for the RSS feed above presents a security risk, if used over HTTP ( and not HTTPS ).

Please make sure you understand the risks of sending passwords over an unsecure protocol.