I've been umm'ing and arr'ing about getting some bug tracking software setup. I never seem to find the time, until today. I considered installing bugzilla, but i'm not all that hot at server admin type stuff, so was worried to read things like "backup backup backup".
I set my browser to go to google, and typed in "bug tracker php". The very first (non paid) result was Mantis. Sounds good to me! I read a little about it, searched on whether it had a ton of bad reviews or not, and was thoroughly impressed with what I saw.
After downloading it to me desktop, I decided (in my infinite wisdom) to try installing it locally first. I have Xampp running locally, so I thought it would be a breeze. Not so. I can't remember the errors I was getting specifically, but it was enough for me to give up and go straight onto the server install. That sounds dangerous doesn't it!! "Oh dear it won't run on my safe little local environment.. lets break the server!" But really, I don't expect a whole lot to run locally, Xampp can only do so much for this windows machine.
Turns out on the server I had a bunch more success. I had to patch the version I downloaded (small mysql typo/bug) but aside from that it went off without much of a hitch. With all the messing around I did, I'd say it took me about an hour from searching for it to having it running.
In the past I've avoided bug trackers because they've seemed over cumbersome, like a whole extra step I have to perform, along with the hundreds of other tasks I have to do every day. I am reformed. I'm tired of hunting through my notebook searching for a note I made 6 weeks ago on the bottom of a page which I think had a diagram of a server on it.. maybe not.. darn where is it?!
I've been using Mantis now for a grand total of 3 hours. If anything comes up, I'll be sure to post again about it. Since most management attempts fail because no one participates, I've decided that this is 99% for me, and 1% for everyone else. Even if people send me an email, an IM, a phone call, I'll put them all in Mantis myself, so I won't forget!
I'm really looking forward for the satisfaction of marking a bug as done.. I can't wait!!
Mantis is at http://www.mantisbt.org/
BFN
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