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A Painless Web-Based Bug Tracking Tool

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30 Jun 20023 min read 193.1K   2.1K   87   35
A very simple web-based bug tracking database ASP front-end

Introduction

In our small team, we needed a tool to track bugs found during the development cycle. Although many tools currently exist on the market, we needed something very simple, because we felt that to be effective, a bug tracking tool should allow a developer to enter a new bug in no time.

As far as I was concerned, I needed no other features, that may be found in other expensive packages, or even in the beast itself.

That is when I stumbled accross Joel Spolsky's most excellent Joel On Software that has provided me with hours of reading at lunch time ever since. I was particularly interested in the article that dealt with painless bug tracking. That was it! I decided to jump on the bandwagon, and developed this small project from scratch.

How to Use This?

Basically, bugz consists of a set of ASP server-side scripts that need to be processed by Microsoft's Internet Information Server. The data for the bugs are stored in a Microsoft Access database, but that can easily be changed, because that detail is centralized in one page.

The following picture shows a sample bug as rendered by the ASP pages. You will notice that it mimics as closely as possible what I have seen on Joel's page.

Image 1

Features

bugz is designed to be extremely simple. There is no administration pages nor any pages not directely relevant to entering bugs. Currently, what you can do is:

  • list all bugs in the database
  • enter a new bug
  • update a bug assigned to you

The file config.asp contains some options that you will need to check. Make sure the baseURL variable is set to the address of the application. Additionnaly, you can set the bSendMail variable to True in order for e-mails to be sent automatically when a bug is entered or updated in the system.

bugz was designed to work with small teams. It doesn't use any authentication scheme. All that is required is to pass along the user login with the URL as explained below. The main pages for the application are:

  • list.asp: lists all bugs in the database
  • history.asp: displays history information for a specific bug
  • new.asp: allows for entering a new bug in the system

For instance, in your team, John would need to set the main page for the bug tracking tool in his web browser to point to the following URL:

http://base-url/bugz/list.asp?user=john

To enter a new bug in the system, the following URL would be used:

http://base-url/bugz/new.asp?&user=john

When a new bug is entered in the system, its status is Open and it is automatically assigned to the module owner, say Jack. Additionnaly, if the corresponding option is turned on in the config.asp page, an e-mail is sent to Jack.

When Jack wants to update a bug, he points his web browser to the following URL:

http://base-url/bugz/history.asp?bug=90002&user=jack

Where 90002 is the bug number. This is the address that is displayed in the first line of the e-mail that was sent to Jack. Because this bug is assigned to him, Jack is presented with the history for this bug, as well as with a form where he can enter informations in order to update the bug.

Upon update, a bug can be assigned to someone else and its status can be changed according to the rules described hereafter. Again, an e-mail is sent to the new person that now owns the bug. This goes on until the bug is closed.

  • When a bug is open (Open), it can stay open, or be resolved
    (one of Fixed, Won't Fix, Not Repro, Duplicate, By Design)
  • When a bug is resolved, it can be reactivated (Open) or closed (Closed)
  • When a bug is closed (Closed), it cannot be updated any longer

Conclusion

In this article, I have demonstrated the use of a simple, yet useful, bug tracking tool that is targeted at small development teams. I hope you will find a use for this with your own teams.

I'm looking forward to reading your comments and suggestions.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here


Written By
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Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralAnother painless tool for comparision, BugTracker.NET (free) Pin
ctrager12-Aug-07 7:25
ctrager12-Aug-07 7:25 
GeneralAbout Customization Pin
Moinus Samad Khan23-Apr-06 20:28
Moinus Samad Khan23-Apr-06 20:28 
GeneralAbout Customization Pin
Moinus Samad Khan23-Apr-06 20:27
Moinus Samad Khan23-Apr-06 20:27 
Generalunable to connect to database Pin
pamalam8-Aug-05 5:51
pamalam8-Aug-05 5:51 
GeneralNice Work! but... Pin
peterchen17-Jun-04 6:33
peterchen17-Jun-04 6:33 
GeneralRe: Nice Work! but... Pin
Maxime Labelle2-Aug-04 3:00
Maxime Labelle2-Aug-04 3:00 
GeneralTiếng Việt Pin
Anonymous21-Oct-03 0:09
Anonymous21-Oct-03 0:09 
Generalerror while submitting new bug Pin
samwise113012-Aug-03 6:57
samwise113012-Aug-03 6:57 
GeneralRe: error while submitting new bug Pin
teepe2228-Dec-03 22:54
teepe2228-Dec-03 22:54 
Generalthis that and the other Pin
AnonymousToo1-Nov-02 9:59
sussAnonymousToo1-Nov-02 9:59 
GeneralCannot Find Index File with latest download Pin
veritycoder22-Oct-02 10:50
veritycoder22-Oct-02 10:50 
I cannot find the index.asp file and
It will not let me add a new bug to the database?

Is there something missing in the latest files to download?

Thanks Smile | :)

Kevin

GeneralRe: Cannot Find Index File with latest download Pin
Maxime Labelle22-Oct-02 21:41
Maxime Labelle22-Oct-02 21:41 
GeneralNot working, is there a bug Pin
icskates6-Aug-02 6:20
sussicskates6-Aug-02 6:20 
GeneralRe: Not working, is there a bug Pin
Anonymous6-Aug-02 6:31
Anonymous6-Aug-02 6:31 
GeneralRe: Not working, is there a bug Pin
Maxime Labelle6-Aug-02 20:44
Maxime Labelle6-Aug-02 20:44 
QuestionUpdated? Pin
Jason Troitsky (was Hattingh)1-Jul-02 23:06
Jason Troitsky (was Hattingh)1-Jul-02 23:06 
AnswerRe: Updated? Pin
Maxime Labelle2-Jul-02 1:04
Maxime Labelle2-Jul-02 1:04 
QuestionSort by open? Pin
Matt Newman1-Jul-02 10:07
Matt Newman1-Jul-02 10:07 
AnswerRe: Sort by open? Pin
Maxime Labelle2-Jul-02 1:13
Maxime Labelle2-Jul-02 1:13 
GeneralRe: Sort by open? Pin
Matt Newman2-Jul-02 5:49
Matt Newman2-Jul-02 5:49 
QuestionOther date formats? Pin
27-Jun-02 6:11
suss27-Jun-02 6:11 
AnswerRe: Other date formats? Pin
Maxime Labelle27-Jun-02 7:42
Maxime Labelle27-Jun-02 7:42 
GeneralRe: Other date formats? Pin
28-Jun-02 0:49
suss28-Jun-02 0:49 
GeneralRe: Other date formats? Pin
Maxime Labelle30-Jun-02 22:08
Maxime Labelle30-Jun-02 22:08 
GeneralHOWTO make use of this project Pin
TBiker24-Jun-02 6:44
TBiker24-Jun-02 6:44 

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