.. meta::
    :description:
        Describes how to interact with a tracker based on the
        Roundup Issue Tracker. Covers web (html), and email
        interfaces.

==========
User Guide
==========

.. contents::
   :local:

.. hint::
   This document will refer to *issues* as the primary store of
   information in the tracker. This is the default of the classic template,
   but may vary in any given installation.


Your Tracker in a Nutshell
==========================

Your tracker holds information about issues in bundles we call *items*.
An item may be an *issue* (a bug or feature request) or a *user*. The
issue-ness or user-ness is called the item's *class*. So, for bug
reports and features, the class is "issue", and for users the class is
"user".

Each item in the tracker has an ID number that identifies it along with
its item class. To identify a particular issue or user, we combine the
class with the number to create a unique label, so that user 1 (who,
incidentally, is *always* the "admin" user) is referred to as "user1".
Issue number 315 is referred to as "issue315". We call that label the
item's :term:`designator`.

Items in the database are never deleted, they're just "retired". You
can still refer to them by ID - hence removing an item won't break
references to the item. It's just that the item won't appear in any
listings.


Accessing the Tracker
---------------------

You may access your tracker in three ways:

1. through the `web interface`_,
2. through the `e-mail gateway`_, or
3. using the `command line tool`_.

The last is usually only used by administrators. Most users will use the
web and e-mail interfaces. All three are explained below.

.. _command line tool: admin_guide.html#using-roundup-admin

Issue life cycles in Roundup
----------------------------

New issues may be submitted via the web or e-mail.

By default, the issue will have the status "unread". If another message
is received for the issue, its status will change to "chatting".

The "home" page for a tracker will generally display all issues which
are not "resolved".

If an issue is closed, and a new message is received then it'll be
reopened to the state of "chatting".

The full set of **priority** and **status** values are:

.. table:: Default priorities defined for the classic template.
   :name: priority table
   :widths: auto

   =========== =====================================
   Priority    Description
   =========== =====================================
   "critical"  panic: work is stopped!
   "urgent"    important, but not deadly
   "bug"       lost work or incorrect results
   "feature"   want missing functionality
   "wish"      avoidable bugs, missing conveniences
   =========== =====================================


.. table:: Default statuses defined for the classic template.
   :name: status table
   :widths: auto

   ============= =====================================
   Status        Description
   ============= =====================================
   "unread"      submitted but no action yet
   "deferred"    intentionally set aside
   "chatting"    under review or seeking clarification
   "need-eg"     need a reproducible example of a bug
   "in-progress" understood; development in progress
   "testing"     we think it's done; others, please test
   "done-cbb"    okay for now, but could be better
   "resolved"    fix has been released
   ============= =====================================


.. _query-tracker:

Entering values in your Tracker
-------------------------------

All interfaces to your tracker use the same format for entering values.
This means the web interface for entering a new issue, the web interface
for searching issues, the e-mail interface and even the command-line
administration tool.


String and Numeric properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These fields just take a simple text value, like ``It's broken``.


Boolean properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These fields take a value which indicates "yes"/"no", "true"/"false",
"1"/"0" or "on"/"off".


Constrained (link and multilink) properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fields like "Assigned To" and "Keywords" hold references to items in other
classes ("user" and "keyword" in those two cases.)

Sometimes, the selection is done through a menu, like in the "Assigned
To" field.

Where the input is not a simple menu selection, we use a comma-separated
list of values to indicated which values of "user" or "keyword" are
interesting. The values may be either numeric ids or the names of items.
The special value "-1" may be used to match items where the property is
not set. For example, the following searches on the issues:

``assignedto=richard,george``
  match issues which are assigned to richard or george.
``assignedto=-1``
  match issues that are not assigned to a user.
``assignedto=2,3,40``
  match issues that are assigned to users 2, 3 or 40.
``keyword=user interface``
  match issues with the keyword "user interface" in their keyword list
``keyword=web interface,e-mail interface``
  match issues with the keyword "web interface" or "e-mail interface" in
  their keyword list
``keyword=-1``
  match issues with no keywords set


Date properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date-and-time stamps are specified with the date in
international standard format (``yyyy-mm-dd``) joined to the time
(``hh:mm:ss``) by a period ``.``.  Dates in this form can be easily
compared and are fairly readable when printed.  An example of a valid
stamp is ``2000-06-24.13:03:59``. We'll call this the "full date
format".  When Timestamp objects are printed as strings, they appear in
the full date format.

For user input, some partial forms are also permitted: the whole time or
just the seconds may be omitted; and the whole date may be omitted or
just the year may be omitted.  If the time is given, the time is
interpreted in the user's local time zone. The Date constructor takes
care of these conversions. In the following examples, suppose that
``yyyy`` is the current year, ``mm`` is the current month, and ``dd`` is
the current day of the month.

-   "2000-04-17" means <Date 2000-04-17.00:00:00>
-   "01-25" means <Date yyyy-01-25.00:00:00>
-   "2000-04-17.03:45" means <Date 2000-04-17.08:45:00>
-   "08-13.22:13" means <Date yyyy-08-14.03:13:00>
-   "11-07.09:32:43" means <Date yyyy-11-07.14:32:43>
-   "14:25" means <Date yyyy-mm-dd.19:25:00>
-   "8:47:11" means <Date yyyy-mm-dd.13:47:11>
-   the special date "." means "right now"


When searching, a plain date entered as a search field will match that date
exactly in the database.  We may also accept ranges of dates. You can
specify range of dates in one of two formats:

1. English syntax::

    [From <value>][To <value>]

   Keywords "From" and "To" are case insensitive. Keyword "From" is
   optional.

2. "Geek" syntax::

    [<value>];[<value>]

Either first or second ``<value>`` can be omitted in both syntaxes.

For example, if you enter string "from 9:00" to "Creation date" field,
roundup will find  all issues, that were created today since 9 AM.

The ``<value>`` may also be an interval, as described in the next section.
Searching of "-2m; -1m" on activity field gives you issues which were
active between period of time since 2 months up-till month ago.

Other possible examples (consider local time is 2003-03-08.22:07:48):

- "from 2-12 to 4-2" means
  <Range from 2003-02-12.00:00:00 to 2003-04-02.00:00:00>
- "FROM 18:00 TO +2m" means
  <Range from 2003-03-08.18:00:00 to 2003-05-08.20:07:48>
- "12:00;" means
  <Range from 2003-03-08.12:00:00 to None>
- "tO +3d" means
  <Range from None to 2003-03-11.20:07:48>
- "2002-11-10; 2002-12-12" means
  <Range from 2002-11-10.00:00:00 to 2002-12-12.00:00:00>
- "; 20:00 +1d" means
  <Range from None to 2003-03-09.20:00:00>
- "2003" means
  <Range from 2003-01-01.00:00:00 to 2003-12-31.23:59:59>
- "2003-04" means
  <Range from 2003-04-01.00:00:00 to 2003-04-30.23:59:59>


Interval properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Date intervals are specified using the suffixes "y", "m", and "d".  The
suffix "w" (for "week") means 7 days. Time intervals are specified in
hh:mm:ss format (the seconds may be omitted, but the hours and minutes
may not).

-   "3y" means three years
-   "2y 1m" means two years and one month
-   "1m 25d" means one month and 25 days
-   "2w 3d" means two weeks and three days
-   "1d 2:50" means one day, two hours, and 50 minutes
-   "14:00" means 14 hours
-   "0:04:33" means four minutes and 33 seconds


Simple support for collision detection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Item edit pages remember when the item was last edited. When a form is
submitted, the user will be informed if someone else has edited the item
at the same time they tried to.


Web Interface
=============

.. note::
   This document contains screenshots of the default look and feel.
   Your site may have a slightly (or very) different look, but the
   functionality will be very similar, and the concepts still hold.

The web interface is broken up into the following parts:

1. `lists of items`_,
2. `display, edit or entry of an item`_, and
3. `searching page`_.

In addition to the graphical web interface, Roundup has `REST`_ and
`XMLRPC`_ interfaces. These can be used by advanced users and
programmers to automate tasks and integrate with other programs.

.. _REST: rest.html
.. _XMLRPC: xmlrpc.html

Lists of Items
--------------

The first thing you'll see when you log into Roundup will be a list of
open (ie. not resolved) issues. This list has been generated by a bunch
of controls `under the covers`_ but for now, you can see something like:

.. image:: images/index_logged_out.png
   :width: 675
   :height: 450
   :alt: Image of the classic Roundup tracker showing a list of issues
         that one would see before logging in.

The screen is divided up into three sections. There's a title which tells
you where you are, a sidebar which contains useful navigation tools and a
body which usually displays either a list of items or a single item from
the tracker.

You may register, reset your password or log in. Registration takes
you to:

.. image:: images/registration.png
   :width: 675
   :height: 450
   :alt: A registration form with fields for name, login name,
         password etc.

Clicking on the "Lost your login?" link allows you to reset your
password. Resetting your password takes you to:

.. image:: images/reset.png
   :width: 605
   :height: 495
   :alt: A form with email address and username fields that will
         trigger a password reset when submitted.

You can enter your username to get a reset email sent to your primary
E-mail address. Otherwise you can enter your primary E-mail address or
an Alternate E-mail address to get a reset email sent to that address.
The reset email includes a verification link that can be used to
complete the password reset. The verification link expires in a week.

Once you're logged in, the sidebar changes to:

.. image:: images/index_logged_in.png
   :width: 182
   :height: 399
   :alt: Navigation sidebar after login showing multiple links. It now
         includes a link labeled "My Details" for the user's settings.

You can now get to your "My Details" page:

.. image:: images/my_details.png
   :width: 667
   :height: 558
   :alt: A form allowing the user to change username, real name, email
         address and it also shows activity done by the user.

Display, edit or entry of an item
---------------------------------

Create a new issue with "create new" under the issue subheading. This
will take you to:

.. image:: images/new_issue.png
   :width: 648
   :height: 277
   :alt: A form for entering a new issue with title, priority, status
         and other fields. All fields are empty. It also includes an
         entry box for typing free form text to describe the issue.

Editing an issue uses the same form, though now you'll see attached files
and messages, and the issue history at the bottom of the page:

.. image:: images/edit_issue.png
   :width: 650
   :height: 535
   :alt: A form for editing an issue with title, priority, status
         and other fields filled in. It also includes an entry box for
	 typing free form text to describe the issue.

The "Make a copy" link duplicate the current issue copying most of the
properties to a new issue. This is useful for splitting am issue into
sub-issues that can be assigned to different people.

Searching Page
--------------

See `entering values in your tracker`_ for an explanation of what you
may type into the search form.


Saving queries
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You may save queries in the tracker by giving the query a name. Each user
may only have one query with a given name - if a subsequent search is
performed with the same query name supplied, then it will edit the
existing query of the same name.

Queries may be marked as "private". These queries are only visible to the
user that created them. If they're not marked "private" then all other
users may include the query in their list of "Your Queries". Marking it as
private at a later date does not affect users already using the query, nor
does deleting the query.

If a user subsequently creates or edits a public query, a new personal
version of that query is made, with the same editing rules as described
above.


Under the covers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The searching page converts your selections into the following
arguments:

============ =============================================================
Argument     Description
============ =============================================================
@sort        sort by prop name, optionally preceded with '-' to give
             descending or nothing for ascending sorting. The sort
             argument can have several props separated with comma.
@group       group by prop name, optionally preceded with '-' or to sort
             in descending or nothing for ascending order. The group
             argument can have several props separated with comma.
@columns     selects the columns that should be displayed. Default is
             all.
@filter      indicates which properties are being used in filtering.
             Default is none.
propname     selects the values the item properties given by propname must
             have (very basic search/filter).
@search_text performs a full-text search (message bodies, issue titles,
             etc)
============ =============================================================

You may manually write URLs that contain these arguments, like so
(whitespace has been added for clarity)::

    /issue?status=unread,in-progress,resolved&
        keyword=security,ui&
        @group=priority,-status&
        @sort=-activity&
        @filters=status,keyword&
        @columns=title,status,fixer

Full text search using the xapian, whoosh and native indexers treats
the search query as a series of space separated words. Any word less
than 2 characters or more than 50 characters is discarded. Also a
stoplist is used to remove common words like "with", "and"
etc. Additional stoplist words can be added in the tracker's
config.ini file. Once filtering of the word list is done, each indexed
item (e.g. title, file or message content ...) is searched and if all
the terms are found in the item the item is returned. Then the items
are mapped to an issue and the list of matching issues is generated.

Other searching backends such as native-fts can be used in which case
the filtering above is not used. The search query can support
structure such as quoted phrases, matching one term or another rather
than both (or search), prefixes etc. In this case you should look at
the `documentation for configuring the native-fts`_ backend to find
the supported format and features.

.. _`documentation for configuring the native-fts`: admin_guide.html#configuring-native-fts-full-text-search

Access Controls
---------------

User access is controlled through Permissions. These are are grouped
into Roles, and users have a comma-separated list of Roles assigned to
them. Roles can allow you to access:

- an entire class of items (e.g. issues)
- only certain fields of a class (e.g. you can see the username but
  not the phone number of other users)
- fields or classes based on your  relationship to an item (e.g.
  you can see the phone number of your user entry since you are the
  owner of your user entry)

Other permissions divide access controls up into answering questions
like:

- may the user edit issues ("Edit", "issue")
- is the user allowed to use the web interface ("Web Access")
- may the user edit other user's Roles through the web ("Web Roles")

Any number of new Permissions and Roles may be created as described in
the customisation documentation. Examples of new access controls are:

- only managers may sign off issues as complete
- don't give users who register through e-mail web access
- let some users edit the details of all users

E-Mail Gateway
==============

Roundup trackers may be used to facilitate e-mail conversations around
issues. The "nosy" list attached to each issue indicates the users who
should receive e-mail when messages are added to the issue.

When e-mail comes into a tracker that identifies an issue in the subject
line, the content of the e-mail is attached to the issue.

You may even create new issues from e-mail messages.

E-mail sent to a tracker is examined for several pieces of information:

1. `subject-line information`_ identifying the purpose of the e-mail
2. `sender identification`_ using the sender of the message
3. `e-mail message content`_ which is to be extracted
4. e-mail attachments which should be associated with the message


Subject-line information
------------------------

The subject line of the incoming message is examined to find one of:

1. a case insensitive ``help``,
2. a match for ``-- key <OneTimeKey>``,
3. the item that the message is responding to,
4. the type of item the message should create, or
5. we default the item class and try some trickiness.

If the subject is ``help`` (case insensitive), the gateway responds
with an explanation of the interface.

If a one-time key is found, we're processing an in-progress
registration confirmation.

If the subject line contains a prefix in ``[square brackets]`` then
we're looking at case 3 or 4 above. Spaces are allowed inside the
brackets and after the class item name. So ``[issue2]`` and
``[ issue 2 ]`` are treated the same where any white space is optional.
Any "re:" or "fwd:" prefixes are stripped off the subject line before
we start looking for real information.

If an item :term:`designator` (class name and id number, for example
``issue123``) is found there, a new "msg" item is added to the
"messages" property for that item, and any new "file" items are added to
the "files" property for the item.

If just an item class name is found there, we attempt to create a new
item of that class with its "messages" property initialized to contain
the new "msg" item and its "files" property initialized to contain any
new "file" items.

The fifth case above - where no ``[information]`` is provided, the
tracker's ``MAIL_DEFAULT_CLASS`` configuration variable defines what
class of item the message relates to. We try to match the subject line
to an existing item of the default class, and if there's a match, the
message is related to that matched item. If not, then a new item of the
default class is created.


Setting Properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The e-mail interface also provides a simple way to set properties on
items. At the end of the subject line, propname=value pairs can be
specified in square brackets, using the same conventions as for the
roundup set shell command.

For example,

- setting the priority of an issue::

   Subject: Re: [issue2] the coffee machine is broken! [priority=urgent]

- adding yourself to a nosy list::

   Subject: Re: [ issue2 ] we're out of widgets [nosy=+richard]

- setting the nosy list to just you and cliff::

   Subject: Re: [issue 2] we're out of widgets [nosy=richard,cliff]

- removing yourself from a nosy list and setting the priority::

   Subject: Re: [ issue 2 ] we're out of widgets [nosy=-richard;priority=bug]

In all cases, the message relates to issue 2. The ``Re:`` prefix is
stripped off.


Automatic Properties
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**status of new issues**
 When a new message is received that is not identified as being related
 to an existing issue, it creates a new issue. The status of the new
 issue is defaulted to "unread".

**reopening of resolved issues**
 When a message is is received for a resolved issue, the issue status is
 automatically reset to "chatting" to indicate new information has been
 received.


Sender identification
---------------------

If the sender of an e-mail is unknown to Roundup (looking up both user
primary e-mail addresses and their alternate addresses) then a new user
may be created, depending on tracker configuration (see the `Admin
Guide`_ section "Users and Security" for configuration details.)

.. _`Admin Guide`: admin_guide.html

The new user will have their username set to the "user" part of
"user@domain" in their e-mail address. Their password will be
completely randomised, and they'll have to visit the web interface to
have it changed. Some sites don't allow web access by users who register
via e-mail like this.


E-Mail Message Content
----------------------

By default Roundup only associates plain text (MIME type
``text/plain``) as messages for items. Any other parts of a message
are associated as downloadable files. If no plain text part is found,
the message is rejected. The tracker can be configured to enable
``convert_htmltotext``. If this is enabled, an email with an HTML
message (MIME type ``text/html``) and no ``text/plain`` part will be
accepted. The first HTML part will be converted to text and used as
the message for the item. Subsequent parts will be treated as
attachments.

To do this, incoming messages are examined for multiple parts:

* In a multipart/mixed message or part, each subpart is extracted and
  examined. The text/plain subparts are assembled to form the textual
  body of the message, to be stored in the file associated with a "msg"
  class item. Any parts of other types are each stored in separate files
  and given "file" class items that are linked to the "msg" item.
* In a multipart/alternative message or part, we look for a text/plain
  subpart and ignore the other parts.

If the message is a response to a previous message, and contains quoted
sections, then these will be stripped out of the message if the
``EMAIL_KEEP_QUOTED_TEXT`` configuration variable is set to ``'no'``.

Message summary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "summary" property on message items is taken from the first
non-quoting section in the message body. The message body is divided
into sections by blank lines. Sections where the second and all
subsequent lines begin with a ">" or "|" character are considered
"quoting sections". The first line of the first non-quoting section
becomes the summary of the message.


Address handling
----------------

All of the addresses in the ``To:`` and ``Cc:`` headers of the incoming
message are looked up among the tracker users, and the corresponding
users are placed in the "recipients" property on the new "msg" item. The
address in the ``From:`` header similarly determines the "author"
property of the new "msg" item. The default handling for addresses that
don't have corresponding users is to create new users with no passwords
and a username equal to the address.

The addresses mentioned in the ``To:``, ``From:`` and ``Cc:`` headers of
the message may be added to the `nosy list`_ depending on:

``ADD_AUTHOR_TO_NOSY``
 Does the author of a message get placed on the nosy list automatically?
 If 'new' is used, then the author will only be added when a message
 creates a new issue. If 'yes', then the author will be added on
 followups too. If 'no', they're never added to the nosy.

``ADD_RECIPIENTS_TO_NOSY``
 Do the recipients (To:, Cc:) of a message get placed on the nosy list?
 If 'new' is used, then the recipients will only be added when a message
 creates a new issue. If 'yes', then the recipients will be added on
 followups too. If 'no', they're never added to the nosy.

Some organisations might prefer to have someone moderate emails before
they are delivered into Roundup.  Those might want to set the
configuration option ``EMAIL_KEEP_REAL_FROM`` to ``'yes'`` to avoid
having the moderators address appearing as the creator of issues.

Nosy List
~~~~~~~~~

Roundup watches for additions to the "messages" property of items.

When a new message is added, it is sent to all the users on the "nosy"
list for the item that are not already on the "recipients" list of the
message. Those users are then appended to the "recipients" property on
the message, so multiple copies of a message are never sent to the same
user. The journal recorded by the hyperdatabase on the "recipients"
property then provides a log of when the message was sent to whom.

If the author of the message is also in the nosy list for the item that
the message is attached to, then the config var ``MESSAGES_TO_AUTHOR``
is queried to determine if they get a nosy list copy of the message too.

