is scarab at its end of lifetime ?

[hussayn]

Hi;

I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
Is there a user comunity ?

I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a
life project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.

But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?

any opinions ?
hussayn

[Tim Etchells]

I would say yes it is needed,
Having been through several startups, and know several others which use
scarab as an issue tracking system, both for HW and sw. Its one of the
only tools other than excel or building a custom database that has a low
enough cost of entry for startups that actually does what you need.
there are lots of sw tracking tools, but not many which are easily
adapted for system and hw needs also.
My personal opinion

Tim

Tim Etchells
Lead Electrical Engineer
Mirabilis Medica, Inc
Tel : [phone]



-----Original Message-----
From: Hussayn Dabbous [mailto:hussayn.dabbous@...]
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 8:32 AM
To: users@...
Subject: is scarab at its end of lifetime ?

Hi;

I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
Is there a user comunity ?

I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a
life project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.

But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?

any opinions ?
hussayn
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[Joerg.Florin]

Hi,

we are using Scarab with about 20 active modules (=projects) and estimated 150 active users (446 are registered).

I think we will continue using Scarab for at least 2 or 3 years (in my opinion it will last longer). So we are interested in every enhancement to Scarab. Several months ago I have worked on the Oracle integration and posted my experiences in this mailing list, so I hope Scarab development will not die.

If we are one of only few users, publishing the enhancements may not be worthwhile, unfortunately.

Regards,

Jörg Florin
Techniker Krankenkasse
Hauptverwaltung
IT-Systeme (ITS.4 - Systemframeworks)
Bramfelder Straße 140, D-22305 Hamburg
 
Tel: [phone] - 25 75
Fax: [phone] - 8 25 75
E-Mail: joerg.florin@...
TK-Website: www.tk-online.de

Hussayn Dabbous <hussayn.dabbous@...>
 

26.05.2009 17:32

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users <users@...>

An	users@...
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Thema	is scarab at its end of lifetime ?

Hi;

I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
Is there a user comunity ?

I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a
life project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.

But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?

any opinions ?
hussayn
--
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/is-scarab-at-its-end-of-lifetime---tp23725597p23725597.html
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[hussayn]

So, let me give you an overview about what i am currently planning with
Scarab. Actually some points have allready found their way into trunk
by now, but i mention them for completeness. Most of this work should
officially be done within the next 14 days, but i know, i won't get this
ready at time. Anyways many points of what i describe below will come
soon or has allready been implemented. If you got any opinions and
implementation ideas or severe complains about a feature, plese let
me know.

BTW the selfhost is currently on the newest trunk-version and no, the
issues below have partially not yet been created as separate entries in
the self host. But that is on my todo-list.

1.) New parameters for visualising attributes (implemented):

     - display size (how long the field shall be on the screen)
     - style-class (add style='' or class='' to each field)
     - regex for testing syntactically correct input
     - hint (will be shown right to the input field as example input)



2.) history rework (partially implemented)

     - more clean display, IMHO better understandable
     - (optional) Maybe replace the current display by a dynamic customizable table
       similar to the search-results table containing the columns:

       ATTRIBUTE_NAME
       CHANGED_BY
       CHANGE_DATE
       CHANGE_FROM
       CHANGE_TO



3.) rework of Scarab GUI (partially done, work in progress)

     Main issue here: minimal support for skins



4.) post entry hooks (to be implemented)

     Any input field for Attributes can be associated to a
     post processing-hook. The hook allows to process the input
     and create actions (e.g. modify other fields or make an ajax-call to the backend ...)
     So the hook will be mainly something happening in the frontend. I currently
     favorise prototype, but maybe i might end up going plain ajax (no framework at all)
     I had a few bad experiences with dojo recently (much too complex IMHO).
     No idea yet,  how to implement that in a clever way.



5.) Enhance EMail Notifications

     - hide attributes in email, when they are not visible for a user
     - rework the plaintext email-layout.
     - take more care about changed comments, instead of just sending
       every single change as a complete comment dump
     - more elaborate definition of what gets into the "about" field.
       maybe add a template (per issue type) with a syntax like:
       "[$issueid]:$shorttext ($status) " and maybe add condition-based templates:

      if (errorclass=='critical' and status=='new')
           "[$issueid]:$shorttext immediate action necessary"

      if (errorclass=='critical' and status=='assigned' and lastChangeDate longer than 1 hour ago)
           "[$issueid]:$shorttext escalated: immediate action necessary!"



6.) attachments

     - add support for "inbrowser" display (currently only download possible)



7.) rework the personell settings

     currently these settings are controlled via the user attributes
     and the focus is on who will get an email as "to" or "cc". But IMHO
     the personell settings are something more complex. They should reflect,
     who is actually "working" on an issue and who is just "watching" it.
     There should be a more elaborate algorithm for deciding when exactly an involved
     personell shall be notified. Hence i plan to add notification-constraints here,
     something similar to the transition-constraints defined in the global attributes.

     I also think, it is a good option to have a checkmark for "notify me on changes".
     This checkmark will be enabled and readonly for the personell, who is "working" on
     the issue. all other personell can enable/disable this checkmark on an issue-by-issue
     basis. The default setting for this checkmark should be definable in the module settings.


8.) user/module definable start page



9.) hierarchical organisation of drop-down lists (treeview)

     Should reflect the parent-child associations defined in the attribute editor



10.) add permission constraints in issues

       It should be possible to define, that an issue can not be modified any more, when
       a specific condition applies (e.g. status=='closed')



11.) Add reminder-notifications

      If an issue is not touched for a specific time, the current asigned responsible personell
      shall receive a notification.
      If an issue is still not touched, the module owner shall receive a notification.



12.) add visual hints in query results.

      the idea is to add conditions to queries, which allow to
      assign a query result row to a cdertain css-class if a specific condition occurs.



13.) Enhance the conditions on attributes (and on other elements as noted above)

      - add a timed condition (e.g.: if last changed date longer than 10 days)
      - add negative conditions (e.g.: if status is NOT "closed")

[Ronny Voelker]

> I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
> Is there a user comunity ?

My company is still using Scarab, and right now there are no plans to replace it.
I think the same is true for at least some of the other core committers.

> I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a
> life project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.
>
> But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
> which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?

I would appreciate if you make your enhancements public.

Ronny

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[Johannes Höchstädter]

> My company is still using Scarab, and right now there are no plans to replace it.
> I think the same is true for at least some of the other core committers.
>
> I would appreciate if you make your enhancements public.
>
>  
I agree to both of the listed points from Ronny.

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[Jorge Uriarte]

Hi; though I'm not currently relying on Scarab directly in my company,
I still consider it a solid option for integrating issue management,
and it's definitively part of our toolbox with our clients.

It's quite stable, even though it's not the easiest one to install
(neither the worst, by far!).
And its only problem might be kind of a lack of sex-appeal given its
stable nature. No breaking new features, no buzztechnology, no need
for it if you ask me :)

The quest for 2.0 was (IMHO) doomed because it was an exclusively
technological effort, not driven by functional needs, and it's hard to
recruit resources if you don't have an itch to scratch :)

So, trying you to make a long story short; there's a (small) community
that appreciates the product. Efforts invested in adding features must
be (as you do Hussayn) in a conscious way, respecting/improving the
adaptability Scarab has always valued.

And you can always count on we the old guard to help you at least in
finding the way to add the features that way :)

Hugs,

_
Jorge Uriarte Aretxaga
http://www.gailen.es
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeuriarte



On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Hussayn Dabbous
<hussayn.dabbous@...> wrote:

> Hi;
>
> I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
> Is there a user comunity ?
>
> I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a
> life project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.
>
> But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
> which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?
>
> any opinions ?
> hussayn
> --
> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/is-scarab-at-its-end-of-lifetime---tp23725597p23725597.html
> Sent from the Scarab - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> http://scarab.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=456&dsMessageId=2353849
>
> To unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail: [users-unsubscribe@...].
>

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[Freeman, David C]

Our development group and much of our company uses Scarab for software
change management.  We have 361 active users with > 3.2M rows of data in
the Scarab tables.  We're on our third year of Scarab/Subversion use and
integration.

My main concern with continued use of Scarab is lack of support.
Understandably, this is open source.  We've received no response to
several inquiries on problems we've encountered using Scarab that we
have been unable to resolve.  We've had to create cron jobs to resolve
(hack) the issues (one of which is a Java exception) on the fly.
Likewise, we've attempted to make contributions with no response to our
inquiries.  

Otherwise, it meets our needs.  Though I have been thinking about moving
to JIRA for the support aspect.

My two cents.

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Jorge Uriarte [mailto:jorge.uriarte@...]
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 4:21 PM
To: users@...
Subject: Re: is scarab at its end of lifetime ?

Hi; though I'm not currently relying on Scarab directly in my company, I
still consider it a solid option for integrating issue management, and
it's definitively part of our toolbox with our clients.

It's quite stable, even though it's not the easiest one to install
(neither the worst, by far!).
And its only problem might be kind of a lack of sex-appeal given its
stable nature. No breaking new features, no buzztechnology, no need for
it if you ask me :)

The quest for 2.0 was (IMHO) doomed because it was an exclusively
technological effort, not driven by functional needs, and it's hard to
recruit resources if you don't have an itch to scratch :)

So, trying you to make a long story short; there's a (small) community
that appreciates the product. Efforts invested in adding features must
be (as you do Hussayn) in a conscious way, respecting/improving the
adaptability Scarab has always valued.

And you can always count on we the old guard to help you at least in
finding the way to add the features that way :)

Hugs,

_
Jorge Uriarte Aretxaga
http://www.gailen.es
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgeuriarte



On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Hussayn Dabbous
<hussayn.dabbous@...> wrote:

> Hi;
>
> I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
> Is there a user comunity ?
>
> I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a life
> project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.
>
> But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
> which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?
>
> any opinions ?
> hussayn
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/is-scarab-at-its-end-of-lifetime---tp23725597p23
> 725597.html Sent from the Scarab - User mailing list archive at
> Nabble.com.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> http://scarab.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=456&dsMessageId=2
> 353849
>
> To unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail:

[users-unsubscribe@...].
>

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[FRED.YY.LIN 林宥延]

Dear All,

Our company is using Scarab and have established several servers for different purposes.

We have hundreds of users.

It is easy to customize for many different tracking purposes.

We do thank the community for providing such a good tool.


Fred
-----Original Message-----
From: Hussayn Dabbous [mailto:hussayn.dabbous@...]
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:32 PM
To: users@...
Subject: is scarab at its end of lifetime ?


Hi;

I wonder, if scarab is still something needed in this world...
Is there a user comunity ?

I am currently working on a few enhancements which i need for a
life project. I originally planned to feedback everything into Scarab.

But if it is not of any use any more, i maybe just create some fixes,
which work for me and let scarab as it is and fade out development ?

any opinions ?
hussayn
--
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/is-scarab-at-its-end-of-lifetime---tp23725597p23725597.html
Sent from the Scarab - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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[Rathnadhar.K.V]

I plan to use Scarab in my development projects. I now have a choice of Scarab or Bugzilla. I have OpenSuse 11.1 installed on my computer. I have been trying to install Scarab for nearly a week. Tried every trick on earth. Searched over many sites. Till date I have not been able to build it ...I an really running out of my patience...I am now to take a hard decision to install bugzilla.

Why I chose Scarab?
1. I am using Subversion as my Version management tool.
2. I am a sort of experimenter...I love new products and development.
3. I wanted tighter integration with Subversion.
4. Wanted an open source tool.
5. Wanted something different from Bugzilla which I have been using all these times.

I found Scarab (from its technical details) fit my bill a lot.

Now the truth...Is scarab relevant? It is a relevant software but going into irrelevance. Yes its fading....

If it takes more than a week to install and still the installation is not possible means nobody will use it ....The installation is stuck in a time wrap of about 2 years ago..it is still relaying on Maven 1.11 while the Maven itself has moved. So the software does not build not at all....

Its extremely urgent that some thing be done on the installation. ITS CRITICAL.

PLEASE REWRITE THE INSTALL SCRIPT SO THAT IT INSTALLS ON OPENSUSE 11.1

Then there has to be further development over a period of time..with tighter integration into the following products:

1. Subversion.
2. Continuous build : Cruise Control.
3. WIki...
4. Better Reports required (graphical reports).

Only then it will crawl back to relevance....soon it will become a serious competitor for Bugzilla....

Build glamor around Scarab....

Its a great product...make it better. Its my appeal....

Finally: Please help me build and install Scarab on Opensuse 11.1

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[Jorge Uriarte Aretxaga]

mmmhhh... I think you're transforming your installation issue into a global issue. And it's not.

Ask for help here, provide logs and details on your system.

Feel free to contribute any of the enhancementd you're so kindly asking for

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[webpost]

I introduced Scarab in my team of systems engineers about 6 years ago, while I was working for an aircraft manufacturer. At the time, we were gearing up for the development of a new aircraft model and I was looking for a flexible issue tracking and management system able to support the high pace of system development work we were doing.

In my search for such an application (ignoring the commercial "mammoth" solutions), I found that the overwhelming majority of so-called "issue" trackers are heavily biased towards software engineering, i.e. glorified bug trackers. I found that Scarab was the only application flexible enough to support one of the key activities in Systems Engineering: issue tracking.

Scarab has proven to be invaluable to the development work we did, from tracking issues in requirements and design data (for hardware, software, integrated systems, subsystems) all the way through to ground and flight testing. Scarab even influenced the jargon used in the company, with managers (both in the company and at major suppliers) requesting "the Scarab burn-down rate" for the month (where Scarab became the synonym for any issue that was tracked ...).

Back to your original question if there is a user community for Scarab. I have read feedback from a lot of users who use Scarab in an ITC environment. I would say that the potential user community in this kind of environment is limited. Simply because there are plenty of free bug trackers and help desk ticketing applications around that are easier to use and look sexier than Scarab. I would argue that Systems Engineering is the domain that truly needs the kind of flexibility (and level of abstraction) that Scarab offers). If you would ask me what focus continued development (functionality wise) should have, I would suggest: have a look at the needs of the Systems Engineering community.

Thanks to all contributors who have put their effort in creating the remarkable product that Scarab is. It certainly made doing my job more fun !

Joost

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