Software EricSavage - 21 Feb 2008 08:57 am
Bugzilla eaten alive by Mantis
As a software development company with taylor-made packages for clients, we regularly receive phone calls from the clients with regards to bugs or small features. If you’re a developer you’ll know well that it’s impossible to test an application completely, and some level of real-world usage is required to expose certain bugs. This is all part of the process of moving from “release” to “stable”.
In order to set up a web-based bug reporting system, you’re basically presented with three options: build your own, buy a package or find a free, open source edition. I must admit that building your own is an attractive option - you get the site to look exactly like you want, and I do enjoy web development. What makes me squirm is the thought of having to cater for the niggling security issues and the hassles of setting up an attachment system and the like. Taking on a well-worn system that you can customise just makes so much sense.
With the considerable overflow of open source systems these days, there’s little doubt that some variation of what you need is available. Indeed so. I used the following page to have a look at a few bug tracking systems: http://producingoss.com/en/bug-trackers.html.
Our requirements were important: the system should allow the creation of users who can report bugs and see the progress and responses. On top of that, there should be a set of permissions so that one client can’t see another client’s reports.
Top of the list was Bugzilla, used and developed together with Mozilla, giving it considerable credibility. I couldn’t go wrong. Or maybe I could. Bugzilla is based on Perl, implying that it requires a range of libraries/Perl modules. So you upload it to the server and run checksetup.pl and you get a list of mods that are missing. The commands are given to have these installed, but running off a host, you pick up access-denied errors. A flurry of emails and forum posts later and you’ve made a little progress but still it’s full of issues. I had been warned that Bugzilla was difficult to set up and I now discovered why. At this stage it simply didn’t warrant the extra work to get it installed.
I gave up and looked at RT. All seemed well and I downloaded and prepared to install, until I saw the developers boasting proudly about how they used 110 Perl modules. Oh no!
There were others like Trac and Gnats, but nothing that caught my attention, until I bumped into Mantis. Downloaded, uploaded, created the database and ran the installation. By then I was already setting up user accounts. Stunning. That’s how you design installation packages.
The trick is simply that Mantis uses PHP - maybe the Perl module problem is inherently an issue with installing on hosts, and maybe with a little more sweat I could have understood the Perl mod installation process, but as a customer waiting to be pleased, I wasn’t.
Mantis will still need some work. Apart from the obvious changing of the main logo, I still find the interface cluttered and I fear for our customers who aren’t comfortable with computing and need to record a bug for the first time. It will take a bit of work just to clean up and soften the graphics, but first impressions are pretty good.
You can access Mantis at http://www.mantisbt.org/
(I won’t trouble you with the Bugzilla link - that’s called “revenge”)
on 21 Feb 2008 at 11:08 am 1.Max said …
Yes, the Bugzilla installation problem is somewhat a Perl problem.
However, it will be way better on Bugzilla 3.2, where we included a script that automatically installs all of the dependencies for you, and it works even if you don’t have root access to the box.
-Max
on 21 Feb 2008 at 11:21 am 2.Eric said …
That’s great news. Unfortunately in our case, after all the work of customising Mantis to the look and feel we want, the only reason we’ll make a switch when 3.2 comes is if we’re having issues with Mantis.
Out of curiosity, does Bugzilla have a feature where you can turn an email into an issue?
on 21 Feb 2008 at 5:19 pm 3.Eric said …
By the way, for anyone using Mantis, if you need to change your timezone, I tried using:
putenv(”TZ=Africa/Johannesburg”);
But it only started working properly when I used:
date_default_timezone_set(”Africa/Johannesburg”);
Note that this is only valid for PHP 5 upwards (put this line in config_inc.php).
on 22 Mar 2008 at 2:06 am 4.Corey Trager said …
If you are in the same situation as the author, looking for a bug tracking system, you might find this page I put together helpful:
http://ifdefined.com/blog/post/2007/10/Links-to-other-comparisons-of-issue-trackers.aspx
It links to first-person accounts of people trying out bug tracking systems. You’ll see that Trac and Mantis mentioned above have they fans, although I read that Trac can also be hard to install, because of the python. But to overcome installation hassles, maybe take a look at http://bitnami.org/, “Your favorite open source apps…now in easy to install packages”.
If you are looking for something for .NET, then my own free and open source BugTracker.NET is worth a look, at http://ifdefined.com/bugtrackernet.html.
BugTracker.NET does satisify the stated requirement: “the system should allow the creation of users who can report bugs and see the progress and responses. On top of that, there should be a set of permissions so that one client can’t see another client’s reports.”.
And it does allow an email to be turned into an issue.
on 25 Mar 2008 at 8:50 am 5.Eric said …
Thanks for your input. We actually use BugTracker.NET internally for all our in-house development and would have loved to be consistent. However, we were not able to use it externally because our host did not cater for ASP.NET applications.
on 18 May 2008 at 6:05 pm 6.SneakyWho_am_i said …
I’m 99.9% sure that bugzilla can accept comments and bugs through email. Bugzilla can’t really be installed by itself so far as I can see. Well, it can, but then you feel like you’re at home studying while everyone else is partying. I installed Bugzilla on a computer in my house. It took two sittings to set it up because I had to satisfy all those dependencies by hand (sigh) but the installation was flawless and faultless. Everything worked perfectly first time and it has everything I need (and so much more)….
….
But installing Bugzilla means ditching SVN to CVS (to get the plethora of reports and stuff like that — as it depends on certain CVS-only tools to do some of its magic — anybody feel free to correct me or elaborate). Moving from SVN to CVS seems like a step backwards (due to the nature of my project, of course)…
… And once you’ve installed Bugzilla you immediately want to run around installing other goodies. Bonsai! LXR! Tinderbox! All of these tools are great fun!!
No, really, they’re all very powerful and great fun. But they ARE written in PERL, and four times the integrated tools means ten times the complexity….
…. That’s the nice thing about Mantis. I think that if I had 1000 developers then I would go to Bugzilla in a flash, and probably take the time to replace the CVS-only parts (if any) but alas, my project is not _yet_ open source, and so only has one or two developers. I need to be able to drop in plugins quickly and easily (being the only BT and SCM maintainer mostly).
Bugzilla rocked my socks but I will probably use Mantis. AND… I would recommend Mantis at the drop of a hat for ANYONE on shared hosting.
(I also tried Trac. Trac is very impressive but I found it more difficult to configure than Bugzilla. Shame, as it is designed to tie immediately and directly into SVN)
on 26 Dec 2008 at 7:42 pm 7.Bucci said …
I have a bash script which takes an email and delivers it to the Mantis DB - but it does require Perl with DBD/DBI installed. Email me if you are interested and I’ll send you a copy.
on 29 Dec 2008 at 9:30 am 8.Eric said …
Sounds good. We don’t need it right now, but I’ll keep your offer in mind, thanks.
on 18 Apr 2009 at 11:26 am 9.B said …
Eric,
Did you actually use Bugzilla, or did you give up before finishing the install?
on 18 Apr 2009 at 3:53 pm 10.Eric said …
Fraid not. The Bugzilla installation experience barred me from using the actual product, which is a pity, since I’ve heard that Bugzilla is a decent product.
If you’re looking for a comparison of the working products, I’m afraid you’ll have to find other reviews.
We’re quite comfortable using Mantis right now, for both our external customer support and our internal product testing/feedback. Most stuff works well and apart from one annoying bug with reporting issues, the only things we would change would be some additional more advanced features. The documentation is strong, and I found it fairly easy to make direct modifications and customisations in the PHP code. I’d recommend it.