Table of Contents
Using Trac for NCCOOS Projects
This page describes how to use the Trac System for projects run by NCCOOS. It contains general how-to notes for getting started and day-to-day details of Trac focused on working in a team and/or maintaining a project as a team-leader. Add to this page as you find useful info and how-tos related to Trac and SVN.
Trac System
Trac is a minimalistic approach to web-based management of software projects. Its goal is to simplify effective tracking and handling of software issues, enhancements and overall progress. By integrating web-based documentation tool (wiki) with bug tracking or enhancement features (tickets), and code repository, the Trac System allows distributed teams of people to collaborate remotely on a software and documentation project.
For Team Members
Tickets
- Change the status of a ticket from 'new' to 'accepted' when you start work on the ticket. It's fine to start work, drop it and come back to the ticket later.
- Make use of TracLinks in the original description of the ticket to refer to other tickets and to wiki documentation.
Modifying Code
- Getting code in and out of SVN -- Sprint Notes
- Initial checkout -- from Red-Bean
- Typical Work Cycle -- from Red-Bean
For the Project Leader(s)
- Creating a Subversion (SVN) repository -- Sprint Notes
- Setting up Trac components and projects -- Sprint Notes
- Tie tickets, code versions, and wiki documentation together using TracLinks
- Some of the Trac Lingo is explained by Jesse Cleary.
Milestones
- For small projects, use a single Milestone to define the project. Breakdown the project into a collection of tickets that are in the 'Task' Category and assign them to the milestone. When a new tasks are added, be sure to mark them as part of this milestone.
- Use a short paragraph describing the milestone's overall objective. Then create tickets for each item of the to-do list with Category set to Task for each.
Wiki
- For the larger project, use several milestones. Add a wiki item for the project and link the relevant milestones into the wiki text.
- Use the Trac wiki for software development and collaborative documents. Use the nccoos.org for more general info.
Resources
- TracGuide -- Built-in Documentation -- The Trac User and Administration Guide with useful info like WikiFormatting, WikiMacros, and TracLinks
- The Trac project -- Trac Open Source Project
- Subversion -- Open source version control system
- Version Control with Subversion -- A free online book about Subversion published by O'Reilly Media
- TortoiseSVN-- A Subversion client, implemented as a windows shell extension