Transfer mode set to Awesome http://transfermodeawesome.posterous.com Dorkly bits on Exchange, Windows, software and whatever else I can think of. posterous.com Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:39:00 -0700 Redmine plugins http://transfermodeawesome.posterous.com/2009/08/redmine-plugins.html http://transfermodeawesome.posterous.com/2009/08/redmine-plugins.html I’ve found a number of the Redmine plugins to be innovative and look to be very useful.  Aside from the installation process being, well, command-line driven, they are simple to install and configure, for the most part.
Nothing against the venerable command-line.  I’m perfectly comfortable there.  However, with such a beautiful interface all around, seeing a prompt is fairly ugly in comparison.  And the actuality is that the platform-neutrality of a web interface gets muddied when you have to use the CLI due to the inevitable vagaries of cmd.exe versus bash, etc.  Proper environment variables and such are flies in the ointment.  Module and theme installation page in the Administration section, anyone?
But back to the plugins, the ones I found interesting were:
  • Code Review – automatically create and track issues by commenting on code in the repository.  Slick!
  • Question – Turn issue comments into questions directed at particular users (such as other developers who might have some useful knowledge).  Generates emails.  Great for knowledge capture that might otherwise be lost in forums or emails.
  • Embedded – Create a new tab that allows you to embed non-frames html files.  Useful for auto-generated html such as code documentation, test and coverage reports, etc.
Plugins that are interesting but I had trouble with:
  • Simple CI – Simple monitoring of continuous integration status via an RSS feed.  Looks rudimentary but useful, since the build server is the only important infrastructure not tied into Redmine, but it claimed my TeamCity RSS Feed was invalid even though it worked fine with Outlook.  More troubleshooting.
  • ezLibrarian – Resource reservation/tracking tab for things like books, machines, etc.  While it looks good in theory, the installation left incorrectly labeled tabs and fields.  Looks like an issue with the localization files (the author is not a native English-speaker).  The link given here is also not up to date, as I was able to get a more recent version from his github repository.  However, it did no better.  And what is Booty bay?
  • ezFAQ – from the same author.  A promising looking FAQ generator.  The docs say it doesn’t work with the 0.8.x series however, which is the latest stable.  Too bad.  It also modifies the Redmine core, which makes me leery.  Pass.
More to come on these as they actually see use in our production.
One note about configuring plugins after installation.  While most do not have a configuration section on the Administration > Plugins page, some do.  Some rely on custom fields in the projects, some do not.  Some add settings tabs in the projects.  All need to be enabled in Project > Settings > Modules.
The real trick, is however, that roles need to have permissions enabled on the new module as well.  Administration > Roles and Permissions takes you to the right place.  Look for the new module under each role and choose the appropriate permissions.  Most modules give no rights to any roles by default.

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