Advice for plugin development

[arenx]

Hi all,

My project is to develop my own plug-in for mantis but I have a dilemma.
I don't know if:
1/ I better start the creation, on mantis 1.1.1 with the unofficial plug-in manager (http://deboutv.free.fr/mantis/plugin.ph ... ginManager)
Or
2/ I should use the new plug-in model (http://www.mantisbt.org/wiki/doku.php/m ... s_overview), integrated in mantis 1.2.0a1

The first solution (1) is quite good because there are some examples of plug-in (http://deboutv.free.fr/mantis/index.php) and it is based on a stable version of Mantis BUT the documentation is light and the plug-in manager is unofficial (even the community is nice).
The second solution (2) seems to be easier and better for creating a plug-in because of the documentation BUT it will be based on an alpha version of Mantis.

I have a preference for the second solution and some sub-questions are:
• When do you think Mantis 1.2 will be stable? (Any estimations?)
• Is the plug-in management of Mantis 1.2.0a ready?

So any advices, comments or information are welcome!

Thanks,

Arenx

[paul]

Hello arenx,

One of the reasons for posting an 'alpha preview' as it were, was to allow people to have a look at the plugin functionality.

Several of the developers hang out on irc ( http://www.mantisbt.org/irc.php ) and we tend to chat at various points throughout a day, so might be useful if you are trying to get help or find any bugs in the plugin functionality. If you do happen to drop by at some point it would be interesting to know what sort of plugin you are going to be working on to see whether the plugin functionality that we've been working on would make your life easier!

In terms of 1.2 and stable - in the past unfortunately, some releases have dragged on and on and is an area we could probably improve on - having said that, given there are a number of desirable features in the pipeline, as well as a number of performance/memory optimisations that i've worked on recently, I'd hope we can work on a shorter release cycle than in the past.

Anyway, the IRC link I posted above, has a link to a website one can use without needing to install any software, so feel free to drop by and have a chat - It might give us a useful insight into whether/where we need to extend the current functionality.
Paul

[arenx]

Thank you Paul for your quick answer!

in the past unfortunately, some releases have dragged on

I'd hope we can work on a shorter release cycle than in the past.

I expect you will succeed to realize shorter cycle.

About my plug-in:
• Context (to understand why I choose to develop a plug-in in Mantis):

• First, many interesting and useful functionality are included in Mantis.
• Many people use Mantis and the community is great and still alive (since many years)
• Mantis is a very nice bug tracker!

• My subject is really close to bug tracking, it is action tracking. It requires :

• Some new tables for data (Probably, two new tables, some tables will be copy from Mantis’s system to avoid conflicts)
• Some new pages (specialize for action)
• To re-use of mantis functionalities for action, like email notification, graphic reporting, history, export, user and project management… Only few functions will be specialize to work with actions
• To keep the possibility to re-use my plug-in for risk tracking/management
• And to create a “portal” to federate bug tracking and action tracking (and perhaps risk management)

(Am I in a right direction to do that plugin? What is your opinion ?)

So I have other sub-questions concerning plug-in development:
1. Have you got any documentation about Mantis API?
2. And is it easy (and recommended) to use it?

Arenx

[deboutv]

1/ I better start the creation, on mantis 1.1.1 with the unofficial plug-in manager (http://deboutv.free.fr/mantis/plugin.ph ... ginManager)

The first solution (1) is quite good because there are some examples of plug-in (http://deboutv.free.fr/mantis/index.php) and it is based on a stable version of Mantis BUT the documentation is light and the plug-in manager is unofficial (even the community is nice).

What information is missing in the documentation? What can I add to help users?

Thanks.

Vincent

[arenx]

Hi Vincent,

What information is missing in the documentation? What can I add to help users?

The documentation is not really short. It was a bad argument but, I had to test some plugins to understand how it works.

Your initiative is great for current Mantis users, and i have a question for you :
Will the "unofficial" plugin manger be compatible with the next version of Mantis ?
Or will the current "unofficial" plugins be upgraded to work with the new plugin system of Mantis 1.2 and above ?

Thanks.

Arenx

[deboutv]

If the plugin structure macthes to the plugins requirements, yes. In other cases the pluginmanager will be still compatible with next Mantis release.

[vboctor]

Here are a couple of sample plugins built on the official structure:
http://github.com/jreese/mantis-source- ... ree/master
http://github.com/vboctor/mantis-plugins/tree/master

You can also checkout the core plugins that ship out of the box. This includes the wiki / formatting plugins.

[dam2p]

@arenx

I am very interested in manageing actions with Mantis.
Have you completed your investigation and found a solution to do so ?

Thank you for answering.
Dam2P