Simpler Bugzilla

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:00:07 +0200 "Jochen Wiedmann"
<jochen.wiedmann at gmail.com> wrote:
> I know that in particular the search UI is/was deterrent for a lot of
> users. The "simple search" was a great help, but the "advanced search"
> could do with renaming to "expert search" and the addition of someting
> in between. Apart from the search, I only heard complaints about the
> bug editing UI, but the primary candidates for removal there are
> already configurable via parameters.

	I think search would be greatly improved by making it work a
bit like iTunes (or Rhythmbox, which I'm used to) filters, where you
have a limited list of fields in one drop-down, and then a second box
for the "operator" (which could also be a more limited list than we
have in the Boolean Charts) and then a text box for the criteria.

	In a sense, like a Boolean Charts but simplified. Also, for
<select> fields (like product, component, etc), the "text box" could
become a drop-down that only contains valid choices.

> That would sure be nice. OTOH, it might make upgrades more difficult.

	No, I know how to make upgrades fully possible with
SQLLite--they'll just be slow. But that's fine, we expect SQLite to be
easy, not fast.

> And, apart from that, I do personally believe that the most important
> problem is not the setup but the myriad of Perl modules. 

	See install-module.pl in the 3.2 branch.

> About the localconfig: I am always impressed by the setup of systems
> like typo3, drupal, egroupware, mediawiki:

	All not written in Perl...

> The system detects whether
> it is a first time installation (usually because some config file is
> missing) and provides a UI for the first time installation. I would
> recommend to think in that direction instead.

	I worked on this for a while, and I decided that it didn't
actually have any benefit for our users over checksetup.pl, at least
not enough benefit to justify the added complexity.

	However, we could quiz people for the essential localconfig
data, instead of making them edit the file, on a new install.

> Of course, a complete distribution would be nice, but I think it is
> realistic for Windows only. Apart from that, that's something you can
> leave to interesting individuals and not necessarily a task for the
> whole community.

	I think the best solution for non-Windows is the VM images that
people distribute that already have Bugzilla working on them.

	-Max