Announce: BZ::Client 1.0

[Aaron Trevena]

Hi Jochen,

> I'd like to announce the availability of BZ::Client on CPAN.
> BZ::Client is a client library for the Bugzilla Webservices API. It
> provides an object oriented API, which is relatively close to the
> server side API, but hides the XML-RPC related details completely.

That sounds good - I've been thinking about how to move some of the
functionality you see in tracs version control/bug integration into
Padre (http://padre.perlide.org/), so that, for instance, you could
close a bug on commit, etc - this would be very helpful for that.

Having said that it would be nice if it installed cleanly through CPAN
- there are several problems I spotted that would be worth spending a
little time fixing :
 - looking at the Makefile.PL I don't see any dependancies, and when I
try to install I get errors as it "Can't locate XML/Parser.pm" amongst
other modules (they should be listed in PREREQ_PM)
 - tests will never pass when using the cpan client as they are done
via the command line, and don't skip or prompt the user (I'd prefer
skipping unless environment variables were set)
- I couldn't easily find an example of actually using the Bugzilla API
through it - a worked example of closing or updating a bug would be
immensely helpful.

I'd recommend reading
http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl5/index.cgi?cpan_packaging for more
advice.

It's a good start, it means I can make a start on my padre plugin
quickly, but wouldn't be happy releasing a plugin that uses it until
it installs halfway reliably via cpan.

I've replied to list in the hope that other bugzilla users/hackers who
want to write CPAN modules can pick up some tips too - even if you
don't upload to CPAN there is plenty of good practice that still
applies to packaging perl applications and libraries in general.

Cheers,

A.

--
Aaron J Trevena, BSc Hons
http://www.aarontrevena.co.uk
LAMP System Integration, Development and Consulting