WebIssues Manual

The description is useful to provide information about the issue, but sometimes additional information or questions are necessary. Comments can be used for that purpose. To write a comment, choose Add Comment (make sure that the history of the issue is the active panel, if you are using the Desktop Client). The new window consists almost entirely of a text edit box:

Figure 3.10. Issue comment

The text will appear exactly as typed, with all spaces and new lines preserved. This allows you, for example, to paste fragments of code and error logs without worrying that they will become unreadable. Long lines are automatically wrapped, depending on the width of the window. Web addresses and email addresses are automatically converted into clickable links. The same rules apply for comments, issue descriptions and project descriptions.

When the Text with Markup option is selected, you can also use some special markup to change the font style, create links, bullet lists, etc. Note that this option is usually enabled by default, but you can change it in your preferences. By selecting the Plain Text option, you can disable all special formatting, except for web and email addresses and identifiers, which will still be converted to links automatically.

The toolbar above the text field will automatically enter appropriate markup tags for you so that you don't have to remember them. Simply place the text cursor where you want the markup inserted or select a fragment of text to surround it with formatting tags. The following tags are recognized when markup is enabled:

This text is **bold**.

This text is __italic__.

This text is `monospace`.

This is a [www.mimec.org link].

[list]
* first item
* second item
* third item
** first sub-item
** second sub-item
[/list]

[quote Title]
This is a quote.
[/quote]

[code C++]
for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
    printf( "%d\n", i );
[/code]

for ( int i = 0; i < 10; i++ )
    printf( "%d\n", i );

[rtl]
This is right-to-left text.
[/rtl]

Bold and italic font tags can be nested and combined with other markup, but within the monospace font tags all other markup is ignored. This allows pasting single line snippets of code without breaking formatting.

Links in square brackets are similar to the automatic links, but they allow the text of the link to be customized. If the text is not given, the address is displayed instead. You can wrap all addresses in square brackets to ensure that they are correctly recognized.

Items of a bullet lists can be nested up to six levels by using the appropriate number of asterisks. There can be any number of spaces before the asterisks and at least one space between the asterisks and the text of the item. List items can consists of any number of lines, they may even contain nested quotes or code blocks.

Quotes are displayed in a dashed frame and they may have an optional title. You can easily quote existing comments or the description of the issue by using the Reply command. This will open a new comment window with the original comment or description automatically included and marked with the quote tags. Quoted text may contain other markup, including nested quotes, lists and code blocks.

Code blocks are useful for pasting fragments of code, log files, etc. They are displayed verbatim, with all markup is ignored, and using a monospace font. However, unlike the monospace font tags, a comment block may contain multiple lines. In addition, the language of the code block can be specified, enabling syntax highlighting. Supported languages include: HTML, XML, C, C++, C#, Java, Bash (equivalent to SH), Python, Perl, Ruby, JavaScript (equivalent to JS), CSS, SQL, VB and PHP.

Right-to-left blocks can be used to include fragments of text in a language written right-to-left, for example Arabic. They can contain other nested blocks.

You can use the Preview button in the toolbar above the text field to see a preview of the text with all formatting applied, to verify that it looks correctly.

Comments are displayed in the issue history together with other changes in chronological order. Using the filter links on the right side, you can choose to display only the specific information. You can change the default filter and the order of changes (oldest first or newest first) in your user preferences.

Figure 3.11. Issue history with a comment

You can create links to other issues and to comments or attachments. To demonstrate this, let's create another issue called “Second issue”, leaving the default values ​​of attributes. Let's assume that the identifier of the first issue is #1, and the second is #6.

If you add a comment to the first issue, and type “#6”, it will be replaced with a link to the other issue. Similarly, if you now add a comment to the second issue, writing “#1”, it will become a link to the first issue. In this way, you can create links between issues, refer to other comments in your own comments, etc. When markup is enabled, identifiers can also be used in square brackets to create links with custom text. Just like external addresses, identifiers are also converted to links in descriptions, attribute values, etc.

Figure 3.12. Link to an issue

To quickly go to the issue, comment or attachment with the given identifier, you can also use the Go To Item command. In the Web Client, click Tools in the upper right corner of the window, then click Go To Item. In the Desktop Client this command is always available in the main window toolbar, you can also press Ctrl+G.

Figure 3.13. Going to an item

Then enter the identifier you are looking for and press OK. If there is an issue with this identifier, it will be displayed. If the identifier represents a comment or an attachment, you will see the issue which contains the item, and the history will be scrolled to the item.

The Edit Attributes command allows you to edit issue, i.e., change the value of each attribute and the name of the issue. Select the first issue and select that command. You will see the same window as in case of adding a new issue, containing current values ​​of attributes.

Figure 3.14. Changing attributes of an issue

The following types of attributes are supported in WebIssues:

Change the status of issue to Resolved, and select Fixed in the Resolution field. Then press OK to save your changes. Note that the WebIssues system automatically remembers your changes and displays them in the history of the issue. This allows you to track the entire life cycle of the issue, changes of its status and all operations performed with the issue.

Figure 3.15. Issue history after the change

By default the issue history contains all changes, comments and attachments. If you don't want to see the full history of the issue, but for example only comments, select one of the filtering options available in the upper right corner of the history view. To search for a specific text in a comment or another change, in the Desktop Client you can use the Search command or press Ctrl+F to display the search bar. Enter the text you want to search and then use the F3 and Shift+F3 keys to find the next or previous occurrence of text in the history of the issue. In the Web Client you can use the search function of the browser.

You already know how to add a comment to describe the issue or discuss it. However it's better to add long passages of text (such as error logs) as separate attachments. This way you can also attach image files, documents and other types of files to the issue, just like attachments to email messages.

To attach a file, select Add Attachment. Then select the file you want to add, and optionally enter a brief description of the attachment.

Figure 3.16. Adding an attachment

The new attachment is visible in the history of the issue:

Figure 3.17. Issue history with an attachment

Click the link to open the attached file or to save it to disk. The Desktop Client by default always asks if you want to open or save the file. You can also right-click to select the appropriate option from the context menu. By changing the program settings you can select the default action for attachments, and change the maximum amount of disk space used to store temporary files.

In case of the Web Client, depending on the file type and the configuration of your browser, clicking on a link will open the attachment or save it to the disk. Images and text files will generally be opened directly in the browser. In most browsers you can also click the right mouse button above the link to choose an action from the context menu.