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nitrc:User Guide - Project Management

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Administrators: Getting Started | Registration | Administration | Other Features

This section describes the administration of features to manage your group, including Membership, Tasks, Trackers, Statistics, and Surveys. For information on administration of information and features generally used by the larger NITRC community, see the Administration section. For information on special features used mostly by developers, see the Other Features section.

Membership

Administrators: Getting Started | Registration | Administration | Other Features

There are two ways for users to become members of your NITRC tool/resource team.

User Request: The users may request to join the team, and the tool/resource administrator will receive an e-mail notification of this request. You should follow the link in the e-mail to approve or reject the membership. The link in the e-mail takes you to your Admin page, where you approve or reject the membership in the Pending Requests section to the right of the page. You may reject the request by clicking the "Reject" button to the right of the user’s name, or accept the request by selecting a role for the user and clicking the "Accept" button.

Add Member: You may choose to add a user to your group from a list of all registered users. (If you administer a private tool/resource, this is the only way for users to become members.) As a tool/resource administrator, click the "Admin" link in your Tool/Resource menu. To the right of the Admin page, in the Group Members section, click the "Add Users From List" link. Select the user you want to make a member, and click the "Finish" button. Select the role for the user, and click the "Add All" button.

For more information on managing members and their roles, refer to the Overall Administration section of this User Guide.

Tracker Administration

Administrators: Getting Started | Registration | Administration | Other Features

If you are a tracker administrator, you may add a new tracker, change the settings and custom fields for the current tracker, clone the custom fields from a Template tracker for the current tracker, add or change canned responses, and delete the current tracker. From the Tool/Resource Admin page, click "Tracker Admin" in the Tool Admin section; from the tool/resource pages, click the "Tracker" menu link, and then click "Admin" at the top of the page. On the Tracker Admin page, you may create a new tracker, or you may select an existing tracker to administer.

Add Tracker

To create a new tracker, enter the following information:

Name: The name of the tracker. This is the name displayed in the tracker list, e.g., Bugs, Feature Requests, or Support.

Description: The description of the Tracker, e.g., "This is the tracker dedicated to the bugs of the tool/resource."

Publicly Available: By default, this checkbox is not enabled. If this checkbox is enabled, all users may browse the tracker. If this checkbox is not enabled, only tool/resource members may browse the tracker.

Allow non-logged-in postings: By default, this checkbox is not enabled. If this checkbox is enabled, users who are not logged in may post items to the tracker. If this checkbox is not enabled, only users who are logged in may post items.

Send email on new submission to address: All new items will be sent to the address(es) inserted in the text box. Separate multiple addresses with a comma.

Send email on all changes: By default, this checkbox is not enabled. If this checkbox is enabled, all changes to the tracker items will be sent out via e-mail. It is useful to check this box only if an e-mail address is inserted in the field above.

Days until considered overdue: The number of days a tracker item may remain open before it is considered overdue.

Days until pending tracker items time out: The number of days a tracker item may remain pending before it times out.

Free form text for the "submit new item" page: This allows you to put a specific introduction on this tracker's Submit New page.

Free form text for the "browse items" page: This allows you to put a specific introduction on this tracker's Browse page.

Click the "Submit" button to add the new tracker to the system.

Modify Tracker

To administer an existing tracker, select the tracker from the list of trackers shown on the Tracker Admin page. You may also access a specific tracker admin page by clicking "Admin" at the top of any of the specific tracker pages. The Tracker Admin page for a specific tracker provides the following functionality:

New Tracker

To create a new tracker, click the "New Tracker" link at the top of the page. See Add Tracker above for more information on creating a new tracker.

Update Settings

To update a tracker, click the "Update Settings" link. Here you can update the following information on the tracker:

Default Displayed Fields: The fields that are shown by default for the resulting tracker item list on the Browse page. All fields available for this tracker, including custom fields, are shown in this selection box. Select those fields that should be displayed by default. Registered users always have the option to create a Power Query to customize their displayed results.

Send email on new submission to address: All new items will be sent to the address(es) inserted in the text box. Separate multiple addresses with a comma.

Days until considered overdue: The number of days a tracker item may remain open before it is considered overdue.

Days until pending tracker items time out: The number of days a tracker item may remain pending before it times out.

Free form text for the "submit new item" page: This allows you to put a specific introduction on this tracker's Submit New page.

Free form text for the "browse items" page: This allows you to put a specific introduction on this tracker's Browse page.

Note: If you want to view or change the observer settings on a tracker, you must go to the Tool/Resource Admin page and click the "Edit Observer" button. Here you may change whether the tracker is public (open to all users) or private (available only to members) and whether or not anonymous (observer/non-logged in) posts are allowed.

Manage Custom Fields

To add new fields or to modify existing fields, click the "Manage Custom Fields" link at the top of the page. All the existing custom fields are displayed first. You may edit the name and alias of the field, delete the field, or copy the field to create a new custom field. You may also edit the name of any defined elements and add new elements to a field. You may not change the type of field.

To create a new custom field, you must provide the following information:

Custom Field Name: The name of the field displayed on the Tracker Detail page, when adding, updating, and viewing a tracker item.

Field Alias: The name of the field used by the system.

Field Description: The description of the field displayed in the help pop-up window.

Type of Custom Field: The type of field displayed on the Tracker Detail page. Types include:

Select Box
Check Box
Radio Buttons
Text Field
Multi-Select Box
Text Area
Status

Text Field Size/Text Area Rows: This sets how big the box is that is displayed on the Tracker Detail page.

Text Field Maxlength/Text Area Columns: This sets how much data can be entered into the field by a user.

You can customize the way these fields are displayed on this tracker's Submit New page and its Browse page. To modify the rendering of the custom fields, use the template links at the bottom of the page.

Download default template: Click this link, and then use your browser to view the source code. Save the source code as a text file. For each custom field, you may add or change the HTML attributes to customize the look of the labels. For example, you may change the color or style of the font. Make sure you save the file, so you may upload it for your tracker.

Add/Update template: Click this link, and then browse and select the file that you saved with the custom HTML rendering for this tracker. Click the "Submit" button to upload the file and make the custom rendering take effect. View this tracker's Submit New page or its Browse page to see the affects of the uploaded template.

Delete template: If you no longer want the custom field labels displayed with the customized rendering, click this link. This will not remove the custom fields; it will just remove the customized HTML that you had provided. The original default template will remain.

Clone Tracker

You may copy the custom fields from a Template tracker (Bugs, Feature Requests, Patches, and Support) to the current tracker by clicking the "Clone Tracker" link at the top of the page. Select the tracker that has the custom fields you would like for the current tracker, and click the "Submit" button. If you do this more than once you will copy the custom fields to the tracker each time you click "Submit." You can then modify these custom fields by going to the Manage Custom Fields page.

Note: It is important to note that the cloning is done from the Template tracker. If you have modified the custom fields for your Bugs tracker, for example, this will not be cloned; the fields from the Template Bugs tracker are cloned.

Manage Canned Responses

Canned responses are predefined responses that may be used when commenting on a tracker item. Creating useful generic messages can save you a lot of time when handling common requests. Click the "Manage Canned Responses" link toward the top of the page. To create a new response, fill in the Title and Message, and click the "Submit" button. To modify a response, click the listed response name. Modify the Title and/or Message and click the "Submit" button.

Delete Tracker

You may delete an existing tracker. When you click the "Delete" link, you will be presented with a page that makes you confirm that you want to delete the tracker and all its items. You will not be able to recover these once deleted.

Mass Update

If you are a tracker administrator, you can use the Mass Update function. This function is visible on the tracker's Browse page and allows you to update the following information:

Priority
Assignee
Status
Canned Response
Other fields as set by the tracker administrator

When this function is enabled, a checkbox will appear at the left side of each bug ID. You may check one or more of the IDs for the bug(s) you would like to update. Modify one or more of the values in the drop-down boxes, and click the "Mass update" button. All selected bugs will be modified with these new values. This function is very useful if you need to change the same information for a group of bugs, as when you are assigning five bugs to one developer or closing ten bugs.

Tasks Administration

Administrators: Getting Started | Registration | Administration | Other Features

The Task Manager is similar to the Tracker, with the following differences; it allows you to:

Insert the start date of the item
Insert the end date of the item
Insert the number of hours for the item
Assign more than one person to the item
Track dependencies between tasks

Tasks are organized in subprojects. There are two predefined subprojects: To Do and Next Release. A member with task administration privileges can use the Tasks Admin page to create new subprojects. Task Manager allows you to create and manage tasks, or blocks of work, similar to the way projects are broken down in, for example, MS Project.

Submitting a New Task

You may add tasks to the subprojects – for example, Write Design Doc, Review Doc, Update Doc, Write Code, Review Code, Update Code, Test, Log Test Results, etc. Tasks may be assigned to members of the team, have start and end dates set up for them, show dependencies on other tasks, indicate percentage completion, etc.

Only members with task administration privileges may insert a new task. Click the tool/resource menu "Tasks" link to get a list of available task subprojects for the tool/resource. You need to first select a subproject from the subproject list, and then click "Submit Task" at the top of the page. A form appears where you are requested to insert the following data:

Required Fields—indicated by a red asterisk (*) where you must enter data

Category: You can select a category if categories have been set by the tool/resource administrator. "None" is selected by default.

Percent Complete: You can select the percentage of the completion of the work. "Not Started" is selected by default.

Priority: You can select the priority (1-lowest and 5-highest) of the task. "3" is selected by default.

Task Summary: You must insert a brief description of the task.

Task Details: You must insert the most detailed description possible of the task.

Note: Special markup is allowed for task details. A WYSIWYG editor is provided to make this easier for commonly used markup, but you may directly enter the special markup in this box. To edit the source code directly, click the "BBCode" button in the WYSIWYG editor.

Special markup for task details:

Math commands can be used. Simply embed your LaTeX math commands between [tex] and [/tex] tags in your text.
BBCode, Bulletin Board Code, can be used. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode for BBCode tags.
URLs starting with http://, https://, or ftp:// can be used and will be clickable.
E-mail addresses can be used and will be clickable.

Note: If you choose "Quote" for the style in the WYSIWYG editor, the editor assumes a new paragraph when you press "Enter" on your keyboard and a new box is created. To stay in the same box and move to the next line, press "Shift" and "Enter" on your keyboard.

Estimated Hours: You must enter the estimated duration of this task in hours.

Start Date: You can change the start date of the task. The default is the current date.

End Date: You can change the end date of the task. The default is one week from the current date.

Optional Fields

Assigned To: You can select one or more assignees of the task. Only members who have been granted "Tech" permissions for a task subproject can have tasks assigned to them. Only those members are listed here.

Dependent on Task: You can select one or more tasks upon which this task depends.

When all required fields are filled, click the "Submit" button to insert the new task. If a member has been assigned to this task, an e-mail notice will be sent to that user.

Browsing Tasks

Clicking the tool/resource menu "Tasks" link shows a list of available task subprojects for the tool/resource. Click the task subproject name to display a list of tasks for that subproject. You may limit the list of tasks by specifying any of the following:

Assignee: Any, a particular person, Unassigned.

Status: Any, Open, Closed.

Category: Any, a particular category, None.

You may change the order in which the tasks are displayed by changing the Sort On field. You may sort by Task Id, Task Summary, Start Date, End Date (default), and Percent Complete. You may also change between a Summary view (default) and a Detailed view. Be sure to click the "Browse" button to initiate any changes to the task list display.

Clicking on a task summary will open the Task Detail page where you can view more information about the task. Only tool/resource members with task administration privileges may make changes to or close the task.

Modifying a Task

On the Task Detail page, a member with task administration privileges can modify all the data associated with the task (see Submitting a New Task above), except for the Original Comment (Task Details). In addition, the following data can be modified:

Subproject: This drop-down box lists the subprojects for the tool/resource. If you select a different subproject and submit the changes, the item will be reassigned to the selected subproject.

Add a Comment: You may add any comment to clarify the original description or to describe any changes that you are making to the task fields.

Note: Special markup is allowed for a comment. A WYSIWYG editor is provided to make this easier for commonly used markup, but you may directly enter the special markup in this box. To edit the source code directly, click the "BBCode" button in the WYSIWYG editor.

Special markup for a comment:

Math commands can be used. Simply embed your LaTeX math commands between [tex] and [/tex] tags in your text.
BBCode, Bulletin Board Code, can be used. Refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode for BBCode tags.
URLs starting with http://, https://, or ftp:// can be used and will be clickable.
E-mail addresses can be used and will be clickable.

Status: The status indicates the state of the item. When an item is inserted, it is created in the "Open" state. When you complete a task, you should change the status to "Closed."

The Task Change History on the bottom of the Task Detail page shows the changes applied to the item in chronological order with the most recent changes at the top.

When the modification is submitted, an e-mail notice is sent to the submitter of the task and the person assigned to the task. If you do not want to receive an e-mail notice for your own modifications, go to your Account Maintenance page and check "Do not send me forum, task, or tracker email notices generated by my actions."

Viewing a Gantt Chart

Clicking on the "Gantt Chart" link at the top of the page shows all the tasks for the tool/resource on a Gantt chart. A red and yellow striped bar extends from the start date to the end date of each task. Any blue band in the middle of the bar extends from the left to the right based on the percent complete value that is set on the Task Detail page. (There will be no blue band if the task is 0% complete; the blue band will stretch across half of the bar if the task is 50% complete; the blue band will stretch all the way across the bar if the task is 100% complete.)

You may limit the tasks shown by selecting an Assignee, the Status, or a Category. You may modify the look of the Gantt chart by changing the Sort On criterion, the Resolution, and the Size of the chart. Click the Browse button to update the chart with the new criteria.

Downloading Task List

Members with task administration privileges can download the tasks to a comma-separated value (csv) file. Click the "Download .csv" link at the top of the page. Depending on your browser and software configuration, you will either see the list displayed in a spreadsheet in your browser window or spreadsheet application or you will see the download dialog box. In any case, you may save the task list as a .csv file locally on your computer for future reference.

Uploading Tasks

Task data can be manipulated outside of NITRC and uploaded through the Upload CSV function. Only members with task administration privileges can upload a .csv file. Click the "Upload .csv" link at the top of the page. Use the Browse button to select the .csv file with the changes that you want to upload, and then click the Submit button to store the changes.

Make sure your .csv file follows the record layout shown below. If the layout is incorrect or required fields are missing, all records starting with the incorrect record will not be inserted/updated. It is recommended that you always start by downloading a task list to create your initial .csv file.

Required fields below marked with a red asterisk * must contain data.

Field Name	Description
project_task_id	Task ID; NITRC database ID (for an existing task) or blank (for a new task)
external_task_id	the equivalent of project_task_id but determined by external application, such as MS Project; primarily preserved for sorting purposes only
parent_id	Parent Task ID; project_task_id of the parent task, if any
external_parent_id	the equivalent of parent project_task_id but determined by external application, such as MS Project; primarily preserved for matching purposes only
title*	Task Summary; summary or brief description
duration	duration in days
work	Hours; number of hours required to complete
start_date*	Start Date in MM-DD-YYYY HH:MM:SS format
end_date*	End Date in MM-DD-YYYY HH:MM:SS format
percent_complete	Percent Complete; percentage of completion
priority	Priority; integers 1 (least important) to 5 (most important)
notes	Task Details/Comment; details of the task or a comment to add to the task
resource1_unixname	Assignee; unixname or precisely-matched realname of the assignee
resource2_unixname	Assignee; unixname or precisely-matched realname of additional assignee
resource3_unixname	Assignee; unixname or precisely-matched realname of additional assignee
resource4_unixname	Assignee; unixname or precisely-matched realname of additional assignee
resource5_unixname	Assignee; unixname of precisely-matched realname of additional assignee
dependenton1_project_task_id	Dependent on Task; NITRC project_task_id of a task that this task is dependent on
dependenton1_external_task_id	depentdent on task ID used by the external application
dependenton1_linktype	type of dependency used by external application (SS, SF, FS, FF for MS Project)
dependenton2_project_task_id	Dependent on Task; NITRC project_task_id of task that this task is dependent on
dependenton2_external_task_id	dependent on task ID used by the external application
dependenton2_linktype	type of dependency used by external application (SS, SF, FS, FF for MS Project)
dependenton3_project_task_id	Dependent on Task; NITRC project_task_id of task that this task is dependent on
dependenton3_external_task_id	dependent on task ID used by the external application
dependenton3_linktype	type of dependency used by external application (SS, SF, FS, FF for MS Project)
dependenton4_project_task_id	Dependent on Task; NITRC project_task_id of task that this task is dependent on
dependenton4_external_task_id	dependent on task ID used by the external application
dependenton4_linktype	type of dependency used by external application (SS, SF, FS, FF for MS Project)
dependenton5_project_task_id	Dependent on Task; NITRC project_task_id of task that this task is dependent on
dependenton5_external_task_id	dependent on task ID used by the external application
dependenton5_linktype	type of dependency used by external applicattion (SS, SF, FS, FF for MS Project)

Task Reporting

The Reporting functions allow you to check the status and lifespan of the tasks. The lifespan is the duration of a task; it starts when the task is inserted (opened) in the Task Manager and ends when the task is closed. Only members with task administration privileges may access the Reporting function. From the tool/resource pages, click the "Tasks" menu link, and then click "Reporting" at the top of the page.

Aging Report: The Aging Report shows the turnaround time for closed tasks, the number of tasks inserted, and the number of tasks still open.

Report by Assignee: The Report by Assignee shows information on each member of the tool/resource who has assigned tasks. The information includes the number of tasks assigned to the member, the number of closed tasks, and the number of tasks still open.

Report by Subproject: The Report by Subproject shows information on each task subproject that has assigned tasks. The information includes the total number of tasks for the subproject, the number of closed tasks, and the number of tasks still open.

Tasks Admin

Tasks Admin allows a member with administration privileges to add new task subprojects and edit existing task subprojects. From the Tool/Resource Admin page, click "Tasks Admin" in the Tool Admin section; from the tool/resource pages, click the "Tasks" menu link, and then click "Admin" at the top of the page.

Add a Subproject: This allows you to add a subproject to a tool/resource in order to group similar tasks. You need to include the subproject name and description, which are required fields as indicated by the red asterisk (*). You must also indicate whether the subproject is public (open to all NITRC users) or private (open only to tool/resource members). You may provide an e-mail address or addresses to which all updates of tasks for this subproject are sent.

Edit/Update Subproject: This allows you to change the subproject name, description, or update the e-mail address(es). (The subproject name and description are required fields as indicated by the red asterisk (*).)

This page also allows you to delete a subproject by clicking "Permanently delete this subproject and all its data."

You may also add or edit categories by clicking "Add/Edit Categories." The category name field is required as indicated by the red asterisk (*). Categories cannot be deleted once they are added.

Note: If you want to view or change the observer settings on a subproject, you must go to the Tool/Resource Admin page and click the "Edit Observer" button. Here you may change whether the subproject is public (open to all users) or private (available only to members).

Stats

The Stats page provides reports and graphs of statistical information for your tool/resource.

Reports:

File Release Download Report: This report shows the total downloads, unique IP addresses and unique users for each package, release, and file for your tool/resource.
- Generate CSV Download Report: You may generate a file with raw data for each download associated with your tool/resource. The data generated includes the date of download, package name, release name, file name, and IP address for the user who downloaded the file. If you have required the collection of user contact information in order to download a release, the e-mail address, login name, and name of the user are also included. (You indicate that contact information is required on download when you create the release, and you can also change this indication by editing the release.) To generate the file, enter the date range of interest and click the "Submit" button.
Monitored Items Report: This report shows the number of users monitoring the news, forums, file packages, and trackers for your tool/resource.

Recent Activity: Statistical information that can be graphed for your tool/resource includes opened and closed tracker items, posted forum messages, submitted documents, opened and closed tasks, and downloads. To view a graph, select a component of interest (under "Areas": tracker, forums, docs, tasks, or downloads), the type of plot (daily, weekly, or monthly), and start and end months, and then click the "Refresh" button.

Survey Administration

Administrators: Getting Started | Registration | Administration | Other Features

Surveys may be helpful if you need some feedback from the users. Surveys may address:

User Feedback: to ask users whether they like your tool/resource.

Developer Feedback: to ask developers about new features to be implemented.

Administering Survey Questions

Before you can create a new survey or modify an existing survey, you need to set up the questions for your surveys. As a tool/resource administrator, click the tool/resource menu "Surveys" link, then click "Admin" at the top of the page. Click "Edit Questions" at the top of the page. Here new survey questions can be added, and all existing survey questions can be modified or deleted. NITRC surveys handle the following question types:

Radio Buttons 1-5: These radio buttons give users five choices, from 1 (low) to 5 (high). This might be used to indicate priorities or quality feedback.

Radio Buttons Yes/No: These radio buttons give users two choices, Yes or No.

Comment Only: This allows you to display a comment, directions, or other information to the user.

Text field: Text fields allow users to insert free-form text in a small text field.

Text area: Text areas allow users to insert free-form text in a large text area.

None: This allows you to display a comment, directions, or other information to the user.

To add a question, enter the Question, select the Question Type, and click the "Add This Question" button. To modify a question, click "Edit" for the listed question. You may change the Question and the Question Type. Click the "Submit Changes" button to modify the question. To delete a question, click "Delete" for the listed question.

Creating a New Survey

You can create a new survey by clicking "Edit Survey" at the top of the Survey Admin page. You'll be asked to insert the following data:

Required Fields—indicated by a red asterisk (*) where you must enter data

Survey Name: The name of the survey that is displayed to the users.

Active: This flag indicates whether or not the survey is active.

Questions: A list of all your questions, from which you select those to include in the survey.

Click the "Add This Survey" button to create your survey.

Modifying a Survey

You can modify an existing survey, although this is not recommended if answers to the survey have already been given. You should know that the results of a survey are not consistent if you modify the survey and users have already inserted answers.

To modify an existing survey, click "Edit Survey" at the top of the Survey Admin page. Click "Edit" for the listed survey that you would like to change. You may change the name of the survey and whether or not the survey is active. You can change the order in which the questions are displayed on the survey by clicking "Up" or "Down" for the question you would like to move. You may also delete a question from the survey by checking the box in the "Delete from this Survey" column. Click the "Submit Changes" button to modify the survey.