tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69237370839526899932024-03-04T22:06:20.181-08:00guy.pyrzakBugzilla, YUI, and other things.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-35605454156067513572012-08-11T01:01:00.002-07:002012-08-11T01:05:48.825-07:00Where has Guy been?For those who have wondered where I've been for the past 2 years, I now have a bit of time to tell you. I've been working on the software that is used to operate the Curiosity rover on Mars! Don't know what Curiosity is? It's a 1 ton rover that NASA just landed on Mars, oh yeah, it's got a lazer!<br />
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<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/482680main_PIA09201-full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/482680main_PIA09201-full.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
Needless to say I'm pretty excited. Over the next few months I'm going to be working on the mission as a Science Planner and working with the mission to help improve our software and make sure it's ready to be used for the full 2 years of the current mission and hopefully years into the future!<br />
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I've got a HUGE backlog of bugs from Bugzilla that I'm hoping to get to give some attention so hopefully I'll get a few weekends to work on those.<br />
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But I'm very excited to share this news with the rest of the Bugzilla community. Hopefully all of you will enjoy the beautiful images that get sent back from Mars as much as I have!<br />
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As I get more familiar and comfortable with my responsibilities on the mission, I'll spend some time publishing more information about MSLICE and how its used on the mission. If you'd like to learn more about MSLICE now, we made a 1 pager for landing and you can read it here:<br />
<a href="http://hci.arc.nasa.gov/mslice.html">http://hci.arc.nasa.gov/mslice.html</a><br />
<br />Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-30778460321215355712010-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:002010-07-09T11:40:43.142-07:00Prepare yourself for some changes people!<div>Bugzilla 4.0 has frozen and soon it will be released. There are a bunch of exciting changes that you can expect which I will try to highlight over the next few posts. The big ones that I'm sure will get a lot of attention, for better or worse, are:</div><div><ul><li>the autocompletes for user fields and keywords</li><li>redesigned advanced search page</li><li>the redesigned attachments page.</li><li>create page validation</li></ul></div><div><div>We've also got a patch in the works that will redo the homepage and make it much prettier and professional looking thanks to Jon Pink. You can also look forward to that in 4.0!</div><div><br /></div><div>I've attached images of the 3 new pages which will hopefully encourage you all to <a href="https://landfill.bugzilla.org/bugzilla-tip/">play around with landfill! </a></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSrwE7xuVaiocEufZNQz6PHHFBheDCe8ZfqveKAB_aXEwSEM4uFa8mDXfRP29TjaAw9zeW0uH7x5DDC7kMqhjxAlNRHqyn44tVuTyNirktcjWiE0k2vsV6CoO2KAZCuGe70f-nqQG03Ic/s1600/newHomepage.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSrwE7xuVaiocEufZNQz6PHHFBheDCe8ZfqveKAB_aXEwSEM4uFa8mDXfRP29TjaAw9zeW0uH7x5DDC7kMqhjxAlNRHqyn44tVuTyNirktcjWiE0k2vsV6CoO2KAZCuGe70f-nqQG03Ic/s320/newHomepage.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491977348063183986" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 190px; " /></a></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia2nSWYIJj80VzeITaU7iO28mlF1v232c7szEmlNiH-pMNl381frJN9BzBNE1-G20eMcF9_F3nnr6lDqwfNGRdWuStfbzOtUQ7yB7FP70YjIUjnKVAhsJbzCI1NR4ylQwRPalrllhHLUs/s1600/adv_search.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia2nSWYIJj80VzeITaU7iO28mlF1v232c7szEmlNiH-pMNl381frJN9BzBNE1-G20eMcF9_F3nnr6lDqwfNGRdWuStfbzOtUQ7yB7FP70YjIUjnKVAhsJbzCI1NR4ylQwRPalrllhHLUs/s400/adv_search.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491956956038775746" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 329px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJoR-zDtZCNFAkOI9Wzg5LGgOM4ok8p7EcEsViuWYvlFnUbWIHR-z67RgtQvjvRYGjrNSlg7t3o6yn6KXrqVhICx9wukKBaJ8hyphenhyphenWEKV9RTrETmpjZ1govn2cV6R81MWYnHupsuKJ63lc/s1600/attachments.jpeg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSJoR-zDtZCNFAkOI9Wzg5LGgOM4ok8p7EcEsViuWYvlFnUbWIHR-z67RgtQvjvRYGjrNSlg7t3o6yn6KXrqVhICx9wukKBaJ8hyphenhyphenWEKV9RTrETmpjZ1govn2cV6R81MWYnHupsuKJ63lc/s320/attachments.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491956773157783474" style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 263px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As always we'd love to hear your feedback about this and the other changes that are coming in 4.0 (there are a lot of them, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON#JSONP">jsonp</a>, better extension support, new default workflow, more webservices... it's a long list).</div></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-75278198419593232082010-03-15T16:25:00.000-07:002010-03-15T17:02:27.497-07:00YUI and the recordvalueupdateevent event!This weekend I had a fairly basic task. I had 2 tables with checkboxes that were populated with data and 1 widget that was supposed to listen to changes in the tables.<br /><br />I could have just wired my widget into the checkboxes, but that didn't seem like the correct way to do it. Instead I decided to wire the widget into the data model. But the thing that really ended up getting me is to use the recordvalueupdateevent, which is basically the only way to listen to updates in a record set requires 2 things.<br /><br />1. you have to use this.getRecordSet().updateRecordValue()<br />2. you have to create the event! .getRecordSet().createEvent('recordValueUpdateEvent');<br /><br />If you don't do these 2 things you won't be able to get this to work<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Below are the two ways i could have done it.</span><span> Actual code to come in the future.<br /><br />My hope is someone else who gets stuck with this will be able to find it.<br />Thanks to <a href="http://mart.kiev.ua/yui-recordset-events">http://mart.kiev.ua/yui-recordset-events</a> who wrote about this in Russian or some other slovic language which google helpfully translated to English!<br /></span>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-83415490643378510602010-03-09T11:00:00.001-08:002010-03-09T11:00:52.651-08:00ideas for User stats to gether for more human bugzilla v0Statistics to show about a user<br /><br />All things in list with & in the bullet might have a "veteran" and "newbie" designation. <br /><br />Newbie and Veteran status can be determined either by a count or time.<br />-- If it is a count then it would simply be an above a line and below a line<br />-- If it is a time it would be before X date for veterans and newbie would be determined by N duration before today.<br />-- We might want to allow users to configure these settings and let them use one or both systems.<br />-- V1 might just have a config file, V2 might have a table in the database or a param tab<br /><br /><br />* CC List<br />***& Num bugs user is on CC list<br /><br />* QA Field<br />***& Num bugs user is QA on<br /><br />* Comments<br />***& Num<br />*** Recent Activity ( num bugs in the past N duration )<br /><br />* Bug Fixing<br />***& Assigned<br />*** Assigned and Fixed<br />*** Recent Activity ( num where status was changed to fixed in N duration )<br /><br />* Bug Patches<br />***& Num patches created<br />*** Num patches created with + flag<br />*** Recent Activity ( patches created in N duration )<br /><br />* Bug Filing<br />***& Num bugs filed<br />*** Num bugs resolved as duplicates <br />*** Recent Activity<br /><br />* Bug Reviewer<br />***& Num reviews per bug<br />*** Recent Activity ( Num bugs set to + or - in N duration )<br /><br />* Bugs Verified<br />*** How do we do this???<br /><br />What has the user filed bugs on?<br />-- With all these stats how do we determine what they have worked on?<br />-- Do a count per project for how many ANY of the above the user has done, if the number is more than N then that person has that project show up<br /><br /><br />Once the extension is installed we first need to do old stats gathering<br />After that we will rely on either a cron job OR hooks or both<br /><br />We need to extend the user object and add these statsGuyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-89561097147860159652010-03-08T21:58:00.000-08:002010-03-09T06:43:32.987-08:00Bugzilla Extensions: Gravatar and Inline Images<div>There are 2 bugs which I have been paying some attention to recently.</div><br /><div>The first one is <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=222861" style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); "><b>Bug 222861</b></a> which requests that images are displayed when they are mentioned in comments. This bug was important to me because I often found myself and others referring to images and attachments in comments and then having to open them up in a new window. I really wanted developers to just see the mocks i made along with my comments about them. It was determined that this bug makes more sense as an extension. So I wrote one. I've posted it here: <a href="http://github.com/pyrzak/Bugzilla-Extension--Inline-Images">http://github.com/pyrzak/Bugzilla-Extension--Inline-Images</a>. Hopefully you guys like it!</div><br /><div>The second one is <b><a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=395802" style="color: rgb(102, 51, 102); ">Bug 395802</a></b> which requests to be able to support gravatar images. This is something Aza Raskin specifically mentioned by saying make it easier to know "who is this guy". Step 1 is adding a human face to a comment via the gravatar, Step 2 might be about grabbing their stats.</div><div><br />There were 2 mocks that I made as suggestions for how this should look. The first is:<div><a href="http://grab.by/2VBM"><img src="http://grab.by/2VBM" border="0" alt="" style="cursor: pointer; width: 831px; height: 500px; " /></a><br /></div></div><div>Here is the other mock:<div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://grab.by/2VB8"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 1061px; height: 933px;" src="http://grab.by/2VB8" border="0" alt="" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>My hope is that we're finally to the point where many of Aza's and other's ideas might be possible thanks to the new extension system and the jsonp bug <a name="b550727" href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=550727" style="color: rgb(0, 51, 153); ">550727</a>. Both of which wouldn't be possible if <a href="http://max.kanat.us/">mkanat</a> didn't work so hard to add this kind of mash-up and extensibility, so thanks!</div><br /><div>Any feedback about either of these extensions or anything else I mentioned is very welcomed.</div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-8467052042209237252010-02-27T16:31:00.000-08:002010-02-27T16:49:59.225-08:00New Advanced Search UI V2Here is the second version trying to take into account the suggestions given.<div><br /></div><div>This UI would remember whatever is expanded and collapsed based on the user's cookies.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRdD5mE7PUSrWGhYCoqt1k9jB5C8RBufFWZanykfPY2GxyHjHwusPOk3xnp54kXJwBhqXNZojsv_DF-JSwQdrcfcMCsbhGD-nQrF-HLqIR5_RgX0XQeQxCo6DE0HYp0xpnfxIy95Mm-k/s1600-h/SearchUIV2.png"></a></div><div>Another option that isn't displayed here is the column layout would change from 3 to X based on how wide the screen is (aka elastic). </div><div><br /></div><div>I tried to increase the information density as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>For saved/editable searches we might try to use the text description from the search UI.</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRdD5mE7PUSrWGhYCoqt1k9jB5C8RBufFWZanykfPY2GxyHjHwusPOk3xnp54kXJwBhqXNZojsv_DF-JSwQdrcfcMCsbhGD-nQrF-HLqIR5_RgX0XQeQxCo6DE0HYp0xpnfxIy95Mm-k/s1600-h/SearchUIV2.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhRdD5mE7PUSrWGhYCoqt1k9jB5C8RBufFWZanykfPY2GxyHjHwusPOk3xnp54kXJwBhqXNZojsv_DF-JSwQdrcfcMCsbhGD-nQrF-HLqIR5_RgX0XQeQxCo6DE0HYp0xpnfxIy95Mm-k/s400/SearchUIV2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443089109027369250" style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 188px; " /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrGAUeKCmXI-ospW1A8Tgm2-GhB487KLY4Qeuchco6tSN5BzQdjFidpz-WEyaLJXEyZ5zwmMBq0DUwN0QpHg27aj0p2lbf8hCZ2un8ysnUciY9UTzjxVNngZ7GxbbM4dXPsxBt2jawQY/s1600-h/SearchUI_ExpandedV2.png"></a></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrGAUeKCmXI-ospW1A8Tgm2-GhB487KLY4Qeuchco6tSN5BzQdjFidpz-WEyaLJXEyZ5zwmMBq0DUwN0QpHg27aj0p2lbf8hCZ2un8ysnUciY9UTzjxVNngZ7GxbbM4dXPsxBt2jawQY/s1600-h/SearchUI_ExpandedV2.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrGAUeKCmXI-ospW1A8Tgm2-GhB487KLY4Qeuchco6tSN5BzQdjFidpz-WEyaLJXEyZ5zwmMBq0DUwN0QpHg27aj0p2lbf8hCZ2un8ysnUciY9UTzjxVNngZ7GxbbM4dXPsxBt2jawQY/s400/SearchUI_ExpandedV2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443089112744230946" style="cursor: pointer; width: 324px; height: 400px; " /></a><br />Looking forward to hearing your feedback about the changes and improvements.</div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-24080674535969313342010-02-27T10:50:00.000-08:002010-02-27T10:59:40.811-08:00A new layout for the Attachments pageThere were some comments today about the attachments page and how wonky it is. <b><a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=101770"><b>Bug 101770</b></a> </b>has become the place where I've decided to post a response and possible solution to the problem but since I'm sure folks don't want to bother going to the bug here are the images that I posted. Let me know what you think. My hope is that we'll be able to implement this new UI quickly and make a big improvement without making anyone too upset about losing the current Attachments UI.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://bug101770.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=429350"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 900px; height: 800px;" src="https://bug101770.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=429350" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://bug101770.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=429351"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 900px; height: 800px;" src="https://bug101770.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=429351" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Things to note. The comments box and the attachment iframe would be elastic so they would grow with the width of the page. Clicking edit attachment as comment would cause the comment box to go away and the big area would turn into a comment.<br /><br />My hope for this layout is to 1 give more realestate to the comment box that is equal to the area on the current bug page as well as make it easier for people editing the patches directly to have more room.<br /><br />This UI also puts the focus where it belongs, on the attachment itself.<br /><br />Things to note. I'm not at all happy with the placement of the patch and obsolete checkboxes. Any suggestions on where those should go is greatly appreciated.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-38473686715479171922010-02-18T14:03:00.000-08:002010-02-18T14:22:38.582-08:00Make it like code.google.com's bug trackerFor a while we've been having discussions about tags and Bugzilla on the dev mailing list. To boil down a lot of the suggestion it consists of "we could do away with most of our fields/flags and replace them with tags, it would make the UI way better".<br /><br />We've also had other discussions about how the bug edit page should change. Many of the suggestions consist of moving the non-comment data about a bug to the left or right side of the page and letting the comments take up most of the page.<br /><br />Today (for the first time) i went into the code.google.com (cgc) bug tracker to see what the status of tagging was in chrome. Turns out both of these UI suggestions are exactly how chrome is implemented. I event went to the advanced search page to see if the suggestions i received from the advanced search page were the same (they weren't). <br /><br />Anyway, i've received the message loud and clear "we like how google did it". <br /><br />I'm tempted to make a jetpack that makes the BMO UI act/look a lot more like cgc. What do you guys think? Is it worth it or is TidyBug more the direction people prefer?<br /><br />If you haven't seen cgc here is the URL i looked at today: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=17536Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-78560680548350254342010-02-17T09:39:00.000-08:002010-02-17T09:48:17.353-08:00Tidy Bugzilla for Jetpack... kindaSo I saw the post for TidyBug and noticed someone commented that they switched back to Greasemonkey from Jetpack. I really like the idea of Jetpack, so i was bummed to see that someone had switch away from it because they wanted this feature so... I tried copying some of the features of tidyBug over to Jetpack. <br /><br />Here is the URL for the jetpack in the gallery: http://jetpackgallery.mozillalabs.com/jetpacks/346<br /><br />and an image to see what it does to the edit page...<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqM4D_37lyYAjXKgqKe6b3Ziq34OIlO6aG8Jk6z5_VqkxcLrGmYxnELp4FPyPTDEkOT24LuQ7Akq3Tq3Hk6T3sMlxvQQRZ_4jaYX_jADPSOA_k8ynFa0uwwSNh3r3Es0QxHGZPbO3f-o/s1600-h/Screen+shot+2010-02-16+at+2.38.47+AM.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 156px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqM4D_37lyYAjXKgqKe6b3Ziq34OIlO6aG8Jk6z5_VqkxcLrGmYxnELp4FPyPTDEkOT24LuQ7Akq3Tq3Hk6T3sMlxvQQRZ_4jaYX_jADPSOA_k8ynFa0uwwSNh3r3Es0QxHGZPbO3f-o/s320/Screen+shot+2010-02-16+at+2.38.47+AM.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439270388606809202" /></a><br /><br /><br />For those of you who are not familiar with tidy bug here is the original post:<br />http://www.squarefree.com/2009/02/26/tidybug/<br /><br />I'm still working on moving over all the features (like keyboard shortcuts). But the minimizing (what seems to be the best part) is part of this. Plus this version works with ANY version of Bugzilla running 3.4 onward, not just BMO.<br /><br />For those using Chrome I might try to port this over as a chrome extension next weekend.<br /><br />I'll also try using jetpack to prototype some other desired features, like prototyping the quicksearch helper mentioned in my previous post.<br /><br />Feedback is always appreciated.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-25245396360901339792010-02-15T19:34:00.001-08:002010-02-15T20:08:51.818-08:00Update to the Advanced Search UIWe've been working on fixes from our usability research and surveys. With the recent post of <a href="http://people.mozilla.org/%7Ejohnath/bugzilla/BugzillaForHumans.ogv">Bugzilla for Humanity</a>, I was inspired to work on the Advanced Search UI because as Johnathan put it, "it is complete and terrible" and for "99% of searches you don't need it". However the other search, the simple search he doesn't bother to mention and of course he <3's quicksearch. I've filed bug <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=544404"><b>544404</b></a><a name="b544553" href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=544553"></a> to help quicksearch magic become more discoverable.<br /><br />So the solution to make the advanced search page less complicated is a multi-parter as always in the Bugzilla world. Here are the steps which may or may not happen in the order they appear.<br /><br />Step 1. Make the big summary box at the top of the page use quicksearch instead of a summary search.<br /><br />Step 2. Make the other boxes on the advanced search page work as a helper to the quicksearch<br /><br />Step 3. Make the advanced search page less complicated.<br /><br />1 and 2 are more or less out of my area expertise so I'll leave those to mkanat and jjclark. But making the advanced search page less complicated, I can help with.<br /><br />The approach I took was inspired by the redesign we did at work, basically apply a grid and hide the stuff that doesn't matter most of the time.<br /><br />I've posted mocks up on bug <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=450301"><b>450301</b></a> but since I'm sure no one wants to read through the bug I'll post the images here:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://bug450301.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=427030"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 940px; height: 720px;" src="https://bug450301.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=427030" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and the expanded version<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://bug450301.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=427044"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 821px; height: 1429px;" src="https://bug450301.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=427044" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />What do you all think?Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-48739769015616632142009-09-17T07:41:00.000-07:002010-07-17T16:21:48.130-07:00Jira Vs BugzillaToday a co-worker sent me a link for <a href="http://www.atlassian.com/clunkers/">Jira's Cash for Clunkers</a>, a way to get the word out for the next release. At first I thought my co-worker was trying to say "hey we should use JIRA" (turns out he wasn't). But I think this is a thought lots of people have when it comes to picking bug/issue trackers. And I honestly don't think it is free to compare. In my mind it is like comparing the public library to the book store.<br /><br />I love the public library. I get to go in and grab any book they have and read it for free(I pretend my taxes don't count)! Wow. That's amazing. But that's assuming someone hasn't checked out the book i want. Sometimes i have to wait for a book and sometimes I am too impatient and i just buy it from the Bookstore.<br /><br />See the Bookstore has tons of books, not as large of a variety, but usually they have what i want. Often if I want a book they don't have, I can ask for it and they work hard to get it for me asap. Plus, i don't get some crappy fees if I'm late returning the book, because its mine.<br /><br />I feel like the same thing is true of JIRA to Bugzilla. They are both great bug trackers, but their nature is totally different. You pay for JIRA (unless you're an open source tool) and no one (not even Mozilla) pays to support the development of Bugzilla. Lots of organizations and individuals donate time when they can, but there isn't any money being exchanged from a "bugzilla org" to other folks.<br /><br />I feel like this by itself makes the comparison not exactly fair. Now if that philosophy isn't an issue and neither is money.<br /><br />JIRA's UI is cleaner/nicer but not as geared around power users in many people's opinion, but it doesn't support the patch review process as nicely.<br /><br />To be clear i've used both systems. There are PLENTY of super annoying little things (which maybe jira fixed in this next release). But as someone who has now come to understand JIRA really well and its limitations and understanding bugzilla and its limitations, I'd pick Bugzilla, but most people I work with, prefer JIRA every time.<br /><br />Maybe JQL will fix the biggest JIRA issue, advanced search, but in the end, I like bugzilla because although admin UI for bugzilla is weird, I honestly find it easier to use (once I understand the mental model) than JIRAs. Oh... also, JIRA's email system makes me want to shoot somone, can't add other people to cc lists, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to turn off emails for specific bugs, it seems like some crazy all the things in a project or none... but that's again a personal issue.<br /><br />But I'll continue to use JIRA at work, and figure out how to make work-arounds for "adding others to the cc-list" and other issues. But if you're reading this post as a way to find the answer to this question. Ask yourself this: is money not an issue? Do I have lots of novices using this tool? If the answer is yes to both of those, JIRA might be the way to go.<br /><br />If you've got experts who will live with this tool every day, would prefer emacs, the command line and grep to Office, and want to be able to hack and slash their way to happiness... Bugzilla is probably your solution.<br /><br /><div>UPDATE <july>... Search is still horrible! doing a search for a bug with a specific owner between 2 relative dates results in "error" with no error message. OMG i miss Bugzilla. Plus quicksearch in bugzilla is GREAT @username gets me all their open bugs done... jira not so much. :(</div><div><br />my 2 cents</div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-36530094673026677212009-07-08T20:40:00.000-07:002010-02-25T14:03:48.466-08:00Bugzilla JSON-RPC Webservice with JQueryI already posted how you can use <a href="http://guy-pyrzak.blogspot.com/2009/07/using-yui-with-bugzilla-36.html">YUI to use the Bugzilla web services</a> available on the head. But lots of people don't like using YUI and prefer using JQuery. I haven't used JQuery much, but this experiment seems to have gotten the job done and should supply a basis for how to do more complex stuff with JQuery and the JSON-RPC interface.<br /><br />Please note the JSON serialization capability isn't part of JQuery so I used a plug-in. The plugin doesn't seem to be as powerful as YUI's JSON serialization, but maybe it is and I haven't explored it enough. Anyway, here goes!<br /><br />First you'll need JQuery and the JSON serialization parser. I added it under YUI but you should be able to add it before or after the YUI in the header.<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br /> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script><br /> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://jquery-json.googlecode.com/files/jquery.json-1.3.min.js"></script><br /></pre><br />Next comes the actual code which is very similar to the previous post.<br /><br />First you create the JSON-RPC object:<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br />var myObject = { "method": "Bug.add_comment", <br /> "params": [ { "id": 1, <br /> "comment":"I am using bugzilla's webservices with jQuery! YAY" <br /> } ], <br /> "id": 1 };<br /></pre><br /><br />Then we encode it into a string:<br /><pre class="brush: js">var enc = $.toJSON(myObject);</pre><br /><br />Lastly we send it on its way using the JQuery ajax method:<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br />$.ajax({"contentType":"application/json",<br /> "data": enc, <br /> "dataType": "json", <br /> "url": "jsonrpc.cgi",<br /> "type": "post",<br /> success: function(d, ts){<br /> console.log('w00t',d); <br /> console.dir(d);<br /> }<br /> });<br /></pre><br /><br />Just like in YUI we need to make sure we set the contentType to application/json and use a post (get is still disabled due to cross site scripting concerns). I set the dataType to JSON so Jquery would deserialize the response for me.<br /><br />And now we've got a basic JSON-RPC message being sent. Now we'll still need to handle errors etc, but for now this is enough to get any eager JavaScript developer going.<br /><br />Another example is getting bug info which might be equally helpful is available below. This method gets information about 2 bugs. I'm not going to explain it as much but it follows the same pattern.<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br />var myObject = {<br /> "method": "Bug.get",<br /> "params": [{ "ids": [1,2]}],<br /> "id": 1<br /> }; <br />var enc = $.toJSON(myObject); <br />jQuery.ajax({"contentType":"application/json",<br /> "data":enc, <br /> "dataType":"json", <br /> "url":"jsonrpc.cgi", <br /> "type":"post", <br /> success:function(d, ts){<br /> console.log('w00t', d); <br /> console.dir(d)<br /> }<br /> });<br /></pre><br />The hope is eventually to release some JavaScript plugins for YUI (2 and 3) and JQuery that will make this sort of stuff much easier, like handle the serialization, and errors. But for now these examples will have to do.<br /><br />For more info about what Bugzilla web services are available check out:<br /><a href="http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/3.4/en/html/api/index.html">http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/3.4/en/html/api/index.html</a><br /><br />Next experiment... Jetpack! Any ideas on a cool bugzilla jetpack app?Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-77891240334138704822009-07-06T19:06:00.000-07:002010-02-25T14:18:53.194-08:00Using YUI with Bugzilla 3.6So today someone filed <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=502504"> <b>Bug 502504</b></a> and I immediately became nervous because I had never even tried using the new JSON-RPC api and I was worried it would be too hard to use for anyone.<br /><br />Well after a few hickups I got it to work on my local machine as well as landfill and I thought I'd post the code and attempt to explain it.<br /><br />First off you'll need to get a few YUI libraries, specifically the Connect Manager and the JSON library. For ease of my own use I just grabbed utilities.js, but that might be too much for some of you.<br /><br />You'll need to set the Conent-Type properly:<br /><pre class="brush: js">YAHOO.util.Connect.setDefaultPostHeader( 'application/json', true );</pre><br /><br />You'll need to pick the Web Service you want to use by looking at the API <a href="http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/tip/en/html/api/Bugzilla/WebService/Bug.html">here</a>. Then you'll need to create the JSON to send over.<br /><br />According to the JSON-RPC spec you send over an Object/Hash with 3 value pairs:<br /><ul><li>method : the method you want to use, for this example we'll use Bug.add_comment</li><li>params : the params the webservice docs say you need to send. The spec for JSON-RPC say it needs to be an array of objects, for Bug.add_comment is it just a hash of id and the comment and a few other optional things</li><li>id : an integer, the id of the call so you can match it up later on, YUI should make it so we don't need to worry about this one, but you might care.</li></ul>Here is the Object definition for the example...<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br />var myObject = {<br /> "method": "Bug.add_comment",<br /> "params": [<br /> {<br /> "id": 1,<br /> "comment":"I am using bugzilla's webservices! YAY"<br /> }],<br /> "id": 1<br />};<br /></pre><br />and then we'll stringify it using YAHOO.lang.JSON.stringify.<br /><pre class="brush: js">var jsonObject = YAHOO.lang.JSON.stringify(myObject);</pre><br />Now hopefully you know how to use the callback in YUI. If not there are plenty examples.<br /><br />Finally you call it!<br /><pre class="brush: js">YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('POST', 'jsonrpc.cgi', callback, jsonObject );</pre><br />So in this example I added a comment to bug 1, and that comment is <code style="padding: 10px; display: block; background-color: rgb(255, 248, 220);">"I am using bugzilla's webservices! YAY"</code><br /><br />That's it! The full code that I used is below. I was using firebug so you should change the console commands to whatever you want to do with the response:<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br />YAHOO.util.Connect.setDefaultPostHeader( 'application/json', true );<br />var callback = { <br /> success:function(o){ <br /> console.log('it worked');<br /> console.dir(o.response); <br /> },<br /> failure:function(o){ <br /> console.log('it failed'); <br /> console.dir(o); <br /> }};<br />var myObject = {<br /> "method": "Bug.add_comment",<br /> "params": [<br /> {<br /> "id": 1,<br /> "comment":"I am using bugzilla's webservices! YAY"<br /> }<br /> ],<br /> "id": 1<br />};<br />var jsonObject = YAHOO.lang.JSON.stringify(myObject);<br />YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('POST', 'jsonrpc.cgi', callback, jsonObject );<br /></pre><br /><br />Another example for those who would like one...<br /><pre class="brush: js"><br />YAHOO.util.Connect.setDefaultPostHeader( 'application/json' ); <br />var obj = {<br /> "method": "Bug.get", <br />"params": [ <br />{ "ids": [<br /> 1,<br /> 2<br /> ]<br /> }<br /> ],<br /> "id": 1<br />};<br />var jsonObj = YAHOO.lang.JSON.stringify(obj);<br />YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('POST', 'jsonrpc.cgi', <br /> { success:function(o){ <br /> console.log('it worked');<br /> console.log(YAHOO.lang.JSON.parse(o.responseText)); <br /> }, <br /> failure:function(o){ <br /> console.log('it failed'); <br /> console.dir(o); <br /> } <br /> }, jsonObj);<br /></pre>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-8632601295169045742009-04-23T21:28:00.000-07:002009-04-23T22:38:29.961-07:00Lots of Design Feedback and Bugzilla Usability DataThere has been a lot of interest in the Bugzilla UI recently, which I'm super excited about. Attending usability conferences like <a href="http://www.chi2009.org/">CHI</a>, I'd often hear about how hard it is to get any interest in usability or design in the open source community for various reasons (<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/wonderland/entry/virtual_world_tidbits_from_chi">1</a>, <a href="http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg/2009/04/05/at-chi-2009-in-boston/">2</a>, <a href="http://www.experientia.com/blog/how-to-make-open-source-projects-care-more-about-usability-and-user-experience/">3</a>, <a href="http://mpt.net.nz/archive/2008/08/01/free-software-usability">4</a>).<br /><br />However, thanks to the post that <a href="http://lpsolit.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/new-front-page-for-bugzilla-34/">LpSolit posted</a>, many designers at Mozilla have stepped up with improvements to the Bugzilla UI, there is <a href="http://jboriss.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/my-bugzilla-redesign-2%C2%A2/">Boriss's suggestions</a> for a new UI as well as <a href="http://blog.fligtar.com/2009/04/23/fancypants-a-new-bugzilla-skin/">Fligtar's new skin</a>. Even a graphic designer from Spread Mozilla, <a href="http://www.foxiewire.com/">graphicguru</a>, stepped up to help improve my pathetic attempt at graphics(<a href="http://www.foxiewire.com/bugzilla/searchabug.png">1</a>,<a href="http://www.foxiewire.com/bugzilla/fileabug.png">2</a>,<a href="http://www.foxiewire.com/bugzilla/bugzillasignup.png">3</a>). We've gotten some developers, like <a href="http://samuelsidler.com/">SS</a>, to give some very useful feedback about how he'd prefer a more <a href="http://samuelsidler.com/imgupload/Bugzilla-home-simple.png">minimalist skin</a> in general. And to top it off there has been feedback about new ways to think about the <a href="http://www.squarefree.com/2009/04/20/getting-bugs-done/">workflow from Jesse</a>. Not to mention the meeting we had with the some of the Mozilla designers about future directions for Bugzilla, as<a href="http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/improving-bugzilla-people-bugs-search-and-planning/"> documented by Aza</a>. And today we had a small meeting with even more Mozilla folks about how they thought the tool could be improved. We're hoping to have more meetings in the future with Mozilla developers and get even more thanks to <a href="http://jonoscript.wordpress.com/">Jono</a>.<br /><br />It's been extremely exciting it is to see so many people interested in the Bugzilla UI. I'm hoping that with all these ideas you all can expect to see many design and usability improvements in future versions of Bugzilla.<br /><br />But as my professor <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Ebej/">Bonnie John</a> would say, one shouldn't design or develop without data. Turns out <a href="http://www.codesimplicity.com/">Mkanat</a>, and many of the Mozilla folks feel the same way! And thanks to a very dedicated and smart group of <a href="http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/">HCII Carnegie Mellon students</a> we've got <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Bugzilla:CMU_HCI_Research_2008">usability data</a>. This data was collected this past fall on Bugzilla 3.0, and I've attempted to post their research more or less unedited from their project to the Bugzilla wiki.<br /><br />I haven't had a chance to look through and write an executive summery/conclusion to all their great data, but I thought to post it without one and perhaps let you all peruse the data and supply me with <span style="font-weight: bold;">your</span> important take aways from the data. This research was <span style="font-weight: bold;">not</span> based on how people use <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/">Mozilla's Bugzilla</a>, but how people use bug trackers in general at software companies and other domains.<br /><br />Let me know what you think of the data, what takeaways you find and what conclusions you draw from the data and maybe I can crowd source this task conclusion writing task.<br /><br />Unfortunately Bugzilla 3.4 is going to be out the door pretty soon, and we won't be able to get many of these improvements into this version, but maybe we will see some of the improvements suggested this past week as well as ideas from the usability research appear in 3.6 or later versions of Bugzilla.<br /><br />Again thanks to everyone who has become interested in redesigning Bugzilla, keep the designs and ideas coming! Feel free to email me when you've got ideas or designs and maybe we can work together to get the ideas into the source.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-74857071107719385112009-04-16T20:38:00.000-07:002009-04-16T21:14:33.857-07:00A new Login Form for BugzillaSo we've gotten lots of great feedback on the homepage, it's been really helpful and we're talking to folks about redoing the icons, making sure that the big icons are the right choice and much more. Wait for a post to find out more about the future of the homepage!<br /><br />But we're also working on the log in process, attempting to make that easier as well!<br /><br />Here is a view of the current log in form as it exists on the head.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/38795216549E7F993ECD12_m.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 640px; height: 391px;" src="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/38795216549E7F993ECD12_m.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />One of the problems with this UI is that you can't reset your password very easily from this page, or any other page really. The nice part is, you can log in from any page, and not have to go through some intermediate page.<br /><br />So here is the solution we've though of to make it easier to reset your password or log in from any page in Bugzilla.<br /><br />How it appears if you've never come to the page<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/38795216549E7F993ECD12_m.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/168317326249E7F98DEB2F7_m.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />What happens when you click on log in, cursor focused on the log in. This is also what happens if the browser auto fills in your username and password.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/38795216549E7F993ECD12_m.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/173527196449E7F98B82548_m.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This is what you'll see if you click on the forgot password link.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/38795216549E7F993ECD12_m.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer;" src="http://www.quicksnapper.com/files/6573/61211732849E7F98811266_m.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I omitted a close icon for now because it didn't seem necessary, but maybe you guys think it is. Let me know!<br /><br />We're also adding a link to the reset password on the bad username/password error page.<br /><br />One more thing to note about how this form will work. If the browser auto-fills your username and password, we'll make sure the javascript on the page detects your username and password and displays them to you, so you don't have to click the login hyperlink to login. We're hoping this will maintain the 1 click to login capability that so many people like.<br /><br />This isn't something that will magically make Bugzilla super easier to use, but hopefully this will take us one step closer to a more usable Bugzilla.<br /><br />As always feedback is really appreciated and unlike my previous post, I'll get emailed when you guys comments, so hopefully i can respond to your feedback in a more timely manner. Can't wait to hear your opinions.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-23960194170449407702009-01-29T18:22:00.000-08:002009-01-29T18:39:06.405-08:00Bugzilla's new UI for Index.cgi<a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=475063">Bug 475063</a> is an enhancement to "<span style="display: inline;" id="summary_alias_container" class="bz_default_hidden"><span id="short_desc_nonedit_display">Make the logged-out index.cgi simpler</span></span>". After a few chats with <a href="http://www.codesimplicity.com/">Max Kanat</a>, I've mocked up and submitted a patch to do just that.<br /><br />Right now the patch looks like <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=359677">this</a>.<br /><br />Since this is a major change to the Bugzilla UI I'd love to get some feedback about this!<br /><br />A few things to note:<br /><br />There have been some discussions about how Buggy should look, with a pupil or without, more recongnizable or less, or even if we should use him at all. So that's in a state of flux.<br /><br />Also for the dusk skin this UI will look the same, just set to the monocrome of Dusk.<br /><br />For those wondering "what about the login box on the homepage?". There is another bug to improve that and make it easier to log in from any page! <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=476090">Bug 476090</a> will allow users to login directly from any page without needing to leave the context that they are in. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to do this ajax style to avoid having to leave the page at all.<br /><br />Can't wait to hear your feedback about both of these bugs.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-48689637004501465722008-09-05T10:10:00.001-07:002008-09-05T10:10:06.893-07:00Google Chrome, no Undo Close Tab?!?<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>I was a bit shocked when Google chrome came out without an undo close tab. Google and NASA helped Mozilla do a lot of research for Firefox 3 on how people use tabs, so I would have thought that Google's browser would have incorporated one of my favorite features that were designed for this purpose, undo close tab!<br/><br/>Granted it might be one of the least well known features in FF3, but I think it rocks. I close the wrong tab at least once a day, and it's mostly b/c i get over eager clicking the close tab or control-w. <br/><br/>The point is, making everything in a browser undo-able is super useful, I wish it would be made a full fledged feature instead of something you can only get to by right-clicking on the tabs that remain.<br/><br/>So Google, take your own advice to other browsers and add an close tab to the undo stack... please?<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-67665101866579302232008-09-05T09:56:00.001-07:002008-09-05T09:56:46.485-07:00Extensions I use<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>A quick post about the few but helpful extensions I use...<br/><ol><li>Firebug (duh)<br/></li><li>Screen Grab! (for grabbing screenshots of the changes I have made)</li><li>Scribe Fire (to write these)</li></ol>That's it! I haven't found many other super helpful extensions, probably b/c they tend to make firefox run slower or cause the browser to crash, both of which are not fun.<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-39737571223666054082008-08-31T17:30:00.001-07:002008-08-31T17:30:54.708-07:00Planet Mozilla Test<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>testing!<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-69342736535277857782008-08-02T19:31:00.001-07:002008-08-02T19:31:23.623-07:00Bwaaaah! Learning Perl<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>I'm learning perl to do some simple stuff with the bugzilla API. Got the Camel book, maybe I'll get through it this time. The fact that Perl has "pointers" kinda makes me sad though.<br/><br/>zug... zug<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-34392163869890753112008-07-19T12:29:00.001-07:002008-07-19T12:29:25.690-07:00Status: Busy<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>So I have not posted to the blog except for the previous random posting which I actually wrote more than a month ago.<br/><br/>The reason is, I've been super busy with work! I lived in Tucson supporting the Phoenix mission for 3 weeks and I actually wrote blog posting, they're just not public, sorry.<br/><br/>Then I came back to support the release of cxMAS aka cxPRACA 2.0, you can check it out, well the homepage at least (https://cxhazards.nasa.gov). Because of the release cycle we were unable to support Firefox 3.0, which is a bummer. Just not enough testers and we were still working on seeing if our selenium test cases worked. Firefox 3 went from beta to released super fast it seemed, or at least for those of us on Mars time.<br/><br/>I came back to Mountain View in June and have been working on the release of cxMAS and now the release of MSLICE. We've got one more release and then... I'll post the YUI screen scrolling animation that I promised to post. <br/><br/>Anyway, that's a heads up, i haven't forgotten about the blog. Also if you're REALLY interested you can follow me on twitter. But there I'm more just spouting total randomness. <br/><br/>Oh and Dr Horrible (http://drhorrible.com) go, now before it is off the internets!<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-4134219569064044002008-07-19T12:21:00.001-07:002008-07-19T12:21:45.355-07:00Spacial Constraints?<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Just something i want to keep in mind. If you can plan spatially. You should also be able to create constraints on targets, where they can be moved/created for a, when Targets can be targeted, what instruments can use them, is there more?<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-2964660082520135922008-05-30T02:17:00.001-07:002008-05-30T02:17:32.077-07:00Life In Tucson<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>So since the Phoenix lander touched down, I know I'll be spending some time here for a while. <br/><br/>What does this mean for MAS, mostly that I'll be juggling bug fixes with supporting the tool. The good news is when I'm not supporting the mission I should have plenty of time for Bugs and less likelihood of getting distracted.<br/><br/>The past few days have been was amazing and I'm glad I have been involved in this project for the past 3 years.<br/><br/>The fun part is I get to have 2 laptops, my normal mac and a windows machine. What this means is I got to experience the joy of installing bugzilla and bzr on a windows machine. It was as fun as a root canal! <br/><br/>But it works and because of that I was able to knock out a bunch of bugs. I've also done some cool stuff with YUI that I need to post, specifically animating the scroll bar of the whole window! It looks like there are some bugs in IE so I'm gonna fix that, publish it and then yank it out. Because our designers don't like it. But it was still fun to write an extension to the YUI animation class and I think it would be very educational for anyone who wants to write their own.<br/><br/>I've also had a few other wrestling matches with YUI, in the end I'm not sure who won, but YUI did was it was supposed to and it made my life easier, so maybe we both won.<br/><br/>Long story short...<br/><br/>YAY the Phoenix has Landed! YAY YUI ROXORS!<br/></div>Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-25852007993266105632008-05-14T08:33:00.000-07:002008-05-14T08:53:56.249-07:00Bugs, in code and in lifeSo MAS (formerly known as PRACA) is now in bug fixing mode, which ironically I have learned to love. Unlike feature development, which requires lots of time thinking hard about how to get a design to work within the constraints of browsers, usually just Firefox, and also with good performance it takes a lot of thought. Which while very fun, after many months of it, along with the even more complex design work that I do, my brain gets kinda tired. So when bugs come around it is pretty straight forward. Firefox has Firebug, IE has a few tools that are no where near as nice as Firebug, but much like tea leaves, you can learn to read them, sorta. So I have learned to enjoy the straightforwardness of bug fixing. Something is broken, I fix it! Granted experience has taught me how to fix these bugs, so I never really get confused by them... except for when pure HTML crashes IE, that I like less. But I digress... the point is bug fixing is usually a pretty mild task, that just requires me to work through the possibilities, mark a bug as fixed and then move on to the next one. Unlike features which might take me between 8 and 16 hours of work, a bug takes between 8 and 16 minutes, it's the difference between playing some crazy RPG for a week vs a game of Wii Tennis, both are fun, but you need to change it up.<br /><br />Now bugs in life on the other hand are MUCH less fun. The bug I am referring to is the loss of my cell phone. A total bummer. I've tried to fix it by calling caltrain and hopefully my lost phone will be found. But this experience has taught me some interesting work arounds for life sans cell phone, mostly how to use IM as a text messaging service, because I don't use my cell phone for much more than that 90% of the time, but it defiantly feels like life without my voice. Sure I can function, I've got IM and I can write stuff down, but talking was so nice! But the good part is, this could be my excuse to get an iPhone, or maybe one of those neato gPhones. Talk about turning a big lemon into lemonade.<br /><br />Finally, something that is just super duper cool and I must share... <a href="http://ultra-awesome.blogspot.com/2008/05/nes-coffee-table-final-post-rah.html">The Nintendo Coffee Table</a>. For someone who is ready to buy a Wii just so he can play Zelda, Mario Bros, Mario 3, and Tecmo Bowl again, this is a dream.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6923737083952689993.post-36240304635975761652008-05-09T21:42:00.000-07:002008-05-09T21:58:33.067-07:00How Much YUI is too much? PRACA says "No Such Thing!"So since most of the world doesn't get to use <a href="https://cxpraca.nasa.gov/">PRACA</a> aka MAS (Mission Assurance Systems) you don't get to see how cool version 2.0 will be. But I assure you it is. What is so cool? Well first it uses almost every part of YUI. In fact I'll list it for you and how we use it!<br /><br /><ul><li>Animation : very sparsely because it can get hoaky, but it is still fun to use!</li><li>AutoComplete: We use it for our User Select areas, as will Bugzilla once it gets back to them.</li><li>Browser History Manger: We use it to let uses bookmark tabs as well as groups, it's a very cool utility and is great for any site that wants to makes javascript tabs bookmark-able, which is pretty sweet.</li><li>Calendar: We use Bugzilla's Custom Date field</li><li>Connection Manger: We use it all over to connect to various instances of MAS</li><li>Cookie: This is a SUPER nice utility, I especially like subcookies. We use it to store lots of our cookie info such as our nice record save improvements.<br /></li><li>Container: We use it as tooltips, help text, resizable panels, the saved searches area... well all over!</li><li>Data Source: We use it in combination with the Data Table</li><li>Data Table: We use this for letting users select bugs and groups that they want to link to, yeah MAS has bugs that are so big, they have internal linking!!<br /></li><li>DOM: I'm not sure how anyone can avoid using this great little utility.</li><li>Drag & Drop: We use it for reordering groups</li><li>Event: Um... duh, this is just great, and I love it!</li><li>JSON: the latest edition we use it to talk with our spell checker, yeah our IE users don't have spell checkers built into their browsers.<br /></li></ul>So as you can see we've got a lot, and loading all of this YUI stuff isn't free, it takes about 200ms, but totally worth it. If you all in the Bugzilla community have any questions let me know, but overall I'm very happy with YUI and I recommend it to anyone who wants a nice library with lots of useful widgets and utilities in it. That isn't to say JQuery or Prototype aren't great, but YUI has a lot of nice stuff that focuses on adding widgets and utilities to JavaScript instead of adding core functionality to the language itself.Guyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17901650053766145319noreply@blogger.com0