Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of TracWorkflow


Ignore:
Timestamp:
10/17/17 17:50:45 (7 years ago)
Author:
trac
Comment:

--

Legend:

Unmodified
Added
Removed
Modified
  • TracWorkflow

    v1 v1  
     1= The Trac Ticket Workflow System
     2
     3[[PageOutline(2-5,Contents,pullout)]]
     4[[TracGuideToc]]
     5The Trac ticket system provides a configurable workflow.
     6
     7== The Default Ticket Workflow
     8
     9When a new environment is created, a default workflow is configured in your trac.ini. This workflow is the basic workflow, as specified in [trac:source:/trunk/trac/ticket/workflows/basic-workflow.ini basic-workflow.ini]:
     10
     11{{{#!Workflow width=700 height=300
     12leave = * -> *
     13leave.operations = leave_status
     14leave.default = 1
     15
     16create = <none> -> new
     17create.default = 1
     18
     19create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
     20create_and_assign.label = assign
     21create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     22create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
     23
     24accept = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> accepted
     25accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     26accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     27
     28resolve = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> closed
     29resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     30resolve.operations = set_resolution
     31
     32reassign = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> assigned
     33reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     34reassign.operations = set_owner
     35
     36reopen = closed -> reopened
     37reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
     38reopen.operations = del_resolution
     39}}}
     40
     41== Additional Ticket Workflows
     42
     43There are example workflows provided in the Trac source tree, see [trac:source:trunk/contrib/workflow contrib/workflow] for `.ini` config sections. One of those may be a good match for what you want. They can be pasted into the `[ticket-workflow]` section of your `trac.ini` file. However, if you have existing tickets then there may be issues if those tickets have states that are not in the new workflow.
     44
     45Here are some [trac:WorkFlow/Examples diagrams] of the above examples.
     46
     47== Basic Ticket Workflow Customization
     48
     49'''Note''': Ticket "statuses" or "states" are not separately defined. The states a ticket can be in are automatically generated by the transitions defined in a workflow. Therefore, creating a new ticket state simply requires defining a state transition in the workflow that starts or ends with that state.
     50
     51In the `[ticket-workflow]` section of `trac.ini`, each entry is an action that may be taken on a ticket.
     52For example, consider the `accept` action from `simple-workflow.ini`:
     53
     54{{{#!ini
     55accept = new,accepted -> accepted
     56accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     57accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     58}}}
     59
     60The first line in this example defines the `accept` action, along with the states the action is valid in (`new` and `accepted`), and the new state of the ticket when the action is taken (`accepted`).
     61
     62The `accept.permissions` line specifies the permissions the user must have to use this action. [trac:ExtraPermissionsProvider] can define new permissions to be used here.
     63
     64The `accept.operations` line specifies changes that will be made to the ticket in addition to the status change when the action is taken.  In this case, when a user clicks on `accept`, the ticket owner field is updated to the logged in user.  Multiple operations may be specified in a comma separated list.
     65
     66The available operations are:
     67- **del_owner** -- Clears the owner field.
     68- **set_owner** -- Sets the owner to the selected or entered owner. Defaults to the current user. When `[ticket] restrict_owner = true`, the select will be populated with users that have `TICKET_MODIFY` permission and an authenticated session.
     69 - ''actionname''`.set_owner` may optionally specify a comma delimited list of users that will be used to populate the select, or a single user. Groups and permissions may also be included in the list //(Since 1.1.3)//. When groups or permissions are specified the select is populated with all members of the group or all users that possess the permission.
     70- **set_owner_to_self** -- Sets the owner to the logged in user.
     71- **may_set_owner** -- Sets the owner to the selected or entered owner. Defaults to the existing owner. //(Since 1.1.2)//.
     72- **del_resolution** -- Clears the resolution field.
     73- **set_resolution** -- Sets the resolution to the selected value.
     74 - ''actionname''`.set_resolution` may optionally be set to a comma delimited list or a single value. Example:
     75 {{{#!ini
     76resolve_new = new -> closed
     77resolve_new.label = resolve
     78resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
     79resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     80resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix
     81}}}
     82- **leave_status** -- Displays "leave as <current status>" and makes no change to the ticket.
     83- **reset_workflow** -- Resets the status of tickets that are in states no longer defined.
     84'''Note:''' Specifying conflicting operations, such as `set_owner` and `del_owner`, has unspecified results.
     85
     86The example that follows demonstrates the `.label` attribute. The action here is `resolve_accepted`, but it will be presented to the user as `resolve`.
     87
     88{{{#!ini
     89resolve_accepted = accepted -> closed
     90resolve_accepted.label = resolve
     91resolve_accepted.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     92resolve_accepted.operations = set_resolution
     93}}}
     94
     95The `.label` attribute is new in Trac 1.1.3 and is functionally the same as the `.name` attribute, which is now deprecated. If neither `.label` or `.name` is specified, the action will be presented to the user as //resolve accepted//, the underscores having been replaced by whitespace (//Since 1.1.3//).
     96
     97For actions that should be available in all states, `*` may be used in place of the state. The obvious example is the `leave` action:
     98{{{#!ini
     99leave = * -> *
     100leave.operations = leave_status
     101leave.default = 1
     102}}}
     103
     104This also shows the use of the `.default` attribute. This value is expected to be an integer, and the order in which the actions are displayed is determined by this value. The action with the highest `.default` value is listed first, and is selected by default. The rest of the actions are listed in order of decreasing `.default` values.
     105If not specified for an action, `.default` is 0. The value may be negative.
     106
     107There is one hard-coded constraint to the workflow: tickets are expected to have a `closed` state. The default reports/queries treat any state other than `closed` as an open state.
     108
     109=== Ticket Create Action
     110
     111The ticket create actions are specified by a transition from the special `<none>` state. At least one create action must be available to the user in order for tickets to be created. The create actions defined in the default workflow are:
     112{{{#!ini
     113create = <none> -> new
     114create.default = 1
     115
     116create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
     117create_and_assign.label = assign
     118create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     119create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
     120}}}
     121
     122=== Ticket Reset Action
     123
     124The special `_reset` action is added by default for tickets that are in states that are no longer defined. This allows tickets to be individually "repaired" after the workflow is changed, although it's recommended that the administrator perform the action by batch modifying the affected tickets. By default the `_reset` action is available to users with the `TICKET_ADMIN` permission and reset tickets are put in the //new// state. The default `_reset` action is equivalent to the following `[ticket-workflow]` action definition:
     125
     126{{{#!ini
     127_reset = -> new
     128_reset.label = reset
     129_reset.operations = reset_workflow
     130_reset.permissions = TICKET_ADMIN
     131_reset.default = 0
     132}}}
     133
     134Since [trac:milestone:1.0.3] the `_reset` action can be customized by redefining the implicit action. For example, to allow anyone with `TICKET_MODIFY` to perform the `_reset` action, the workflow action would need to be defined:
     135
     136{{{#!ini
     137_reset = -> new
     138_reset.label = reset
     139_reset.operations = reset_workflow
     140_reset.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     141_reset.default = 0
     142}}}
     143
     144== Workflow Visualization
     145
     146Workflows can be visualized by rendering them on the wiki using the [WikiMacros#Workflow-macro Workflow macro].
     147
     148Workflows can also be visualized using the `contrib/workflow/workflow_parser.py` script. The script outputs `.dot` files that [http://www.graphviz.org GraphViz] understands. The script can be used as follows (your install path may be different):
     149
     150{{{#!sh
     151$ cd /var/local/trac_devel/contrib/workflow/
     152$ ./showworkflow /srv/trac/PlannerSuite/conf/trac.ini
     153}}}
     154The script outputs `trac.pdf` in the same directory as the `trac.ini` file.
     155
     156== Example: Adding optional Testing with Workflow
     157
     158The following adds a `testing` action. When the ticket has status `new`, `accepted` or `needs_work`, you can choose to submit it for testing.  When it's in the testing status the user gets the option to reject it and send it back to `needs_work`, or pass the testing and send it along to `closed`. If they accept it, then it is automatically marked as `closed` and the resolution is set to `fixed`. Since all the old work flow remains, a ticket can skip this entire section.
     159
     160{{{#!ini
     161testing = new,accepted,needs_work,assigned,reopened -> testing
     162testing.label = Submit to reporter for testing
     163testing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     164
     165reject = testing -> needs_work
     166reject.label = Failed testing, return to developer
     167
     168pass = testing -> closed
     169pass.label = Passes Testing
     170pass.operations = set_resolution
     171pass.set_resolution = fixed
     172}}}
     173
     174== Example: Add simple optional generic review state
     175
     176Sometimes Trac is used in situations where "testing" can mean different things to different people so you may want to create an optional workflow state that is between the default workflow's `assigned` and `closed` states, but does not impose implementation-specific details. The only new state you need to add for this is a `reviewing` state. A ticket may then be "submitted for review" from any state that it can be reassigned. If a review passes, you can re-use the `resolve` action to close the ticket, and if it fails you can re-use the `reassign` action to push it back into the normal workflow.
     177
     178The new `reviewing` state along with its associated `review` action looks like this:
     179
     180{{{#!ini
     181review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
     182review.operations = set_owner
     183review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     184}}}
     185
     186To integrate this with the default workflow, you also need to add the `reviewing` state to the `accept` and `resolve` actions:
     187
     188{{{#!ini
     189accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
     190[…]
     191resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
     192}}}
     193
     194Optionally, you can also add a new action that allows you to change the ticket's owner without moving the ticket out of the `reviewing` state. This enables you to reassign review work without pushing the ticket back to the `new` status:
     195
     196{{{#!ini
     197reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
     198reassign_reviewing.label = reassign review
     199reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
     200reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     201}}}
     202
     203The full `[ticket-workflow]` configuration will be:
     204
     205{{{#!ini
     206[ticket-workflow]
     207create = <none> -> new
     208create.default = 1
     209create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
     210create_and_assign.label = assign
     211create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     212create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
     213accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
     214accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     215accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     216leave = * -> *
     217leave.default = 1
     218leave.operations = leave_status
     219reassign = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> assigned
     220reassign.operations = set_owner
     221reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     222reopen = closed -> reopened
     223reopen.operations = del_resolution
     224reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
     225resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
     226resolve.operations = set_resolution
     227resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     228review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
     229review.operations = set_owner
     230review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     231reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
     232reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
     233reassign_reviewing.label = reassign review
     234reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     235}}}
     236
     237== Advanced Ticket Workflow Customization
     238
     239If the customizations above do not meet your needs, you can extend the workflow with plugins. Plugins can provide additional operations for the workflow, like code_review, or implement side-effects for an action, such as triggering a build, that may not be merely simple state changes. Look at [trac:source:trunk/sample-plugins/workflow sample-plugins/workflow] for a few examples to get started.
     240
     241But if even that is not enough, you can disable the !ConfigurableTicketWorkflow component and create a plugin that completely replaces it. See also the [https://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin], which provides additional operations.
     242
     243== Adding Workflow States to Milestone Progress Bars
     244
     245If you add additional states to your workflow, you may want to customize your milestone progress bars as well. See the [TracIni#milestone-groups-section "[milestone-groups]"] section.
     246
     247== Ideas for next steps
     248
     249Enhancement ideas for the workflow system should be filed as enhancement tickets against the [trac:query:?status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&keywords=~workflow&component=ticket+system ticket system] component.  You can also document ideas on the [trac:TracIdeas/TracWorkflow TracIdeas/TracWorkflow] page.