SimpleDesk

Community => SimpleDesk Team Blog => Topic started by: Gruffen on February 22, 2010, 04:57:15 AM

Title: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 22, 2010, 04:57:15 AM
It's been a few weeks since I announced what 1.0 will feature (http://www.simpledesk.net/community/news-and-announcements/what-will-simpledesk-1.0-feature-75.0.html), and I'd like to let you know how we're doing. I'm not really 'announcing' this as it's more just a little update than anything else. Members of the forum can of course take a look at the project tracker (http://www.simpledesk.net/community/project,1/) to see how it's going. I'm going to go back over the list of things I posted there.


Ability to post, edit, reply, close tickets as well as displaying tickets and seeing a list of all the tickets available

Posting tickets, editing tickets, replying to tickets, closing tickets, displaying tickets - a decent amount done. Right now we need to finish up editing of replies to tickets, and some work on what we're having as a 'quick reply' feature, as well as replying with quoting of tickets/replies is still needed too, as is preview of posts.

Ticket <-> Topic management

This is pretty much complete, even down to moving attachments around.

Shut down forum component

This is mostly done, actually; right now it will replace the board index, as well as deactivating various non-helpdesk-related functions across the forum, as well as optionally disabling PMs. Profiles are left active for the time being since there's a lot of places a user profile is called upon.

Urgency levels

This is implemented, though I still want to expand on this very slightly.

Assignments

This is implemented.

File attachments

Mostly implemented, just needed to ensure it is supported in editing of replies.

Permissions

The list of permissions is pretty much implemented.

Mod Management Page/Back-end Administration

Most of what management features there are, are implemented, for 1.0 this is relatively limited but will be expanded in later versions.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Acans on February 22, 2010, 05:15:53 AM
Such great progress from our Developers :)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: cσσкιє мσηѕтєя on February 22, 2010, 05:18:05 AM
Quote from: Acans on February 22, 2010, 05:15:53 AM
Such great progress from our Developers :)

We only did it to give the beta testers a bunch of work to do. You won't be allowed to take any slack once we hand it over to you. ;)

Nah, nice post, Arantor.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Acans on February 22, 2010, 05:59:55 AM
/me thinks Nas should hand it over soon. Wade spent 25 minutes trying to think of a witty comeback. . . . .
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 22, 2010, 06:02:26 AM
We're not quite ready yet to hand it over for testing; at a minimum editing of replies should be implemented...
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Acans on February 22, 2010, 06:08:43 AM
I didn't try edit, I just left it at the reply screen LOL!
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: MultiformeIngegno on February 22, 2010, 08:05:13 AM
Great!! Your way to develop and "organize" and keep updated the community is awesome!! 8)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Ha² on February 22, 2010, 10:28:09 AM
What, no "Set all avatars in the forum to cats" option? :P

But, seriously, awesome job!
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 22, 2010, 12:12:48 PM
Quote from: Ha² on February 22, 2010, 10:28:09 AM
What, no "Set all avatars in the forum to cats" option? :P

/me points to the 'critical features for SD 1.1' list... it's right there! :P
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Francis on February 22, 2010, 05:56:32 PM
List your own assigned tickets? Is it planned?
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 22, 2010, 06:43:35 PM
It's one thing we've talked about and tried, but it actually doesn't seem to work as well in practice as it sounds. It is covered by the whole 'displaying tickets' thing...

That said, Nas and I need to look at that again anyway. It's not working quite how we'd like, but we're not sure how to make it work "just right" yet.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Francis on February 22, 2010, 09:11:51 PM
Does that confusion means that a ticket can be assigned to more than one person at once?

Also, is there any change there will be something to translate soon, because I'm the "hold list" for translating SD.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 22, 2010, 09:16:34 PM
No, the confusion is simply over how the front page is arranged. Tickets can only be assigned to one person at a time.

Well, we can throw the language files at you but we'd rather have a translation tool in place first. Trouble is, Nas and I have been busy working on SD itself and not had time to work on the language editor.

Might have to just issue the language files somewhere in the forum for you to get cracking... not sure yet. I'm still adding language strings on an almost daily basis right now!
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 22, 2010, 11:25:51 PM
Wasn't there a way to assign to an entire membergroup? I forgot.

Also, great job guys! Amazing progress! :) I keep seeing the progress bar moving and I keep getting more and more excited!

P.S. It seems like the developers are testing this as they develop. What is left for the BTs to test?
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Acans on February 23, 2010, 12:35:22 AM
Quote from: [FailSafe] on February 22, 2010, 11:25:51 PM
P.S. It seems like the developers are testing this as they develop. What is left for the BTs to test?

The Beta Testers are not only going to poke, prod, and tickle SimpleDesk to the point where we are sure theirs no bugs, but a few of us are planning to install it on our own production forums for real world testing.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 23, 2010, 03:35:45 AM
The other thing is that while we're testing as we go, we're not always doing a thorough test, certainly most of the "testing" I'm doing as I go is just proving it works, rather than full blown testing as I'll be doing once 1.0 is actually done (yes, I'll be testing it pretty hard during the QA phase, for things like optimisation of queries, as well as proving it works fully)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Francis on February 23, 2010, 09:10:48 AM
Quote from: Arantor on February 22, 2010, 09:16:34 PM
No, the confusion is simply over how the front page is arranged. Tickets can only be assigned to one person at a time.

Well, we can throw the language files at you but we'd rather have a translation tool in place first. Trouble is, Nas and I have been busy working on SD itself and not had time to work on the language editor.

Might have to just issue the language files somewhere in the forum for you to get cracking... not sure yet. I'm still adding language strings on an almost daily basis right now!
Okay, well, it's up to you. :)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: hadesflames on February 23, 2010, 02:27:59 PM
Quote from: Arantor on February 22, 2010, 09:16:34 PM
No, the confusion is simply over how the front page is arranged. Tickets can only be assigned to one person at a time.

Well, we can throw the language files at you but we'd rather have a translation tool in place first. Trouble is, Nas and I have been busy working on SD itself and not had time to work on the language editor.

Might have to just issue the language files somewhere in the forum for you to get cracking... not sure yet. I'm still adding language strings on an almost daily basis right now!

Perhaps you should expand the team...one or two more people wouldn't hurt, and you'd be able to get them to do things like translation editor or anything else that needs to be done while you and Nas work on the core project. You could even make a "customizer" group for such a task.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Francis on February 23, 2010, 05:57:35 PM
Quote from: hadesflames on February 23, 2010, 02:27:59 PM
Quote from: Arantor on February 22, 2010, 09:16:34 PM
No, the confusion is simply over how the front page is arranged. Tickets can only be assigned to one person at a time.

Well, we can throw the language files at you but we'd rather have a translation tool in place first. Trouble is, Nas and I have been busy working on SD itself and not had time to work on the language editor.

Might have to just issue the language files somewhere in the forum for you to get cracking... not sure yet. I'm still adding language strings on an almost daily basis right now!

Perhaps you should expand the team...one or two more people wouldn't hurt, and you'd be able to get them to do things like translation editor or anything else that needs to be done while you and Nas work on the core project. You could even make a "customizer" group for such a task.
That would be a good idea, IMO. :)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 23, 2010, 07:19:10 PM
Hades, expand the teams that are already there or add new teams?

Either way I kind of agree. Maybe even adding another developer to the team would make the release go a lot quicker, but also adding a new team to focus on "non-core dev" stuff while the Developers focus on coding the main SD.

Though there are kind of a lot of teams that are formed currently that don't really do much right now (not that I can see as a simple user at least), but I know that's going to change when the ball starts to get rolling here. It's just that the common advice for people that start new sites is to start simple, and then expand when needed. We all know of the users who add 20 empty boards in the beginning expecting for them to fill up, but the same can happen for staff too. It just looks like there are positions for the sake of positions.

Not trying to bash anyone or anything here, just posting my opinion. But every aspect has to be taken into consideration for a production site like this. Is there any need for a support group or support boards when it hasn't even been released yet? It'll be just as easy to add it in when there is actual support to be had.

So expanding the team the wrong way would do more to hurt to help. Just wanted to toss that word of warning out there.

I'd say to add another developer or two, add a team to help with non-SD features to be built, and check to see what teams  could be added later.

But this is all just my opinion. You're free to take it how you want. :P
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Trekkie101 on February 23, 2010, 09:50:06 PM
Initially we were keeping the site rather quiet, nothing was being mentioned, and the support boards were in place for when we had something to support. Since then we have weaponised this site into becoming one of our primary marketing tools for SimpleDesk.

Along the way we've forged a structure out to support different things. Our beta team have been created in anticipation of the first beta release which is due very soon. Our quality assurance team are beefed up for code review. Marketing, Documentation, Globalisation, will all become active soon.

Gradually we've went from a simple install of SMF, to something rather amazing, rather quickly.

Also, 1.0 is well past half way now :D
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 24, 2010, 06:44:59 PM
Sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I was complaining. I am amazed at the growth and expansion of SimpleDesk but I just end up worrying when groups and boards are just left vacant. :)

Just a question though: What exactly is the job of the Project Support?
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 24, 2010, 06:47:26 PM
Project Support team is for the stuff that supports the other teams - Trekkie manages the project as a whole, and ensures we have access to servers and facilities, SleePy manages the site and is responsible for, amongst other things, most of the stuff that isn't the forum itself.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 24, 2010, 06:59:26 PM
When I think of support I think of a longer rung than what both Trekkie and SleePy are doing. They sound more like they are heading up their own departments than supporters. :P

You know, i'm not sure why i'm arguing about this. Well, it's your call so i'll just stop it here.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 24, 2010, 07:01:06 PM
Hardly an argument - you asked a good, relevant and intelligent question, there's the answer.

In a larger organisation they'd be heading up departments and teams, but it'd be weird to have a Site Team and a Management Team of one person each.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 24, 2010, 07:11:07 PM
Ah, so then would this be a case of leaving room for expansion?
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 24, 2010, 07:13:49 PM
Something like that, and also because really, the Project Support team do the stuff to support the project as a whole, managing the project and keeping the devs from slacking, as well as making sure site and other resources are available is really what the PS team is there for - devs make the software, support team supports the users, Project Support makes sure they, and everyone else, has the tools they need.

One thing PS is looking at right now, for example, is a tool to automate translation management into the site, so translators don't have to manually mess with files, but have a web based management tool to deal with it.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 24, 2010, 10:06:57 PM
Ah, alright. So then would what we (as in the people in this thread) were talking about before with adding a group for Customizers basically be like the PS group?
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 25, 2010, 04:38:31 AM
Yeah, really, if we were adding people to work on the site, they'd be PS or if we had several we would probably form a Site Team.
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Spoogs on February 25, 2010, 02:16:09 PM
do my eyes deceive me or did we go from 73% an hour ago to 80% now

*spoogs sings... I'm so excited ;D
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 25, 2010, 02:21:40 PM
Well... it's normally updated daily but we, er, pressed the wrong bookmark in the browser and regenerated it manually, yeah that's it ;D

But yeah, Nas and I have been able to start winding up bits and pieces in the last 48 hours and really it's more finishing touches and tweaks at this point now rather than major code works.

In the last 2 and a half days since I posted this, let me just go over the headings that have had changes:

Ability to post, edit, reply, close tickets as well as displaying tickets and seeing a list of all the tickets available
* quick reply is finished, and it's very awesome indeed ;D
* edit replies is finished
* we need to do a little on quoting posts from replies view (to insert a quote directly from there)
* we also need to write previewing of posts

File attachments
* finished that, including the dual modes it has of "attach to a ticket" or "attach to replies", it'll become clearer when you see it


There's still a few things left to do, mostly what's on the tracker really...
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Spoogs on February 25, 2010, 02:34:33 PM
Very nice, I'm already charting the changes i'll be making when this becomes available  8)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: KiLLuMiNaTi-7- on February 25, 2010, 03:47:40 PM
Rapid development FTW! ;D

Keep up the good work devs :)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 25, 2010, 09:46:43 PM
XD Wow, you both are just plowing through this thing!

Great job! :)
Title: Re: The road to 1.0
Post by: Gruffen on February 25, 2010, 09:50:30 PM
Basically, the big stuff is done now, so it's mostly a case of tidying up, spit and polish. For example, I've fixed some bugs today, plus added in the quote from replies list, so that's done.