Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of TracWorkflow


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Mar 15, 2021, 9:29:39 AM (4 years ago)
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trac
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  • 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, such 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
     51Create a `[ticket-workflow]` section in `trac.ini`.
     52Within this section, each entry is an action that may be taken on a ticket.
     53For example, consider the `accept` action from `simple-workflow.ini`:
     54
     55{{{#!ini
     56accept = new,accepted -> accepted
     57accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     58accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     59}}}
     60
     61The 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`).
     62The `accept.permissions` line specifies what permissions the user must have to use this action.
     63The `accept.operations` line specifies changes that will be made to the ticket in addition to the status change when this 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.
     64
     65The available operations are:
     66- **del_owner** -- Clear the owner field.
     67- **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.
     68 - ''actionname''`.set_owner` may optionally be set to 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.
     69- **set_owner_to_self** -- Sets the owner to the logged in user.
     70- **may_set_owner** -- Sets the owner to the selected or entered owner. Defaults to the existing owner. //(Since 1.1.2)//.
     71- **del_resolution** -- Clears the resolution field.
     72- **set_resolution** -- Sets the resolution to the selected value.
     73 - ''actionname''`.set_resolution` may optionally be set to a comma delimited list or a single value. Example:
     74 {{{#!ini
     75resolve_new = new -> closed
     76resolve_new.label = resolve
     77resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
     78resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     79resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix
     80}}}
     81- **leave_status** -- Displays "leave as <current status>" and makes no change to the ticket.
     82- **reset_workflow** -- Resets the status of tickets that are in states no longer defined.
     83'''Note:''' Specifying conflicting operations, such as `set_owner` and `del_owner`, has unspecified results.
     84
     85In this example, we see the `.label` attribute used. The action here is `resolve_accepted`, but it will be presented to the user as `resolve`:
     86
     87{{{#!ini
     88resolve_accepted = accepted -> closed
     89resolve_accepted.label = resolve
     90resolve_accepted.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     91resolve_accepted.operations = set_resolution
     92}}}
     93
     94In this example, we see the `.label` attribute used.  The action here is `resolve_accepted`, but it will be presented to the user as `resolve`. The `.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//).
     95
     96For actions that should be available in all states, `*` may be used in place of the state. The obvious example is the `leave` action:
     97{{{#!ini
     98leave = * -> *
     99leave.operations = leave_status
     100leave.default = 1
     101}}}
     102
     103This 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.
     104If not specified for an action, `.default` is 0. The value may be negative.
     105
     106The 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:
     107{{{#!ini
     108create = <none> -> new
     109create.default = 1
     110
     111create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
     112create_and_assign.label = assign
     113create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     114create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
     115}}}
     116
     117
     118There is one hard-coded constraints 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.
     119
     120The 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:
     121
     122{{{#!ini
     123_reset = -> new
     124_reset.label = reset
     125_reset.operations = reset_workflow
     126_reset.permissions = TICKET_ADMIN
     127_reset.default = 0
     128}}}
     129
     130Since [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:
     131
     132{{{#!ini
     133_reset = -> new
     134_reset.label = reset
     135_reset.operations = reset_workflow
     136_reset.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     137_reset.default = 0
     138}}}
     139
     140== Workflow Visualization
     141
     142Workflows can be visualized by rendering them on the wiki using the [WikiMacros#Workflow-macro Workflow macro].
     143
     144Workflows 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):
     145
     146{{{#!sh
     147cd /var/local/trac_devel/contrib/workflow/
     148sudo ./showworkflow /srv/trac/PlannerSuite/conf/trac.ini
     149}}}
     150And then open up the resulting `trac.pdf` file created by the script. It will be in the same directory as the `trac.ini` file.
     151
     152After you have changed a workflow, you need to restart your webserver for the changes to take effect.
     153
     154== Example: Adding optional Testing with Workflow
     155
     156By adding the following to your [ticket-workflow] section of trac.ini you get optional testing. 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.
     157
     158{{{#!ini
     159testing = new,accepted,needs_work,assigned,reopened -> testing
     160testing.label = Submit to reporter for testing
     161testing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     162
     163reject = testing -> needs_work
     164reject.label = Failed testing, return to developer
     165
     166pass = testing -> closed
     167pass.label = Passes Testing
     168pass.operations = set_resolution
     169pass.set_resolution = fixed
     170}}}
     171
     172=== How to combine the `tracopt.ticket.commit_updater` with the testing workflow
     173
     174The [[trac:source:trunk/tracopt/ticket/commit_updater.py|tracopt.ticket.commit_updater]] is the optional component that [[TracRepositoryAdmin#trac-post-commit-hook|replaces the old trac-post-commit-hook]], in Trac 0.12.
     175
     176By default it reacts on some keywords found in changeset message logs like ''close'', ''fix'' etc. and performs the corresponding workflow action.
     177
     178If you have a more complex workflow, like the testing stage described above and you want the ''closes'' keyword to move the ticket to the ''testing'' status instead of the ''closed'' status, you need to adapt the code a bit.
     179
     180Have a look at the [[trac:wiki:0.11/TracWorkflow#How-ToCombineSVNtrac-post-commit-hookWithTestWorkflow|Trac 0.11 recipe]] for the `trac-post-commit-hook`, this will give you some ideas about how to modify the component.
     181
     182== Example: Add simple optional generic review state
     183
     184Sometimes 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.
     185
     186The new `reviewing` state along with its associated `review` action looks like this:
     187
     188{{{#!ini
     189review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
     190review.operations = set_owner
     191review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     192}}}
     193
     194Then, to integrate this with the default Trac 0.11 workflow, you also need to add the `reviewing` state to the `accept` and `resolve` actions:
     195
     196{{{#!ini
     197accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
     198[…]
     199resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
     200}}}
     201
     202Optionally, 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:
     203
     204{{{#!ini
     205reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
     206reassign_reviewing.label = reassign review
     207reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
     208reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     209}}}
     210
     211The full `[ticket-workflow]` configuration will thus look like this:
     212
     213{{{#!ini
     214[ticket-workflow]
     215create = <none> -> new
     216create.default = 1
     217create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
     218create_and_assign.label = assign
     219create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     220create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
     221accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
     222accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
     223accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     224leave = * -> *
     225leave.default = 1
     226leave.operations = leave_status
     227reassign = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> assigned
     228reassign.operations = set_owner
     229reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     230reopen = closed -> reopened
     231reopen.operations = del_resolution
     232reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
     233resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
     234resolve.operations = set_resolution
     235resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     236review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
     237review.operations = set_owner
     238review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     239reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
     240reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
     241reassign_reviewing.label = reassign review
     242reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     243}}}
     244
     245== Example: Limit the resolution options for a new ticket
     246
     247The above `resolve_new` operation allows you to set the possible resolutions for a new ticket. By modifying the existing resolve action and removing the new status from before the `->` we then get two resolve actions. One with limited resolutions for new tickets, and then the regular one once a ticket is accepted.
     248
     249{{{#!ini
     250resolve_new = new -> closed
     251resolve_new.label = resolve
     252resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
     253resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     254resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix,duplicate
     255
     256resolve = assigned,accepted,reopened -> closed
     257resolve.operations = set_resolution
     258resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
     259}}}
     260
     261== Advanced Ticket Workflow Customization
     262
     263If 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.
     264
     265But if even that is not enough, you can disable the !ConfigurableTicketWorkflow component and create a plugin that completely replaces it.
     266
     267== Adding Workflow States to Milestone Progress Bars
     268
     269If you add additional states to your workflow, you may want to customize your milestone progress bars as well. See [TracIni#milestone-groups-section TracIni].
     270
     271== Ideas for next steps
     272
     273Enhancement 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. Also look at the [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin] as it provides experimental operations.