Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Enterprisey beta

For those of you looking to do a larger deployment, the new beta should be helpful. See the release notes. Comments are most welcome.

One new feature is the ability to restrict which filters users can see. For example, if you have a requirement that you can only log work against issues in specific states, you can ensure that users only ever see the filters corresponding to these states. This is in direct contrast to the current behavior which is to use whichever filters the user wants.

Enjoy!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Inappropriate checkin comment (new WLA release)

Download
Release notes:
  • Make checking for updates optional (see configuration dialog)
  • Really fix bug where column visibilities would randomly reset to defaults (show all)
The inappropriate check in comment:

$ bzr log | grep FRIGGIN
FINALLY FIXED THE FRIGGIN BUG!

A few days back, I noticed that if I cycled through my filters, occasionally, the column visibilities would be reset. That meant that all the fields I *didn't* care about would start showing up in the main window. I found it annoying but it did not happen too often so I filed a JIRA and continued working on other features.

I don't know what it was, but it started happening more and more often this week while I was using WLA. This was the most annoying bug in any piece of software ever written. And I wrote it! I could not rest until I fixed it. I made many false starts and even thought I fixed it at some point. I stared at the code for hours.

Finally, late last night I found the magic 8 lines needed to make it work.

So I am making a new release.

If you have had a problem with your column visibilities being reset, I strongly suggest you download this release.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

New release (1.0.1047)

A new stable release of Worklog Assistant is available here.

The release notes cover all the major changes but my favourite new features are:
  • The new "notes" section. You can add notes while logging time and these get sent to JIRA when you submit a worklog.
  • Set the remaining time estimate when submitting worklogs
Also, enterprise licensing is now available. In the next little while, work will be done to make WLA more friendly to enterprise deployments. If you have any thoughts or suggestions for this or any other feature, please let me know.

I'd just like to say thanks to the people participating in the GetSatisfaction forums (hi!) and those of you who have sent me suggestions or comments by email. I am very grateful!

Remind me to tell you how the version numbering goes at some point :-)

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Updated WLA::Next

Here you will find an updated WLA::Next, which has the following changes:
  • A new favourite feature: adding notes while logging time. This way, you don't have to wait until you are actually ready to publish your worklogs before entering the notes. You can see a screenshot here.
  • The update button is made invisible by default. When an update is available, it is made visible and a system tray message is shown. Hopefully this should be a little less jarring than: HEY YOU STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND UPDATE RIGHT NOW! It is also better for those instances where the "check-for-updates" code fails due to proxy issues.
I am also working on making WLA a little more friendly to enterprise-level deployments. Doesn't look like too many changes are necessary though. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send them to me.

A new stable release will be made in the next week if no show stoppers are found here.

Friday, February 6, 2009

The best part

Dear Users,

This post has some things I've been really wanting to say but I thought that I might seem too giddy. Today, I will take that risk because I feel that people should know why I will continue to do this.

Worklog Assistant is a boring application to most people but I have a strange tendency to want to solve boring, repetitive problems.

But that's not the best part.

I've even managed to snag paying customers (thank you!)

But that's not the best part.

The best part is the interaction with people who are using it. I love messages that start with:

"Hi, I find Worklog Assistant to be very useful, but it would be really nice if it could do XYZ"

Usually I respond with something along the lines of:

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

The conversation that results is like gold to me. They haven't always resulted in sales or modifications to the software but what they do is give me insight into organizational processes that I would never be able to experience otherwise.

That's the best part.

Thank you.

Alright, alright, maybe the insight is tied with the paying customers. But if the title of this post was "The tied-for-best part", that would be less interesting!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

New WLA::Next

Now with release notes!

Unfortunately, I have had to revert the custom field code because it was giving me grief. I apologize for any inconvenience. I will add a better version soon.

Please yell at me in the comments if this affects you :-)

Monday, February 2, 2009

Out of beta (and announcing perpetual beta)

Build 1.0.1021 released!

Worklog Assistant, the only sane way to do time tracking with JIRA, has reached the all important milestone: build 1.0.1021 aka, I'm-not-in-beta-anymore-Mom! I've sent out all the thank-you licenses to beta testers who provided feedback so if I have missed you, please let me know ASAP!

For the impatient among us:
Changes in this build (from 1.0.1000)

I promise to have a proper change log on WLA's website in the near future, but for now, here we go. Changes in this build were mostly stabilization-related and improved support for Linux/Windows.
  • Notify the user when the SOAP API is disabled (would save a few days of back and forth!)
  • Support for Windows 2000 (yes, really)
  • Better support for Ubuntu 32/64-bit
  • Various bug fixes
Announcing WLA::Next

One of the things I've really enjoyed with the beta test period is the ability to push out updates whenever I feel like. Now that I am claiming that WLA is no longer in beta, I must try and make sure that the release is as stable as possible. However, I still have this urge to push out the latest and greatest.

Therefore, I've pulled a Google and set up http://next.worklogassistant.com

Every piece of functionality that I implement will be posted here before it makes it into the stable release. Fortunately, since I have automated pretty much every single thing except the coding, this isn't very much work for me.

Once you install the "next" build, all the updates will based on the "next" branch. So be warned that there is no going back!

What you can expect to find there right now:
  • Ability to set remaining time estimate when submitting a worklog: See here.
  • Custom fields - NOTE: JIRA only allows retrieval of custom fields by an administrator. So if you are not an administrator, you will not see this. If you are interested in this feature and this makes it useless to you, I have a planned workaround posted here. Please tell me if the workaround is acceptable and I'll see what I can do.
  • Use CTRL+Page Up/Page Down to change between the issues and pending worklogs tab
  • Adding comments. In the context menu for an issue (right-click an issue), there is now an "Add Comment" entry. I love this functionality. I find it so useful.
  • Various bug fixes (and new bugs?)
Please remember that WLA::Next should be considered alpha and maybe sometimes beta. I am providing it to get feedback as early as possible. If you do not care about new features, please stick with the main WLA code.

Thanks for all your feedback and here is to much more!

About this blog

We strongly believe that tracking your time properly is the first step to deterministic software development. If you feel that you have been guessing or you can't be bothered to remember to log time, Worklog Assistant might be for you!

Give it a try!

Please download a free 30-day trial today by clicking on the link below: Download