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