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About: MantisBT-WikiMantis [BETA]

Posted: 12 Feb 2018, 18:44
by rkarmann
Edit : feb-2018-27

Hi everyone,

It's been a couple of weeks that I'm working on a plugin, wich integrates a wiki-based system into Mantis. In fact, the challenge was set by my company, so for now, it's too specific to share with all Mantis users. But I'm thinking of making it more dynamic so anyone can set his own configuration and find a usefull way to use it.

For now, It is translated in english / french.

wikimantis
GitHub repo for the MantisBT plugin wikiMantis

State
Not working - Please don't download unless you want to help me :)

Release date
Undefined

Functionnalities
  • Read / write articles like in any Wiki solution
  • Set users from MantisBT database, with rights and access level
  • Create specific contact that can be linked to a any wiki content
  • Link any report from MantisBT bug database
  • Search the Wiki by category, sub-categories, keywords
  • Use RTE CKeditor to enhance article look
  • Light and modern UI
Work in progress
  • Add AJAX functions to avoid page redirection
  • Rename all API files and ease them
  • Create own Wiki events so that Mantis UI is not impacted by the resources loading (CSS, JS)
  • Make it work...
To do:
  • Use CRUD system to improve Wiki performance
  • Ouput some Wiki "box" inside the bug report page, so users can find articles linked to their request
  • Improve security and validation
  • ...
See the pictures below :
ImageImageImage

ImageImageImage

ImageImage

Please let me know if a specific functionnality is missing, or if you'd like to test it.

Best regards,

RK

Re: WikiMantis Plugin [BETA] - MantisBT 2.X

Posted: 12 Feb 2018, 21:00
by Starbuck
Wow, this is cool. Your screenshots are Very impressive - they are elegant and show nice integration with Mantis.

And thank you for sharing your application for a plugin in this forum. This is exactly one of the reasons why this section was created.

You've published this at an interesting time too. I've just committed to adding MediaWiki "next to" a Mantis installation, in another directory in the same web server and in a separate database. This is for documentation that's unrelated to reported projects/issues.

- Our tracker is getting new tickets for problems that are occurring because people don't remember exactly how to do yearly processes.
- Users don't know how to change settings, so inquiries and change requests are being logged as IT tasks in the tracker.
- New employees/contractors need to ask for information from people who have been with the company for a long time, so there are tickets open simply to ask for information.

We've concluded that we can reduce those kinds of tickets with more procedural documentation.

There are also many manual processes that take time. We want to document them so that we can decide if it's worth an effort to automate the processes, and so, wiki documentation will lead to new tickets.

Now, we plan to pro-actively add Mantis tickets to request wiki documentation, rather than adding a note or ticket when a problem occurs, requesting information to be added into the tracker. Information like this gets lost in issue-specific tickets. A wiki will keep information like this outside of the tracker.

For data that needs to be related to Mantis, we were just planning to add links to/from the environments. With a lack of imagination at the moment, I can't think of other specific integrations that would be of value.

So my questions (as time permits) :
- Can you tell us about the decision to do all of this "heavy lifting" with a plugin within the Mantis environment, rather than using a plugin to integrate bi-directionally with a full external wiki like MediaWiki?
- What links are there between tickets and wiki content?
- What technical challenges are you facing with the Mantis plugin interface?

Thanks again!!

Re: WikiMantis Plugin [BETA] - MantisBT 2.X

Posted: 13 Feb 2018, 09:52
by rkarmann
Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate.

In fact, the reasons I decided not to use a standard MediaWiki integration are the following :

- Same reasons you commit to add MediaWiki next to Mantis installation
- I am a beginner in web development and needed some challenge to improve my skills
- My company used to have a MediaWiki integration but it was too messy and users couldn't find specific information
- The idea was to link this knowledge base directly in Mantis tickets, but also to link Mantis Tickets into the Wiki (so that usual issues can be self-solved by our customers)
- Get a better visual experience while displaying datas

For now, tickets are not specifically linked to the wiki contents, but my company asked me if we could do that in a future version 2. What we do for now, is just to add URL links into Mantis tickets / Wiki. And I am also thinking of a functionnality that would suggest a Wiki article based on description keywords in the tickets, directly after submitting the ticket. Display the 3 most revelant articles in the bug view page would be very usefull, I guess !

In fact, it won't be difficult to set an additional field in the bug_report_page or in the bugnote form. Display a button wich opens a additional modal view in wich the user can set a link to Wiki contents (article, specific category, contact...) by typing in a search bar.

About the technical challenges, I'd like to make sure that my plugin is not causing any security issues :

- I didn't understand how the form_security_validate() function is working and what it does, and I'm affraid that such an integration could fragilize Mantis security (like XSS protection)
- I'm using a Rich Text Editor that uses function eval and cause Content Security Policy issues (in Chrome & Mozilla), so I had to add specific CSP exceptions for the editor to run properly
- I'm facing a little problem while trying to make the wiki suitable for anyone and asking myself about how can I set different fields for each article (using jQuery and Ajax maybe)
- What could be the main (standard) categories to add before any user write an article (like including Mantis documentation)

Thanks again for your time

RK

Re: About: MantisBT-WikiMantis [BETA]

Posted: 21 Feb 2018, 15:14
by lejanus
Wow c'est super !!! Vivement que tu ai fini de bosser dessus :)

Question : Quand pense-tu le rendre publique ?

In english :

Hope too see it finished for all users, it could be very interesting for me ;)
Question : When do you think it wil be published ?

Re: About: MantisBT-WikiMantis [BETA]

Posted: 23 Feb 2018, 08:30
by rkarmann
Hi,

Thanks for your feedback. It's not finished yet, still trying to figure out how to set dynamic categories (trying vue.js framework).

Send me a private chat so we can discuss it in french :P

RK

Re: About: MantisBT-WikiMantis [BETA]

Posted: 23 Feb 2018, 10:47
by lejanus
Hello,

I would realy like to discuss in MP but i don't have the rights to, my account is too fresh :/ (i created it only for this post ;) )

However, your beta version is fine for me and i would really like to use it !

Maybe you can share it and just push versions ?

Janus

Re: About: MantisBT-WikiMantis [BETA]

Posted: 23 Feb 2018, 20:25
by rkarmann
Haha, I see. You can contact me at romainkarmann@gmail.com. :P