Advice on writing a new plugin to use Redmine for a computer repair service

Added by Joe Carroll almost 15 years ago

I work for a small Apple Authorized Service Provider as the lead technician. Currently the internal system we use to track repairs, customers, parts etc. is horrible mishmash of quickly cobbled together FileMaker databases and Excel spreadsheets. I want to build a new web-based system and thought Redmine might be a good starting point.

I'd really appreciate comments from site members who are have a good understanding of Redmine's code, plugin architechture etc. about the feasibility of extending Redmine for our purposes through the development of new plugin(s) or by other means. The main additional components that I would need to develop are a simple inventory management database with the ability to assign parts from inventory to repairs (i.e. issues), and integration with Apple's Global Service Exchange Web Services via SOAP. I'm a relative beginner with Ruby, Rails and Redmine, so I expect this to be a challenge, but I'd like to know now if it's one that will be practically insurmountable. I hope to eventually be able to release these plugins etc. to the community.

If Redmine is unsuitable or too difficult to adapt to my needs, I'd appreciate any pointers to alternative OSS solutions that might be closer to what I'm looking for.

Cheers!

Replies (4)

RE: Advice on writing a new plugin to use Redmine for a computer repair service - Added by Jeffrey Jones almost 15 years ago

Here is my take, not an expert so a pinch of salt should also be eaten ;)

1. There are no existing inventory management plugins for RedMine however I think you should be able to write one (or pay someone to write one) without TOO much trouble since it doesn't need to integrate much apart from with issues.

2. I have no experience with the Apple SOAP API however I am using SOAP APIs in some of my applications using http://github.com/rubiii/savon/ and it certainly makes things easier. I would not class writing an interface for RedMine as insurmountable, it may take a while to program though depending on the size of the API.

I don't know of any other OSS solutions with the same number of features are RedMine, if you just want the bug-tracking side of it without all the other project management stuff then you could probably find some other programs written in various languages, a google search will do it.

RE: Advice on writing a new plugin to use Redmine for a computer repair service - Added by Eric Voisard almost 15 years ago

Hi,
Maybe one of the various OSS helpdesk systems available around would do it better than a project management system such as Redmine. "OTRS" for example is a powerful one...

Eric

RE: Advice on writing a new plugin to use Redmine for a computer repair service - Added by Pedro Gutierrez almost 15 years ago

Hi Joe,
I'm not at all an expert in developing plugins for Redmine.

However, I think that there is no similar plugin for Redmine at the moment. And it would be simply GREAT to have an inventory to map my redmine issues against. In fact, it is what I've been looking for the last two months without any success so far.

I've to say, however, that developing such an inventory can be tricky. Because unless you consider XML databases that acomodate well to this problem, a solution based on a traditional relational database schema can have limited acceptance, because it will be difficult to evolve.

I'd suggest (remember I am a non expert), developing a pluging to connect Redmine with an existing CMDB like: OneCMDB or others.

RE: Advice on writing a new plugin to use Redmine for a computer repair service - Added by Siegfried Vogel over 13 years ago

+1 for a plugin to connect Redmine Issues to a CMDB like OneCMDB.

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