Redmine

That will be really useful !!
Good Idea, I think.

I would like the same functionality. If someone at Redmine could help me get started with data structure, I would be interested in contributing some effort for this. I am a newbie to Redmine, but I like the product so far and would be willing to help.

After thinking about our requirements more, we have concluded that editing /redmine/lib/tasks/migrate_from_trac.rake to create a migrate_from_serena.rake file would work better than exporting a flat file from Serena. I have used the Trac migration file before and am really happy with what it is able to migrate. A CSV import on the other hand will likely not handle issue attachments or history well. The Trac migration script from Redmine appears to be fairly straightforward to understand. We will keep the forums posted on our progress in tweaking it.

CSV import could be useful for other tasks than migrating from one tracking system to Redmine.
For example, you could have a customer traking your bugs with their own tool (could be excel !), this customer sends you periodically the bugs found on your products during one week testing, it could be very useful to make the import automatic.
What's your view on this ?

I think there is an issue open on this new feature, but can't remember the number. Has anyone a clue ?

Check Feature 950.

I agree that it could be useful for the scenario you described, where two bug tracking systems are being used at the same time. For us, however, that is the scenario we are trying to avoid. The idea is that when Redmine is rolled out, our customers will log bugs and defects directly into Redmine for the software we build, much in the same way we are doing here. I think for your customer system/spreadsheet scenario, you may still have the problem of importing attachments and/or history. Once the defect is identified in the spreadsheet, for example, how will your customer provide further feedback? If through a spreadsheet again, then you will need history, which is relational data (one issue-many notes/updates). You may also be constrained, as we are, by the detailed level of CSV export provided by the source system. Obviously, if the data cannot be included on a CSV export, then it cannot be imported into Redmine. That is probably the main reason we are attempting a database to database import, using the trac_migrate script as a template. Skipping the CSV makes it much cleaner for us.

I fully agree with your analysis. Unfortunately, IT guys refuse to open our network to the outter world, so customers can not log in our systems.

Once the bugs lives simultaneously on the 2 tracking systems, it will be almost impossible to synchronize the history and attachement. However, for creation of the issues within the tracking system (title, description, baseline tested), it would be of value. The rest of the work will be done manually, but main part will be already done.

Take a look at #1110, that might help solve your problem.

I wrote a CSV import plugin for redmine, hope this can help you.
redmine_importer, http://www.martinliu.info/2009/04/redmine_importer-redmine-csv-import-plugin/

Copy mi comment int similar post (http://www.redmine.org/boards/2/topics/2817?r=39736)

I created a Configurable PHP CLI tool to import sheets with Custom Fields (CSV or others) to Redmine through Redmine´s API. It also have Field Values mappings for matching redmine custom lists.

Just clone it from github

https://github.com/juanmf/RedmineIssueImporter

in your working directory of choice and download and composer.phar

http://getcomposer.org/doc/00-intro.md#installation-windows

and run

composer install

it will download the dependencies for you. Then configure the sheet-to-issues mapping config file in

Config/config.yml

edit Simplyfied the Command Line einterface. See README in Github

For anyone looking for this, there's an official import tool included with redmine at https://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/HowTo_import_issues