Redmine community:

We have a few private features that we would like to try and submit to the Redmine core. Since it will take some work to extract these features into a form that the core can use, I decided to post some information here about them to see if there is anyone else interested.

Core features¶

Dynamic Columns¶

This allows a user to right click on the Issue List header and pick what columns should be displayed, without having to create a custom query. This makes it super easy to customize the issue list based on what the user is currently looking at.

Benefits¶

• Far easier ad-hoc queries of issues
• Columns are sticky so they persist across projects for the user

Drawbacks¶

• Needed a significant refactoring to Redmine's IssuesController
• Might have a few graphically UI bugs on some uncommon browsers (e.g. Chrome, Opera)

Allow "secure" wiki pages¶

This allows a specific wiki page to "opt-out" of sending it's content via email. This is best used on pages that contain passwords or other sensitive information that should not be exposed to email.

Benefits¶

• Allows Securing wiki pages

Drawbacks¶

• Requires another feature that isn't in the core yet, Wiki email notifications

Issue Status % done¶

This allows % Done to be set dependent on the Issue status. Each Issue Status can be configured to be a different % and the administrator can turn this feature on and off from the Settings panel.

Benefits¶

• Allows for standard % Done values based on the issue status
• Reduces the number of fields a user has to set on an issue
• Optional, can be turned on and off via the Settings panel

Drawbacks¶

None, since it's optional.

Ajax New Issue¶

Ajax New Issue adds some JavaScript enhancements to the issue list so you can rapidly enter several issues at one time. On the Issue List, when New Issue is clicked, the new issue form is dropped down into view instead of loading the new issue form on it's own page. When the form is submitted, the data is sent via Ajax to the server.

Benefits¶

• Data transferred via Ajax, speeding up the issue entry process
• After submission, only the Subject and Description fields in the form. So multiple similar issues can just reuse the already set fields (e.g. Assigned to, Version)
• Keeps the issue list on screen so it's easy to refer to other issues without an additional window

Drawbacks¶

• File uploads are not yet supported (requires an iframe hack)

Plugins¶

We thought these features were useful but shouldn't be put into the core.

Issue due date¶

This plugin would set an issue's due date to the due date of the Version or Deliverable (optional) if the issue doesn't have a due date. If the Version's due date is changed, all the issues with matching due date would be changed also.

Benefits¶

• Would help to automated setting issue due dates
• Helps to make Version due dates more visible

Drawbacks¶

• Needs some additional cleanup and testing before release

Vcard¶

This is currently a core change but it could be extracted to a plugin. On each user's page, there is a Vcard link that will let someone download a Vcard of that user's contact information.

Benefits¶

• Creates a Vcard based on the user's information, including specific custom fields
• Uses the Gravatar image for a user's Vcard picture

Drawbacks¶

• This is currently a core change, so it would need to be extracted to a plugin
• Requires third party library, vpim
• Requires some changes to the vpim library, in order to create OSX compatible Vcards

If there is a feature (or four) that you would like to see in the core, please post a comment about it below. We'll be using this list to help prioritize what to submit. Eric Davis has developed most of these and is willing to help get them submitted to the Redmine core.