Up to date plugin page¶

http://www.redmine.org/plugins/redmine_default_columns

Intro¶

I would like to share plugin which i wrote to implement Feature request #3967. Plugin was tested on Redmine 0.9.0 (r3285) Please read below to get the idea of how it works:

Features¶

• Allows to define default query on project by project basis
• Allows to define default query based on project custom field value
• Uses existing query system thus providing compatibility with future Redmine versions

Details¶

This plugin is very useful if you are using Redmine projects for more than one purpose. For example, we have projects for bug-tracking as well as for project management and invoice tracking. I was really missing the ability to define default query for project or group of projects - and without it it was very inconvenient to create set of public queries which you had manually apply each time you switch projects.

Logic behind the plugin¶

First of all - plugin uses existing queries system thus (hopefully) maintaining maximal compatibility with further Redmine versions. It uses existing queries and small patch to the Issues Controller to apply default query if no query is defined.

Plugin retrieves queries from dedicated project (defined in settings) and applies them to the current project.

I would advise to create dedicated project which will hold all the necessary types of queries. This project has to include all trackers and all custom fields to make all the types of queries possible.

How it works¶

There are several nested levels by which default query is determined

• If the project has query with the name defined in plugin settings (field Default query name) plugin uses this query as a default query
• If no such query exists in project, value of project custom field (defined in drop down Custom field to define type on the plugin settings screen) appended to the string Default_ to create query name
• If no such custom field exists, value Default_Project used for query name
• After that query with such name is retrieved from project defined in the drop down named Project with default queries (on the plugin settings screen)
• If there are no such query exist then plugin does nothing

Example of usage¶

For example, we have projects of three several types - one for bug-tracking, another one for PM and another one for invoices. Also we have one special project named SpecialCase for whom we want to have its own default query.

Step by step tutorial

1. Create special project which will hold all our default queries (lets call it DefaultQueries) We should include all possible trackers and issues' custom fields to this project to be able to create queries for all our projects
2. Create project custom field which will hold project type (lets make it drop-down named Type with values Bugs, Invoices and Tasks). To make things easier we'll make it required for all projects with the default value of Tasks
3. Set this custom field for each project according to the project type
4. Go to plugin settings and select project we created (DefaultQueries) and custom field name (Type). We will leave value for the Default query name as it was - Default
5. Go to the project DefaultQueries and create there three queries named Default_Bugs, Default_Tasks and Default_Invoices For each query we can use its own set of columns/sort order/grouping
6. Go to the project SpecialCase and create query named Default

We all set for now.

What would happen if we will decide to view issues in the project with custom field Type set to Bugs? Plugin will lookup query named Default_Bugs in project DefaultQueries and apply it to the issues view! Same will be done for projects with type Tasks and Invoices - queries named Default_Tasks and Default_Invoices will be applied to their views. If we will choose project named SpecialCase the query named Default will be applied because it exists there regardless of the project type.

Installation and Setup¶

1. Follow the Redmine plugin installation steps at: http://www.redmine.org/wiki/redmine/Plugins Make sure the plugin is installed to vendor/plugins/redmine_default_columns
2. Restart your Redmine web servers (e.g. mongrel, thin, mod_rails)
3. Login and configure the plugin (Administration > Plugins > Configure)