Project

General

Profile

Forums » Plugins »

CMI Plugin has install problems - can we be warned by others?

Added by vitaly endors almost 14 years ago

I love Redmine.

The taskcomplete plugin is perfect - easy to install, does what it says and has no issues.

However, the CMI plugin is a counter-example. It has a very sexy screenshot, impressive features and looks like something that every boss or manager would be amazed over. Must Install!

But... the installation is not clearly explained. Only an expert Redmine developer would be able to install it without much trial and error. And maybe not even then. For those of us new to Ruby, life is not so sweet.

But... the source repository on git requires a username and password unknown to the rest of us. Oh, they provide the source code, for which I am grateful, but after several install attempts to the directories, I am still lost. The commands provided:

rake db:migrate:plugin NAME=redmine_cmi RAILS_ENV=production
rake cmi:create_data RAILS_ENV=production
rake cmi:load_role_costs_history RAILS_ENV=production
rake cmi:load_user_role_history RAILS_ENV=production
rake cmi:recalculate_costs RAILS_ENV=production

All fail with messages about not knowing how to do things. Obviously I don't know enough. But why is it that other plugin writers can make a simple installer and the CMI devs cannot?

I only assume because there is no way to simply provide direct feedback of the errors that new users make.
The developers already have a great deal of familiarity with their product, and the system they install and test it on. This is not true for me. I know some python, and managed to install the OS, Ruby, Rails and the other tools from scratch, but not to install CMI.

Also, there should be a simple plugin rating system regarding "Approval", "Ease of Install" and "Bugs". That way we can avid trying to install plugins that will not install correctly without expert assistance, because we can see that it isn't easy to install.

Finally, there should be a way to UNINSTALL plugins in sensible form, which should be created by the writer.
For example, in the forums we see people asking how to remove CMI without having to blow away the installation & database and then start over. By not having a way to remove plugins, we risk making Redmine hard to maintain for average users.

These things are needed. I hope I am not offending the authors of CMI by this, it seems like a nice plugin.


Replies (4)

RE: CMI Plugin has install problems - can we be warned by others? - Added by Jarek Potiuk almost 14 years ago

Had the same problems with Redmine 1.1. CMI Guys, please make it more admin friendly.

RE: CMI Plugin has install problems - can we be warned by others? - Added by José M. Prieto almost 14 years ago

Hi, I'm one of the devolopers of the CMI plugin.

True, the plugin is a bit unpolished and lacks documentation. About the installation problems, is that with Redmine 1.1? The plugin is not compatible with that Redmine version, as stated in the plugins directory.

You should be able to clone the source repository (or download a snapshot) whithout user and password, that is only needed to push to the repository (the "clone repository" link on there is to make a clone of the repository hosted on gitorious, which obviously requires a user account free registration).

There is a simple way to provide feedback. It seems there is a problem right now with the user account used to upload the plugin, and the "Author" link (where you could see my email address) shows a 404, but you can read this in the plugin's description: "Any doubts, requests or ideas, please send it to us mail to cmi-devel AT lists.morfeo-project DOT org. Thanks".

I'll add a section about UNINSTALLATION and a couple other notes to the README, thanks.

RE: CMI Plugin has install problems - can we be warned by others? - Added by cecep suryana almost 14 years ago

thats great, an uninstallation note is really necessary
i still wait for this should be awesome on redmine plugin :D

RE: CMI Plugin has install problems - can we be warned by others? - Added by vitaly endors almost 14 years ago

José,

I am new to ruby and rails and redmine. I want to develop too, but for me it is a big ocean to swim.
I like CMI, it gives me good ideas.

    (1-4/4)