Issue Tracking Systems

3.6Head to head comparison

	Bugzilla	CodeBeamer	ClearQuest	JIRA	Trac
Installation	 Necessity of preparation of environment, manual configuration of config files.	 Very easy by running step-by-step installer. No environment preparation needed.	 Very easy by running step-by-step installer. No environment preparation needed.	 Very easy by running step-by-step installer. No environment preparation needed.	 Necessity of preparation of environment. Installation by shell scripts and later edit of config files.
User interface	 Very plain, in the beginning not very user friendly, however very straightforward and functional.	 Complex UI. Not as intuitive in the beginning, but effective.	 Desktop application and web UI are available. Not a usability competition winner, however after some time user gets accustomed.	/ Basic UI is intuitive and simple to learn to use, but some tasks are not very comfortable, however UI is highly configurable and there a wide range of extensions exists.	 Very simple, intuitive and easy to learn UI.
Request/Ticket workflow	 Hard-coded request workflow model.	 Easy to customize within user interface.	 Easy to customize within ClearQuest Designer application	 Very easy to customize within user interface.	 Editable request workflow model (by edit of config file).
Request/Ticket custom fields	 Adding possible in UI.	 Adding possible in UI.	 Adding possible in ClearQuest Designer application	 Very easy to customize within user interface.	 Adding possible by edit of configuration file and manual update of database.
Multi-project environment	 Yes, by “Classification”	 Yes	 Yes, by having multiple issue databases.	 Yes	 Not supported. One instance of Trac per project.
Accessibility	 Built-in XML-RPC interface	 Built-in Caucho Hessiann binary web service interface	 Java API for ClearQuest available	 Built-in XML-RPC and SOAP interface; Java API available.	 XML-RPC interface plug-in available only for certain versions of Trac.
Additional value	+ Time tracking + System of votes which request to handle first	+ Complex development platform with build-in Wiki, DMS, Discussion board, etc. + CMMI reports	+ Tight integration with other Rational family products	+ Highly configurable & customizable + E-Mails can be source of issue tickets + Integration with other Atlassian family products + Variety of plug-ins which increase JIRA functionality	+ Built-in Wiki + Variety of plug-ins which increase Trac functionality

Table : Head-to-head comparison of most common issue tracking systems

4Tracking systems IDE integration

As the reader could see in the previous chapter, most issue tracking systems have web-based user interfaces; however, for the developer, it is more comfortable to have everything within the development environment (IDE). That is why there were plug-ins and modules for those IDEs developed. Actually, there are two approaches on how to handle this problem:

1. 
   Universal plug-in with bridge for connecting the issue tracking system
   

This is the approach of the below-mentioned projects Mylyn and Cube°n. They provide common UIs within IDE for working with request tickets; however, they generally disable the use of specific features connected to issue tracking systems.

Figure : Universal plug-in scheme

As one can see, the most important part is the bridge, or connector, as it is handles all the communication with the issue tracking system. There are three types of bridges known so far:

1. 
   Web service-based bridge/connector
   

As most of the issue tracking systems provide a web service interface, this is most common approach. The connector “translates” UI commands to calling of web services and returns results for the UI.

2. 
   API-based bridge/connector
   

There has to be a local application installed with a public application programming interface (API), which is called by the connector. The application handles communication with the issue tracking system itself.

3. 
   Bridge/connector based on parsing of issue tracking system UI
   

Not so common, but sometimes a used approach. The connector simulates the work of a user in the browser by calling HTTP requests and parsing HTML responses. This approach is used, for example, for working with Trac, as it cannot be guaranteed it will always have a working web service interface.

2. 
   Single issue tracking system plug-in
   

The plug-in is designed for usage with single particular issue tracking systems and tries to enable most of its features within IDE. Below, the CodeBeamer plug-in and Atlassian IDE Connector will be mentioned.