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1= The Trac Ticket Workflow System
2
3[[PageOutline(2-5,Contents,pullout)]]
4[[TracGuideToc]]
5The Trac ticket system provides a configurable workflow.
6
7== The Default Ticket Workflow
8
9When a new environment is created, a default workflow is configured in your trac.ini. This workflow is the basic workflow, such as specified in [trac:source:/trunk/trac/ticket/workflows/basic-workflow.ini basic-workflow.ini]:
10
11{{{#!Workflow width=700 height=300
12leave = * -> *
13leave.operations = leave_status
14leave.default = 1
15
16create = <none> -> new
17create.default = 1
18
19create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
20create_and_assign.label = assign
21create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
22create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
23
24accept = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> accepted
25accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
26accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
27
28resolve = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> closed
29resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
30resolve.operations = set_resolution
31
32reassign = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> assigned
33reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
34reassign.operations = set_owner
35
36reopen = closed -> reopened
37reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
38reopen.operations = del_resolution
39}}}
40
41== Additional Ticket Workflows
42
43There are example workflows provided in the Trac source tree, see [trac:source:trunk/contrib/workflow contrib/workflow] for `.ini` config sections. One of those may be a good match for what you want. They can be pasted into the `[ticket-workflow]` section of your `trac.ini` file. However, if you have existing tickets then there may be issues if those tickets have states that are not in the new workflow.
44
45Here are some [trac:WorkFlow/Examples diagrams] of the above examples.
46
47== Basic Ticket Workflow Customization
48
49'''Note''': Ticket "statuses" or "states" are not separately defined. The states a ticket can be in are automatically generated by the transitions defined in a workflow. Therefore, creating a new ticket state simply requires defining a state transition in the workflow that starts or ends with that state.
50
51Create a `[ticket-workflow]` section in `trac.ini`.
52Within this section, each entry is an action that may be taken on a ticket.
53For example, consider the `accept` action from `simple-workflow.ini`:
54
55{{{#!ini
56accept = new,accepted -> accepted
57accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
58accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
59}}}
60
61The first line in this example defines the `accept` action, along with the states the action is valid in (`new` and `accepted`), and the new state of the ticket when the action is taken (`accepted`).
62The `accept.permissions` line specifies what permissions the user must have to use this action.
63The `accept.operations` line specifies changes that will be made to the ticket in addition to the status change when this action is taken.  In this case, when a user clicks on `accept`, the ticket owner field is updated to the logged in user.  Multiple operations may be specified in a comma separated list.
64
65The available operations are:
66- **del_owner** -- Clear the owner field.
67- **set_owner** -- Sets the owner to the selected or entered owner. Defaults to the current user. When `[ticket] restrict_owner = true`, the select will be populated with users that have `TICKET_MODIFY` permission and an authenticated session.
68 - ''actionname''`.set_owner` may optionally be set to a comma delimited list of users that will be used to populate the select, or a single user. Groups and permissions may also be included in the list //(Since 1.1.3)//. When groups or permissions are specified the select is populated with all members of the group or all users that possess the permission.
69- **set_owner_to_self** -- Sets the owner to the logged in user.
70- **may_set_owner** -- Sets the owner to the selected or entered owner. Defaults to the existing owner. //(Since 1.1.2)//.
71- **del_resolution** -- Clears the resolution field.
72- **set_resolution** -- Sets the resolution to the selected value.
73 - ''actionname''`.set_resolution` may optionally be set to a comma delimited list or a single value. Example:
74 {{{#!ini
75resolve_new = new -> closed
76resolve_new.label = resolve
77resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
78resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
79resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix
80}}}
81- **leave_status** -- Displays "leave as <current status>" and makes no change to the ticket.
82- **reset_workflow** -- Resets the status of tickets that are in states no longer defined.
83'''Note:''' Specifying conflicting operations, such as `set_owner` and `del_owner`, has unspecified results.
84
85In this example, we see the `.label` attribute used. The action here is `resolve_accepted`, but it will be presented to the user as `resolve`:
86
87{{{#!ini
88resolve_accepted = accepted -> closed
89resolve_accepted.label = resolve
90resolve_accepted.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
91resolve_accepted.operations = set_resolution
92}}}
93
94In this example, we see the `.label` attribute used.  The action here is `resolve_accepted`, but it will be presented to the user as `resolve`. The `.label` attribute is new in Trac 1.1.3 and is functionally the same as the `.name` attribute, which is now deprecated. If neither `.label` or `.name` is specified, the action will be presented to the user as //resolve accepted//, the underscores having been replaced by whitespace (//Since 1.1.3//).
95
96For actions that should be available in all states, `*` may be used in place of the state. The obvious example is the `leave` action:
97{{{#!ini
98leave = * -> *
99leave.operations = leave_status
100leave.default = 1
101}}}
102
103This also shows the use of the `.default` attribute. This value is expected to be an integer, and the order in which the actions are displayed is determined by this value. The action with the highest `.default` value is listed first, and is selected by default. The rest of the actions are listed in order of decreasing `.default` values.
104If not specified for an action, `.default` is 0. The value may be negative.
105
106The ticket create actions are specified by a transition from the special `<none>` state. At least one create action must be available to the user in order for tickets to be created. The create actions defined in the default workflow are:
107{{{#!ini
108create = <none> -> new
109create.default = 1
110
111create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
112create_and_assign.label = assign
113create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
114create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
115}}}
116
117
118There is one hard-coded constraints to the workflow: tickets are expected to have a `closed` state. The default reports/queries treat any state other than `closed` as an open state.
119
120The special `_reset` action is added by default for tickets that are in states that are no longer defined. This allows tickets to be individually "repaired" after the workflow is changed, although it's recommended that the administrator perform the action by batch modifying the affected tickets. By default the `_reset` action is available to users with the `TICKET_ADMIN` permission and reset tickets are put in the //new// state. The default `_reset` action is equivalent to the following `[ticket-workflow]` action definition:
121
122{{{#!ini
123_reset = -> new
124_reset.label = reset
125_reset.operations = reset_workflow
126_reset.permissions = TICKET_ADMIN
127_reset.default = 0
128}}}
129
130Since [trac:milestone:1.0.3] the `_reset` action can be customized by redefining the implicit action. For example, to allow anyone with `TICKET_MODIFY` to perform the `_reset` action, the workflow action would need to be defined:
131
132{{{#!ini
133_reset = -> new
134_reset.label = reset
135_reset.operations = reset_workflow
136_reset.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
137_reset.default = 0
138}}}
139
140== Workflow Visualization
141
142Workflows can be visualized by rendering them on the wiki using the [WikiMacros#Workflow-macro Workflow macro].
143
144Workflows can also be visualized using the `contrib/workflow/workflow_parser.py` script. The script outputs `.dot` files that [http://www.graphviz.org GraphViz] understands. The script can be used as follows (your install path may be different):
145
146{{{#!sh
147cd /var/local/trac_devel/contrib/workflow/
148sudo ./showworkflow /srv/trac/PlannerSuite/conf/trac.ini
149}}}
150And then open up the resulting `trac.pdf` file created by the script. It will be in the same directory as the `trac.ini` file.
151
152After you have changed a workflow, you need to restart your webserver for the changes to take effect.
153
154== Example: Adding optional Testing with Workflow
155
156By adding the following to your [ticket-workflow] section of trac.ini you get optional testing. When the ticket has status `new`, `accepted` or `needs_work`, you can choose to submit it for testing.  When it's in the testing status the user gets the option to reject it and send it back to `needs_work`, or pass the testing and send it along to `closed`. If they accept it, then it is automatically marked as `closed` and the resolution is set to `fixed`. Since all the old work flow remains, a ticket can skip this entire section.
157
158{{{#!ini
159testing = new,accepted,needs_work,assigned,reopened -> testing
160testing.label = Submit to reporter for testing
161testing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
162
163reject = testing -> needs_work
164reject.label = Failed testing, return to developer
165
166pass = testing -> closed
167pass.label = Passes Testing
168pass.operations = set_resolution
169pass.set_resolution = fixed
170}}}
171
172=== How to combine the `tracopt.ticket.commit_updater` with the testing workflow
173
174The [[trac:source:trunk/tracopt/ticket/commit_updater.py|tracopt.ticket.commit_updater]] is the optional component that [[TracRepositoryAdmin#trac-post-commit-hook|replaces the old trac-post-commit-hook]], in Trac 0.12.
175
176By default it reacts on some keywords found in changeset message logs like ''close'', ''fix'' etc. and performs the corresponding workflow action.
177
178If you have a more complex workflow, like the testing stage described above and you want the ''closes'' keyword to move the ticket to the ''testing'' status instead of the ''closed'' status, you need to adapt the code a bit.
179
180Have a look at the [[trac:wiki:0.11/TracWorkflow#How-ToCombineSVNtrac-post-commit-hookWithTestWorkflow|Trac 0.11 recipe]] for the `trac-post-commit-hook`, this will give you some ideas about how to modify the component.
181
182== Example: Add simple optional generic review state
183
184Sometimes Trac is used in situations where "testing" can mean different things to different people so you may want to create an optional workflow state that is between the default workflow's `assigned` and `closed` states, but does not impose implementation-specific details. The only new state you need to add for this is a `reviewing` state. A ticket may then be "submitted for review" from any state that it can be reassigned. If a review passes, you can re-use the `resolve` action to close the ticket, and if it fails you can re-use the `reassign` action to push it back into the normal workflow.
185
186The new `reviewing` state along with its associated `review` action looks like this:
187
188{{{#!ini
189review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
190review.operations = set_owner
191review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
192}}}
193
194Then, to integrate this with the default Trac 0.11 workflow, you also need to add the `reviewing` state to the `accept` and `resolve` actions:
195
196{{{#!ini
197accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
198[…]
199resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
200}}}
201
202Optionally, you can also add a new action that allows you to change the ticket's owner without moving the ticket out of the `reviewing` state. This enables you to reassign review work without pushing the ticket back to the `new` status:
203
204{{{#!ini
205reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
206reassign_reviewing.label = reassign review
207reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
208reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
209}}}
210
211The full `[ticket-workflow]` configuration will thus look like this:
212
213{{{#!ini
214[ticket-workflow]
215create = <none> -> new
216create.default = 1
217create_and_assign = <none> -> assigned
218create_and_assign.label = assign
219create_and_assign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
220create_and_assign.operations = may_set_owner
221accept = new,reviewing -> assigned
222accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
223accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
224leave = * -> *
225leave.default = 1
226leave.operations = leave_status
227reassign = new,assigned,accepted,reopened -> assigned
228reassign.operations = set_owner
229reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
230reopen = closed -> reopened
231reopen.operations = del_resolution
232reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
233resolve = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> closed
234resolve.operations = set_resolution
235resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
236review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
237review.operations = set_owner
238review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
239reassign_reviewing = reviewing -> *
240reassign_reviewing.operations = set_owner
241reassign_reviewing.label = reassign review
242reassign_reviewing.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
243}}}
244
245== Example: Limit the resolution options for a new ticket
246
247The above `resolve_new` operation allows you to set the possible resolutions for a new ticket. By modifying the existing resolve action and removing the new status from before the `->` we then get two resolve actions. One with limited resolutions for new tickets, and then the regular one once a ticket is accepted.
248
249{{{#!ini
250resolve_new = new -> closed
251resolve_new.label = resolve
252resolve_new.operations = set_resolution
253resolve_new.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
254resolve_new.set_resolution = invalid,wontfix,duplicate
255
256resolve = assigned,accepted,reopened -> closed
257resolve.operations = set_resolution
258resolve.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
259}}}
260
261== Advanced Ticket Workflow Customization
262
263If the customizations above do not meet your needs, you can extend the workflow with plugins. Plugins can provide additional operations for the workflow, like code_review, or implement side-effects for an action, such as triggering a build, that may not be merely simple state changes. Look at [trac:source:trunk/sample-plugins/workflow sample-plugins/workflow] for a few examples to get started.
264
265But if even that is not enough, you can disable the !ConfigurableTicketWorkflow component and create a plugin that completely replaces it.
266
267== Adding Workflow States to Milestone Progress Bars
268
269If you add additional states to your workflow, you may want to customize your milestone progress bars as well. See [TracIni#milestone-groups-section TracIni].
270
271== Ideas for next steps
272
273Enhancement ideas for the workflow system should be filed as enhancement tickets against the [trac:query:?status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&keywords=~workflow&component=ticket+system ticket system] component.  You can also document ideas on the [trac:TracIdeas/TracWorkflow TracIdeas/TracWorkflow] page. Also look at the [http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin AdvancedTicketWorkflowPlugin] as it provides experimental operations.
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.