Launchpad Migration

Problems with Launchpad Bugs

Many people have expressed frustration with bug tracking on Launchpad. This is a place to enumerate the problems so we have an objective list when comparing alternate solutions.

Note that Launchpad is open-source, so it is possible for us to directly improve it. (See below.) It also now supports Git repositories and has a Web services API.

(Discussion on the forum.)

~~Login process is complex: it is a multi step process and the platform keeps asking about showing some username~~ The Ubuntu One registration/login only asks for your name, E-mail address and a password.
No formatting
Can't edit comments
They can be hidden on bugs though.
E-mail notifications are slow
There is an intentional 5-minute delay so that modifications done close together are sent in one message. Beyond that, running our own instance could fix this.
"Wishlist" designation is mutually exclusive with a priority designation, making it impossible to prioritize feature requests
Can't @mention people
Posting code and screenshots requires attaching a separate file that isn't displayed inline in the conversation.
Can't make templates for bug reports (e.g. to have people attach mixxx.log in the initial report)
No integration with the code review system (side effect of no longer hosting code in LP)
Yet another account needed. (Now six total: forum, Freenode, wiki, Launchpad, GitHub, mailing list)
OpenID Connect (which uses OAuth) would be a good solution to this in general. See bug #1732715.
Run by Canonical, which does not have the greatest track record
Development of Launchpad has ~~stagnated~~ slowed in recent years. https://github.com/live-clones/launchpad/graphs/contributors
LP had its staffing heavily cut a few years back, but there are still a couple paid full-time developers working on it -- and several major features that have been developed since that cut.
launchpad, sourceforge, savannah once played and important role in OSS, but are now rather niche. New users and developers are less likely to be familiar with it, and thus less likely to interact with the platform.
No integration with the source code on GitHub. Automatic PR/issue interactions not possible.

Possible solutions

List of Application Lifecycle Management suites

Comparison chart of different project management software packages on Wikipedia

GitHub Issues

Many have suggested using GitHub's issue tracker since it naturally integrates with its code review system.

Migration tools: http://lp2gh.readthedocs.io/en/latest/moving_issues.html

Advantages

Easy to cross-reference pull requests and issues
Rich formatting
Close issues automatically when merging pull requests
Everyone uses it.

Disadvantages

Doesn't explicitly support rich states other than just open/closed
Using labels for this is just a workaround and might become confusing.
Not possible to link related issues
Not possible to specify different kinds of relationships (parent/child, predecessor/successor, duplicates, etc.)
Someone needs to commit to managing migration
Closed-source
Company is not very responsive to community feature requests and has no public issue tracker for their server software
Requires nonfree client-side JavaScript

GitLab

https://about.gitlab.com/ https://blueprints.launchpad.net/mixxx/+spec/gitlab-migration

Advantages

Note that for public open source repositories, the GitLab.com hosted service has all the features of the paid proprietary Enterprise Edition Premium server software.

Company is highly engaged with the community with a public issue tracker and accepts code contributions
Server software is developing rapidly with new features rolled out monthly
Modern look-and-feel
Issue Board with drag-and-drop workflow for organizing issues. Can span across multiple repositories (code, manual, website)
Automatic issue closing when code is merged (GitHub can do this too)
Due dates for issues
Related issues
Multiple assignees for issues
Issue weighting
Easily move discussion from code review to a new issue
Threaded discussions on issues and merge requests with ability to mark different parts of the conversation as resolved
Image discussions
Protected Git branches
Templates for issues and merge requests with possibility for different templates (such as bug report and feature request)
Projects can have multiple repositories (for example, code and manual) with interrelated milestones and issues
More nuanced permission system than GitHub
Continuous integration service is integrated
Automatic merge when CI completes
Wouldn't have to pay for CI that doesn't time out like Travis and AppVeyor free plans
Hosting artifacts from CI (built packages, manual PDFs)
Todo list can replace email notifications
Migrating code from GitHub would be easy and it wouldn't be hard for developers to adapt

Disadvantages

Write access to GitLab wikis is coupled with write access to source code, so we still need to run our own wiki. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/19798
Someone needs to commit to managing migration
Has had issues with page load speed and uptime in the past but has improved lately and they're continuing to work very hard on this
Some features only available in paid Enterprise editions for self-hosted server software. https://about.gitlab.com/products/

Improve Launchpad

https://dev.launchpad.net/

Advantages

Very good bug tracking and release management features
No need to migrate
Can run our own instance (if ever GitHub closes or decides to charge)
Open-source
Would (eventually) suit us perfectly

Disadvantages

Maintaining our own bug tracker would be an enormous drain for Mixxx developers that would be better spent developing Mixxx

Apache Allura

http://allura.apache.org/

Advantages

Integrated code, wiki and tickets/issues
Can run our own instance (if ever GitHub closes or decides to charge)
Open-source

Disadvantages

Must run our own instance (no pre-hosted environments, though possibly from third party)
Looks like old SourceForge
Indeed, SourceForge (used to?) use(s) it
Need to migrate data from three different systems
Someone needs to commit to managing migration

Tuleap

https://www.tuleap.org/

Advantages

Complete integration (code hosting & versioning with Git, code review, bugs/tickets, docs/files, CI/Jenkins, project management, collaboration)
Can run our own instance (if ever GitHub closes or decides to charge)
Open-source

Disadvantages

Must run our own instance to avoid charges
Manual test management is only available in the paid version
Must also run Gerrit for code review functionality, Mattermost for chat
Someone needs to commit to managing migration

JIRA

from https://www.mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=9425&start=10

Jira seems to be popular for open source projects and free Jira hosting is available for public open source projects.

It's a far better issue tracker than what GitHub offers. Someone wrote about porting issues fro Launchpad to Jira: https://mariadb.org/scripts-for-migrating-bug-reporting-from-launchpad-to-jira/

QT uses Jira https://bugreports.qt.io as well

Advantages

Launchpad migration without losing Metadata https://github.com/rasmushoj/LP2JIRA
Using the Launchpad workflow, customize it.
Open Source Plan: https://www.atlassian.com/software/views/open-source-license-request
Integrates with GitHub https://www.atlassian.com/blog/jira-software/connecting-jira-6-2-github
REST API
Allows anonymous bug filing.
Zulip integration
Marketplace with 1,000+ plug-and-play add-ons

Disadvantages

 * Source Code available for review only
 * Not FOSS

BitBucket

It has a issue tracker similar to Launchpad but not that complicated the Jira. It combines code hosting, code review and issue tracking in the same was as GitHub does.

Example https://bitbucket.org/tortoisehg/thg/issues?status=new&status=open

Advantages

Launchpad migration without losing Metadata https://bitbucket.org/jonathanj/lp2bb
Using the Launchpad workflow.
Open Source Plan: https://www.atlassian.com/software/views/open-source-license-request
REST API
Allows anonymous bug filing.
Zulip integration

Disadvantages

 * Source Code available for review only
 * Not FOSS

Selected solution: GitHub issues

We have selected GitHub issues, because our source code lives on GitHub and we want to have the benefit of the integration of source code repository and bug tracking. We have decided to not move both elsewhere, because GitHub has the best marked spread.

Workflow

New Bugs are created by the reporter without label, no expiration, whining after 14 days.

A reviewer classifies the bug with one STATUS label and with one IMPORTANCE labels to stop whining.

STATUS:INCOMPLETE - Responds from the reporter is required, expiration after 60 days
STATUS:OBSERVATION - Bug-report is complete, but no one has been able to reproduce the issue or shares the opinion, expiration after one year.
STATUS:CONFIRMED - One else is able to reproduce the bug or shares the opinion, issue is waiting to be adopted form a contributor, no expiration.
STATUS:WONTFIX - A valid bug report, which will not be fixed for some reasons described in the comment. Close Bug
STATUS:INVALID - Observation error or support request. Close Bug

IMPORTANCE:BLOCKER - If a Blocker is on a Milestone, the Milestone cannot be released
IMPORTANCE:CRITICAL - Party stopper
IMPORTANCE:MAJOR - Annoying Bug, effecting many users
IMPORTANCE:MINOR - An issue, not of the above
IMPORTANCE:WISHLIST - A feature request
REGRESSION - can be added in addition if a previous working feature has an issue

To adopt a bug and start to work, set Assign it to yourself and to a milestone.

A a bug can also be closed. It is automatically closed if a connected PR has been merged. If it is closed manually a comment is required, explaining why.

If it is closed by automatic expiration the bot will add a comment.

For duplicates type "Duplicate of" followed by the issue number and close the issue.

Lable Color Code

STATUS:INCOMPLETE - dark Purple/Pink
STATUS:OBSERVATION - light Purple/Pink
STATUS:CONFIRMED - medium Purple/Pink
STATUS:WONTFIX - grey
STATUS:INVALID - grey

IMPORTANCE:BLOCKER - Dark red
IMPORTANCE:CRITICAL - darker red
IMPORTANCE:MAJOR - lighter red
IMPORTANCE:MINOR - light red
IMPORTANCE:WISHLIST - celeste
REGRESSION - darker red

Tags: yellow