Scott Bauer, our latest addition to the SimpleTicket/Big in Japan team, is now on his second week and he is already working on getting the hosted version of SimpleTicket up and running. Here is the plan:
Revamp UI/CSS/HTML for hosted version
- header/footer redesign (use less real estate)
- pane (drop down and pop-up) redesign (use shadows and clean it up)
- unified buttons and elements (redo them)
- single column page design
- two column page design sample data pages
Version 1.0 Simplification (make SimpleTicket work for 50-70% of all internal IT shops with between 1 and 20 engineers)
- remove multiple customer support (management and statistics)
- remove Architel and superfluous features and nomenclature Signup and Payment Engine
I will be working with the revamped UI/CSS to create wireframes for the team. Additionally we will be working on determining how we might price the hosted service. Current thinking is around $99 - $199 per month per company.
November 20, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , simpleticket , opensource , troubleticket , ui , hosted , css , helpdesk , html | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
We never had the time to put the installer together so we decided to just release the same code we use internally. Feel free to take a look at the demo or just download the code and install it yourself.
Source Code Link (released under the GNU GPL)
The Client Demo Link (client side)
The Admin Demo Link (admin side)
Engineer username and passwords are:
e1@example.local / engineer1
e2@example.local / engineer2
mgr@example.local / manager
Customer Username and Password:
user1@customer.local / employee
If you are interested in contributing to the project or have
questions about the project, please feel free to join the mailing list.
If you are interested in providing a patch or other contribution you may checkout the code from the SVN repository:
svn co http://svn.simpleticket.net/trunk/ simpleticket
The username for the repository is “anonymous” and the password is blank.
November 8, 2006 |
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This month we released the new code internally and migrated the version one data into the new release. Quickly it became clear we were having some issues with ticket assignments and other basic functions. Alex’s team is busy attempting to relsolve these shortcomings.
Lots of folks have different ideas about our release. Chris thinks we should wait until the code is ready for primetime, while Ward suggests that we “release early and often.”
Alex’s goal is to present the new version of SimpleTicket at Barcamp Texas (being held in Austin in two weeks). So the SVN is the old code (it has been disabled, please don’t download it) and the demo has been removed. Once the new code is released we will post it to the SVN and turn on the demo - we will, of course, write about it here. In the meantime, enjoy the last days of summer…
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August 12, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , simpleticket , opensource , troubleticket , beach , update , release | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
Satadru noted that he “welcomed the new Architel overlords” in a comment responding to disgruntled open source people. The overlords welcome you , Satadru! The real subject of this post is Defining the Terms.
I think the main problem is that Peter and Kate misunderstand what open source means (or what we think it means). I think Kate makes it clear that her definition of open source is different than ours when she says, “I may have issues with Architel’s handling of the initial project and the fact that the keep promoting the Open Source aspects of project when I can’t seem to find anything “openâ€? about the current version”
Our understanding of open source is far different than that of Kate. We think the definition of open source is, “software whose source code is published and made available to the public, enabling anyone to copy, modify and redistribute the source code without paying royalties or fees.” Kate would disagree and suggest that “open source code evolves through community cooperation.” Community development is in fact how many projects evolve, but certainly not how they start.
Imagine trying to build software for ten different people with ten different specific needs. Now realize that the needs of 2 of the people would make the software useless for the other 8. How could you agree on what to write? Who is in charge? In the case of SimpleTicket we are building it for us. We made our project open so that others could a) use our code and contribute back bug fixes and needed features or b) use our code as a basis to build something that worked for them. Had we relied on Kate or Peter to build SimpleTicket it would not be very useful to our company.
We decided to release version one as an open source project and we plan to release version two as well. Perhaps version three will develop with the help of the a community? Or perhaps the community will simply extend the second version for the benefit of everyone… We shall see.
July 30, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , simpleticket , opensource , troubleticket | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
Six months ago we released our internal trouble ticket system using the GPL open source license - we call it Simpleticket. Over 20,000 people have downloded the code (more than 100 per day) since release. Hundreds of people have emailed us thanking us for releasing the admittedly “flawed” code. We are about to release the second version of SimpleTicket addressing most of the problems and providing features we need. You see, we operate an IT support company that lives or dies based on our trouble ticket system. On the eve of the release of our new code the volume of disgruntled people is deafening. Check out some of these comments:
I am good friends with Kate and Peter and it really pisses me off seeing how you guys have ignored their needs. Before going out and just coding whatever you want you should consult the community. Kate and Peter have very specific needs and the wireframes and the descriptions detailed in this blog don’t meet their requirements. How do you expect them to use simpleticket if you don’t get their buyin? We are outraged that you would pay programmers to build a ticketing system for your own company and not contribute to the open source community. - by Frank
We were shocked to read this comment and responded here. Two people, Peter and Kate have spent a lot of time claiming we have not worked on the code with comments like:
you never actually WORKED WITH THE COMMUNITY. The non-architel developers were the only ones doing any work. - by Kate
And stuff like this:
Also the statement, “Alex and Rodrigo who added thousands of lines of code after the release� is patently false. Architel’s contributions to the branch called masukomi, which we all agreed would be the basis for hte next version, were very minimal. - by Peter
At the end of the day it really pisses us off. We wrote a ticketing system, released it using an open source license and let anyone download and use it. To say we did not get enough feedback when we built it, or that we did not do any work on it or that we did not contribute to their branch of the code is just crazy.
We wrote the damn software in the first place and spent the first 90 days resolving bugs so that we could keep our business running while using SimpleTicket. If you were to believe Peter or his friends you would think “they” wrote SimpleTicket and we were just using it.
We spent the last 90 days paying coders to rebuild the code, adding much needed features and bug fixes. When we release the new code I am sure Peter and Kate will be around to tell us what we are doing wrong (Peter has said, “However, I would love to see the new version when released.“), but man I wish they would go away. I wish folks we just thank us for the code and contribute code back if they want to.
July 29, 2006 |
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Tags: SimpleTicket , Architel , simpleticket , opensource , troubleticket , helpdesk | Bookmark on del.icio.us | Digg It
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