hedgehog lab

Subversion Integration with fixx

Since publishing the fixx api in January, we have received a number of requests for source control integration. As a result I’ve gone ahead and created a nice script to get the ball rolling on this front, to be ran as part of the post commit hook. A post commit hook is a script that is ran after checking in some new code to your SCM repository. Lifted directly from the svnbook itself:

Most people use this hook to send out descriptive emails about the commit or to notify some other tool (such as an issue tracker) that a commit has happened.

This opens up the opportunity for us to latch onto the post commit hook whenever we commit new code into our repository, and feed the recently changed knowledge into fixx using our api. This has a number of advantages, as it means that fixing bugs and your SCM system are no longer disjointed processes.

I bet you’ve done the equivalent of this before svn commit -m ''. Well now that commit message gets logged in fixx for everyone to see. Therefore it’s worth getting into the good practice of inputting descriptive commit messages.

If you think about regression bugs this is also ideal as you can see all the files that were changed/added in originally “fixing” that issue. This is just one of many reasons consolidating your SCM with fixx has value and is beneficial to your workflow.

Here at hedgehog lab we primarily use Subversion as our source control system for most projects, and this script in particular is tailored to work with Subversion through the magic that is svnlook. But I’m confident that this can be easily adapted to fit whatever SCM your currently using.

Note: For this script to work properly the only prerequisites are that you have a copy of fixx running, and both Subversion and Ruby installed.

Basically the script looks for the issue id, prefixed by a hashtag as part of the commit message in order to log the changes in this revision in fixx.

So if I committed some CSS changes to improve the rendering of fixx, my commit could go something like this:

svn commit -m '#12 Dashboard CSS Tweaks'

A new comment would be created under issue 12, with the following content.

	Commited by: Damian Nicholson
	Commit message: Dashboard CSS Tweaks
	Files changed:
	U style.css
	

Just to point out that the #issueId can be placed anywhere in the commit message, though if one is not present, it won’t be logged in fixx.

Since we want to bridge the gap between SCM and fixx completely, we have also roadmapped in new api functionality, so other options will be able to be supplied with the commit message to create, resolve and close issues in fixx sometime in the near future.

Instructions on how to go about using the script can be found within the script itself, which you can find here so enjoy!

Our new team member and solomon news

Hi, I'm Rob, the latest addition to the team here at hedgehog lab. I started here last Monday, and I've been given a rather large task with a equally large and looming deadline.

I am the Product Manager for solomon, and I will be leading all aspects of this project, including all of the development. I am eager to launch a beta release in early May, so I will be spending April solely working on Solomon. You can sign up for beta preview to help us squish any bugs and get an early look at what we are doing. I am looking forward to running this project, and if you have any queries or feature requests you can get in touch with me on our Get Satisfaction forums and I'll be more than happy to help.

I've been spending my first week analysing the requirements and design for Solomon and familiarising myself with the environment and the technologies that it uses. The atmosphere here at "the lab" is great, it's a fairly small office with five of us working in close proximity. The discussions we have about projects or problems usually involves scooting a chair over to desk-share or drawing everything up on the whiteboard, which give us a very flexible and productive environment.

I joined the lab straight from University, where I attained a MSc in Computer Security and Resilience. Being given this much responsibility immediately is a welcome challenge, It should give me plenty of project management experience, and I must admit I enjoy being given the snazzy title of "Product Manager" at the age of 22!
Outside of work and education, I spend a lot of time exploring new technologies; I recently learned Flex and Adobe AIR, and I have a feeling there might be some fancy new applications in the pipeline using the Fixx and Solomon APIs.

My life isn't all computers and coffee though: I am heavily involved in the South Shields volunteer lifeguard club; I teach lifesaving, give safety talks in schools and during the summer I spend as many days lifeguarding on the beach as possible.

For those of you interested in what Solomon will look like, here is a preview of the contacts feature:

I intend to follow Damian's trend of blogging snippets of product insights periodically, so as soon as the beta of Solomon is out you can expect to be hearing a lot more from me. Goodbye for now, there's code calling...