YouTrack Issue Tracker

The upcoming version of YouTrack (aka YouTrack Daring) introduces the bookmarklet, a little tool for your browser to submit new issues with just one click. No need to open YouTrack to create an issue, no need to even switch between browser tabs or windows.

Bookmarklet supports all most important options of the standard Create New Issue dialog.

To get the bookmarklet, the next time you visit the issue tracker do the following:

1. Open keyboard shortcuts quick reference: click Help — Shortcuts
2. Drug-n-drop the highlighted “Create Issue” link to your browser’s toolbar. If you prefer Internet Explorer, then right-click on the link and add it to favorites.

There you have it. Now click the button, specify issue attributes, take and attach screenshots (Ctrl+Alt+S) or attach files (Ctrl+Alt+A). Another click, and the issue submitted. Just like that.

Have a nice day and track with pleasure!
JetBrains YouTrack team

We’ve announced that YouTrack Daring EAP builds support integration with JIRA 4. This is true but in order to enable integration, you’ll need to download JIRA 4 integration plug-in.

This is a “version 1″ JIRA plugin, meaning that you should deploy it into WEB-INF\lib directory of your JIRA installation. (See Managing JIRA plugins for details.)

Also, make sure to enable JIRA RPC plugin to invoke JIRA operations remotely.

If you’re not sure what else you should do to enable JIRA integration on YouTrack side, see relevant items in YouTrack FAQ.

It’s been almost 2 months since YouTrack 1.0 release — a sufficient term to make up our minds regarding how we need to extend YouTrack capabilities further. Having combined external feedback with our own ideas, we feel we’re ready to reveal YouTrack roadmap for the upcoming version code-named Daring. As any roadmap, this one may change in terms of both functionality and deadlines. However, this is how we currently want the product to evolve.

YouTrack Daring is scheduled for release in Q1 2010. It will hopefully introduce the following improvements:

1. Customizable workflow. Working with issues involves multiple steps and options, and the person who’s in charge of an issue tracker installation should have tools to establish a certain workflow for users to follow. For example, you may want to restrict the set of issue attributes available to issue reporter by default, or you may need to reset “fixed in build” attribute value when an issue is reopened. Leading issue trackers provide ways to customize workflow, and YouTrack certainly needs this feature. Of course, we’re reviewing the competition’s experience in the field in order to come up with a better, faster solution.
   Related issues:
   • Support custom workflow and custom issue fields schemas
   • Customizable defaults for new issues
   • Clear fixed in build on reopen issue
   • Somehow force developer to set fix version on issue resolve
   • States settings per project

   Update. Customizable workflow has been rescheduled for the version that will follow Daring, YouTrack Energy.

2. Custom attributes. YouTrack currently provides a predefined set of attributes (Priority, Type, Assignee, Subsystem, Fix version etc.) that covers common software developers’ needs. However, sometimes, you need your own typed attributes for scheduling, references, hardware specifications or whatever else you require to efficiently track your issues. YouTrack Daring gives you the freedom to define which attributes to use to describe your issues, and which type each of them should have.
   Related issues:
   • “Due Date” feature for new tasks
   • Please add attribute “Operating System”.
   • Support custom fields.
   • Issue Time tracking capabilities including summary reports.
3. Upgraded search. Customer feedback and actively tracking our own products helped us reveal a number of limitations in YouTrack search query language. Fortunately, none of them are design-bounded, and we’re intending to safely resolve them in YouTrack Daring. Specifically, we’re enabling search by ranges so that when you want to display all issues fixed for, say, five versions, you don’t have to explicitly enumerate all of them. Other search improvements will include search by user groups (”find all issues created by external users last week”), subsystem search over multiple projects (important when several projects have subsystems with the same name - IntelliJ IDEA contributors should feel relieved), enhanced suggestions etc.
   Related issues:
   • Search by custom date range
   • Add ability to search issues not having tag A nor B
   • Organize states in filters into two groups: resolved and unresolved
   • Text-based search finds something unrelated
   • If few projects have the same Subsystem, query should contain results from both
   • Search query explanation
   • Limit text search by issue fields/comments
   • Subsystem Search over multiple projects should be possible
   • In case of search terms collision (#aaa can refer to several entities), display this to the user and allow to refine the search query
   • Completion list should list project-specific items first
   • Support search by ‘link type’ or get results by ‘link type’
   • Allow using group names in search requests
   • Search for issues commented by some user
   • Use saved search as context, just like now project is
   • Search before, after, between specified dates
   • Show “did you mean” suggestion if no records found
   • Search issues after build, before build, between builds
4. Improved commands. In addition to supporting custom attributes, YouTrack Daring is set to introduce a command to notify other users of an issue or a set of selected issues, and “undo” command to revert latest changes (pretty useful after inadvertently setting all existing issues to “can’t reproduce”). Besides, we’ll make sure that when you try to apply commands that you don’t have permissions to apply, the Command window warns you about that instead of just silently pretending that it doesn’t understand you, as it currently does.
   Related issues:
   • New command for issue: “notify #user”
   • On mark issues as duplicate automatically suggest issue with the smallest number as a main
   • Undo command
   • Support “untag” command on an issue
   • Commands should recognize everything (but do not suggest) and shows “access denied” message
5. More flexible TeamCity integration. Seems like customers use TeamCity in more ways than we’d thought possible. That means, YouTrack Daring should provide more paths of TeamCity integration - specifically, allow mapping multiple TeamCity build configurations to a single YouTrack project, and integrating multiple TeamCity installations with a single YouTrack installation.
   Related issues:
   • Allow multiple TeamCity integrations with a single YouTrack Project
   • Integrate YouTrack with more than one TeamCity installation
   • Integration with teamcity mapping should be visible as tab in project edit to let project admin to change it
6. Recent Activity view. It’s become commonplace to provide a way to see who’s done what lately in an application, so this is a bit of a mainstream feature: for all issues that you watch, you’ll be able to view who commented, voted, or updated them in another way.
   Related issue: Provide Recent Activity Tab
7. Permissions per issue and per issue type. YouTrack currently provides per-project and per-installation security but many public tracker administrators would like to be able to set custom access permissions for specific issues that contain private data. There’s also demand for per-issue-type security which could be more relevant with custom attributes.
   Related issues:
   • Set permissions per issue
   • Permissions per issue type
8. Jira 4.0 integration. YouTrack currently integrates with JIRA 3.x but since JIRA 4 is on the market for a while now, we’re up for an update.
   Related issue: Support JIRA 4.0
9. Improved REST API. Lacking any documentation, few of you know that YouTrack provides REST API with methods for creating, searching, and modifying issues. In YouTrack Daring, we’re going to take the curtain off this wonderful functionality, and extend it - with sufficient permissions, you’ll be able to manipulate users, groups, roles, and execute other administrative actions programmatically through the API.
   Related issues:
   • Document REST API
   • Plugins support
10. Easier installation. Installing YouTrack is in many cases as tough a hurdle as double-clicking a JAR file. However, we’re not completely satisfied with the current state of affairs in this area. First, we currently ask users to request an evaluation license right after downloading and installing YouTrack. This is not without sense but considering the additional difficulty that this step brings to evaluators, we’re going to integrate a common evaluation license directly into YouTrack installation and give evaluators an option to prolong it. Second, we’re currently asking YouTrack root administrator to log in on first YouTrack start. That’s going to trash can as well. Finally, we’re going to provide a third distribution option in the form of a Windows exe file for a true one-click installation experience.
    Related issues:
    • Distribute YouTrack as Windows exe file
    • Integrate evaluation license into installation package
    • Show message about license is about to expire
11. Check for updates. You’ll no longer need to keep an eye on your RSS feed to monitor YouTrack updates — the product will remind you itself whenever there’s a new release available.
    Related issue: Implement check for updates

You can glance through the full list of features scheduled for Daring. Of course, you’re encouraged to vote for features you like, and submit new feature requests.

Some of the features highlighted in this Roadmap should be available for you to evaluate in our upcoming Early Access Program that we’re committed to launch soon (hopefully before the New Year), so stay tuned for further news!

We’re jubilant to announce that YouTrack 1.0 has been finally released!!

You can download YouTrack 1.0 right away, and request an evaluation license to try it out for 60 days.

When you’re ready to purchase, choose between two YouTrack editions:

• Enterprise Edition provides unlimited YouTrack functionality for $1,200, or $600 if purchased before the New Year 2010.
• Professional Edition is limited to 10 projects and 20 user accounts, and doesn’t support LDAP authentication. On the upside, it’s up for grabs at $300, or a mere $150 if purchased before the New Year.

For both editions, you will receive 1 year of free technical support and upgrades.

To request new features and report bugs, please use YouTrack’s own issue tracker instance.

Track with Pleasure!

We have covered YouTrack usage extensively, and we’re still trying to ensure that end users understand what they’re doing when they work with the application.

However, the administrative part has been somewhat overlooked - up until today.

Please welcome YouTrack Administrator’s Guide that currently provides details on the following:

• General Admin area overview: shows how you can use different pages in YouTrack Admin area.
• Initial setup: steps you’re supposed to take when running YouTrack for the first time.
• Administering projects: guidelines on creating, configuring, and importing projects from JIRA.
• Administering user access: procedures for configuring roles, groups, and users.
• Integrating YouTrack with external tools, including JIRA, TeamCity, LDAP, and OpenID.

If there’s something you need to know about YouTrack administration that is not covered in the Administrator’s Guide, please let us know!

If you have executed a search query but the list of matching issues doesn’t fit in a single page, don’t worry, you can select all of them in just one click.

What exactly do you have to do? Say you’ve searched for all your unresolved issues:

for me #unresolved

Found 1000 issues. Now, press Ctrl+A, or click “Select All” on the toolbar to select all issues on the current page. You will notice a message right above your issues: “Click to select all 1000 issues”.

Click the link specifying the number of issues to select. Now, you can modify all found issues with the Command window - for example, type command “won’t fix”, and have a couple of weeks vacation followed by a couple of months at an employment agency!

Be careful though, the changes you make can’t be reverted!

This feature is available in YouTrack EAP in build 67 or later!

We have revamped YouTrack login form to make it prettier and handier.

You can now log into YouTrack with an OpenID from one of five providers:

Ever attempted logging in from your smartphone? This is much easier now. Actually, it’s easier from anywhere: a single button click, and your Gmail (or Yahoo or whatever) credentials let you get in!

The new login form is available in YouTrack EAP starting from build 67.

Enjoy!

Some important news today.

First, you can now follow us on twitter for quick development updates.

Second, YouTrack FAQ has been published in response to feedback that we have received this month. Particularly, it explains:

• How to create new users when they don’t create themselves.
• What’s wrong (or not) with YouTrack when you’re unable to assign an issue to yourself.
• How to simulate subtasks in YouTrack with issue linking.
• Whether it’s possible to visually distinguish between different types of issues.
• Whether YouTrack integrates with version control systems.

That’s not all FAQ is about: see if there are answers to questions you’ve been afraid to ask. If not, ask on, and we’ll answer!

As you’ve probably noticed, we’re reducing the amount of notifications by merging changes made by one user into a single e-mail containing only the resulting change. That enables fast tweaking of reported issue without bothering its assignee several times.

Moreover, if your e-mail client supports threading, notifications about the same issue can be merged into a single thread.

GMail conversations are supported too:

And that’s how it looks in Thunderbird:

Enjoy!

We’ve published a new EAP build which introduces a couple of major syntactic changes in the way you search for issues. We’ve made the transition with two goals in mind:

• To streamline full-text search.
• To provide a way to clearly separate attributes and values from other query items.

Here’s a simple query to summarize the modified syntax:

The following list describes the changes in more detail:

• Colon after attributes. When you specify an attribute (for, state, priority etc.), it should be followed by a colon:
  

  state:

  If you use query completion, the colon is inserted automatically.

• Curly braces around attribute values that contain spaces. When you specify an attribute value that contains more than a single word, use curly braces ({}) to surround it:
  

  in: {JetBrains Tracker}

  Again, the braces are added automatically when you choose attribute values using query completion.

• # as prefix for values without attributes. When you specify an attribute value without the corresponding attribute, it should be preceded by the hash mark (#):
  

  #unresolved

In addition, we’ve extended your search toolset to include the following features:

• “-” operator is introduced to subtract a subset from a set of search query results. For example,
  

  #unresolved -critical

  displays all unresolved issues excluding those with critical priority. Note that you shouldn’t put the hash mark before a lonely attribute value when you use the “-” operator, as in the example above.

• Sort order for “sort by”. Using the new asc and desc keywords, you can now specify whether to sort the list of found issues in ascending or descending order:
  

  priority: critical sort by: updated asc

See the list of other implemented features and fixed bugs, and download the latest EAP build (#54).