Installation instructions result in non-working plugin

[Robert Inder]

I am evaluating the TracJsGanttPlugin in Trac 0.12, in a test project with the following Plugins installed:

• timingandestimationplugin-1.2.1b-py2.4.egg
• TracMasterTickets-3.0.2-py2.4.egg
• TracSubTicketsPlugin-0.1.0-py2.6.egg

To these I have added Trac_jsGantt-0.9-py2.4.egg following the "single project" installation instructions in the TracPlugins page at edgewall.org. I then enabled the plugin, and copied the [trac-jsgantt] configuration section into into the project's trac.ini file. I also ran trac-admin .... upgrade, which said that the database was up to date.

At this point, including [[TracJSGanttChart]] in a Wiki page produces a box containing the error message userstart is not a custom ticket field.

I tried adding "userstart" and "userfinish" to [ticket-custom], but this only changed the error message to unsupported operand type(s) for *: 'NoneType' and 'float'

What's gone wrong? None of the other plugins mention/define "userstart" and "userfinish", so I don't understand where they should be coming from...

[falkb]

What did you add for "userstart" and "userfinish" to ticket-custom? I have

userfinish = text
userfinish.label = Planned Finish
userfinish.order = 4
userfinish.value = 
userstart = text
userstart.label = Planned Start
userstart.order = 4
userstart.value = 

[Ryan J Ollos]

The first error you mention is documented and a patch provided in #9445. The second error you mention is documented and some potential fixes described in #9441.

[anonymous]

Replying to falkb:

What did you add for "userstart" and "userfinish" to ticket-custom?

I just put them in as

userfinish = text
userfinish.label = Planned Finish
userstart = text
userstart.label = Planned Start

But my worry is that I did that by guesswork: I didn't see anything in the installation instructions to say I had to do anything at all about them. Am I supposed to declare these for myself? Because when I do, I just get a different error. Or is the fact that they are missing a sign that something has gone wrong?

[Ryan J Ollos]

You need to create custom ticket fields and then specify these fields in the trac-jsgantt section. For example,

[ticket-custom]
userfinish = text
userfinish.label = Planned Finish
userstart = text
userstart.label = Planned Start

[trac-jsgantt]
fields.start = userstart
fields.finish = userfinish

See ​t:TracTicketsCustomFields and TracJsGanttPlugin#Installation for more details. The installation instructions could probably be improved.

Howevever, #9441 will be a blocker for you unless you also define the estimate field, or make a change to the source code.

[Ryan J Ollos]

I made some updates to TracJsGanttPlugin#Installation in response to the issues encountered in this ticket. Feedback welcome and appreciated.

[Chris Nelson]

Replying to rjollos:

I made some updates to TracJsGanttPlugin#Installation in response to the issues encountered in this ticket. Feedback welcome and appreciated.

I appreciate the effort but prefer that those fields be optional. I've reversed your edits to the installation instructions.

[Chris Nelson]

I believe my fix for #9445 fixed this. Please let me know.

[anonymous]

Replying to ChrisNelson:

Replying to rjollos:

I made some updates to TracJsGanttPlugin#Installation in response to the issues encountered in this ticket. Feedback welcome and appreciated.

I didn't see the modified instructions, so I can't comment on them.

But doesn't this...

I appreciate the effort but prefer that those fields be optional. I've reversed your edits to the installation instructions.

suggest you prefer to leave the instructions broken?

If the user has to create the fields to get a meaningful chart, tell them!

[Ryan J Ollos]

Replying to anonymous:

suggest you prefer to leave the instructions broken?

If the user has to create the fields to get a meaningful chart, tell them!

I think what Chris is saying is that the plugin is now functional without defining those fields. It would provide little utility IMO without defining those fields though.

I think the documentation could be improved a bit to be more clear about which fields are needed to get specific functionality. I might be able to make some contributions to that, but TracJsGanttPlugin is a wiki page so anyone can go ahead and try to improve it.

[anonymous]

OK - just read the above - "i fixed it, oh no you didnt" but as they are three years ago and i've just installed the plugin on top of the bitnami AWS AMI for Trac and had exactly the same issues.

No mention of the fields but they are mandatory - trying to display a TRAC gantt on the wiki page just errors saying field not defined - for this same error for parents, userstart, userend and complete. Guess it would also have occurred had i not had some other plugins already.

Point is the example trac.ini entries only show the fields that the gantt plugin expects and doesnt provide a full working trac.ini example if you have the suggested plugins installed.

I also found a user that posted on stack overflow that gave up with TRAC altogether because they werent able to get the gantt plugin working - simply make it clearer guys.