Eclipse MyLyn with BugZilla: Will the BugZilla installation need to be modified/configured?

Question

Hi, I'm interested in MyLyn. I'm using Eclipse Ganymede and I have access to a BugZilla installation for the project I'm working on.

I wonder if the BugZilla installation will have to be changed/configured in any way or if I'm able to use MyLyn against it "out of the box"?

Will I have to setup some special kind of MyLyn server or could I simply install it on the client only?

And if configuration of BugZilla or a a special MyLyn service is needed on a server. Is it a difficult setup and will it take a long time to do?

Answer 1

It should work out of the box, just give it a try and specify the BugZilla server your tasks come from.

Answer 2

I have it installed and I did not have to touch a thing in bugzilla, and it is an older version of bugzilla too (2.22.4)

Answer 3

There's no config required on Bugzilla. You simply point your Mylyn to a Bugzilla repository, and the Mylyn Bugzilla Connector does the work for you.

Also, there's no Mylyn server. It simply runs on the client. You collaborate with others by pointing to the same task/issue/bug repositories, and you can also use Mylyn to create your own personal task lists locally. (which you could then share with others by pushing them out to Bugzilla)

I don't recall any Mylyn-specific difficulty in config.

Answer 4

I set this up for my project, and it mostly works great.

The following issues crop up every now and then:

1. Bugzilla errors are not reported gracefully. For example, if a bug cannot be closed because a dependent bug is open, Bugzilla will not allow the change, but Mylyn simply reports a "server error".

2. Attaching the task context does not always work as expected. I came across this question searching for answers. The problems I'm finding are:

   a. if the context is already attached, it is "difficult" to attach an updated one. I don't know if this is because I must first mark the existing context as "obsolete" - I've tried that.

   b. Attaching the context is slow.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Summary: Mylyn will connect to Bugzilla 3.0 and requires no changes to Bugzilla. All you'll need is Mylyn (a client application) which is available as an Eclipse Plugin. Mylyn's Bugzilla Connector is one of the most stable and popular Mylyn Connectors.

Details: Mylyn is the leading ALM solution for the Eclipse ecosystem. It has recently become a top-level project on Eclipse. From a developer's point-of-view its primary purpose is to:

• Bring Tasks from different servers (Bugzilla, Trac, Mantis, etc.) into Eclipse (certified connectors list) (full connectors list)
• Provide a unified Task List for managing these tasks (video)
• Focus the user interface on only the files relevant to the current task (video)

While it provides many other great features these three points are among the most-cited reasons for using Mylyn (or Tasktop, which is the commercial Mylyn+).

To download Mylyn you can either download an Eclipse that includes Mylyn (e.g., the Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers) or you can use the update sites available on the Mylyn Download Page to install into your existing Eclipse. The update sites should be of the format: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/mylyn/update/e3.4. Alternatively you can download Tasktop Pro, a commercial product.

Once you've downloaded Mylyn it is easy to connect to Bugzilla. You'll need to:

1. Open the Task Repositories View.
2. Click on "Add Task Repository".
3. Select "Bugzilla" and press "Next".
4. Enter your repository settings, such as its URL and your credentials.
5. Open the Task List View.
6. Click on "New Query".
7. Use the dialog to create a query, which downloads your tasks from Bugzilla.

If you want more details about how to setup Mylyn to connect to Bugzilla try these tutorials on connecting to a repository and setting up your Task List.

David Shepherd, Tasktop Technologies
http://www.twitter.com/davidcshepherd