Managing bugmail overload

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Posted by: stak
Tags: mozilla, bugmash
Posted on: 2012-04-01 03:13:42

Do you suffer from bugmail overload? Do you often declare bugmail bankruptcy? Have a set of bugmail filters so complex they break every time you change them? If so, this post might be for you!

A few months ago, I too was a chronic sufferer of bugmail overload. The best approaches to handling bugmail I could glean from my fellow Mozillians revolved around using Gmail, tuning email preferences in Bugzilla, and filtering heavily. The problem, however, is that I like getting bugmail. I like being able to watch a component and stay on top of what's going on. It's not so much a case of getting too much bugmail, as it is a case of not being able to process it fast enough.

So I decided to write a bugmail dashboard that would solve this problem. In a nutshell, it scrapes incoming bugmail and extracts all the relevant pieces of information, stuffing them into a MySQL database. A web-based front-end then displays that information in a very compact representation that allows me to view large volumes of bugmail efficiently. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like. And here is a random subset of features:

Presents information from multiple bugs on the screen simultaneously, so you don't have to wade through different emails to read everything.
Prioritizes bugs into columns; the leftmost column is most important and rightmost column is least important.
Marking stuff is as viewed is done on a per-bug basis (using XMLHttpRequest so it's nice and responsive).
Marking one bug as viewed moves the next bug up so you don't even have to move your mouse, kinda like Firefox's tab close buttons!
Interface is very mobile-friendly so you can easily process bugmail on your phone during idle moments.

I've been using and improving this dashboard for a couple of months now, and it's getting stable enough that others may want to try it out. I still consider it "alpha" quality though, largely because it's non-trivial to set up and get going. If you're interested in trying it out, grab the source from github.com/staktrace/bugmash and take a look at the README.html file for instructions on how to set it up.

If you have any feedback, please send me email and/or file bugs in github and/or submit pull requests!

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	Managing bugmail overload
Home Blog Snippets About All timestamps are based on your local time of:	Posted by: stak Tags: mozilla, bugmash Posted on: 2012-04-01 03:13:42 Do you suffer from bugmail overload? Do you often declare bugmail bankruptcy? Have a set of bugmail filters so complex they break every time you change them? If so, this post might be for you! A few months ago, I too was a chronic sufferer of bugmail overload. The best approaches to handling bugmail I could glean from my fellow Mozillians revolved around using Gmail, tuning email preferences in Bugzilla, and filtering heavily. The problem, however, is that I like getting bugmail. I like being able to watch a component and stay on top of what's going on. It's not so much a case of getting too much bugmail, as it is a case of not being able to process it fast enough. So I decided to write a bugmail dashboard that would solve this problem. In a nutshell, it scrapes incoming bugmail and extracts all the relevant pieces of information, stuffing them into a MySQL database. A web-based front-end then displays that information in a very compact representation that allows me to view large volumes of bugmail efficiently. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like. And here is a random subset of features: Presents information from multiple bugs on the screen simultaneously, so you don't have to wade through different emails to read everything. Prioritizes bugs into columns; the leftmost column is most important and rightmost column is least important. Marking stuff is as viewed is done on a per-bug basis (using XMLHttpRequest so it's nice and responsive). Marking one bug as viewed moves the next bug up so you don't even have to move your mouse, kinda like Firefox's tab close buttons! Interface is very mobile-friendly so you can easily process bugmail on your phone during idle moments. I've been using and improving this dashboard for a couple of months now, and it's getting stable enough that others may want to try it out. I still consider it "alpha" quality though, largely because it's non-trivial to set up and get going. If you're interested in trying it out, grab the source from github.com/staktrace/bugmash and take a look at the README.html file for instructions on how to set it up. If you have any feedback, please send me email and/or file bugs in github and/or submit pull requests! [ Add a new comment ]

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