ASTRES / News: Recent posts

v3.8 wasn't published because it contents only corrections of minor bugs and no new functionality. The new version 3.9 is a major version :

• correction of some bugs, mainly in the contract order forms and timesheets,
• new function : record little task done and tag these tasks with hashtags,
• stats are available on contract order forms (repartition of charges on each supporter) and on opened contract order forms list,
• about tickets (asks of work), several workflows can be defined in relation with the type of ticket. Yet, these workflows must have the same first and last status.
• custom fields are available on tasks done, internal actions, contract order forms and purpose synthesis histories,
• The customer module (/STO/ directory) can manage not only one site but several sites where the customers are.

In the last version (3.7), there is a little bug about the icons of the main menu. When you are in the "Material" part of Astres, the plugin displaying icônes of the main menu and skin of the contextual menu are not activated. To reactivate the icons and contextual menu, you have to comment or delete these lines in the /Astres/Common/Config.php file, lines 3370 to 3381 :

/Support/MaterialFollow' => array(
'initMatFileDeliveryMatMenuPlugin' => array(
'Scripts' => array( $CONF_ROOT_DIRECTORY."Common/JSPrototype/prototype.js", $CONF_ROOT_DIRECTORY."Plugins/PHPMatFileDeliveryPlugin/JSMatFileDeliveryMatMenuPlugin.js"
),
'Params' => array($CONF_LANG),
'Css' => array( 'screen' => array($CONF_ROOT_DIRECTORY."Plugins/PHPMatFileDeliveryPlugin/PHPMatFileDeliveryPluginStyles.css")
)
)
),... read more

Yesterday, a new version of Astres was published (v3.7). If you already used an previous version of Astres (v3.4), you can to migrate to the v3.7 thanks to this manual process discribed in the wiki : https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/astres/index.php?title=En_migration

This new version is a minor version but is composed of 2 previous versions, not published up to now.

The version 3.5 is a major version :

• allow to manage contracts (with access rights for users). To a contract, you can create purchase orders with units of work (workload for somes tasks). Each unit of work can be splitted in some parts and affected to supporters. Each week, each affected supporter can impute his work on these units of work,
• the "Explanation" field of a ticket can be configure to be a block of text ("mediumtext" Mysql type of field) instead of to be a simple text field of 255 characters,
• a project can be desactivated.... read more

This new version is a major version :

• copy rules : mechanism to allow to auto copy some field's values of a sub-ticket to it's parent, or to the parent ticket to its childs. The type of copy is an operator : add, sub, concat, override, if empty... You can define your own operetors
• possibility to create web services. In this version, just one web service is available : RSS,
• possibility to create mail services. You can send a command to execute by Astres in a mail, formated in XML. 2 mail services are available : create a vacation in the planning and create a new ticket,
• actions of the supporters are logged in a table (like in the GLPI software). The logs feed the plugin "RSS",
• the tickets search engine has a new criteria : you can filter affected tickets to some supporters,
• in the first stat item, you can do the same (generate a stat about tickets affected to some supporters),
• you can use a blank media duplicating a similar blank media already used,
• when you want to use a blank media, the displayed page of blank media is the page containing used blank media and at least one available blank media,
• when you search a person to put in copy, the search is done in the Customers and SupportMembers tables too (not only in the LDAP),
• the RHD profil can force to close a ticket,
• a purpose can be linked to a ticket (as source).... read more

This new version is not a major version but improve some functions :

• you can put in copy some persons for a comment (dialog),
• if a supporter is in vacation (and with an entry in the planning) and a customer or another supporter send him a comment, the backup of this supporter is put in copy of this comment. And if the backup isn't here too, a mailing-list can be put in copy of the comment,
• the supporter in charge with a ticket at the first level can be notified when a supporter in charge with a ticket at the third level enter information in the history of his ticket,
• a supporter in charge with a ticket can tag an information entered in the history as an alert or risk
• instead of 1 deadline on a ticket, there are 2 : the wished deadline by the author of the ticket and the deadline given by the supporter in charge with the ticket.... read more

Mediawiki and Gallery are available in the "Hosted Apps" of the project Astres. The content of the old wiki has been transfered in Mediawiki et many screenshot of Astres have been uploaded in Gallery.

ASTRESFullInstall.zip is a new packaging of Astres v3.2 containing :

• Astres v3.2 source code
• documentation (DCP, MEX, MU) with a new procedure to install easily Astres from scratch on Windows 2000/XP/Vista with screeshots (in french only) written by the first contributor jr94 (thanks!)
• WampServer2 installer

So, now, it should be easy to install and try Astres on Windows :)

The v3.1 wasn't published because of some bugs and the v3.2 was developped quickly after. So here you are the change log : better system of custom fields. Possibility of restrictions to display custom fields only for some levels and types of requests. Moreover, the custom fields can be displayed at the top, the middle and the bottom of the request form. And a custom field can take its value from values of a table of the database (ex : GMAOSites table). Better features for the planning of requests (ex : possibility to delete several time slots in one operation). New system of reminder (notification by e-mail) : possibility to create periodical or not alerts. These alerts can be linked to objects of Astres (requests, documents, purposes...). This function requires to configure the cron on the server! Possibility to create a request from an action (AMOA action). 2 new sessions managers (in database and in files). Managment of the url rewritting of the STO (Customer) and Support modules. All titles of notifications are prefixed by the name of the function which send the e-mail. Correction of some bugs.... read more

The new version of Astres (v3.0) is available.

The development of the new version of Astres v3.0 is started since 1 week. The main new functions are :

• the search engine of the knowledge base will can search in a wiki based on MediaWiki with or without the API of mediaWiki
• a new type of page of delivery
• a summary page of the all opened works of the logged user (tickets, interna actions, constructor calls, purposes...)
• a system to plan the tickets hour by hour in a calendar for each support member or by day for the all team of supporters
• a new tab in the panel at the bottom of the ticket to link URL with a title and a description
• possibility to add custom fields on the ticket template (system like in Mantis)
• better system to reaffect a ticket to a supporter (patch the pb with the opened sub-level tickets and old dialogs)... read more

In the package Astres v2.5, I forgot the /Astres/Plugins/ directory (thanks to Armen to notify me about this mistake). So I added yesterday in the package v2.5 a .zip with just this directory. I created too a new package v2.5-1 containing Astres v2.5 + plugins.

The new version 2.5 of Astres is available (with documentation).

2 patches are available to correct 2 pbs found in Astres_v2.4.zip (2007-11-15)
The new release of Astres v2.4 published today 2007-12-06 (with the same name) and available in the "Download" section contains the 2 patches.

Today, the wiki page, in the "english section", about how to install and configure Astres is finished (short translation of the MEX document in french, available in "Download"). So you have all information to install your own version of Astres to fit your needs :)...

Today, the wiki of Astres is created, in french and english. You can find info about requirements to install and configure Astres and about features.

Today, the conception manual (technical details about architecture and source code of ASTRES), the exploitation manual (to configure ASTRES) and the user manual are available.

Today, the source code of Astres is published. Doc comes soon (conception, exploitation manual and user manual)