helpmeict / News: Recent posts

So, the very last pre-release is now available. Many major bug fixes, cleanups and architecture changes, including a whole new theme engine.

This is setting the stage for v1.0, which will be available so very soon!

After a long wait, version 1 of HelpMeICT is now waiting in the wings and is expected to reach RC status in the next couple of weeks.

Version 1 will include the ability to add attachments to an issue and an asset DB per site, with the ability to link an asset to an issue. Various enhancements and bug fixes already in CVS will be rolled into the v1 release.

Additionally, the language and logic is being tweaked to suit FITS (Framework for ICT Technical Support), a distillation of ITIL for smaller organisations, carried out by Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency). This should help users of HelpMeICT comply with the FITS model, and through that ITIL. See http://www.becta.org.uk/fits for more information about FITS.

Much work on using Pear::DB has been done. The branch has been tested against MySQL and now needs further testing on other database backends.
Interested parties can get this version of HelpMeICT from the PearDB CVS branch. Please report any successes and problems via the mailing list.
Once testing is complete, this branch will be considered for merging into the main code prior to release 1.
Happy testing!

I'd like to welcome Arne to the HelpMeICT team. Following discussions of porting to MySQL, Arne volunteered to go a step further and add a database abstraction layer so HelpMeICT can be DB agnostic.

On that basis and the extra functionality developed in the MySQL port effort, I will be rewriting the roadmap (usingn the RFE section) to make this abstraction work and integration of the new functionality the target for release 1.0, with everything currently targetted for release 1 reassigned to 1.1 or later.

I know, not a lot by MPlayer standards, but for a helpdesk system pretty damn good! Especially when you consider the system is installed in organisations supporting tens of thousands of users on multiple sites, and there are companies selling installation and configuration of the solution (and therefore only download it once).
Basically I'm proud we've passed that 5k total. Download rates are growing, albeit slowly, and the new release is going to provide a further boost. 10k is just a short step...

With core developers focussed on completing their degrees while working on a funded project (also open source, although the project, http://ilp-dev.centralmanclc.com/ don't seem to have released any code :-( ), the release of 0.9 has been long delayed. Due, therefore, a fanfare of trumpets news posting cannot deliver, we're very pleased to be able to announce it's finally here!
Delays aside, this is a major release with much extra functionality:
- a vastly improved reporting system, providing both issue details and summary reports with CSV export
- improved issue searching, with restrictions by date range and almost all issue criteria
- a printer friendly stylesheet for nicer paper reports
- new unassigned issues can now be sent via email to an address decided by domain administrators
- emails that are sent out include all issue details
- the ability to hide site names, usernames, and comments from published issues. This is useful to prevent confidential information (names of users and sites) from being available to every domain in the knowledge base.
On behalf of all the developers and other contributors, enjoy! Any bugs or other problems let us know via the mailing list or via the SourceForge bug tracker.

After some delays, much other development and the project admin (me!) changing jobs and moving 200 miles in the process, 0.85 is finally released. Lots of little increases in functionality, including some i18n support, a CMS style front page and some mods to the knowledge base, issue handling, etc.. Nothing too scary, but we hope worth the upgrade!

Seems an odd headline for an open source project, but like OpenOffice.org (ok, slightly different scale!), we're pretty convinced that our solution is at least the equal of proprietary (and expensive ones). Because of this, we want to bring HelpMeICT to the attention of those seeking a helpdesk solution.

However, the absolute cost-effectiveness of HelpMeICT results in a zero marketing budget, so we're dependent on websites, relevant discussion lists and existing open source marketing solutions mentioning/promoting the solution.... read more

As we'd rather like to release a version 1, I'm declaring a feature freeze for versions up to version 1. Minor improvements (ones the developers say implementation is easily done in hours rather than days) may still get accepted; the same goes for the bits of code being submitted by random users (cheers guys!).

Version 0.9 has quite a list of features tagged to it, with 1.0 only having a few - this is intentional to ensure bugs are out and docs in when release 1 is announced. Some items may get retagged from 0.9 to 1.0 to keep the release schedule moving, but we'll try and avoid this if at all possible.

Is, well, released. A fair number of RFEs were tagged for this release, and most made it in. I'm particularly looking forward to email notifications that remind me which of 100 issues I'm associated with have been solved/modified...

This release is partly to generate some additional data for the reporting module, scheduled for 0.8. The most significant additional functionality is the ability for support agents to note the time spent resolving the problem.

The changelog (in the tarball) has more details on other fixes/additions.

A Global Preferences section has also been added to set some system wide controls previously hard-coded. The files will be added to Sourceforge once the changelog is finished (within the next 24 hours. In the meantime you can check it out from the CVS.

The roadmap is now being produced via RFE statuses. All currently open or reopened RFEs have been classified as a intended version number using the groups section. RFEs for functionality we had on paper (or in our heads) will be added shortly. This will allow interested parties to select a version number and see what is intended to be in that release (select RFE, select the version number in the Group's dropdown box, click Browse).... read more

v0.8 is about to be released, and with two new developers on the project, 0.9 may not be much further away.

For those wondering why this Sourceforge page seems to be suffering from inactivity, a recent analysis of the logfiles on the demo site (where a complete set of files including admin docs is kept) shows an average of two package downloads per day for the last month, with hits on the demo pages from 28 countries. I feel like a proud uncle; baby's growing up...

Version 0.71 is now available for download. It has some big bug fixes and some good enhancements. Take a look at the change log on the Home Page.

I have released a patch to the 0.7 version as the installation script was faulty (oops). The patch can be found on the download page under 0.7.1.

Just to let everyone know that I've been busy recently and so I haven't had the time I'd have liked to spend on the project. I have however done a few small bug fixes, and hopefully will be releasing 0.71 soon. I will be back to my usual productivity in the next two weeks.

Dave

The sources are now available in the CVS tree. All updates will be committed to the CVS from now on, and so for *really* up-to-date code, check out the repository.

0.7 is here - with knowledge base funcionality and some bug fixes.

Version 0.63 is now here, with some bug fixes / enhancements and improved documentation. This is the first release with and upgrade script for upgrading from 0.62 to 0.63.

0.62 is now here. It's got some bug fixes and some enhancements. Specifically CSV export in the summary pages. Take a look at the change log on the homepage.

We've now got the distribution in an acceptable single file state, with (albeit meagre) documentation. Take a look, there have been some nifty functionality ungrades.

Peer and developer support now available from the list - click on Lists above to subscribe.

A mailing list has been requested - should be available on or before 0900 GMT 030510

As our main man developer is now being inundated with emails for assistance, we're going to setup a mailing list and we'd ask all requests for help/enhancements be posted either to the list or via Sourceforge.

If you just want to know when new versions are out, register with Freshmeat (http://freshmeat.net) and subscribe to the project.

With email notification in place and many functional enhancements, 0.6 is here. Still to be implemented is the knowledge base and in depth reporting.