Thoughts on gnatsweb

Thoughts on gnatsweb

[Tom Tromey]

I've been using gnatsweb for a while now, maybe a couple of years, and
I have noticed a few things which I find annoying.  I hesitate to call
them bugs exactly, because they don't actually get in the way of my
use of gnatsweb.  (And, FWIW, in general I like gnatsweb quite a bit.)


One thing that is annoying is that sometimes gnatsweb forgets that I
can log in to a database.  For instance, on the gcc web pages there
are links like this:

    http://gcc.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?user=guest&password=guest&database=gcc&cmd=login

This is supposed to take you to the gcc gnats page.

Well, this is annoying because if I already have a gnats account for
this database, and I'm already logged in, following this link will log
me in again as `guest'.  I think either links like this shouldn't log
me in again, or it should be possible to specify a default
user/password pair (perhaps in the site config file) and then simply
leave them out of the URL in the link.


My next problem with gnatsweb is that I tend to like to go to a
particular query result page and do my work from there.  Unfortunately
this is not entirely doable because there is no way to create a new PR
from the query page.  In fact, if you save a link to your stored query
(so you can jump directly to it without intervening steps) then you
have no way to go from the query page back to the main page or
anyplace else.

I think this problem could be solved using some kind of navigation bar
that would show up even on the query page.  I think it would be
sufficient to have buttons going to `main page', `query', and
`advanced query'.


A while back I reported some problems involving using Gnatsweb on two
databases on the same host at the same time.  I haven't tried this
lately, so I don't know if these problems are fixed.  I imagine that I
sent them to bug-gnats@gnu.org.  Does anybody know if anything has
changed here?

Tom

Re: Thoughts on gnatsweb

[Gerald Pfeifer]

First of all, sorry for the delay in replying!

On 10 Feb 2001, Tom Tromey wrote:
> One thing that is annoying is that sometimes gnatsweb forgets that I
> can log in to a database.  For instance, on the gcc web pages there
> are links like this:
>
>     http://gcc.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?user=guest&password=guest&database=gcc&cmd=login
>
> This is supposed to take you to the gcc gnats page.
>
> Well, this is annoying because if I already have a gnats account for
> this database, and I'm already logged in, following this link will log
> me in again as `guest'.  I think either links like this shouldn't log
> me in again, or it should be possible to specify a default
> user/password pair (perhaps in the site config file) and then simply
> leave them out of the URL in the link.

Yes, that might make sense:

 1. If there is cached (via cookies) user info, use that and directly
    go to the main menu.

 1. Else if there is no cached user info and a default user set in the
    server config, use that default user.

 2. Else present the login screen.


Any volunteers to implement that?!? Patches highly welcome!

Gerald
-- 
Gerald "Jerry" pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/~pfeifer/

Re: Thoughts on gnatsweb

[Gerald Pfeifer]

On 10 Feb 2001, Tom Tromey wrote:
> My next problem with gnatsweb is that I tend to like to go to a
> particular query result page and do my work from there.  Unfortunately
> this is not entirely doable because there is no way to create a new PR
> from the query page.  In fact, if you save a link to your stored query
> (so you can jump directly to it without intervening steps) then you
> have no way to go from the query page back to the main page or
> anyplace else.

Good point.

> I think this problem could be solved using some kind of navigation bar
> that would show up even on the query page.  I think it would be
> sufficient to have buttons going to `main page', `query', and
> `advanced query'.

Yes, having something like that seems to make a lot of sense. Are you
sufficiently annoyed/motivated to supply a patch? :-)

> A while back I reported some problems involving using Gnatsweb on two
> databases on the same host at the same time.  I haven't tried this
> lately, so I don't know if these problems are fixed.  I imagine that I
> sent them to bug-gnats@gnu.org.  Does anybody know if anything has
> changed here?

Dunno, unfortunately. One problem with "your" setup on
gcc.gnu.org/sources.redhat.com is that we're using an older version of
gnatsweb with patches backported by me from the current CVS version, as
GNATS 3.x and 4.x are not compatible and we're running 3.x on that box.

As soon as 4.x is approaching release quality, I'd suggest to upgrade
the GNATS installation to (then) current CVS sources which will allow
us to use a current version of gnatsweb as well -- thus also providing
an excellent test platform for gnatsweb itself.

Gerald
-- 
Gerald "Jerry" pfeifer@dbai.tuwien.ac.at http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/~pfeifer/

Re: Thoughts on gnatsweb

[Yngve Svendsen]

At 08:17 20.03.2001 +0100, Gerald Pfeifer wrote:
> > I think this problem could be solved using some kind of navigation bar
> > that would show up even on the query page.  I think it would be
> > sufficient to have buttons going to `main page', `query', and
> > `advanced query'.
>
>Yes, having something like that seems to make a lot of sense. Are you
>sufficiently annoyed/motivated to supply a patch? :-)

Isn't this what the callback functionality in Gnatsweb is meant for? I seem 
to remember that the example gnatsweb-site-sente.pl shipping with Gnats 
3.113 adds some kind of button bars. Mind you, that is just from looking at 
the source code, I haven't tried it.

But I would agree that button bars should be implemented in the main 
Gnatsweb script, since they would be useful for all sites that I could 
think of.

> > A while back I reported some problems involving using Gnatsweb on two
> > databases on the same host at the same time.  I haven't tried this
> > lately, so I don't know if these problems are fixed.  I imagine that I
> > sent them to bug-gnats@gnu.org.  Does anybody know if anything has
> > changed here?

Hm. I can't see any posting related to that in the archives?

- Yngve