The db:seed rake task in Rails is a nice addition and we use it a lot. The trouble is, you end up writing a lot of redundant code to check if records exist and stuff like that. Not very DRY, not very Rails.

Seed-Fu is a nice plugin that works very well, but it replaces the new db:seed rake task, and this solution is far more light-weight. You add another file to your db folder, seeds-helper.rb, and just require it at the top of seeds.rb.

We have just pushed a small update to the production servers. the fixes include:

• Internet Explorer 6,7 and 8 rendering issues on the Dashboard
• Internet Explorer 6,7 and 8 Gantt Chart didn't always show
• Create Milestone button on the Planning Tab didn't work

As always your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Floyd

Hi Guys,

This is a quick post to let you know that we have introduced a new payment option, PayPal!

You go through the same process as normal but select the PayPal option on the payment page, everything else is the same.

Cheers

Floyd Price

Code Spaces

If your new to the concept of Version Control check out this great article over at betterexplained.com

For all your graphic designers our there, this on is for you.

If like me you do a lot of your SVN work in the command line you will be familiar with the SVN status codes, you know when you do an svn status you see a list of files, some have been modified (M), some have been added (A), and other are well in a state of limbo (!).

This is a quick explanation of most of the codes and what it means to your the user if you see them

For those of you who use a nice GUI to manage your working copies, Look Away Now

We will be performing some updates to the Subversion Cluster on Sunday the 15th Nov 2009, the updates will cause a 30 minute outage from 10:00 (GMT) to 10:30 (GMT).

The update includes a Subversion Update which will bring all the SVN servers up to version 1.6.6

This change will not effect your working copies in any way, you will not need to update anything (unless you want to).

Please Contact Us if you have any queries about this?

Cheers,

Floyd Price
Code Spaces

As well as the super extensive API we offer you can also enable Work Item creation by email.

Getting Started

In the project setting tab you will see a check box labeled "Email In Work Items" once checked your project email address will become active.

Usage

Using the email address displayed in the project settings tab you can email work items directly in to your project, this is a great way to give your users mechanism to send in bugs.

You can also get notification messages when this happened if you have check the the appropriate options in your user profile

As always we are really keen to here your thoughts about this, so please Contact Us

We have had an API in Code Spaces for about a year now, but until now have neglected to tell a single soul... about 100 of you have spotted it and asked for details so finally here is a fancy guide.

We will be creating sample code for Ruby, C# and Java developers (and any other language you guys ask for) in the coming days.

Getting Started

In the Code Spaces admin section select the project you want to work with and select the API Settings tab.

You will notice a brief list of available functions and a check box to enable the API for this project.

Check the Enable API box and the functions you wish to use.

Now you have enabled the API you will need to use the API Key.

The Api is a simple RESTful service and uses the following URL conventions:

https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/[resource].xml

When you hit this URL you will be prompted for a username and password, the username is your API key and the password is blank.

Resources

List Work Items - Retrieve a list of work items.
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_items

Edit Work Items - Update existing work items.
URL (PUT) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_items/wi_id/

Create Work Items - Create a new work items.
URL (PUT) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_items/

Project Details - Retrieve information about the current project.
URL (PUT) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_items/

List Project Components - Retrieve a list of Project Components.
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/project

List Project Milestones - Retrieve a list of Project Milestones.
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/project_milestones

List Project Users - Retrieve a list of Project Users.
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/users

List Work Item Priorities - Retrieve a list of Work Item Priorities
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_item_priorities

List Work Item Statuses - Retrieve a list of Work Item Statuses
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_item_statuses

List Work Item Types - Retrieve a list of Work Item Types
URL (GET) : https://[your_account].codespaces.com/api/work_item_types

The logging libraries provided with Java 5 and above are pretty good, except they produce output that is almost unreadable. For example, consider the simplest example:

Logger logger = Logger.getLogger("PushServer");

logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "This is a sample message");

That produces the following log entry, on your screen and/or in a file:

Sep 28, 2009 9:30:48 PM javaloggersample.Main main
SEVERE: This is a sample message

Individually, that's OK, but 20 messages? Messy. 1000 messages? Pretty nasty. 100 threads each generating a stream of FINE messages? Yikes.

We have just publish the following updates to the Code Spaces application.

• Fixed Require SSL Support
  If you select “Applicaion Requires SSL” or “Login Requires SSL” in the Code Spaces admin section this will be reflected by the App.

• SVN Over SSL Option
  You have always been able to use svn over SSL, however you now have the option in the Code Spaces admin section to force SSL.

• Activity Timeline
  You will notice a new tab names “Activity Timeline”, this is a simple top down view of your project activity.

• Time Tracking
  We have moved the time tracking attributes to a tab inside the Work Item editor and added estimates and actual attributes (We will be creating Burn Rate and velocity graphs for the next release).

• Language Support
  We have added support for multiple languages (although we currently only have English) and will be adding more languages this week, including German, French and Spanish. Please let us know if you require any other languages.

That’s about all for now ;-)

As always let us know if you have any issues and/or comments…

Cheers,

Floyd Price
Code Spaces