Mailing List Archive: Request Tracker: Devel

Writing a GUI on top of RT

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rob.wib at gmail

Apr 27, 2009, 5:25 AM

Post #1 of 4 (577 views)
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Writing a GUI on top of RT

Greetings,

Where I work, the technical department use RT for handling support errands,
which works great. We would like, however, to let more non-technical
departments use RT for the same purpose. I feel however that the RT GUI is a
bit too technical for most of the people I have in mind, and we've been
thinking about writing our own GUI on top of it, a very easy and
non-technical one.

Have anyone done this before? Is it doable? From what I've understand, there
are several RT Perl Modules that can be used for this.

Any general tips?

Thanks,
Robert
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barnesaw at ucrwcu

Apr 27, 2009, 6:41 AM

Post #2 of 4 (547 views)
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Re: Writing a GUI on top of RT [In reply to]

Have you looked at the SelfService interface
(http://your.rt.server/SelfService)? It is much less cluttered and by
default lets an unprivileged user see only tickets they have opened or
(with one click) resolved tickets they have requested.

If end users are left unprivileged, they will be directed there by
default.

vxtrq wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Where I work, the technical department use RT for handling support errands,
> which works great. We would like, however, to let more non-technical
> departments use RT for the same purpose. I feel however that the RT GUI is a
> bit too technical for most of the people I have in mind, and we've been
> thinking about writing our own GUI on top of it, a very easy and
> non-technical one.
>
> Have anyone done this before? Is it doable? From what I've understand, there
> are several RT Perl Modules that can be used for this.
>
> Any general tips?
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>

--
Drew Barnes
Applications Analyst
Network Resources Department
Raymond Walters College
University of Cincinnati

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af at genevainformation

Apr 27, 2009, 7:42 AM

Post #3 of 4 (547 views)
Permalink

Re: Writing a GUI on top of RT [In reply to]

Hi,
we did some work on the UI (which unfortunately did not go the way I wanted
it to be ... but anyways); RT has a RESTful interface which makes it
relatively easy to integrate with whatever GUI you chose to design. Thinking
about it - even an Adobe-AIR-based Desktop client should be doable quickly
(wow, RT on the Desktop..). I've done a stub for OpenNMS and that was really
easy.

IMHO, with Ajax or AIR and REST you can quickly come up with a slicker user
experience. I have no experience with the Selfservice interface so far but
might be I find an hour tonight to install RT again and look at it.

best
Alex

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Drew Barnes <barnesaw[at]ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu>wrote:

> Have you looked at the SelfService interface
> (http://your.rt.server/SelfService)? It is much less cluttered and by
> default lets an unprivileged user see only tickets they have opened or
> (with one click) resolved tickets they have requested.
>
> If end users are left unprivileged, they will be directed there by
> default.
>
> vxtrq wrote:
> > Greetings,
> >
> > Where I work, the technical department use RT for handling support
> errands,
> > which works great. We would like, however, to let more non-technical
> > departments use RT for the same purpose. I feel however that the RT GUI
> is a
> > bit too technical for most of the people I have in mind, and we've been
> > thinking about writing our own GUI on top of it, a very easy and
> > non-technical one.
> >
> > Have anyone done this before? Is it doable? From what I've understand,
> there
> > are several RT Perl Modules that can be used for this.
> >
> > Any general tips?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Robert
> >
>
> --
> Drew Barnes
> Applications Analyst
> Network Resources Department
> Raymond Walters College
> University of Cincinnati
>
> _______________________________________________
> List info:
> http://lists.bestpractical.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rt-devel
>

Arnas.Kupsys at swisscom

Apr 28, 2009, 12:44 AM

Post #4 of 4 (537 views)
Permalink

Re: Writing a GUI on top of RT [In reply to]

Hello Drew and Alex,
writing a new interface to RT would be a significant effort, whatever tools you have. The approach we took was to leave the interface as its is just to change
the most used parts to adopt them to our needs. Once the user leaves the customized page, he ends up with a standard RT interface. Like this you are sure that none of RT functionality will be lost. RT interface is constructed from perl Mason components, you can override these components in order to remove some parts you do not need.
That's not difficult to do, and RT provides the mechanisms to do it safely. You have to familiarize yourself with Mason, but the basics are quick and easy to grasp.

Cheers,
Arnas

________________________________
From: rt-devel-bounces[at]lists.bestpractical.com [mailto:rt-devel-bounces[at]lists.bestpractical.com] On Behalf Of Alexander Finger
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 4:42 PM
To: Drew Barnes; rt-devel[at]lists.bestpractical.com
Subject: Re: [Rt-devel] Writing a GUI on top of RT

Hi,
we did some work on the UI (which unfortunately did not go the way I wanted it to be ... but anyways); RT has a RESTful interface which makes it relatively easy to integrate with whatever GUI you chose to design. Thinking about it - even an Adobe-AIR-based Desktop client should be doable quickly (wow, RT on the Desktop..). I've done a stub for OpenNMS and that was really easy.

IMHO, with Ajax or AIR and REST you can quickly come up with a slicker user experience. I have no experience with the Selfservice interface so far but might be I find an hour tonight to install RT again and look at it.

best
Alex

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Drew Barnes <barnesaw[at]ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu<mailto:barnesaw[at]ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu>> wrote:
Have you looked at the SelfService interface
(http://your.rt.server/SelfService)? It is much less cluttered and by
default lets an unprivileged user see only tickets they have opened or
(with one click) resolved tickets they have requested.

If end users are left unprivileged, they will be directed there by
default.

vxtrq wrote:
> Greetings,
>
> Where I work, the technical department use RT for handling support errands,
> which works great. We would like, however, to let more non-technical
> departments use RT for the same purpose. I feel however that the RT GUI is a
> bit too technical for most of the people I have in mind, and we've been
> thinking about writing our own GUI on top of it, a very easy and
> non-technical one.
>
> Have anyone done this before? Is it doable? From what I've understand, there
> are several RT Perl Modules that can be used for this.
>
> Any general tips?
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>

--
Drew Barnes
Applications Analyst
Network Resources Department
Raymond Walters College
University of Cincinnati

_______________________________________________
List info: http://lists.bestpractical.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rt-devel

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