How do you use story notes?

Can notes be added to a story via the Web interface?

I see in Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story  you can set
notes this way

  # Access note information
  $asset         = $asset->set_note($note);
  my $note       = $asset->get_note;
  my $notes_href = $asset->get_notes()

And what is a $notes_href?

You also only can view notes it seems when a story is on a
desk. How  
do other people use this function?

thank you
Dawn

On 21-Feb-08, at 12:19 PM, Dawn Buie wrote:

> Can notes be added to a story via the Web interface?


Yep. You just click the little yellow note at the top right
of any  
story in the story profile.


> You also only can view notes it seems when a story is
on a desk. How  
> do other people use this function?


Sometimes, we use it to indicate why there's a problem with
a story,  
or what we want people to do with it next.

However, notes need some love. Right now, it's hard to know
if there's  
a note for the story or not, as the visual indicator is
quite subtle.

Also, I was just about to pop a note off to the developers
list about  
a note-related request I had: what would folks think about
making the  
notes input available / visible in the story profile, so
that it could  
be used like a SVN commit message. That way I could add
version- 
specific comments about what change, or why, etc.

--
Phillip Smith,
Simplifier of Technology
Community Bandwidth
http://www.community
bandwidth.ca

WOW!

I just thought that was an icon for the trail function!!!

A new world opens to me.

thanks Phillip.

Dawn

On 22-Feb-08, at 9:45 AM, Phillip Smith wrote:

>
> On 21-Feb-08, at 12:19 PM, Dawn Buie wrote:
>
>> Can notes be added to a story via the Web
interface?
>
>
> Yep. You just click the little yellow note at the top
right of any  
> story in the story profile.
>
>
>> You also only can view notes it seems when a story
is on a desk.  
>> How do other people use this function?
>
>
> Sometimes, we use it to indicate why there's a problem
with a  
> story, or what we want people to do with it next.
>
> However, notes need some love. Right now, it's hard to
know if  
> there's a note for the story or not, as the visual
indicator is  
> quite subtle.
>
> Also, I was just about to pop a note off to the
developers list  
> about a note-related request I had: what would folks
think about  
> making the notes input available / visible in the story
profile, so  
> that it could be used like a SVN commit message. That
way I could  
> add version-specific comments about what change, or
why, etc.
>
> --
> Phillip Smith,
> Simplifier of Technology
> Community Bandwidth
> http://www.community
bandwidth.ca
>

On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 09:45:17AM -0500, Phillip Smith
wrote:
> 
> On 21-Feb-08, at 12:19 PM, Dawn Buie wrote:
> 
> >Can notes be added to a story via the Web
interface?
> 
> 
> Yep. You just click the little yellow note at the top
right of any  
> story in the story profile.
> 
> 
> >You also only can view notes it seems when a story
is on a desk. How  
> >do other people use this function?
> 
> 
> Sometimes, we use it to indicate why there's a problem
with a story,  
> or what we want people to do with it next.
> 
> However, notes need some love. Right now, it's hard to
know if there's  
> a note for the story or not, as the visual indicator is
quite subtle.
> 
> Also, I was just about to pop a note off to the
developers list about  
> a note-related request I had: what would folks think
about making the  
> notes input available / visible in the story profile,
so that it could  
> be used like a SVN commit message. That way I could add
version- 
> specific comments about what change, or why, etc.

Off the top of my head, it sounds like too many functions
attached to "the note" -- the note as it stands
right now is more like a whiteboard, with content coming and
going, having it exposed to general users (dangerous thing
to have "random people" able to rewrite your
history)...

The idea of a whole "commit message widget" like
any SCM commit message is a good one, though. Right now the
notes are tied to the *_instance (ie: story_instance,
template_instance), and are updated in-place for a
"Save", and version-controlled for a "Check
In". I'm not sure if one would want to have a possible
commit for ea. Save of the template/story/[whatever] (I'm
leaning this way), or for a Check In. I say for each
"Save" because those are the incremental changes
that are made to do the testing/tweaking before something is
Checked In. That may preclude using the *_instance table
right there, in which case a new table could be built for
this versioning info.

One thing that I would like to see for this that doesn't
seem to be available for Notes is access to this mechanism
through bric_soap.

-- 

Brad Harder,
Method Digital Logic
http://www.methodlogic.net

On 22-Feb-08, at 2:17 PM, bharder wrote:

>>
>> Also, I was just about to pop a note off to the
developers list about
>> a note-related request I had: what would folks
think about making the
>> notes input available / visible in the story
profile, so that it  
>> could
>> be used like a SVN commit message. That way I could
add version-
>> specific comments about what change, or why, etc.
>
> Off the top of my head, it sounds like too many
functions attached  
> to "the note" -- the note as it stands right
now is more like a  
> whiteboard, with content coming and going, having it
exposed to  
> general users (dangerous thing to have "random
people" able to  
> rewrite your history)...


But does anyone actually use Notes right now, in their
current form? I  
can't say that we've found them _that_ useful.


> The idea of a whole "commit message widget"
like any SCM commit  
> message is a good one, though. Right now the notes are
tied to the  
> *_instance (ie: story_instance, template_instance), and
are updated  
> in-place for a "Save", and version-controlled
for a "Check In". I'm  
> not sure if one would want to have a possible commit
for ea. Save of  
> the template/story/[whatever] (I'm leaning this way),
or for a Check  
> In. I say for each "Save" because those are
the incremental changes  
> that are made to do the testing/tweaking before
something is Checked  
> In. That may preclude using the *_instance table right
there, in  
> which case a new table could be built for this
versioning info.


I was thinking of something optional, e.g.: an input that
was visible  
to enter a commit message into, and if there was text in
there when  
you hit save, or check, it would save that note in the log
message.


> One thing that I would like to see for this that
doesn't seem to be  
> available for Notes is access to this mechanism through
bric_soap.


Agreed. Enhancement request?

--
Phillip Smith,
Simplifier of Technology
Community Bandwidth
http://www.community
bandwidth.ca

We used them initially, but found that it wasn't visible
enough for  
users and too cumbersome to make useful.

I would ideally like to see some sort of commit message
function that  
would appear in the search interface as one of the results
columns. To  
keep it simple, maybe just have an indicator of whether
there is a  
commit log and then if you hover that column entry you can
see a pop- 
up of the actual message much like the title attribute works
in an  
html weblink.

This would allow us to, for example, search all stories
published in  
the last 24 hours, and then see what was changed and why,
without  
having to manually checkout each individual story.

This would work well for workflow managers as well, as you
could then  
scan through commits and see if the previous person working
on a story  
had any problems or just needed more work done a particular
part of  
the story and marked them in the commit message for the next
person in  
the workflow to review.

I hope that makes sense.

--





On 25 Feb 2008, at 14:18, Phillip Smith wrote:

>
> On 22-Feb-08, at 2:17 PM, bharder wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Also, I was just about to pop a note off to the
developers list  
>>> about
>>> a note-related request I had: what would folks
think about making  
>>> the
>>> notes input available / visible in the story
profile, so that it  
>>> could
>>> be used like a SVN commit message. That way I
could add version-
>>> specific comments about what change, or why,
etc.
>>
>> Off the top of my head, it sounds like too many
functions attached  
>> to "the note" -- the note as it stands
right now is more like a  
>> whiteboard, with content coming and going, having
it exposed to  
>> general users (dangerous thing to have "random
people" able to  
>> rewrite your history)...
>
>
> But does anyone actually use Notes right now, in their
current form?  
> I can't say that we've found them _that_ useful.
>
>
>> The idea of a whole "commit message
widget" like any SCM commit  
>> message is a good one, though. Right now the notes
are tied to the  
>> *_instance (ie: story_instance, template_instance),
and are updated  
>> in-place for a "Save", and
version-controlled for a "Check In". I'm  
>> not sure if one would want to have a possible
commit for ea. Save  
>> of the template/story/[whatever] (I'm leaning this
way), or for a  
>> Check In. I say for each "Save" because
those are the incremental  
>> changes that are made to do the testing/tweaking
before something  
>> is Checked In. That may preclude using the
*_instance table right  
>> there, in which case a new table could be built for
this versioning  
>> info.
>
>
> I was thinking of something optional, e.g.: an input
that was  
> visible to enter a commit message into, and if there
was text in  
> there when you hit save, or check, it would save that
note in the  
> log message.
>
>
>> One thing that I would like to see for this that
doesn't seem to be  
>> available for Notes is access to this mechanism
through bric_soap.
>
>
> Agreed. Enhancement request?
>
> --
> Phillip Smith,
> Simplifier of Technology
> Community Bandwidth
> http://www.community
bandwidth.ca
>
>
>

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On Feb 25, 2008, at 9:18 AM, Phillip Smith wrote:
> But does anyone actually use Notes right now, in their
current form?  
> I can't say that we've found them _that_ useful.

We do for our app dev work.

-Matt

On Feb 21, 2008, at 09:19, Dawn Buie wrote:

> And what is a $notes_href?

Maps version number to its note.

> You also only can view notes it seems when a story is
on a desk. How  
> do other people use this function?

You can click the note icon in the top-right corner of the
profile, as  
Philip says.

Best,

David

On Feb 22, 2008, at 06:45, Phillip Smith wrote:

> Also, I was just about to pop a note off to the
developers list  
> about a note-related request I had: what would folks
think about  
> making the notes input available / visible in the story
profile, so  
> that it could be used like a SVN commit message. That
way I could  
> add version-specific comments about what change, or
why, etc.

Sure.

David

On Feb 22, 2008, at 11:17, bharder wrote:

> The idea of a whole "commit message widget"
like any SCM commit  
> message is a good one, though. Right now the notes are
tied to the  
> *_instance (ie: story_instance, template_instance), and
are updated  
> in-place for a "Save", and version-controlled
for a "Check In". I'm  
> not sure if one would want to have a possible commit
for ea. Save of  
> the template/story/[whatever] (I'm leaning this way),
or for a Check  
> In. I say for each "Save" because those are
the incremental changes  
> that are made to do the testing/tweaking before
something is Checked  
> In. That may preclude using the *_instance table right
there, in  
> which case a new table could be built for this
versioning info.

Easiest to stick with _instance for now, which is
per-checkin.

Best,

David