What is the Issue Tracker?

The Issue Tracker is a vital component of Bolder Software. Employees, subcontractors, and customers should understand it's intent:

• Project Management - With many different projects occurring simultaneously, it is important for Bolder Software to be able to manage them effectively. The Issue Tracker gives a a quick snapshot of how many projects each client has in production, and which employee or subcontractor is actively contributing.

• Agile Software Development - We use the Issue Tracker to define various Sprints (or Releases), and assign a variety of Backlog items (or Issues) to each Sprint. Customers and Developers can then conduct periodic Scrum meetings from remote locations via phone conference while  viewing the Issue Tracker.

• How you get paid - The Issue Tracker is also how we create paychecks for employees, and pay bills to our subcontractors. As an employee or subcontractor, this tool is the most important part of how you receive timely and accurate payments.

• How we get paid - Bolder Software is primarily a service oriented company. As such, we invoice our customers based on the amount of billable hours we work. The Issue Tracker helps us to manage all of our employee and subcontractor hours so that we may create accurate invoices, and collect on them in a timely manner.

How do I add my Avatar to my Issue Tracker entries?

How do I find my Customer's project?

The Project viewer is the easiest way to navigate to Customer Projects, and can be found on the upper left menu of the Issue Tracker.

A tree is displayed. Clicking the "+" expands the tree while clicking on the text does not.

Although other hierarchies can exist, the general hierarchy of the tree is <Customer>\

<Program>\<Project>:

How do I find a Repository Map?

Most projects have an associated repository. In order to checkout code, you'll need a Repository Map. Navigate to the project and select the "Documents" link.

How can I get started with Git?

*NOTE* Before getting started with Git, please make sure an administrator has granted you access to the Bolder Software Git repository.

Git can run on many platforms. In this FAQ, we'll assume you're using the Windows TortoiseGit client to access the Bolder Software Git repository. You can get the latest version of TortoiseGit at:

https://tortoisegit.org/download/

Git is a very powerful and complex software solution. If you are new to revision control, or haven't used Git much in the past, you should spend time with other Bolder Software engineers learning and understanding how to use the tool.

How do I clone a repository?

How do I commit code changes?

With a loose integration to the Issue Tracker, certain expressions can be used during commits to associate the check-in to an existing Issue in the Issue Tracker. Those expressions are:

Refs  #<issue_number>  (References the comment to the issue)

Fixes #<issue_number>  (References the comment to the issue and moves the issue to the resolved state)

For instance, if you typed:

Fixes #1077

- Added case structure for error trapping

- Fixed icon, front panel and block diagram

- Added VI documentation

The result would be that Issue number 1077 would get moved to the resolved state, and a note would be added to the Issue with the above comments, along with the commit list generated by TortoiseSVN. The repository would contain the committed code, and your local workspace would be in sync with the repository.

To perform the check-in, follow these steps:

1. Save all your work and exit LabVIEW or the development environment you are working in.
2. Navigate to (but not into) your local workspace folder
3. Right click on the folder and select "Git Commit..."
4. When the dialog appears, enter your comments using the expression mentioned above, and click "OK"

Commits in Git don't actually commit to the master repository, only the local working copy. When you're ready to add your edits to the master repository, you can do a "Push":

How do I tag or label a version?

Once you've completed a Release (or an Agile Sprint), and it has been verified or approved, you can tag that version so that it can be checked out from the repository at a later time, and independent of the trunk. Tagging is a simple process, but attention to detail is important during this step since is is usually coupled to an Issue Tracker Release. Follow these steps to tag a version:

1. Locate - Navigate to (but not into) the local folder you wish to tag.
2. Create Tag - Right click on the folder and select TortoiseGit -> Create Tag... 
3. Tag Name - Enter the name of the tag
4. Release - Make sure to change the Project Version to "Closed" in the Issue Tracker. Also make sure to close all of the bugs related to the release.

Where should I build Executables and Installers?

Whether you're building in LabVIEW or TestStand, you should NEVER build in any of the National Instruments folders. This especially includes, but is not limited to <user.lib> and <instr.lib>. Building in these folders will yield catastrophic and unpredictable results.

Bolder Software has adopted a practice of using public folders for source code development  A good convention to follow here would be something like:

<Public>\<Customer>\LabVIEW_Builds\<Project>      

                          or      

<Public>\<Customer>\TestStand_Builds\<Project>

So for a project called "ULIP_SWAGR" at customer "Seakr" the following build path would be used on a Windows 7 platform:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Seakr\LabVIEW Builds\ULIP_SWAGR

You can add sub-folders for "Application" and "Installer" builds. Make sure to change your destination directory to something similar to the paths above.

How can I programmatically get the version from my software?

For Executables, there is a function built into LabVIEW that can get the version of you compiled executable.The function resides in:

<vi.lib>\platform\fileVersionInfo.llb\FileVersionInfo.vi

*NOTE*, this only works for compiled executables, and will not work in the LabVIEW development environment.

What security settings should I use on my development machine?

​What security concerns should I have regarding email?