launchpad development
Jussi Schultink
Launchpad: ~jussi01
Usual location: Finland
Role: Member of the Ubuntu IRC Council.
Edited Notes
Jussi mostly uses Launchpad in three contexts: in his role as an Ubuntu IRC Council member, as a member of the Ubuntu Studio development team and his role as an advocate between Kubuntu and the Quassell IRC client project. From time to time he also reports bugs against Kubuntu.
Working with bug reports for Kubuntu and Ubuntu Studio
Jussi complained that the user interface was confusing and that he found it difficult to search on anything other than bugs or packages. It turned out that Jussi always starts his Launchpad usage by visiting the Ubuntu overview page. To Jussi, that is Launchpad.
INSERT SCREEN SHOT OF UBUNTU PAGE IN LP
He complained that there was no general search and that it is difficult for him to find anything that is neither a package nor a bug. When shown the general search in the footer of the page he was surprised and also pleased to discover that there is an easier route to the information he wants. He would like to see the search box at the top of the page as well as at the bottom. He said that "the footer is a horrible horrible location" for the search box and that he wants it "to be where every other website has its search box".
His usual route to find people was somewhat convuluted:
- click his own user name to visit his profile page
- from there, visit the teams that he's a member of and that he suspects the other person may also be a member of
- scroll through that team's membership list.
He also mentioned that he's not even that interested in universal search of Launchpad but a universal search of Ubuntu. He doesn't really care about anything that's not related to Ubuntu somehow.
Apport
He likes the apport bug reporting tool but wishes it would offer him more flexibility. In particular, he'd like to choose what information apport sends in a bug report. As an example, when reporting a Kubuntu bug he will often speak to Jonathan Riddell (Kubuntu developer) about the bug. During those conversations, Riddell often specifies which files Jussi should attach to his bug report. Jussi would be happy if apport allowed him to attach those files.
He also wonders how it's possible for someone to file a bug about Ubuntu community issues, as they're not covered by apport -- not being software -- but now the Ubuntu bug reporting process does not involve the Launchpad web interface. For example, if someone wanted to file a bug against the Ubuntu IRC Council, how would they do that? It's not clear and having to read through a wiki page is not what he considers to be clear.
Advocating between Quassell and Kubuntu
Jussi has been involved in the Quassell irc client since its 0.1 release and says that he has been one of the main drivers of its evolution. From early on, he advocated that it should be in Kubuntu and has worked to bring the Kubuntu and Quassell devs together.
As part of his involvement in the Quassell project, he has used Bugzilla to report bugs associated with that project. Not a huge fan of Bugzilla, but didn't go into details.
Member of the IRC Council
He mostly uses teams, when doing work related to the Ubuntu IRC Council. One specific request he had was to help the IRC Council in the way that they plan to organise themselves. Soon the IRC Council will have two types of team in Launchpad: a core channel operators team, the membership of which will be people who have channel operator status on all Ubuntu IRC channels. Members of the other type of team will be operators of one channel only.
They're writing a bot that will query Launchpad to see if any people in the current channel are a member of a team that would give them operator status in that channel.
Setting up the teams seems like a lot of work, so they'd rather keep the existing team they have and assign its members either a tag or new status. Right now, there's an "Administrator" status so they wonder if they could set up arbitary statuses, such as "#ubuntu-uk chan op".
Other
He likes PPAs and believes they've been getting better lately -- cites signed packages as an improvement. He would like a GUI that produces the configuration text files necessary for the package.
He would like to see tagging of bug comments. In particular, he'd like to be able to tag a particular comment with "Workaround" or similar, which would then be easily visible from the top of the bug report page. So, anyone visiting the bug report could jump immediately to the workaround for that bug. Similarly, he'd like to see tags for attachments.
He'd like to see the screen capture tool in KDE offer him the option to effortlessly attach the screen shot to a particular bug in Launchpad.
He complains that speed is a real problem (he uses Launchpad in Finland).
Raw Notes
Jussi user testing
Two main places he uses LP: one is in IRC council stuff (managing the teams that stem from that) and is fairly actively involved in Kubuntu and Ubuntu Studio. Reporting bugs.
Likes to just go to the devel channel and annoy people. A bit more automation on pulling info would be nice. The new apport thing is okay but he'd like more automation. Choosability of what apport sends would be good. Often he'll talk to Riddell and Riddell will specify what to attach but it's not possible to do that early on.
Has been involved in bug triage. Is on the bug squad but has had so much on his plate recenlty that he hasn't done much lately. Has reported bugs in KDE's Bugzilla. Quassell -- been using since 0.1 and has helped its evolution, has been involved, advocated it for Kubunty, worked on getting a rel. between Kubuntu devs and Quassell devs. Not a huge fan of Bugzilla, but didn't go into details.
He can't find users in LP. Search for someone's name and it comes up with a package with a similar name, or a bug. To find someone, he'll look up their team if he thinks they're in it, as he can't find the people.
So, he'll often click his own name, go to a team he's in and see if the person he wants is in the team.
Anything that's not a package or a bug is hard to find,.
Uses search box on the Ubuntu home page, doesn't care about what else is in LP.
Wants an Ubuntu specific search but one that searches everything.
The current universal search box location in the footer is a horrible horrible location. He wants the search box to be where every other website has its search box.
Got very frustrated. How do you efficiently file a community bug -- e.g. something against the irc council etc. No way to find the URL at all, not findable, unless reads all the way through the wiki page.
Also uses code hosting in capacity as a member of Ubuntu Studio dev.,
Has a PPA. Been really good, getting better.
One thing he'd really like to have, one of the real pains is that most of the scripts for u/ling stuff require the setup of a text file. If there was some way to just put LP details into a GUI or whatever and then pull everything else it needs that'd be helpful.
He'd like to see integration of screen capture with LP: so, take screenshot and the tool has an "Upload to bug xxxx" button.
Tagging of comments: would be great to tag comments, such as as a "Workaround" or something similar. Highlight important and useful comments. Be great to see an icon above the fold that said there was a workaround on the bug. Maybe even a new bug status.
Attachments could be tagged too.
So damn slow. Speed is a real problem.
Search box must be a the top of the page as well as at the bottom.
Team memberships: want to use the membership expiry feature. Will have the IRC council, core operators and then channel-specific operators. What they're planning to do is create teams for the core and then each channel. Lots of work! Would like an etc field in a team's membership that enables them to give arbitary information such as which channel that person is an op of. Those tags should then be available to the API. Ability to add tags to a person's membership of a team. Or arbitary statuses -- not just approved, admin but also whatever the team decides.
