Introduction to the use of Components and Labels within the JIRA PDI space
Due to the high volume of issues and feature requests, we needed a way to group these cases more fine graned.
One concept to help here is to work with components like Step, Job entry, Spoon / User Interface, Database etc.
For some of the components we need sub-components, especially for Steps, Job entries and Databases. To be as flexible as possible and not maintain this list when new steps are released, we decided to use labels.
The convention for labels is e.g. using the internal ID of a step, job entry or database since this ID is unique and also the same when you are working with a localized version. More detailed conventions are given below.
This makes working with JIRA more easier. Here is an example: When you are facing an issue with the Modified Java Script Value step you want to search for existing cases that might help you. This is for some steps easier than for others since the cases are filed often with different descriptions for this step, you will find: Javascript Step, JS step, java script step and other variants and misspellings. With the search for the label ScriptValueMod (the internal ID of this step) you can find all labeled cases for the Modified Java Script Value step. Just try it with a search for the ScriptValueMod label!
When we are developing or fixing something, this is also useful, since we can find related cases more easily and may be fix them together.
The Heatmap for labels is also a nice tool to find popular issues and help product management to set priorities.
We are also planning to link a help button on each step to the documentation and we can link to all cases for a specific step.
Status as of September 2011: The labeling of cases is a continues ongoing (we have actually around 2000 cases).
You can help in this effort when you file new cases with the correct Component and Label or when you search for some cases and see there are not labeled.
Here is a list of Components followed by some conventions:
Conventions for Steps, Job Entries and Databases
Select the appropriate component (Step, Job Entry or Databases) and select the internal ID from the following location:
- Pentaho Data Integration Steps or Pentaho Data Integration Job Entries and use the ID column. (Most job entris are upper case and steps are mixed case.)
- It is also possible to use the latest internal definition file and look for the appropriate id section: kettle-steps.xml / kettle-job-entries.xml
- For most plugins: List of Available Pentaho Data Integration Plug-Ins and use the Unique-ID column
- For databases, use the latest internal definition file and look for the appropriate id section: kettle-database-types.xml (All database IDs are upper case.)
Upper and lower case: The labels are (unfortuneatly) case sensitiv when you look at them at the heatmap or enter them and get suggestions. When you search for them, they are case insensitve. Due to this, we ask you to use the exact internal ID and upper / lower case spelling (copy / past is best)
Conventions for 3rd party Applications (e.g. ERP, CRM), Information Quality and other 3rd party vendor labels
Select the appropriate component and use the most common name, e.g. OpenERP. When there are spaces in the name, use underscores between the words, e.g. Human_Inference
Conventions for Concepts / Solutions
All other Components
Normally you do not need a label for the other components. They are like the parts of Pentaho Data Integration like Spoon, Pan etc. and do not need further fine graned grouping.