I have just spent many hours of my life I will never get back trying to get the Trac bug tracking software set up. This software is truly junk.
It’s not just that I can’t get it work, it’s that it is written as best it can to make users not be able to use it. Clearly some people get it to work, and I imagine this takes many man hours to accomplish.
I’m even using Trac auto installed by Dreamhost, so I don’t even have to think about unpacking things or anything like that, I should have a Trac that’s just ready to go, but no, there’s no such thing.
First thing I want to do is login with my first username and password, right. Well I don’t have a first username and password. And when I click the login link, it says something like this Trac is not set up for user authentication.
Now, isn’t that just screaming to people “don’t use me!”? I mean, isn’t that the first thing everyone would want to do? Log in? Create users? But not with Trac, you have to prove to them that you’re worthy of using Trac. You do this by following many complex methods of manually creating a password file and then using various other methods of begging Trac to use it. This means configuring Apache and Trac, and if you’re lucky, various other Trac plugins.
And if you thought getting Trac to work was hard, just wait till you try to install a plugin! That’s another thing they’ve royally messed up.
I never got it to work. I never got a single user or password and never saw a login page. I also never saw a place where I might enter a bug, and remember, that was the whole purpose of doing this.
At this point I can say without doubt that Trac is not for you. It’s not for anyone. Don’t encourage them and don’t use the software. When you can log in (through the web) immediately after installing and create users, then maybe. But right now, it’s just junk. Trac is just a joke all the Trac developers play on their victims, don’t fall for it.
2 Comments
Craig
Tell me about it, I’ve spent 2 days on it now and I’ve finally decided to cut my losses (time) and give up.
The truly hilarious thing about Trac is that their Wiki start page is littered with comments about how “easy” it is to use. I’m assuming they mean AFTER the hair-pulling rage that is involved with the installation.
I got the basic package installed yesterday and after after a few complications I thought to myself the installation left a little to be desired. Little did I know, that was just the beginning.
All I wanted to do was have a form based log-in system and enable user registrations. Apparently I have to install a plug-in and then take the rest of the week off to configure it.
Seriously, I develop PHP applications for a living and C++ in my spare time and this P-O-S software still confuses the hell out of me. If you’re aiming a project at people who write software for a living and the installation process is confusing them – there’s something seriously wrong with your approach.
Trac is literally THE least user-friendly piece of software I have ever encountered. Hell, it’s not even developer-friendly.
Matt
What’s interesting about Trac is that if they were really interested in making good software there are so many obvious little improvements they could make. The fact that they don’t shows that they are either unwilling or incapable.