Chapter 2. Installation

Installation uses the standard Joomla install method.

[Important]Important

Do NOT uninstall Macrotone Issue Tracker before updating it! Uninstalling will remove all of your data, including all of your configuration information!

[Note]Note

The language (translation) files are NOT installed automatically. You can download and install them from our language download page. Do note that you will have to install both the component and the language packages for the component to work.

Macrotone Consulting Ltd only produces the English language files. All other languages are contributed freely by third parties. If you spot an error if the first instance please go to the translation project page to find the contact information of the translator. Abandoned languages will show the maintainer being our staff member "geoffc". In this case we will try to help you but our knowledge of foreign languages is very limited; if you would like to fix the language package you will need to create a Transifex account and to volunteer to take over the translation project for that language.

Download the Latest Version

Once you have downloaded the latest version, you are ready to install the component.

Step 1 of 3 - Install the Component:  Login to your Joomla Administrative centre and in the Extensions menu, click on the Browse button and navigate to the file location where you downloaded the file.  Click on the file and then click on the Install/Uninstall button.

Figure 2.1. Initial Installation Screen.

Initial installation screen.

Step 2 of 3 - Once the Component is installed, the following screen will be displayed.

Figure 2.2. After installation screen

After installation screen.

[Note]Note

Depending upon the Joomla version and the version of Issue Tracker being installed, there may be several messages indicating that some database privileges are not available (granted). In these situations depending upon the specific grants not provided, may result in some lose of functionality, mainly in the provision of the sample data.

[Important]Important

Release 1.4.2 introduced some checks upon the granted database privileges to the Joomla connection user. i.e. The user configured when the Joomla system was installed to make the database connection. If the user has not been granted the permissions to create database views, trigger and/or procedures the installation will still succeed. Formally installation would generate an error.

The consequence of these database privileges being missing is that some loss of functionality is inevitable.

Inability to create database views means that the finder search plug-in has to use a longer and more complicated join syntax. The plug-in will still function albeit perhaps slightly slower.

Inability to create database triggers means that the back up audit tracking will not be available. There is a first line audit tracking facility coded in the component itself. The back up facility is intended to capture changes that occur outside of the component.

Inability to create database procedure means that the sample data together with its installation and uninstall tasks will not be available.

The enhanced auditing feature requires database triggers to function. Absence of the correct database privileges to create database triggers means that this feature will be unavailable.

Release 1.6.5 introduces the ability to send SMS messages. In the release this is considered a proof of concept, more than a feature that will have wide spread usage. This is mainly due to the limited amount of testing that is possible. We do not have the ability (or knowledge) of all of the different SMS providers, and certainly cannot test SMS reception in the various countries of the world. We anticipate there will be changes in future versions as we receive feed back from our users.

Step 3 of 3 - Configure the Component: Navigate to the Component: Issue Tracker Control Page. Choose the Options icon ion the top right hand side of the page, and set as required. Settings are described in the documentation..

Using Live Update

Macrotone Issue Tracker integrates the Akeeba Live Update system. Log in to your site's backend and go to Components, Macrotone Issue Tracker. Look towards the middle of the page. There should be an icon which reads "Update found" when there is a new version available. Click on it and then click on "Update now". The new version will be downloaded and installed automatically for you. In case this doesn't work, or if "Live Update not supported" is displayed below the icon, please make sure that your host's firewall allows TCP/IP communications over port 80 and 443 to macrotoneconsulting.co.uk. If your host requests IP addresses instead of domain names, please ask them to trace them from the server as they are multicast hostnames, which means that they resolve to a different IP depending on where in the world you are.

Upgrade Notes

Release 1.3.0 introduced a structuring of the Project table to become a fully nested table. The update will convert an existing pre-1.3.0 release projects table into the correct form, however it is important to check your installation carefully. In particular the 'order' of the projects and any sub-projects that may be present.

The default 'Unspecified Project' which formally had a id value of one (1) was changed to have an id value of ten (10). This should not create any problems since the first assigned project created on your site should have a starting id of eleven (11). All references from the issues and people tables to the 'Unspecified Project' will also have been changed. In some circumstances it may assume an id of nine (9) but this is not the norm.

The upgrade also introduces a 'Root' project which used the id of one (1). This is the parent of all first level projects, but will not be visible in the project displays as it is filtered out. [It will be visible if the table data is inspected using a tool such as phpadmin.] This is a deliberate design decision and enables the correct operation of the nested table.

Prior to release 1.4 the Latest Issues Modules was a separate download and installable item. Hence it was necessary to upgrade the version of the latest issues module (version 1.3.0 required) to reflect the project table change introduced with the component version 1.3.0 of issue tracker. Since release 1.4 the module has been included as standard and is automatically upgraded when the component is upgraded.