Fund-a-bug

A Trac plugin that will let users click on a bug or feature and pledge money to it using microPledge. This is a way to provide a bounty for the developer.

Bug tracking systems need a really easy way for users to put money on a bug. Sometimes you just needs that bug fixed and you’re willing to give the developer an incentive. If other people need the same bug fixed, they can pledge to it as well.

But you don’t want to have to pay unless the bug gets fixed. And with microPledge, the developer knows that money is held in trust for him when he’s finished fixing it.

So let’s get the best of both worlds: a Trac plugin that uses the microPledge API.

Details

The Trac plugin will:

• Present a “Fund this bug” link on every Trac ticket
• When clicked the first time, it must create a microPledge project to match that bug. This can be done with a simple wget using the new microPledge API. Then let the user pledge.
• If the microPledge project already exists just show that project’s page and drop the user into the pledge box.

The Trac admin (whoever installs this plugin) will have to enter his microPledge apiKey during plugin setup. This will make him the the creator of each bug project as far as microPledge is concerned.

Plugin internals

• The Trac plugin will present a link on every ticket by adjusting the ticket template and the ticket summary template.
• Clicking that link will invoke the plugin’s RequestHandler.
• The link will have to contain (in the URL parameters) details of the ticket to use when creating the project.
• Once the plugin gets invoked by the click, it is simple to create the bug’s project using the microPledge API. Since Trac plugins are in python, the plugin will just import urllib2 to call the API. Set the project tags to represent the software that Trac is tracking.
• Don’t worry, the microPledge API is secure and over an https channel and you won’t reveal your API key.

Installation instructions will be provided on the downloads page for this project.

Once you’ve installed it, you just have to collect some users who want bugs fixed! But I’ll bet you wouldn’t have installed it in the first place if you didn’t have some.