[p4] Perforce integration with Mercury TestDirector

[Yariv Sheizaf]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the detailed answer.

The situation is my case is: The company has TestDirector,
they do not want to swap it by a powerful bug tracker (even it is
so limited) - but they want to integrate the TestDirector with version
control system.

As far as I understand, The bottom line of your answer is:
integration is possible,
requires VBScript programming for connection TestDirector with P4 jobs.
This is not a hard problem, even manual development is necessary.

I will try also to talk with Mercury personnel. They informed me that they
ship a new version with ClearCase integration next month - so why not P4
integration ?

Best Regards,

Yariv


Message: 5
From: Ryan Gribble <gribble at tabq.com.au>
To: "'perforce-user at perforce.com'" <perforce-user at perforce.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 12:05:16 +1000
Subject: [p4] Perforce integration with Mercury TestDirector

Hi Yariv,

We are using Perforce integrated with DevTrack as our defect tracking
system, but we also have testing teams using Mercury TestDirector.

Testdirector's Defect Manager does have the ability to run vbscript on
various events happening like when the bug page loads, when the bug is
submitted etc.

What we are actually doing is allowing our testdirector users to raise a bug
from within test director, but then our vbscript actually inserts the defect
into devtrack (using the DevTrack LinkPlus COM module) and not Testdirector
itself.

When the defect page loads, we are also automatically filling out various
combo boxes like product, component, severity etc with the DevTrack values
(by querying the Devtrack SQL database).

I have also developed applications in VB6 and .NET (C# and VB.NET) that
automate our release process and poll perforce for details (via a label) and
so on.

It would be very possible to have vbscript which executes perforce commands
and allows the TestDirector defect tracker to automatically create a
perforce job when a new defect is created and things like that.  It could
also pick up the files and jobs through a label, if this suits your perforce
methodology.

Actually detecting when something changes in perforce might be more tricky
however, and you may need to have a stand-alone service that can replicate
between the two (as per devtrack/perforce integration).

Personally im not too impressed with the "Defect Manager" in TestDirector,
or I should say, it isnt suitable or powerful enough for what we need from a
defect tracker.  But you do have options for customisation though, so all is
not lost!

TestDirector is becoming a popular product and im sure Mercury would be
interested in having Perforce Integration.  You may find they could even
give you a hand, although my experience seems to indicate they are only
willing to do things like that when a significatn portion of their user base
wants the change, or if you pay them.

Keep us posted if you decide to go ahead with the integration.

Ryan Gribble
Software Quality Engineering
TAB Queensland Limited
Brisbane, Australia
Phone: +617 3637 1431
gribble at tabq.com.au <mailto:gribble at tabq.com.au>

Yariv Sheizaf
    SCM VP
Direct Solution Ltd.

mailto:yariv at direct-solution.com
Tel. +972-(0)9-7466661
Fax. +972-(0)9-7466477
Cel. +972-(0)54-560022