As some of you may already know, zTracker is an intuitive, easy to use bug and tracking system aiming in the management of software projects. However it can also be used to manage virtually any kind of project where a timeline and a group-effort of people is in order.

The "official" description (from zope.org) is: "zTracker is a multi-project issue and bug tracking system for the ZOPE framework, zTracker uses a SQL database for data storage and it aims to be the de-facto bug tracking system for zope applications. zTracker was coded entirely in Python and uses ZPT (Page Templates) for its templating system. This system has recently came out from its BETA testing and it is now recommended to deploy it in a production environment".

Some zTracker "trivia":

• zTracker was created by "speedbird" (me) the same author of zForum, I am a Systems Engineer from Sonora, Mexico that has lived and worked in the U.S. for several years now, currently residing in Las Vegas NV.


• zTracker Uses SQL for project/ticket back-end, currently MySQL is supported, but I am very close to have Postgres enabled too, (if I can just have these fulltext index searches right... )


• zTracker was coded (obviously) in Python, using ZPT (Zope Page Templates) for the UI - All the code was written using the VIM (gvim) text editor, on a MacBook Core Duo, 2Ghz, 1.5Mb RAM, using Parallels and Fusion to host Zope/MySQL, Developed originally in Zope 2.9.5 and MySQL 5.0 on a CentOS 4.4 Virtual Machine.


• zTracker requires CookieCrumbler, ZMySQLDA, (LocalFS might be required in future releases, to handle file attachments)


• zTracker was written in my spare time in a period of about 3 months


• A "commercial" release will follow, which will be provided as a hosting service, both versions (open source, commercial) will be compatible with the commercial version providing additional features.