I’ve been searching for some good ASP. Net based open source bug tracking systems. I came across a system named Gemini which is a beautifully designed system with pretty good features in it. Although it is good and full of features but its free version is limited to only 3 users with 180 days period. After that we have to purchase a license for it. So after some research I found out some good ASP.Net Bug Tracking Systems which are open source and free to use.

BugTrack

BugTrack looks like an application taken out of somebody’s book. It’s very minimal but it can support the basic issue tracking needs of a small team(i mean really small team).

Features:

• Search by Project, Assigned Person, Priority, Status
• Sorting by any of the columns (Bug Name, Project, Priority, Assigned Person, Status)
• Login Authentication
• Administration of Users
• Administration of Priorities
• Administration of Projects
• Administration of Statuses

Microsoft Issue Tracker Starter Kit

The Issue Tracker Starter Kit application looks nicer than BugTrack(I guess because of the UI design) but it still in the same line of non-prodcution ready application(because it’s a sample). It is not something that you should consider for production environment unless you modify it to the extent that it’s not the same software anymore after you completely overhaul the application.

Features:

Create Projects

• Define project name and description
• Create issue categories and custom fields
• Add project members and permissions

Create and Track Issues

• Assign issue owners and add notes
• Track issue status, related issues and history
• Query and sort issues using a boolean search

BugTracker.NET

BugTracker.NET to me seems to be most stable of the 4 I have reviewed. The project has been around for 5 years now with 141 commits to their CVS, 51 releases and only 36 bugs open out of the 517 which existed. This shows that the app is in active development(99.99 percent activity) even if there is only 1 developer. The feature list is whopping crazy too. There are 2 features I like most with this application. First is it’s inclusion of a screen capture utility that enables you to cpature the screen, add anotations and post it as bug in just a few clicks. The second feature i love is the fact that it can integrate with your Subversion repository so that you can associate file revision checkins with bugs. This feature is pretty important to us since we use Subversion here. There’s alot of nice features integrated with application and I have just handpicked a couple of them and listed them below.

Features:

• Suitable for tracking helpdesk customer support tickets as well as software bugs.
• Sending and receiving emails is integrated with the tracker, so that the email thread about a bug is tracked WITH the bug.
• Allows incoming emails to be recorded as bugs. So, for example, an email from your customer could automatically be turned into an bug/ticket in the tracker.
• Allows you to attach files and screenshots to bugs. There is even a custom screen capture utility that lets you take a screenshot, annotate it, and post it as a bug with just a few clicks. (inspired by Fogbugz)
• Custom bug lists, filtered and sorted the way you want, with the columns that you want.
• Define your own statuses and workflow, or use with the simple one it installs with.
• You can display bugs of a certain priority and/or status in a different color, so that the most important items grab your attention.

To view all the features of BugTracker.NET please go to it’s official website.

BugTracker.NET is one sweet application that can make you drool after installing and using it.

BugNET

To me, this is a really really promising application. It has all the intagibles that makes a great issue tracking and project management software suceed(just look at the screenshots and see for yourself). It has an active community and a large user base with an active developer(Davin Dubeau) trying to make great software even greater. The only thing i wish this project has is great documentation(which is acceptable because theres only 1 man running the show) but that lost is offset by the great forum support that they have in place on their official web site but the official site loads pretty slow too(considering that I have dual T1’s) which is probably a hosting issue.

Below is a list of features available in BugNET

Project Management

• Multiple project support.
• Multiple categories / versions can be associated with a project.
• Time tracking allows reporting by issue.
• Change log shows which issues have been completed for a version.
• Issue reporting by email parsing.
• Project Summary shows overview of issues by project.
• Ability to custom sort and search issues via filters.
• Roadmap shows issue progress and to be completed by project.
• Reports show project metrics.

Issue Management

• Details view of issues.
• Detailed issue history of changes.
• Attach files to issues.
• Ability to post comments against an issue.
• Issue linking.
• Change notification monitoring.
• Custom fields allow custom attributes to be added to issues.

Security

• Forms or Windows (Active Directory / SAM) authentication.
• Custom user / roles / permission system configurable per project.

If you ask me right now which application i would choose between BugTracker.NET and BugNET(yes, i’m excluding the kiddie softwares) I’d probably choose BugTracker.NET for now because of it’s current featureset. BugNET would be a close second because of the future I see for this application. I think BugNET would be ready for primetime in the next few months something that I hope that happens really soon.