3. Usage

3.1. Overview

The intended use for the Ticket Generator is to generate a set of tickets to keep track of progress when deploying a Member Node. The included template and value files contain the information required for generating these tickets.

By creating new template and value files, the Ticket Generator can be used for generating tickets for any purpose.

To insert a value from the value file into the template, insert a string on the form {{level1.level2}}. For instance, in the value file for MN deployments, there is Content section with a VolumeGB value that is set to 20. Inserting the string {{Content.VolumeGB}} in the template will cause the value 20 to appear in that location.

The Ticket Generator requires an API key for the account under which the the tickets will be generated.

3.2. Check the install

Check that the utility has been correctly installed. Open a command prompt on Windows or a shell on Linux and type:

ticketgen

The following help message should be returned:

Usage: C:\Python2f\Scripts\ticketgen-script.py <Redmine API Access Key> <Story #> <MN TAG>

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --redmine-url=REDMINE_URL
                        URL of Redmine server
  --project=REDMINE_PROJECT
                        Redmine project under which tickets will be created
  --tracker=REDMINE_TRACKER
                        Redmine tracker to use for tickets
  --version=REDMINE_VERSION
                        Version of Redmine server (API changes between some
                        versions)
  --template-path=TICKET_TEMPLATE_PATH
                        Path to YAML ticket template file
  --verbose

3.3. Get your Redmine API Access Key

The API Access Key is essentially a username and password combined into a single string of hexadecimal numbers.

• Log into Redmine.
• Select “My account”
• In the default layout, locate the “My account” panel on the right.
• Click Show under API Access Key.
• Copy the Access Key to the clipboard.

3.4. Create the deployment tickets

In Redmine, locate the story to which the deployment tickets should be added and note its number. The default project is Member Nodes (ID = mns). If the story is in another project, look at the URL to find its ID. There will be a section, /projects/abc/, where abc is the ID. Use --project=ID to set the project.

Decide on a tag for the MN. 3-5 upper case characters is best.

Then run the following command:

ticketgen <Your Redmine API Access Key> <Story #> <MN Tag>

E.g.:

ticketgen 345a908f3450235a49348fa293f84a5a0a4598af 1234 MYMN2

A series of “Starting HTTPS Connection” messages should be displayed, followed by a “All tickets successfully created” message.

3.5. Editing the template

The template is a yaml file. Under Windows, it resides at C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages\d1_ticket_generator\mn_deployment_template.yaml.

4. Troubleshooting

Error:

redmine.exceptions.ValidationError: Resource already exists

Ensure that the Redmine API Access Key is correct.

The project (set with --project) is the ID for the project, not the name that is displayed in the drop down box in Redmine. To find the ID, open a page in the project and look at the URL. There will be a section, /projects/abc/, where abc is the project ID.