P4DTG overview

Helix Core, also referred to as Helix Core Server or Helix Server, includes a basic issue-tracking feature called jobs. Jobs can be associated with changelists, so that, for example, when you check in the files that fix a bug or implement a new feature, the associated job is closed.

P4DTG enables you to integrate Helix Serverjobs with external defect trackers so that changes to the status of defect tracker issues are replicated in Helix Server jobs and vice versa. For example, when a programmer checks code into Helix Server, thereby fixing a job, the fix information can be propagated to your defect tracker to notify QA engineers that the fix is ready for testing. The gateway enables you to specify how data is propagated between the two systems and provides a program that replicates data according to your specification.

Perforce offers a variety of plug-ins to support various defect trackers, including HP Quality Center, Bugzilla, JIRA, and Redmine. For an up-to-date list of supported defect trackers, consult the Perforce website. After you install a plug-in, be sure to read the product-specific documentation that is installed in the p4dtg/doc/ directory.

Important

Defect replication is one-to-one, meaning that for each new defect, one Helix Server job is created. You cannot configure P4DTG to map multiple jobs to a single defect, or multiple defects to a single job.

The following figure shows the flow of data between the defect tracker and Helix Server, which follows this sequence:

  1. QA or Support engineer enters a defect into the defect tracker.
  2. P4DTG replicates the defect in Helix Server as a job.
  3. A software engineer reads the Helix Server job and fixes the defect.
  4. The software engineer attached the job to a changelist containing the fixed files and checks in the changelist, fixing the job in Helix Server.
  5. P4DTG replicates the fix from Helix Server to the defect tracker.
  6. The QA or Support engineer sees the fix in the defect tracker.

The following diagram provides an overview of the gateway components and shows how data is transferred.

The data stored for each job is defined by the Perforce job specification, which can be modified by a user with administrative privileges. For details about modifying the job specification, refer to Helix Core Server Administrator Guide: Fundamentals.

By default, Helix Server does not maintain a history of changes to jobs. However, you can create a spec depot in which all changes to Helix Server specifications are archived. For details about spec depots, refer to Helix Core Server Administrator Guide: Fundamentals.

For each type of defect tracker (for example, HP Quality Center), a plug-in is required. The plug-in controls which defect tracker data is made available to the gateway. To propagate data between Helix Server and defect trackers, you map Helix Server job fields to defect tracker fields and specify how they are propagated.

To integrate your defect tracker with Helix Server, you must:

1. Install the gateway.

2. Add required fields to the Helix Server job specification.

3. Configure the gateway.

4. Start the replication engine.

For details, see Installing and configuring P4DTG.