Fossil Forum
Post: Suggestions that might make contributing easier
Hello,
I am moving a project from git to Fossil. I have encountered various hurdles: 1. I could not find official documentation on how to import a repository into an online service. Eventually I found a forum post talking about the projwct override code and how the user in the repository to import needs to match the would-be host. Did I miss it? 2. I couldn't find what is the preferred method to contact the developers. 3. The sitemap displayed when pressing the top-left button with three horizontal lines is shorter when you press it from the user forum and other parts of the website, and does not include a link to the developer forum. 4. The developer forum required many steps to find. I'm on mobile, so I tapped on 'Forum' which leads me to this forum. To find the developer forum I tapped on the top-left button with three horizontal lines, and the 22nd line has the link. The lines don't have any space between them, possibly due to space constraints. It might be good to make the first level of the bullet points be emphasized, msybe with a bold font, or maybe even making a link to the developer forum part of the navigation bar. 5. I got an error when verifying my e-mail for the dev forum. I got an Bad Request response, that explained that the database was locked when trying to update subscribers. It worked after refreshing. I took a screenshot of the error. 6. I could not post to the developer forum. Tapping on New Thread sends me to a page that seems to be the default after login, possibly because I have no authorization to post new threads, but I was given no other feedback. 7. It was difficult to select text at the edges of this textbox on mobile. My phone has a simple silicon cover that makes it even harder. An increase of the margin when browsing on mobile is a good solution. 8. I couldn't find a way to easily add screenshots to this forum post. I'm on Android, which doesn't facilitate copy and pasting pictures. I'm not actually sure if that would work. I could upload the images and post the link here but I felt it was too much of hassle. Some buttons to style posts would have allowed me to pick the screenshot in the device.
I preferred to post here to get feedback before trying to open tickets for these.
I could not find official documentation on how to import a repository into an online service. Eventually I found a forum post talking about the project override code and how the user in the repository to import needs to match the would-be host. Did I miss it?
Chisel is the only online service I'm aware of that specifically offers free hosting for Fossil. Once you login, you can create a new repository or upload a repository. I think it's pretty simple.
Besides that, you can use any server you wish, and the setup is also fairly simple—this is linked from the home page, the fourth item. So far, I've only used it as a "stand-alone HTTP server", but it's notable that all the Fossil and SQLite sites use it in CGI mode.
I couldn't find what is the preferred method to contact the developers.
Assuming you mean the Fossil project itself, the very forum we are on now. (Disclaimer: I am not one of them.) If you mean in a more general sense, the forum feature might be the preferred method for your projects as well, but that's a policy decision you can make. Fossil certainly won't (and can't) stop you from using email threads, external forums, etc. It just might be a good idea to keep everything in-repo where cross-references are easy.
This forum (and SQLite's forum) are actually wholly independent Fossil repositories from the software ones. Presumably because they're high-traffic enough, that separating them makes sense to reduce the amount of data needed to clone or sync the software repositories, especially for people that are not interested in bringing along forum traffic with that.
The sitemap [..] does not include a link to the developer forum.
(Continued through points 4–6)
Assuming you mean the forum on the software repository, it's very rarely used. I believe the developers prefer writing here or the chatroom (not publicly accessible). It might be easiest to operate on the assumption that the former forum doesn't even exist; it's also locked down so the public cannot post to it, only those in the developer category.
I couldn't find a way to easily add screenshots to this forum post.
Technically there's a way, but the moderators don't like it (it dramatically increases the size of a post, and these are in a permanent record). Textual descriptions are usually enough. A link to an external host works too.
before trying to open tickets for these
The ticket system for the software repository is similarly locked down as its own forum is. That wasn't always true, but quite a lot of people assumed it was OK to open tickets for mere support requests instead of actual bugs. Non-developer bug reports go to this forum. The Fossil developers can make their judgment calls from there. Z 8
When I login to Chisel, the only option for new repos is Create Repository. When you click on it, the center of the screen changes and asks for a repo name, pass and so on, but it also displays the options you're talking about, in a smaller font, under Create Repository, next to My Public Repositories. Since the middle of the screen asks for relevant information and is more promient than the subtext on the navigation bar, I missed those options, thank you for that.
On the other hand when I tried to upload the repository, the server went down. If it was due to my attempts I apologize, but either way that also means your suggestion to set up my own server instead of hosting it on a public server is better.
Thanks for all the information.