Tracker also comes with trackbot, an IRC bot to assist with creating actions during meetings (or other times). Over time, I expect trackbot will evolve to learn other things, but for now it's as simple as possible.

Inviting trackbot

Trackbot will usually already be on your Working Group IRC channel. If it's not there, then you can try inviting it.

/invite trackbot <channelname>

You can invite trackbot on a different channel than the channel it usually watches for your group; if you do so, to associate the new channel to your group instance, use the following command:

trackbot, associate this channhel with <newchannelname>

Initialising trackbot and reloading its config

Trackbot will initialise itself (if it can) when it joins the channel.

* trackbot is initialising - loading cdf data...
* trackbot found 25 users.
<trackbot> Tracking ISSUEs and ACTIONs from 
      http://www.w3.org/2004/CDF/Group/track/

To manually initialise trackbot, say if a new user has been added to the database since trackbot last initialised, then issue the following command:

trackbot, init

Reload allows us to add new instances or change their configuration without having to restart the bot. This can only be called from Team &channels but affects config on all channels.

trackbot, reload

Getting trackbot status

Use the following command to see what users trackbot knows about:

<dino> trackbot, status
* trackbot knows about the following 25 users: David, Chris, 
   Lars-Gunnar, Lasse, Petri, Dan, Everyone, Vincent, Dean, Ian, 
   Jean-Claude, Antoine, Scott, Timur, Rhys, Peter, Dominique, 
   Vincent, Kevin, Mark, Dan, Ola, Robin, Jon, Alex

Generally, trackbot knows the given (first) names of each user within the Working Group or Task Force for which an instance has been created. The tracker database, ircnicks table can be updated to include the IRC nicknames of the group participants to facilitate the use of trackbot in assigned IRC channels.

Creating an ACTION

Trackbot looks for special markers that identify new actions.

<dino> ACTION: Dean to dance like a monkey - due next Friday
* trackbot noticed an ACTION. Trying to create it.
<trackbot> Created ACTION-171 - Dance like a monkey [on Dean - due 2005-07-08].

The basic format is:

ACTION: <user> to <title> - due <when>
or
ACTION: <user> to <title>

The “user” should uniquely identify the person you want to assign the action to. If there is a clash, trackbot will let you know and suggest a way to avoid the clash. The “title” is the short description of the action. You may put "unassigned" or "TBD" for action items that have not been assigned to someone yet.

If you specify a due date, then “when” is something that identifies that date. Most common formats are accepted. Here are some examples:

If you don't specify a due date, then the default of "1 week" is used.

The action format in regexp syntax is:

^ACTION\s*:?\s+([^:\s]+):? (to )?(.+?)$ - due (.+?)$

The syntax trackbot uses for new ACTIONs is also read by RRSAgent. However, trackbot ignores all RRSAgent output otherwise it would create duplicate ACTIONs when the meeting closes and RRSAgent provides a summary.

Creating an UNASSIGNED ACTION

<ted> ACTION: unassigned add new features to trackbot irc
documentation
* trackbot noticed an ACTION. Trying to create it.
<trackbot> Created ACTION-113 - Add new features to trackbot irc
documentation [on Unassigned - due 2007-12-24].

Getting status of an ACTION

You can query the status of any action within a specific instance, via the assigned channel, using:


ACTION-N?

E.g.,

<s-mon> ACTION-1?
*       trackbot getting information on ACTION-1
<trackbot>   ACTION-1 -- Dominique Hazaël-Massieux to draft a message to chairs re trackbot -- due 2007-03-27 -- CLOSED
<trackbot>   http://www.w3.org/Systems/track/actions/1

CLOSE and REOPEN an ACTION

The basic format is:

[close][reopen]ACTION-N


<s-mon> close ACTION-1
*       trackbot attempting to close ACTION-1.
<trackbot>   ACTION-1 Draft a message to chairs re trackbot closed

<s-mon> reopen ACTiON-1
*       trackbot attempting to re-open ACTION-1.
<trackbot>   ACTION-1 Draft a message to chairs re trackbot re-opened

You can also use the following command to close an action:

ACTION-N closed

Modifying the due date of an existing ACTION

ACTION-N due May 20 2008

Adding Comments to an Existing ACTION

<ted> trackbot, comment action-127 something
* trackbot attempting to add comment notes to ACTION-127.
<trackbot> ACTION-127 Test Action notes added

Alternately you can just start a line with "ACTION-127: " followed by your comment.

Starting a telcon

Trackbot can help start a teleconference. It invites RRSAgent and Zakim to the channel and initialises them with the teleconference information.

<dino> trackbot, start telcon
* trackbot is starting a teleconference
-!- RRSAgent [rrs-loggee@128.30.52.30] has joined #cdf
<RRSAgent> logging to http://www.w3.org/2005/07/14-cdf-irc
<trackbot> RRSAgent, make logs member
<RRSAgent> I have made the request, trackbot
-!- Zakim [rrs-bridgg@128.30.52.30] has joined #cdf
<trackbot> Zakim, this will be CDWG
<Zakim> ok, trackbot; I see IA_CDWG
<trackbot> Meeting: CDF WG Teleconference
<trackbot> Date: 14 July 2005

Issues management

You can inquiry the status of an issue with: ISSUE-N?.

You can create a new issue with: ISSUE: Life, Universe and Everything.

You can annotate an issue with: ISSUE-N: What was the question?.