Bugzilla's "Request System": do other issue tracking tools have it?

Question

I've used Bugzilla for many years and one of my favourite features is the "request system" (http://www.bugzilla.org/features/#rs), also known as "flags". The issue can flagged (?) to a user; the user can then accept the request (+) or deny it (-).

I am in the process of re-evaluating our issue tracking tools and I can't seem to find anything other than Bugzilla that has this feature.

So I am wondering:

• Does any other product offer similar functionality?
• And if not, then is there a way to mimic it (using labels or custom fields or something)?

Your advice is appreciated (FYI: I am currently leaning towards YouTrack).

---

Alex V. asked for more details about Bugzilla's request system functionality. Here's an example:

An arbitrary list of flags can be created in the admin interface. When editing an issue, they are listed in a row, here's an example:

Next, someone can set the flag and ask for a followup. The screen shot shows me (dcherk) setting the DJiNNInput flag for [email protected]:

Note that the same flag can be requested multiple times (not shown).

Later, [email protected] might act on the flag in some way and mark the request as accepted:

Alternatively, [email protected] might not be able to accept the request. In that case, he would deny it:

Needless to say, all these changes are tracked in the issue history, and can be searched and reported on.

Answer 1

FYI:

This is what we ended up doing in YouTrack:

Created two user[*] fields:

• Input Requesting (i.e. the person requesting input)
• Input Requested (i.e. the user whose input is needed)

The users can always set these fields manually, but we also added the following workflow rules to speed things up:

Rule 1, relates changes to the two field:

rule Input Requested 

when Input Requested.changed { 
  if (Input Requested.isEmpty) { 
    Input Requesting.clear; 
  } else { 
    Input Requesting.add(loggedInUser); 
  } 
}

Rule 2, closed issues do not need any more input:

rule Clear Input Requests When Issue Becomes Closed 

when State.becomes({Closed}) { 
  Input Requested.clear; 
  Input Requesting.clear; 
}

Rule 3, @mentioning sets the fields; replying clears the fields:

rule Input Requested via @mention 

when comments.added.isNotEmpty { 
  var separators = " `!#%^&*()=[]{}:;'\"\\|,<>/?\n\r\t"; 
  var mentionedUsers = ""; 

  var myComment = comments.added.first; 
  var originalText = myComment.text; 
  var text = " " + originalText.lowerCase + " "; 

  var username = ""; 
  var user = loggedInUser; 
  var index = -1; 

  index = text.indexOf("@", opts); 

  while (index != -1) { 
    index = index + 1; 
    username = ""; 

    var nextSymbol = text.substring(index, index + 1); 
    while (!separators.contains(nextSymbol, opts)) { 
      username = username + nextSymbol; 
      index = index + 1; 
      nextSymbol = text.substring(index, index + 1); 
    } 

    if (username.endsWith(".", opts)) { 
      username = username.substringOfLength(username.length - 1, opts); 
    } 

    debug("Extracted @username: |" + username + "|"); 
    if (username.isNotEmpty) { 
      user = project.getUser(username); 

      if (user != null && !mentionedUsers.contains("@" + user.login + ",", ignoreCase) && (user.isInGroup(permittedGroup.name) || permittedGroup == null || user == reporter) && (myComment.permittedGroup == null || user.isInGroup(myComment.permittedGroup.name))) { 

        if (Input Requesting.contains(user)) { 
          Input Requested.remove(loggedInUser); 
          if (Input Requested.isEmpty) { 
            Input Requesting.clear; 
          } 
        } else { 
          Input Requested.add(user); 
          Input Requesting.add(loggedInUser); 
        } 

        mentionedUsers = mentionedUsers + "@" + user.login + ","; 
      } 
    } 

    text = text.substringRelative("@" + username, pos: after); 
    index = text.indexOf("@", opts); 
  } 
}

Hope that helps anyone along the way.