<title>Technical Notes</title>

<h2>What Is A "Technote"?</h2>

In Fossil, a "technical note" or "technote" (formerly called an "event")
is a special kind of [./wikitheory.wiki | wiki page]
that is associated with a point in time rather than having a page name.
Each technote causes a single entry to appear on the
[/timeline?y=e | Timeline Page].
Clicking on the timeline link will display the text of the technote.
The wiki content, the timeline entry text, the
time of the technote, and the timeline background color can all be edited.

As with check-ins, wiki, and tickets, all technotes automatically synchronize
to other repositories.  Hence, technotes can be viewed, created, and edited
off-line.  And the complete edit history for technotes is maintained
for auditing purposes.

Possible uses for technotes include:

  *  <b>Milestones</b>.  Project milestones, such as releases or beta-test
      cycles, can be recorded as technotes.  The timeline entry for the technote
      can be something simple like "Version 1.2.3" perhaps with a bright
      color background to draw attention to the entry and the wiki content
      can contain release notes, for example.

  *  <b>Blog Entries</b>.  Blog entries from developers describing the current
     state of a project, or rational for various design decisions, or
     roadmaps for future development, can be entered as technotes.

  *  <b>Process Checkpoints</b>.  For projects that have a formal process,
     technotes can be used to record the completion or the initiation of
     various process steps.  For example, a technote can be used to record
     the successful completion of a long-running test, perhaps with
     performance results and details of where the test was run and who
     ran it recorded in the wiki content.

  *  <b>News Articles</b>.  Significant occurrences in the lifecycle of
     a project can be recorded as news articles using technotes.  Perhaps the
     domain name of the canonical website for a project changes, or new
     server hardware is obtained.  Such happenings are appropriate for
     reporting as news.

  *  <b>Announcements</b>.  Changes to the composition of the development
     team or acquisition of new project sponsors can be communicated as
     announcements which can be implemented as technotes.

No project is required to use technotes.  But technotes can help many projects
stay better organized and provide a better historical record of the
development progress.

<h2>Viewing Technotes</h2>

Because technotes are considered a special kind of wiki,
users must have permission to read wiki in order read technotes.
Enable the "j" permission under the /Setup/Users menu in order
to give specific users or user classes the ability to view wiki
and technotes.

Technotes show up on the timeline.  Click on the hyperlink beside the
technote title to see the complete text.

<h2>Creating And Editing Technotes</h2>

There is a hyperlink under the /wikihelp menu that can be used to create
new technotes.  And there is a submenu hyperlink on technote displays for
editing existing technotes.

Users must have check-in privileges (permission "i") in order to
create or edit technotes.  In addition, users must have create-wiki
privilege (permission "f") to create new technotes and edit-wiki
privilege (permission "k") in order to edit existing technotes.

Technote content may be formatted as [/wiki_rules | Fossil wiki],
[/md_rules | Markdown], or a plain text.
