Chris Bailey wrote a GitHub post receive hook for Tracker, using the API. It's a web service that you run on your own server, and it automatically updates stories in your project(s) based on commit comments. Check out his blog post here. Thanks for spending your Thanksgiving on this, Chris.

Let us know if you find this useful, we're definitely interested in making integration with other apps easier, and would love specific ideas and suggestions.

If you're new to Tracker, or are considering trying it out but haven't signed up yet, check out the Tracker 101 screencast. Thanks to Ian McFarland for recording it.

Nivi, from Venture Hacks, wrote a great article about why Pivotal Tracker is great for startups. It's worth reading even if you're already a fan of Tracker, and nails down the key ingredients to successful project management. Check it out:

http://venturehacks.com/articles/pivotal-tracker

We've released the first version of the Tracker API. It's a RESTful HTTP XML interface, uses a simple, token-based authentication mechanism, and allows you to query as well as update stories in your projects.

To get started with the API, read through the API Help page (it includes examples), and create a token on your Profile page.

We plan to enhance the API and add support for more operations and formats (including JSON) based on your feedback. Please let us know what you'd like to see added, either by email or via Satisfaction.

Next week is the first Wednesday of October, and that means another New York City Ruby Happy Hour, sponsored by Outside.in and Pivotal.

Where: Outside.in, 20 Jay St Suite 1019 (10th Fl), Brooklyn, NY
When: 7-9PM, Wednesday September 3rd
Who: If you’re a developer who uses Ruby and would like to meet some other Ruby folks, toss around ideas, or just have a few beers, we welcome you with open arms!

There will be pizza, beer and wii-based entertainment for everyone. Click here for more details, and to RSVP.

Pivotal Labs is teaming up with Outside.In in New York City to co-host the monthly Ruby Happy Hour, on the first Wednesday of every month, starting Sep 3.

There will be pizza, beer and wii-based entertainment for everyone. Apparently these happy hours are getting quite popular, so please RSVP either in the comments here, or on Outside.In's blog.

Where: Outside.in, 20 Jay St Suite 1019 (10th Fl), Brooklyn, NY
When: 7-9PM, Wednesday September 3rd
Who: If you’re a developer who uses Ruby and would like to meet some other Ruby folks, toss around ideas, or just have a few beers, we welcome you with open arms!

Outside.in (www.outside.in) is the web's leading platform for neighborhood news and conversation. Outside.in's technology dynamically maps web content to offline locations, which enables hyperlocal news discovery and sharing for consumers. The company also recently released GeoToolkit (www.outside.in/toolkit), which provides powerful tools for content creators of all sizes to optimize, promote and monetize their local content. Outside.in is supported by leading investors including Union Square Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners, Betaworks and the New York City Investment Fund. For more information, visit www.outside.in or the companyís blog at http://blog.outside.in.

Bruno Miranda posted a review of various agile project management tools including Mingle, VersionOne, TargetProcess, and Tracker. Check it out here.

We've let Bruno know that Tracker is actually under active development. One of the first new features that we'll be rolling out soon is a REST API, followed by various usability improvements that will make it easier to work with larger projects.

We're also looking for more suggestions on how to make Tracker better, especially in the area of higher level planning. Send your ideas to tracker@pivotallabs.com, or post them on Satisfaction.

And if you haven't tried it yet, the Tracker beta is fully open to the public, feel free to sign up.

We've decided to share Tracker with the agile community. Details of the launch have yet to be worked out, including an exact date, but please register here if you're interested in participating in the beta.

Stay tuned for more details!

Interesting

• The defer method in EventMachine allows you to spawn processes in Ruby, like this (from comment in eventmachine.rb):

  operation = proc {
      # perform a long-running operation here, such as a 
      # database query.
      # as usual, the last expression evaluated in the block will 
      #be the return value.
  }
  callback = proc {|result|
      # do something with result here, such as send it back 
      # to a network client.
  }
  EventMachine.defer( operation, callback )
  

• New art on the wall, check it out.

Help

• Can anyone recommend a good hosted wiki for casual use? Some of the suggestions so far include pbwiki, MediaWiki (perhaps a bit heavy weight for personal use), and Google Pages.

Interesting

• Ian Mcfarland talks to Geoffrey Grosenbach about Pivotal's agile culture in the May 17 episode of the Rails Podcast. Check it our here.
• This Wednesday's brown bag will be a round table discussion about "Tracker and the client: The real vs. the ideal". Lunch provided, as always.
• When something in Rails isn't working as expected, it may just be a bug that's been reported or fixed recently. Is a good idea to check the the Trac tickets at dev.rubyonrails.org.

Help

• Rails rcov seems to get stuck in an infinite loop on Leopard.
• Anyone know a good general practitioner within walking distance of the office?
• Confirm dialogs are tripping up Selenium (8.1) on one of our projects. Something related to focus, perhaps?
• What does Ní Hea mean?