MantisBT

Mantis Bug Tracker (MantisBT) is a mature, open‑source issue‑tracking platform written primarily in PHP and designed to run on any LAMP or LEMP stack. From a developer’s perspective, the core value lies in its extensible API surface, robust plugin ecosystem, and fine‑grained role‑based access control. MantisBT exposes a set of PHP API files (core/*_api.php) that allow programmatic manipulation of issues, projects, users, and workflows. The API is versioned through the application’s internal mantis_version table, enabling smooth upgrades without breaking custom integrations.

• Language & Frameworks: Pure PHP (≥7.4) with a lightweight MVC‑like structure; no heavy framework dependencies, which keeps the codebase approachable for developers familiar with vanilla PHP.
• Database: Supports MySQL ≥5.5, PostgreSQL ≥9.2, and other SQL backends via PDO. The schema is normalized with separate tables for projects, issues, users, and custom fields, allowing efficient joins and indexes.
• Web Server: Apache or IIS are officially supported; the application can also run under Nginx with PHP‑FPM.
• Templating: Uses a simple PHP templating engine (templates/ directory) with optional modern themes.
• Security: Implements CSRF protection, password hashing (bcrypt), and configurable LDAP/AD authentication.

• RESTful API: While not a full REST service out of the box, MantisBT can be exposed via its XML‑RPC interface and custom plugin endpoints.
• Event Hooks: core/event.php allows plugins to subscribe to events such as EVENT_BUG_CREATED, enabling custom workflows or external notifications.
• Custom Fields & Relationships: Admins can define arbitrary fields, relationships, and workflows; these are persisted in dedicated tables (mantis_custom_field_table, mantis_relationships).
• Search & Reporting: Advanced query language (status = 'open' AND priority >= 3) and export to CSV/JSON.
• Webhooks: Plugins can register webhooks for issue updates, facilitating integration with CI/CD pipelines or chat ops.

MantisBT is a self‑hosted application that can be deployed on bare metal, VMs, or containers.

• Containerization: Official Docker images are available; the image expects a bind mount for /var/www/html and a database service.
• Scalability: Horizontal scaling is achieved via shared file storage for attachments (e.g., NFS or S3-compatible object stores) and a load‑balanced web tier. The database layer can be scaled using read replicas for reporting workloads.
• High Availability: By separating the web and database layers, you can run active‑passive or multi‑node setups with minimal configuration changes.

• Plugin System: A robust plugin API (core/plugin.php) lets developers add new UI panels, modify workflows, or integrate with external services. The plugin registry is auto‑discovered during bootstrap.
• API Extensions: Custom PHP classes can be autoloaded; developers often create wrappers around the core APIs to build internal tools or third‑party services.
• Webhooks & Callbacks: Plugins can register callbacks for issue lifecycle events, enabling real‑time integrations (e.g., Slack notifications or Jira sync).
• Internationalization: Language packs are simple PHP arrays, making it trivial to add new locales or override strings.

• Configuration: The config/config_inc.php file is a single source of truth for all runtime settings. It supports environment variables and JSON/YAML overrides, which aligns with modern DevOps practices.
• Documentation: The administration guide is comprehensive and available in multiple formats (PDF, HTML). Community forums and Gitter channels provide rapid support.
• Testing: The codebase includes PHPUnit tests for core modules; developers can extend these or add integration tests against a local Docker instance.

• Enterprise Bug Tracking: Companies needing fine‑grained access control and audit trails can deploy MantisBT behind corporate firewalls.
• Open‑Source Projects: The lightweight stack and permissive AGPL license make it ideal for volunteer teams with limited hosting budgets.
• Continuous Integration: Integrate MantisBT with Jenkins or GitHub Actions via webhooks to auto‑create issues on build failures.
• Custom Ticketing Solutions: Use the plugin API to tailor the UI for specific workflows (e.g., support ticketing, HR incident management).

• Performance: Minimal dependencies and a lean PHP core result in fast request handling even under moderate load.
• Flexibility: The plugin architecture and custom field system allow developers to shape the tool without touching core code.
• Licensing: AGPL‑3 ensures that any modifications remain open, encouraging community contributions while allowing proprietary extensions in private forks.
• Community & Ecosystem: A long‑standing user base, active mailing lists, and a growing plugin repository reduce the learning curve.

In short, MantisBT offers developers a powerful, self‑hosted issue tracker that balances simplicity with extensibility, making it suitable for both small teams and large enterprises looking to maintain full control over their bug‑