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authorGervase Markham <gerv@gerv.net>2014-01-17 11:15:14 +0100
committerGervase Markham <gerv@mozilla.org>2014-01-17 11:15:14 +0100
commit4105a4885d093295c71dd5d08e160b3e6cc7ee0f (patch)
tree317a067c7ca5d1556ba9208f358403cb996b48b2 /docs/en/xml/using.xml
parent22c96de30e07d73456cb336896f9c483f8790b8d (diff)
downloadbugzilla-4105a4885d093295c71dd5d08e160b3e6cc7ee0f.tar.gz
bugzilla-4105a4885d093295c71dd5d08e160b3e6cc7ee0f.tar.xz
Bug 912064 - convert docs to ReStructured Text (.rst) format. r,a=justdave.
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-<?xml version="1.0"?>
-<!-- This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
- License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
- file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
-
- This Source Code Form is "Incompatible With Secondary Licenses", as
- defined by the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0.
--->
-<!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
- "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
- <!ENTITY % myents SYSTEM "bugzilla.ent">
- %myents;
-]>
-
-<chapter id="using">
- <title>Using Bugzilla</title>
-
- <section id="using-intro">
- <title>Introduction</title>
- <para>This section contains information for end-users of Bugzilla. There
- is a Bugzilla test installation, called
- <ulink url="http://landfill.bugzilla.org/">Landfill</ulink>, which you are
- welcome to play with (if it's up). However, not all of the Bugzilla
- installations there will necessarily have all Bugzilla features enabled,
- and different installations run different versions, so some things may not
- quite work as this document describes.</para>
-
- <para>
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) are available and answered on
- <ulink url="http://wiki.mozilla.org/Bugzilla:FAQ">wiki.mozilla.org</ulink>.
- They may cover some questions you have which are left unanswered.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="myaccount">
- <title>Create a Bugzilla Account</title>
-
- <para>If you want to use Bugzilla, first you need to create an account.
- Consult with the administrator responsible for your installation of
- Bugzilla for the URL you should use to access it. If you're
- test-driving Bugzilla, use this URL:
- <ulink url="&landfillbase;"/>.
- </para>
-
- <orderedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- On the home page <filename>index.cgi</filename>, click the
- <quote>Open a new Bugzilla account</quote> link, or the
- <quote>New Account</quote> link available in the footer of pages.
- Now enter your email address, then click the <quote>Send</quote>
- button.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- If none of these links is available, this means that the
- administrator of the installation has disabled self-registration.
- This means that only an administrator can create accounts
- for other users. One reason could be that this installation is
- private.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- Also, if only some users are allowed to create an account on
- the installation, you may see these links but your registration
- may fail if your email address doesn't match the ones accepted
- by the installation. This is another way to restrict who can
- access and edit bugs in this installation.
- </para>
- </note>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Within moments, and if your registration is accepted, you should
- receive an email to the address you provided, which contains your
- login name (generally the same as the email address), and two URLs
- with a token (a random string generated by the installation) to
- confirm, respectively cancel, your registration. This is a way to
- prevent users from abusing the generation of user accounts, for
- instance by entering inexistent email addresses, or email addresses
- which do not belong to them.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- By default, you have 3 days to confirm your registration. Past this
- timeframe, the token is invalidated and the registration is
- automatically canceled. You can also cancel this registration sooner
- by using the appropriate URL in the email you got.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If you confirm your registration, Bugzilla will ask you your real name
- (optional, but recommended) and your password, which must be between
- 3 and 16 characters long.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Now all you need to do is to click the <quote>Log In</quote>
- link in the footer at the bottom of the page in your browser,
- enter your email address and password you just chose into the
- login form, and click the <quote>Log in</quote> button.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
-
- <para>
- You are now logged in. Bugzilla uses cookies to remember you are
- logged in so, unless you have cookies disabled or your IP address changes,
- you should not have to log in again during your session.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="bug_page">
- <title>Anatomy of a Bug</title>
-
- <para>The core of Bugzilla is the screen which displays a particular
- bug. It's a good place to explain some Bugzilla concepts.
- <ulink
- url="&landfillbase;show_bug.cgi?id=1">
- Bug 1 on Landfill</ulink>
-
- is a good example. Note that the labels for most fields are hyperlinks;
- clicking them will take you to context-sensitive help on that
- particular field. Fields marked * may not be present on every
- installation of Bugzilla.</para>
-
- <orderedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Product and Component</emphasis>:
- Bugs are divided up by Product and Component, with a Product
- having one or more Components in it. For example,
- bugzilla.mozilla.org's "Bugzilla" Product is composed of several
- Components:
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Administration:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Administration of a Bugzilla installation.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Bugzilla-General:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Anything that doesn't fit in the other components, or spans
- multiple components.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Creating/Changing Bugs:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Creating, changing, and viewing bugs.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Documentation:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The Bugzilla documentation, including The Bugzilla Guide.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Email:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Anything to do with email sent by Bugzilla.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Installation:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The installation process of Bugzilla.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Query/Buglist:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Anything to do with searching for bugs and viewing the
- buglists.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Reporting/Charting:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Getting reports from Bugzilla.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>User Accounts:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Anything about managing a user account from the user's perspective.
- Saved queries, creating accounts, changing passwords, logging in,
- etc.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>User Interface:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- General issues having to do with the user interface cosmetics (not
- functionality) including cosmetic issues, HTML templates,
- etc.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Status and Resolution:</emphasis>
-
- These define exactly what state the bug is in - from not even
- being confirmed as a bug, through to being fixed and the fix
- confirmed by Quality Assurance. The different possible values for
- Status and Resolution on your installation should be documented in the
- context-sensitive help for those items.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Assigned To:</emphasis>
- The person responsible for fixing the bug.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*QA Contact:</emphasis>
- The person responsible for quality assurance on this bug.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*URL:</emphasis>
- A URL associated with the bug, if any.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Summary:</emphasis>
- A one-sentence summary of the problem.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*Status Whiteboard:</emphasis>
- (a.k.a. Whiteboard) A free-form text area for adding short notes
- and tags to a bug.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*Keywords:</emphasis>
- The administrator can define keywords which you can use to tag and
- categorise bugs - e.g. The Mozilla Project has keywords like crash
- and regression.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Platform and OS:</emphasis>
- These indicate the computing environment where the bug was
- found.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Version:</emphasis>
- The "Version" field is usually used for versions of a product which
- have been released, and is set to indicate which versions of a
- Component have the particular problem the bug report is
- about.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Priority:</emphasis>
- The bug assignee uses this field to prioritize his or her bugs.
- It's a good idea not to change this on other people's bugs.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Severity:</emphasis>
- This indicates how severe the problem is - from blocker
- ("application unusable") to trivial ("minor cosmetic issue"). You
- can also use this field to indicate whether a bug is an enhancement
- request.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*Target:</emphasis>
- (a.k.a. Target Milestone) A future version by which the bug is to
- be fixed. e.g. The Bugzilla Project's milestones for future
- Bugzilla versions are 2.18, 2.20, 3.0, etc. Milestones are not
- restricted to numbers, thought - you can use any text strings, such
- as dates.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Reporter:</emphasis>
- The person who filed the bug.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>CC list:</emphasis>
- A list of people who get mail when the bug changes.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*Time Tracking:</emphasis>
- This form can be used for time tracking.
- To use this feature, you have to be blessed group membership
- specified by the <quote>timetrackinggroup</quote> parameter.
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Orig. Est.:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows the original estimated time.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Current Est.:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows the current estimated time.
- This number is calculated from <quote>Hours Worked</quote>
- and <quote>Hours Left</quote>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Hours Worked:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows the number of hours worked.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Hours Left:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows the <quote>Current Est.</quote> -
- <quote>Hours Worked</quote>.
- This value + <quote>Hours Worked</quote> will become the
- new Current Est.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>%Complete:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows what percentage of the task is complete.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Gain:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows the number of hours that the bug is ahead of the
- <quote>Orig. Est.</quote>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Deadline:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This field shows the deadline for this bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Attachments:</emphasis>
- You can attach files (e.g. testcases or patches) to bugs. If there
- are any attachments, they are listed in this section.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*Dependencies:</emphasis>
- If this bug cannot be fixed unless other bugs are fixed (depends
- on), or this bug stops other bugs being fixed (blocks), their
- numbers are recorded here.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>*Votes:</emphasis>
- Whether this bug has any votes.</para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Additional Comments:</emphasis>
- You can add your two cents to the bug discussion here, if you have
- something worthwhile to say.</para>
- </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
- </section>
-
- <section id="lifecycle">
- <title>Life Cycle of a Bug</title>
-
- <para>
- The life cycle of a bug, also known as workflow, is customizable to match
- the needs of your organization, see <xref linkend="bug_status_workflow"/>.
- <xref linkend="lifecycle-image"/> contains a graphical representation of
- the default workflow using the default bug statuses. If you wish to
- customize this image for your site, the
- <ulink url="../images/bzLifecycle.xml">diagram file</ulink>
- is available in <ulink url="http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia">Dia's</ulink>
- native XML format.
- </para>
-
- <figure id="lifecycle-image">
- <title>Lifecycle of a Bugzilla Bug</title>
- <mediaobject>
- <imageobject>
- <imagedata fileref="../images/bzLifecycle.png"/>
- </imageobject>
- </mediaobject>
- </figure>
- </section>
-
- <section id="query">
- <title>Searching for Bugs</title>
-
- <para>The Bugzilla Search page is the interface where you can find
- any bug report, comment, or patch currently in the Bugzilla system. You
- can play with it here:
- <ulink url="&landfillbase;query.cgi"/>.</para>
-
- <para>The Search page has controls for selecting different possible
- values for all of the fields in a bug, as described above. For some
- fields, multiple values can be selected. In those cases, Bugzilla
- returns bugs where the content of the field matches any one of the selected
- values. If none is selected, then the field can take any value.</para>
-
- <para>
- After a search is run, you can save it as a Saved Search, which
- will appear in the page footer. If you are in the group defined
- by the "querysharegroup" parameter, you may share your queries
- with other users, see <xref linkend="savedsearches"/> for more details.
- </para>
-
- <section id="boolean">
- <title>Boolean Charts</title>
- <para>
- Highly advanced querying is done using Boolean Charts.
- </para>
- <para>
- The boolean charts further restrict the set of results
- returned by a query. It is possible to search for bugs
- based on elaborate combinations of criteria.
- </para>
- <para>
- The simplest boolean searches have only one term. These searches
- permit the selected left <emphasis>field</emphasis>
- to be compared using a
- selectable <emphasis>operator</emphasis> to a
- specified <emphasis>value.</emphasis>
- Using the "And," "Or," and "Add Another Boolean Chart" buttons,
- additional terms can be included in the query, further
- altering the list of bugs returned by the query.
- </para>
- <para>
- There are three fields in each row of a boolean search.
- </para>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Field:</emphasis>
- the items being searched
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Operator:</emphasis>
- the comparison operator
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <emphasis>Value:</emphasis>
- the value to which the field is being compared
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- <section id="pronouns">
- <title>Pronoun Substitution</title>
- <para>
- Sometimes, a query needs to compare a user-related field
- (such as ReportedBy) with a role-specific user (such as the
- user running the query or the user to whom each bug is assigned).
- When the operator is either "is equal to" or "is not equal to", the value
- can be "%reporter%", "%assignee%", "%qacontact%", or "%user%".
- The user pronoun
- refers to the user who is executing the query or, in the case
- of whining reports, the user who will be the recipient
- of the report. The reporter, assignee, and qacontact
- pronouns refer to the corresponding fields in the bug.
- </para>
- <para>
- Boolean charts also let you type a group name in any user-related
- field if the operator is either "is equal to", "is not equal to" or
- "contains the string (exact case)". This will let you query for
- any member belonging (or not) to the specified group. The group name
- must be entered following the "%group.foo%" syntax, where "foo" is
- the group name. So if you are looking for bugs reported by any user
- being in the "editbugs" group, then you can type "%group.editbugs%".
- </para>
- </section>
- <section id="negation">
- <title>Negation</title>
- <para>
- At first glance, negation seems redundant. Rather than
- searching for
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- NOT("summary" "contains the string" "foo"),
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- one could search for
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- ("summary" "does not contain the string" "foo").
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- However, the search
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- ("CC" "does not contain the string" "@mozilla.org")
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- would find every bug where anyone on the CC list did not contain
- "@mozilla.org" while
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- NOT("CC" "contains the string" "@mozilla.org")
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- would find every bug where there was nobody on the CC list who
- did contain the string. Similarly, the use of negation also permits
- complex expressions to be built using terms OR'd together and then
- negated. Negation permits queries such as
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- NOT(("product" "is equal to" "update") OR
- ("component" "is equal to" "Documentation"))
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- to find bugs that are neither
- in the update product or in the documentation component or
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- NOT(("commenter" "is equal to" "%assignee%") OR
- ("component" "is equal to" "Documentation"))
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- to find non-documentation
- bugs on which the assignee has never commented.
- </para>
- </section>
- <section id="multiplecharts">
- <title>Multiple Charts</title>
- <para>
- The terms within a single row of a boolean chart are all
- constraints on a single piece of data. If you are looking for
- a bug that has two different people cc'd on it, then you need
- to use two boolean charts. A search for
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- ("cc" "contains the string" "foo@") AND
- ("cc" "contains the string" "@mozilla.org")
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- would return only bugs with "foo@mozilla.org" on the cc list.
- If you wanted bugs where there is someone on the cc list
- containing "foo@" and someone else containing "@mozilla.org",
- then you would need two boolean charts.
- <blockquote>
- <para>
- First chart: ("cc" "contains the string" "foo@")
- </para>
- <para>
- Second chart: ("cc" "contains the string" "@mozilla.org")
- </para>
- </blockquote>
- The bugs listed will be only the bugs where ALL the charts are true.
- </para>
- </section>
- </section>
-
- <section id="quicksearch">
- <title>Quicksearch</title>
-
- <para>
- Quicksearch is a single-text-box query tool which uses
- metacharacters to indicate what is to be searched. For example, typing
- "<literal>foo|bar</literal>"
- into Quicksearch would search for "foo" or "bar" in the
- summary and status whiteboard of a bug; adding
- "<literal>:BazProduct</literal>" would
- search only in that product.
- You can use it to find a bug by its number or its alias, too.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- You'll find the Quicksearch box in Bugzilla's footer area.
- On Bugzilla's front page, there is an additional
- <ulink url="../../page.cgi?id=quicksearch.html">Help</ulink>
- link which details how to use it.
- </para>
- </section>
- <section id="casesensitivity">
- <title>Case Sensitivity in Searches</title>
- <para>
- Bugzilla queries are case-insensitive and accent-insensitive, when
- used with either MySQL or Oracle databases. When using Bugzilla with
- PostgreSQL, however, some queries are case-sensitive. This is due to
- the way PostgreSQL handles case and accent sensitivity.
- </para>
- </section>
- <section id="list">
- <title>Bug Lists</title>
-
- <para>If you run a search, a list of matching bugs will be returned.
- </para>
-
- <para>The format of the list is configurable. For example, it can be
- sorted by clicking the column headings. Other useful features can be
- accessed using the links at the bottom of the list:
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Long Format:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- this gives you a large page with a non-editable summary of the fields
- of each bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>XML:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- get the buglist in the XML format.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>CSV:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- get the buglist as comma-separated values, for import into e.g.
- a spreadsheet.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Feed:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- get the buglist as an Atom feed. Copy this link into your
- favorite feed reader. If you are using Firefox, you can also
- save the list as a live bookmark by clicking the live bookmark
- icon in the status bar. To limit the number of bugs in the feed,
- add a limit=n parameter to the URL.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>iCalendar:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Get the buglist as an iCalendar file. Each bug is represented as a
- to-do item in the imported calendar.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Change Columns:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- change the bug attributes which appear in the list.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Change several bugs at once:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If your account is sufficiently empowered, and more than one bug
- appear in the bug list, this link is displayed which lets you make
- the same change to all the bugs in the list - for example, changing
- their assignee.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Send mail to bug assignees:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If more than one bug appear in the bug list and there are at least
- two distinct bug assignees, this links is displayed which lets you
- easily send a mail to the assignees of all bugs on the list.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Edit Search:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If you didn't get exactly the results you were looking for, you can
- return to the Query page through this link and make small revisions
- to the query you just made so you get more accurate results.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Remember Search As:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- You can give a search a name and remember it; a link will appear
- in your page footer giving you quick access to run it again later.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- </variablelist>
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="individual-buglists">
- <title>Adding/removing tags to/from bugs</title>
- <para>
- You can add and remove tags from individual bugs, which let you find and
- manage bugs more easily. Tags are per-user and so are only visible and editable
- by the user who created them. You can then run queries using tags as a criteria,
- either by using the Advanced Search form, or simply by typing "tag:my_tag_name"
- in the QuickSearch box at the top (or bottom) of the page. Tags can also be
- displayed in buglists.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- This feature is useful when you want to keep track of several bugs, but
- for different reasons. Instead of adding yourself to the CC list of all
- these bugs and mixing all these reasons, you can now store these bugs in
- separate lists, e.g. <quote>Keep in mind</quote>, <quote>Interesting bugs</quote>,
- or <quote>Triage</quote>. One big advantage of this way to manage bugs
- is that you can easily add or remove tags from bugs one by one.
- </para>
- </section>
- </section>
-
- <section id="bugreports">
- <title>Filing Bugs</title>
-
- <section id="fillingbugs">
- <title>Reporting a New Bug</title>
-
- <para>Years of bug writing experience has been distilled for your
- reading pleasure into the
- <ulink
- url="&landfillbase;page.cgi?id=bug-writing.html">
- Bug Writing Guidelines</ulink>.
- While some of the advice is Mozilla-specific, the basic principles of
- reporting Reproducible, Specific bugs, isolating the Product you are
- using, the Version of the Product, the Component which failed, the
- Hardware Platform, and Operating System you were using at the time of
- the failure go a long way toward ensuring accurate, responsible fixes
- for the bug that bit you.</para>
-
- <para>The procedure for filing a bug is as follows:</para>
-
- <orderedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Click the <quote>New</quote> link available in the footer
- of pages, or the <quote>Enter a new bug report</quote> link
- displayed on the home page of the Bugzilla installation.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- If you want to file a test bug to see how Bugzilla works,
- you can do it on one of our test installations on
- <ulink url="&landfillbase;">Landfill</ulink>.
- </para>
- </note>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- You first have to select the product in which you found a bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- You now see a form where you can specify the component (part of
- the product which is affected by the bug you discovered; if you have
- no idea, just select <quote>General</quote> if such a component exists),
- the version of the program you were using, the Operating System and
- platform your program is running on and the severity of the bug (if the
- bug you found crashes the program, it's probably a major or a critical
- bug; if it's a typo somewhere, that's something pretty minor; if it's
- something you would like to see implemented, then that's an enhancement).
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- You now have to give a short but descriptive summary of the bug you found.
- <quote>My program is crashing all the time</quote> is a very poor summary
- and doesn't help developers at all. Try something more meaningful or
- your bug will probably be ignored due to a lack of precision.
- The next step is to give a very detailed list of steps to reproduce
- the problem you encountered. Try to limit these steps to a minimum set
- required to reproduce the problem. This will make the life of
- developers easier, and the probability that they consider your bug in
- a reasonable timeframe will be much higher.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- Try to make sure that everything in the summary is also in the first
- comment. Summaries are often updated and this will ensure your original
- information is easily accessible.
- </para>
- </note>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- As you file the bug, you can also attach a document (testcase, patch,
- or screenshot of the problem).
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Depending on the Bugzilla installation you are using and the product in
- which you are filing the bug, you can also request developers to consider
- your bug in different ways (such as requesting review for the patch you
- just attached, requesting your bug to block the next release of the
- product, and many other product specific requests).
- </para>
- </listitem>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Now is a good time to read your bug report again. Remove all misspellings,
- otherwise your bug may not be found by developers running queries for some
- specific words, and so your bug would not get any attention.
- Also make sure you didn't forget any important information developers
- should know in order to reproduce the problem, and make sure your
- description of the problem is explicit and clear enough.
- When you think your bug report is ready to go, the last step is to
- click the <quote>Commit</quote> button to add your report into the database.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
-
- <para>
- You do not need to put "any" or similar strings in the URL field.
- If there is no specific URL associated with the bug, leave this
- field blank.
- </para>
-
- <para>If you feel a bug you filed was incorrectly marked as a
- DUPLICATE of another, please question it in your bug, not
- the bug it was duped to. Feel free to CC the person who duped it
- if they are not already CCed.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="cloningbugs">
- <title>Clone an Existing Bug</title>
-
- <para>
- Starting with version 2.20, Bugzilla has a feature that allows you
- to clone an existing bug. The newly created bug will inherit
- most settings from the old bug. This allows you to track more
- easily similar concerns in a new bug. To use this, go to the bug
- that you want to clone, then click the <quote>Clone This Bug</quote>
- link on the bug page. This will take you to the <quote>Enter Bug</quote>
- page that is filled with the values that the old bug has.
- You can change those values and/or texts if needed.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- </section>
-
- <section id="attachments">
- <title>Attachments</title>
-
- <para>
- You should use attachments, rather than comments, for large chunks of ASCII
- data, such as trace, debugging output files, or log files. That way, it
- doesn't bloat the bug for everyone who wants to read it, and cause people to
- receive fat, useless mails.
- </para>
-
- <para>You should make sure to trim screenshots. There's no need to show the
- whole screen if you are pointing out a single-pixel problem.
- </para>
-
- <para>Bugzilla stores and uses a Content-Type for each attachment
- (e.g. text/html). To download an attachment as a different
- Content-Type (e.g. application/xhtml+xml), you can override this
- using a 'content_type' parameter on the URL, e.g.
- <filename>&amp;content_type=text/plain</filename>.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Also, you can enter the URL pointing to the attachment instead of
- uploading the attachment itself. For example, this is useful if you want to
- point to an external application, a website or a very large file. Note that
- there is no guarantee that the source file will always be available, nor
- that its content will remain unchanged.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Another way to attach data is to paste text directly in the text field,
- and Bugzilla will convert it into an attachment. This is pretty useful
- when you do copy and paste, and you don't want to put the text in a temporary
- file first.
- </para>
-
- <section id="patchviewer">
- <title>Patch Viewer</title>
-
- <para>Viewing and reviewing patches in Bugzilla is often difficult due to
- lack of context, improper format and the inherent readability issues that
- raw patches present. Patch Viewer is an enhancement to Bugzilla designed
- to fix that by offering increased context, linking to sections, and
- integrating with Bonsai, LXR and CVS.</para>
-
- <para>Patch viewer allows you to:</para>
-
- <simplelist>
- <member>View patches in color, with side-by-side view rather than trying
- to interpret the contents of the patch.</member>
- <member>See the difference between two patches.</member>
- <member>Get more context in a patch.</member>
- <member>Collapse and expand sections of a patch for easy
- reading.</member>
- <member>Link to a particular section of a patch for discussion or
- review</member>
- <member>Go to Bonsai or LXR to see more context, blame, and
- cross-references for the part of the patch you are looking at</member>
- <member>Create a rawtext unified format diff out of any patch, no
- matter what format it came from</member>
- </simplelist>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_view">
- <title>Viewing Patches in Patch Viewer</title>
- <para>The main way to view a patch in patch viewer is to click on the
- "Diff" link next to a patch in the Attachments list on a bug. You may
- also do this within the edit window by clicking the "View Attachment As
- Diff" button in the Edit Attachment screen.</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_diff">
- <title>Seeing the Difference Between Two Patches</title>
- <para>To see the difference between two patches, you must first view the
- newer patch in Patch Viewer. Then select the older patch from the
- dropdown at the top of the page ("Differences between [dropdown] and
- this patch") and click the "Diff" button. This will show you what
- is new or changed in the newer patch.</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_context">
- <title>Getting More Context in a Patch</title>
- <para>To get more context in a patch, you put a number in the textbox at
- the top of Patch Viewer ("Patch / File / [textbox]") and hit enter.
- This will give you that many lines of context before and after each
- change. Alternatively, you can click on the "File" link there and it
- will show each change in the full context of the file. This feature only
- works against files that were diffed using "cvs diff".</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_collapse">
- <title>Collapsing and Expanding Sections of a Patch</title>
- <para>To view only a certain set of files in a patch (for example, if a
- patch is absolutely huge and you want to only review part of it at a
- time), you can click the "(+)" and "(-)" links next to each file (to
- expand it or collapse it). If you want to collapse all files or expand
- all files, you can click the "Collapse All" and "Expand All" links at the
- top of the page.</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_link">
- <title>Linking to a Section of a Patch</title>
- <para>To link to a section of a patch (for example, if you want to be
- able to give someone a URL to show them which part you are talking
- about) you simply click the "Link Here" link on the section header. The
- resulting URL can be copied and used in discussion.</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_bonsai_lxr">
- <title>Going to Bonsai and LXR</title>
- <para>To go to Bonsai to get blame for the lines you are interested in,
- you can click the "Lines XX-YY" link on the section header you are
- interested in. This works even if the patch is against an old
- version of the file, since Bonsai stores all versions of the file.</para>
-
- <para>To go to LXR, you click on the filename on the file header
- (unfortunately, since LXR only does the most recent version, line
- numbers are likely to rot).</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="patchviewer_unified_diff">
- <title>Creating a Unified Diff</title>
- <para>If the patch is not in a format that you like, you can turn it
- into a unified diff format by clicking the "Raw Unified" link at the top
- of the page.</para>
- </section>
- </section>
- </section>
-
- <section id="hintsandtips">
- <title>Hints and Tips</title>
-
- <para>This section distills some Bugzilla tips and best practices
- that have been developed.</para>
-
- <section>
- <title>Autolinkification</title>
- <para>Bugzilla comments are plain text - so typing &lt;U&gt; will
- produce less-than, U, greater-than rather than underlined text.
- However, Bugzilla will automatically make hyperlinks out of certain
- sorts of text in comments. For example, the text
- "http://www.bugzilla.org" will be turned into a link:
- <ulink url="http://www.bugzilla.org"/>.
- Other strings which get linkified in the obvious manner are:
- <simplelist>
- <member>bug 12345</member>
- <member>comment 7</member>
- <member>bug 23456, comment 53</member>
- <member>attachment 4321</member>
- <member>mailto:george@example.com</member>
- <member>george@example.com</member>
- <member>ftp://ftp.mozilla.org</member>
- <member>Most other sorts of URL</member>
- </simplelist>
- </para>
-
- <para>A corollary here is that if you type a bug number in a comment,
- you should put the word "bug" before it, so it gets autolinkified
- for the convenience of others.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="commenting">
- <title>Comments</title>
-
- <para>If you are changing the fields on a bug, only comment if
- either you have something pertinent to say, or Bugzilla requires it.
- Otherwise, you may spam people unnecessarily with bug mail.
- To take an example: a user can set up their account to filter out messages
- where someone just adds themselves to the CC field of a bug
- (which happens a lot.) If you come along, add yourself to the CC field,
- and add a comment saying "Adding self to CC", then that person
- gets a pointless piece of mail they would otherwise have avoided.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Don't use sigs in comments. Signing your name ("Bill") is acceptable,
- if you do it out of habit, but full mail/news-style
- four line ASCII art creations are not.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="comment-wrapping">
- <title>Server-Side Comment Wrapping</title>
- <para>
- Bugzilla stores comments unwrapped and wraps them at display time. This
- ensures proper wrapping in all browsers. Lines beginning with the ">"
- character are assumed to be quotes, and are not wrapped.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="dependencytree">
- <title>Dependency Tree</title>
-
- <para>
- On the <quote>Dependency tree</quote> page linked from each bug
- page, you can see the dependency relationship from the bug as a
- tree structure.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- You can change how much depth to show, and you can hide resolved bugs
- from this page. You can also collaps/expand dependencies for
- each bug on the tree view, using the [-]/[+] buttons that appear
- before its summary. This option is not available for terminal
- bugs in the tree (that don't have further dependencies).
- </para>
- </section>
- </section>
-
- <section id="timetracking">
- <title>Time Tracking Information</title>
-
- <para>
- Users who belong to the group specified by the <quote>timetrackinggroup</quote>
- parameter have access to time-related fields. Developers can see
- deadlines and estimated times to fix bugs, and can provide time spent
- on these bugs. Users who do not belong to this group can only see the deadline,
- but not edit it. Other time-related fields remain invisible to them.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- At any time, a summary of the time spent by developers on bugs is
- accessible either from bug lists when clicking the <quote>Time Summary</quote>
- button or from individual bugs when clicking the <quote>Summarize time</quote>
- link in the time tracking table. The <filename>summarize_time.cgi</filename>
- page lets you view this information either per developer or per bug,
- and can be split on a month basis to have greater details on how time
- is spent by developers.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- As soon as a bug is marked as RESOLVED, the remaining time expected
- to fix the bug is set to zero. This lets QA people set it again for
- their own usage, and it will be set to zero again when the bug will
- be marked as CLOSED.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="userpreferences">
- <title>User Preferences</title>
-
- <para>
- Once logged in, you can customize various aspects of
- Bugzilla via the "Preferences" link in the page footer.
- The preferences are split into five tabs:</para>
-
- <section id="generalpreferences" xreflabel="General Preferences">
- <title>General Preferences</title>
-
- <para>
- This tab allows you to change several default settings of Bugzilla.
- </para>
-
- <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Bugzilla's general appearance (skin) - select which skin to use.
- Bugzilla supports adding custom skins.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Quote the associated comment when you click on its reply link - sets
- the behavior of the comment "Reply" link. Options include quoting the
- full comment, just reference the comment number, or turn the link off.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Language used in email - select which language email will be sent in,
- from the list of available languages.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- After changing a bug - This controls what page is displayed after
- changes to a bug are submitted. The options include to show the bug
- just modified, to show the next bug in your list, or to do nothing.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Enable tags for bugs - turn bug tagging on or off.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Zoom textareas large when in use (requires JavaScript) - enable or
- disable the automatic expanding of text areas when text is being
- entered into them.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Field separator character for CSV files -
- Select between a comma and semi-colon for exported CSV bug lists.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Automatically add me to the CC list of bugs I change - set default
- behavior of CC list. Options include "Always", "Never", and "Only
- if I have no role on them".
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- When viewing a bug, show comments in this order -
- controls the order of comments. Options include "Oldest
- to Newest", "Newest to Oldest" and "Newest to Oldest, but keep the
- bug description at the top".
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Show a quip at the top of each bug list - controls
- whether a quip will be shown on the Bug list page.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </section>
-
- <section id="emailpreferences">
- <title>Email Preferences</title>
-
- <para>
- This tab allows you to enable or disable email notification on
- specific events.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- In general, users have almost complete control over how much (or
- how little) email Bugzilla sends them. If you want to receive the
- maximum amount of email possible, click the <quote>Enable All
- Mail</quote> button. If you don't want to receive any email from
- Bugzilla at all, click the <quote>Disable All Mail</quote> button.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- A Bugzilla administrator can stop a user from receiving
- bugmail by clicking the <quote>Bugmail Disabled</quote> checkbox
- when editing the user account. This is a drastic step
- best taken only for disabled accounts, as it overrides
- the user's individual mail preferences.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- There are two global options -- <quote>Email me when someone
- asks me to set a flag</quote> and <quote>Email me when someone
- sets a flag I asked for</quote>. These define how you want to
- receive bugmail with regards to flags. Their use is quite
- straightforward; enable the checkboxes if you want Bugzilla to
- send you mail under either of the above conditions.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If you'd like to set your bugmail to something besides
- 'Completely ON' and 'Completely OFF', the
- <quote>Field/recipient specific options</quote> table
- allows you to do just that. The rows of the table
- define events that can happen to a bug -- things like
- attachments being added, new comments being made, the
- priority changing, etc. The columns in the table define
- your relationship with the bug:
- </para>
-
- <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Reporter - Where you are the person who initially
- reported the bug. Your name/account appears in the
- <quote>Reporter:</quote> field.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Assignee - Where you are the person who has been
- designated as the one responsible for the bug. Your
- name/account appears in the <quote>Assigned To:</quote>
- field of the bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- QA Contact - You are one of the designated
- QA Contacts for the bug. Your account appears in the
- <quote>QA Contact:</quote> text-box of the bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- CC - You are on the list CC List for the bug.
- Your account appears in the <quote>CC:</quote> text box
- of the bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Voter - You have placed one or more votes for the bug.
- Your account appears only if someone clicks on the
- <quote>Show votes for this bug</quote> link on the bug.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- Some columns may not be visible for your installation, depending
- on your site's configuration.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- To fine-tune your bugmail, decide the events for which you want
- to receive bugmail; then decide if you want to receive it all
- the time (enable the checkbox for every column), or only when
- you have a certain relationship with a bug (enable the checkbox
- only for those columns). For example: if you didn't want to
- receive mail when someone added themselves to the CC list, you
- could uncheck all the boxes in the <quote>CC Field Changes</quote>
- line. As another example, if you never wanted to receive email
- on bugs you reported unless the bug was resolved, you would
- un-check all boxes in the <quote>Reporter</quote> column
- except for the one on the <quote>The bug is resolved or
- verified</quote> row.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- Bugzilla adds the <quote>X-Bugzilla-Reason</quote> header to
- all bugmail it sends, describing the recipient's relationship
- (AssignedTo, Reporter, QAContact, CC, or Voter) to the bug.
- This header can be used to do further client-side filtering.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- Bugzilla has a feature called <quote>Users Watching</quote>.
- When you enter one or more comma-delineated user accounts (usually email
- addresses) into the text entry box, you will receive a copy of all the
- bugmail those users are sent (security settings permitting).
- This powerful functionality enables seamless transitions as developers
- change projects or users go on holiday.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- The ability to watch other users may not be available in all
- Bugzilla installations. If you don't see this feature, and feel
- that you need it, speak to your administrator.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- Each user listed in the <quote>Users watching you</quote> field
- has you listed in their <quote>Users to watch</quote> list
- and can get bugmail according to your relationship to the bug and
- their <quote>Field/recipient specific options</quote> setting.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The <quote>Ignore Bugs</quote> section lets you specify a
- comma-separated list of bugs from which you never want to get any
- email notification of any kind. Removing a bug from this list will
- re-enable email notification for this bug. This is especially useful
- e.g. if you are the reporter of a very noisy bug which you are not
- interested in anymore or if you are watching someone who is in such
- a noisy bug.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="savedsearches" xreflabel="Saved Searches">
- <title>Saved Searches</title>
- <para>
- On this tab you can view and run any Saved Searches that you have
- created, and also any Saved Searches that other members of the group
- defined in the "querysharegroup" parameter have shared.
- Saved Searches can be added to the page footer from this screen.
- If somebody is sharing a Search with a group she or he is allowed to
- <link linkend="groups">assign users to</link>, the sharer may opt to have
- the Search show up in the footer of the group's direct members by default.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="accountpreferences" xreflabel="Name and Password">
- <title>Name and Password</title>
-
- <para>On this tab, you can change your basic account information,
- including your password, email address and real name. For security
- reasons, in order to change anything on this page you must type your
- <emphasis>current</emphasis> password into the <quote>Password</quote>
- field at the top of the page.
- If you attempt to change your email address, a confirmation
- email is sent to both the old and new addresses, with a link to use to
- confirm the change. This helps to prevent account hijacking.</para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="permissionsettings">
- <title>Permissions</title>
-
- <para>
- This is a purely informative page which outlines your current
- permissions on this installation of Bugzilla.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- A complete list of permissions is below. Only users with
- <emphasis>editusers</emphasis> privileges can change the permissions
- of other users.
- </para>
-
- <variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- admin
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user is an Administrator.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- bz_canusewhineatothers
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can configure whine reports for other users.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- bz_canusewhines
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can configure whine reports for self.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- bz_quip_moderators
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can moderate quips.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- bz_sudoers
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can perform actions as other users.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- bz_sudo_protect
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user cannot be impersonated by other users.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- canconfirm
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can confirm a bug or mark it a duplicate.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- creategroups
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can create and destroy groups.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- editbugs
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can edit all bug fields.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- editclassifications
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can create, destroy, and edit classifications.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- editcomponents
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can create, destroy, and edit components.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- editkeywords
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can create, destroy, and edit keywords.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- editusers
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can edit or disable users.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>
- tweakparams
- </term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Indicates user can change Parameters.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- </variablelist>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- For more information on how permissions work in Bugzilla (i.e. who can
- change what), see <xref linkend="cust-change-permissions"/>.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- </section>
- </section>
-
-
- <section id="reporting">
- <title>Reports and Charts</title>
-
- <para>As well as the standard buglist, Bugzilla has two more ways of
- viewing sets of bugs. These are the reports (which give different
- views of the current state of the database) and charts (which plot
- the changes in particular sets of bugs over time.)</para>
-
- <section id="reports">
- <title>Reports</title>
-
- <para>
- A report is a view of the current state of the bug database.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- You can run either an HTML-table-based report, or a graphical
- line/pie/bar-chart-based one. The two have different pages to
- define them, but are close cousins - once you've defined and
- viewed a report, you can switch between any of the different
- views of the data at will.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Both report types are based on the idea of defining a set of bugs
- using the standard search interface, and then choosing some
- aspect of that set to plot on the horizontal and/or vertical axes.
- You can also get a form of 3-dimensional report by choosing to have
- multiple images or tables.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- So, for example, you could use the search form to choose "all
- bugs in the WorldControl product", and then plot their severity
- against their component to see which component had had the largest
- number of bad bugs reported against it.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Once you've defined your parameters and hit "Generate Report",
- you can switch between HTML, CSV, Bar, Line and Pie. (Note: Pie
- is only available if you didn't define a vertical axis, as pie
- charts don't have one.) The other controls are fairly self-explanatory;
- you can change the size of the image if you find text is overwriting
- other text, or the bars are too thin to see.
- </para>
-
- </section>
-
- <section id="charts">
- <title>Charts</title>
-
- <para>
- A chart is a view of the state of the bug database over time.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Bugzilla currently has two charting systems - Old Charts and New
- Charts. Old Charts have been part of Bugzilla for a long time; they
- chart each status and resolution for each product, and that's all.
- They are deprecated, and going away soon - we won't say any more
- about them.
- New Charts are the future - they allow you to chart anything you
- can define as a search.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- Both charting forms require the administrator to set up the
- data-gathering script. If you can't see any charts, ask them whether
- they have done so.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- An individual line on a chart is called a data set.
- All data sets are organised into categories and subcategories. The
- data sets that Bugzilla defines automatically use the Product name
- as a Category and Component names as Subcategories, but there is no
- need for you to follow that naming scheme with your own charts if
- you don't want to.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Data sets may be public or private. Everyone sees public data sets in
- the list, but only their creator sees private data sets. Only
- administrators can make data sets public.
- No two data sets, even two private ones, can have the same set of
- category, subcategory and name. So if you are creating private data
- sets, one idea is to have the Category be your username.
- </para>
-
- <section>
- <title>Creating Charts</title>
-
- <para>
- You create a chart by selecting a number of data sets from the
- list, and pressing Add To List for each. In the List Of Data Sets
- To Plot, you can define the label that data set will have in the
- chart's legend, and also ask Bugzilla to Sum a number of data sets
- (e.g. you could Sum data sets representing RESOLVED, VERIFIED and
- CLOSED in a particular product to get a data set representing all
- the resolved bugs in that product.)
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If you've erroneously added a data set to the list, select it
- using the checkbox and click Remove. Once you add more than one
- data set, a "Grand Total" line
- automatically appears at the bottom of the list. If you don't want
- this, simply remove it as you would remove any other line.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- You may also choose to plot only over a certain date range, and
- to cumulate the results - that is, to plot each one using the
- previous one as a baseline, so the top line gives a sum of all
- the data sets. It's easier to try than to explain :-)
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Once a data set is in the list, one can also perform certain
- actions on it. For example, one can edit the
- data set's parameters (name, frequency etc.) if it's one you
- created or if you are an administrator.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Once you are happy, click Chart This List to see the chart.
- </para>
-
- </section>
-
- <section id="charts-new-series">
- <title>Creating New Data Sets</title>
-
- <para>
- You may also create new data sets of your own. To do this,
- click the "create a new data set" link on the Create Chart page.
- This takes you to a search-like interface where you can define
- the search that Bugzilla will plot. At the bottom of the page,
- you choose the category, sub-category and name of your new
- data set.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If you have sufficient permissions, you can make the data set public,
- and reduce the frequency of data collection to less than the default
- seven days.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- </section>
-
- </section>
-
- <section id="flags">
- <title>Flags</title>
-
- <para>
- A flag is a kind of status that can be set on bugs or attachments
- to indicate that the bugs/attachments are in a certain state.
- Each installation can define its own set of flags that can be set
- on bugs or attachments.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If your installation has defined a flag, you can set or unset that flag,
- and if your administrator has enabled requesting of flags, you can submit
- a request for another user to set the flag.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- To set a flag, select either "+" or "-" from the drop-down menu next to
- the name of the flag in the "Flags" list. The meaning of these values are
- flag-specific and thus cannot be described in this documentation,
- but by way of example, setting a flag named "review" to "+" may indicate
- that the bug/attachment has passed review, while setting it to "-"
- may indicate that the bug/attachment has failed review.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- To unset a flag, click its drop-down menu and select the blank value.
- Note that marking an attachment as obsolete automatically cancels all
- pending requests for the attachment.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If your administrator has enabled requests for a flag, request a flag
- by selecting "?" from the drop-down menu and then entering the username
- of the user you want to set the flag in the text field next to the menu.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- A set flag appears in bug reports and on "edit attachment" pages with the
- abbreviated username of the user who set the flag prepended to the
- flag name. For example, if Jack sets a "review" flag to "+", it appears
- as Jack: review [ + ]
- </para>
-
- <para>
- A requested flag appears with the user who requested the flag prepended
- to the flag name and the user who has been requested to set the flag
- appended to the flag name within parentheses. For example, if Jack
- asks Jill for review, it appears as Jack: review [ ? ] (Jill).
- </para>
-
- <para>
- You can browse through open requests made of you and by you by selecting
- 'My Requests' from the footer. You can also look at open requests limited
- by other requesters, requestees, products, components, and flag names from
- this page. Note that you can use '-' for requestee to specify flags with
- 'no requestee' set.
- </para>
- </section>
-
- <section id="whining">
- <title>Whining</title>
-
- <para>
- Whining is a feature in Bugzilla that can regularly annoy users at
- specified times. Using this feature, users can execute saved searches
- at specific times (i.e. the 15th of the month at midnight) or at
- regular intervals (i.e. every 15 minutes on Sundays). The results of the
- searches are sent to the user, either as a single email or as one email
- per bug, along with some descriptive text.
- </para>
-
- <warning>
- <para>
- Throughout this section it will be assumed that all users are members
- of the bz_canusewhines group, membership in which is required in order
- to use the Whining system. You can easily make all users members of
- the bz_canusewhines group by setting the User RegExp to ".*" (without
- the quotes).
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Also worth noting is the bz_canusewhineatothers group. Members of this
- group can create whines for any user or group in Bugzilla using a
- extended form of the whining interface. Features only available to
- members of the bz_canusewhineatothers group will be noted in the
- appropriate places.
- </para>
- </warning>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- For whining to work, a special Perl script must be executed at regular
- intervals. More information on this is available in
- <xref linkend="installation-whining"/>.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- This section does not cover the whineatnews.pl script. See
- <xref linkend="installation-whining-cron"/> for more information on
- The Whining Cron.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <section id="whining-overview">
- <title>The Event</title>
-
- <para>
- The whining system defines an "Event" as one or more queries being
- executed at regular intervals, with the results of said queries (if
- there are any) being emailed to the user. Events are created by
- clicking on the "Add new event" button.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Once a new event is created, the first thing to set is the "Email
- subject line". The contents of this field will be used in the subject
- line of every email generated by this event. In addition to setting a
- subject, space is provided to enter some descriptive text that will be
- included at the top of each message (to help you in understanding why
- you received the email in the first place).
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The next step is to specify when the Event is to be run (the Schedule)
- and what searches are to be performed (the Searches).
- </para>
-
- </section>
-
- <section id="whining-schedule">
- <title>Whining Schedule</title>
-
- <para>
- Each whining event is associated with zero or more schedules. A
- schedule is used to specify when the search (specified below) is to be
- run. A new event starts out with no schedules (which means it will
- never run, as it is not scheduled to run). To add a schedule, press
- the "Add a new schedule" button.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Each schedule includes an interval, which you use to tell Bugzilla
- when the event should be run. An event can be run on certain days of
- the week, certain days of the month, during weekdays (defined as
- Monday through Friday), or every day.
- </para>
-
- <warning>
- <para>
- Be careful if you set your event to run on the 29th, 30th, or 31st of
- the month, as your event may not run exactly when expected. If you
- want your event to run on the last day of the month, select "Last day
- of the month" as the interval.
- </para>
- </warning>
-
- <para>
- Once you have specified the day(s) on which the event is to be run, you
- should now specify the time at which the event is to be run. You can
- have the event run at a certain hour on the specified day(s), or
- every hour, half-hour, or quarter-hour on the specified day(s).
- </para>
-
- <para>
- If a single schedule does not execute an event as many times as you
- would want, you can create another schedule for the same event. For
- example, if you want to run an event on days whose numbers are
- divisible by seven, you would need to add four schedules to the event,
- setting the schedules to run on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th (one day
- per schedule) at whatever time (or times) you choose.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- If you are a member of the bz_canusewhineatothers group, then you
- will be presented with another option: "Mail to". Using this you
- can control who will receive the emails generated by this event. You
- can choose to send the emails to a single user (identified by email
- address) or a single group (identified by group name). To send to
- multiple users or groups, create a new schedule for each additional
- user/group.
- </para>
- </note>
- </section>
-
- <section id="whining-query">
- <title>Whining Searches</title>
-
- <para>
- Each whining event is associated with zero or more searches. A search
- is any saved search to be run as part of the specified schedule (see
- above). You start out without any searches associated with the event
- (which means that the event will not run, as there will never be any
- results to return). To add a search, press the "Add a search" button.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The first field to examine in your newly added search is the Sort field.
- Searches are run, and results included, in the order specified by the
- Sort field. Searches with smaller Sort values will run before searches
- with bigger Sort values.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- The next field to examine is the Search field. This is where you
- choose the actual search that is to be run. Instead of defining search
- parameters here, you are asked to choose from the list of saved
- searches (the same list that appears at the bottom of every Bugzilla
- page). You are only allowed to choose from searches that you have
- saved yourself (the default saved search, "My Bugs", is not a valid
- choice). If you do not have any saved searches, you can take this
- opportunity to create one (see <xref linkend="list"/>).
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- When running searches, the whining system acts as if you are the user
- executing the search. This means that the whining system will ignore
- bugs that match your search, but that you cannot access.
- </para>
- </note>
-
- <para>
- Once you have chosen the saved search to be executed, give the search a
- descriptive title. This title will appear in the email, above the
- results of the search. If you choose "One message per bug", the search
- title will appear at the top of each email that contains a bug matching
- your search.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Finally, decide if the results of the search should be sent in a single
- email, or if each bug should appear in its own email.
- </para>
-
- <warning>
- <para>
- Think carefully before checking the "One message per bug" box. If
- you create a search that matches thousands of bugs, you will receive
- thousands of emails!
- </para>
- </warning>
- </section>
-
- <section>
- <title>Saving Your Changes</title>
-
- <para>
- Once you have defined at least one schedule, and created at least one
- search, go ahead and "Update/Commit". This will save your Event and make
- it available for immediate execution.
- </para>
-
- <note>
- <para>
- If you ever feel like deleting your event, you may do so using the
- "Remove Event" button in the upper-right corner of each Event. You
- can also modify an existing event, so long as you "Update/Commit"
- after completing your modifications.
- </para>
- </note>
- </section>
-
- </section>
-
-</chapter>
-
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