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diff --git a/booleanchart.html b/booleanchart.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5834c80b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/booleanchart.html @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +<html> <head> +<title>The "boolean chart" section of the query page</title> +</head> + +<body> +<h1>The "boolean chart" section of the query page</h1> + +("Boolean chart" is a terrible term; anyone got a better one I can use +instead?) + +<p> + +The Bugzilla query page is designed to be reasonably easy to use. +But, with such ease of use always comes some lack of power. The +"boolean chart" section is designed to let you do very powerful +queries, but it's not the easiest thing to learn (or explain). +<p> +So. +<p> + +The boolean chart starts with a single "term". A term is a +combination of two pulldown menus and a text field. +You choose items from the menus, specifying "what kind of thing +am I searching for" and "what kind of matching do I want", and type in +a value on the text field, specifying "what should it match". + +<p> + +The real fun starts when you click on the "Or" or "And" buttons. If +you bonk on the "Or" button, then you get a second term to the right +of the first one. You can then configure that term, and the result of +the query will be anything that matches either of the terms. + +<p> + +Or, you can bonk the "And" button, and get a new term below the +original one, and now the result of the query will be anything that +matches both of the terms. + +<p> + +And you can keep clicking "And" and "Or", and get a page with tons of +terms. "Or" has higher precedence than "And". (In other words, you +can think of each line of "Or" stuff as having parenthesis around it.) + +<p> + +The most subtle thing is this "Add another boolean chart" button. +This is almost the same thing as the "And" button. The difference is +if you use one of the fields where several items can be associated +with a single bug. This includes "Comments", "CC", and all the +"changed [something]" entries. Now, if you have multiple terms that +all talk about one of these fields, it's ambiguous whether they are +allowed to be talking about different instances of that field. So, +to let you have it both ways, they always mean the same instance, +unless the terms appear on different charts. + +<p> + +For example: if you search for "priority changed to P5" and +"priority changed by person@addr", it will only find bugs where the +given person at some time changed the priority to P5. However, if +what you really want is to find all bugs where the milestone was +changed at some time by the person, and someone (possibly someone +else) at some time changed the milestone to P5, then you would put +the two terms in two different charts. + +<p> + +Clear as mud? Please, I beg you, rewrite this document to make +everything crystal clear, and send the improved version to <a +href="terry@mozilla.org">Terry</a>. + +<hr> + +<!-- hhmts start --> +Last modified: Thu Jan 27 16:56:11 2000 +<!-- hhmts end --> +</body> </html> |