+ +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). +
+So. +
+ +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". + +
+ +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. + +
+ +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. + +
+ +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.) + +
+ +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. + +
+ +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. + +
+ +Clear as mud? Please, I beg you, rewrite this document to make +everything crystal clear, and send the improved version to Terry. + +