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<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>How do I use Bugzilla?</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="The Bugzilla Guide"
HREF="index.html"><LINK
REL="UP"
TITLE="Using Bugzilla"
HREF="using.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="Why Should We Use Bugzilla?"
HREF="why.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="Where can I find my user preferences?"
HREF="init4me.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="section"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>The Bugzilla Guide</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="why.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
>Chapter 2. Using Bugzilla</TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="init4me.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H1
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="how">2.3. How do I use Bugzilla?</H1
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
WIDTH="100%"
CELLSPACING="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CLASS="EPIGRAPH"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
><I
><P
><I
>Hey!  I'm Woody!  Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!</I
></P
></I
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>&#13;      This section contains information for end-users of Bugzilla. 
      If you are administering a Bugzilla installation, please consult the
      Installing and Administering Bugzilla portions of this Guide.
    </P
><P
>&#13;      There is a Bugzilla test installation, called
      <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;	    Landfill</A
>, which you are welcome to play with.
      However, it does not necessarily have all Bugzilla features
      enabled, and often runs cutting-edge versions of Bugzilla for
      testing, so some things may work slightly differently than
      mentioned here.
    </P
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="myaccount">2.3.1. Create a Bugzilla Account</H2
><P
>&#13;	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: <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/"
TARGET="_top"
> http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/</A
>
      </P
><P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
>&#13;	    Click the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Open a new Bugzilla account"</SPAN
> link, enter your 
      email address and, optionally, your name in the spaces provided,
	    then click <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Create Account"</SPAN
>.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;	    Within moments, you should receive an email to the address
	    you provided above, which contains your login name
	    (generally the same as the email address), and a password
	    you can use to access your account.  This password is
	    randomly generated, and can be changed to something more memorable.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;	    Click the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Log In"</SPAN
> link in the yellow area at
	    the bottom of the page in your browser, enter your
	    email address and password into the spaces provided, and click
	    <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Login"</SPAN
>.
	  </P
></LI
></OL
><P
>&#13;	You are now logged in. Bugzilla uses cookies for authentication, so
  (unless your IP address changes) you should not have to log in again.
      </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="bug_page">2.3.2. Anatomy of a Bug</H2
><P
>&#13;        The core of Bugzilla is the screen which displays a particular bug.
        It's a good place to explain some Bugzilla concepts. 
        <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/show_bug.cgi?id=1"
TARGET="_top"
>Bug 1 on Landfill</A
> is a good example. Note that the names of most fields
        are hyperlinks; clicking them will take you to context-sensitive
        help on that particular field.
      </P
><P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Product and Component</EM
>:
      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:
		  <P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Administration</EM
>,
          Administration of a bugzilla installation, including 
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editcomponents.cgi</TT
>,
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editgroups.cgi</TT
>, 
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editkeywords.cgi</TT
>, 
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editparams.cgi</TT
>,
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editproducts.cgi</TT
>,
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editusers.cgi</TT
>,
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>editversions.cgi,</TT
> and
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>sanitycheck.cgi</TT
>.
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Bugzilla-General</EM
>,
          Anything that doesn't fit in the other components, or spans
          multiple components.
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Creating/Changing Bugs</EM
>,
          Creating, changing, and viewing bugs.
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>enter_bug.cgi</TT
>,
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>post_bug.cgi</TT
>,
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>show_bug.cgi</TT
> and
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>process_bug.cgi</TT
>.
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Documentation</EM
>,
          The bugzilla documentation, including anything in the
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>docs/</TT
> directory and The Bugzilla Guide

        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Email</EM
>,
          Anything to do with email sent by Bugzilla.
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>processmail</TT
>
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Installation</EM
>,
          The installation process of Bugzilla. This includes
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>checksetup.pl</TT
> and whatever else it evolves into.
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Query/Buglist</EM
>,
          Anything to do with searching for bugs and viewing the buglists.
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>query.cgi</TT
> and
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>buglist.cgi</TT
>
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Reporting/Charting</EM
>,
          Getting reports from Bugzilla.
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>reports.cgi</TT
> and
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>duplicates.cgi</TT
>
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>User Accounts</EM
>,
          Anything about managing a user account from the user's perspective.
          <TT
CLASS="filename"
>userprefs.cgi</TT
>, saved queries, creating accounts,
          changing passwords, logging in, etc. 
        </TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>User Interface</EM
>,
          General issues having to do with the user interface cosmetics (not
          functionality) including cosmetic issues, HTML templates, etc.
        </TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
		</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Status and Resolution</EM
>: 
      A bug passes through several Statuses in its lifetime, and ends up in the
      RESOLVED status, with one of a set of Resolutions (e.g. FIXED, INVALID.)
      The different possible
      values for Status and Resolution on your installation will be documented
      in the context-sensitive help for those items.
		</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Assigned To</EM
>:
      The person responsible for fixing the bug.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>URL</EM
>:
      A URL associated with the bug, if any.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Summary</EM
>:
      A one-sentence summary of the problem.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;	    <EM
>Status Whiteboard</EM
>: (a.k.a. Whiteboard) A
      free-form text area for adding short notes and tags to a bug.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Keywords</EM
>:
      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.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Platform and OS</EM
>:
      These indicate the computing environment where the bug was found.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Version</EM
>:
      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.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Priority</EM
>:
      The bug assignee uses this field to prioritise his or her bugs. It's
      a good idea not to change this on other people's bugs.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Severity</EM
>:
      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.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Target</EM
>:
	    (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.  
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Reporter</EM
>:
      The person who filed the bug.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>CC list</EM
>:
      A list of people who get mail when the bug changes.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Attachments</EM
>:
      You can attach files (e.g. testcases or patches) to bugs. If there are
      any attachments, they are listed in this section.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Dependencies</EM
>:
      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.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Votes</EM
>:
      Whether this bug has any votes.
	  </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;      <EM
>Additional Comments</EM
>:
      You can add your two cents to the bug discussion here, if you have 
      something worthwhile to say.
	  </P
></LI
></OL
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="query">2.3.3. Searching for Bugs</H2
><P
>&#13;	The Bugzilla Search page is is the interface where you can
	find any bug report, comment, or patch currently in the
	Bugzilla system. You can play with it here:
	<A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;	landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi</A
>.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    The Search page has controls for selecting different possible values
    for all of the fields in a bug, as described above. Once you've defined
    a search, you can either run it, or save it as a Remembered Query, which
    can optionally appear in the footer of your pages.
  </P
><P
>&#13;    Highly advanced querying is done using Boolean Charts, which have their
    own <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/booleanchart.html"
TARGET="_top"
>context-sensitive help</A
>.
  </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="list">2.3.4. Bug Lists</H2
><P
>&#13;        If you run a search, a list of matching bugs will be returned. 
        The default search is to return all open bugs on the system -
        don't try running this search on a Bugzilla installation with
        a lot of bugs!
      </P
><P
>&#13;        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:
	<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Long Format</EM
>: this gives you a large page
    with a non-editable summary of the fields of each bug.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Change Columns</EM
>: change the bug 
    attributes which appear in the list.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Change several bugs at once</EM
>: If
	    your account is sufficiently empowered, you can make the same
      change to all the bugs in the list - for example, changing their
      owner.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Send mail to bug owners</EM
>: Sends mail
    to the owners of all bugs on the list.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
><EM
>Edit this query</EM
>: 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.</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
      </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="bugreports">2.3.5. Filing Bugs</H2
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
WIDTH="100%"
CELLSPACING="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CLASS="EPIGRAPH"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="45%"
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
><I
><P
><I
>And all this time, I thought we were taking bugs <EM
>out</EM
>...</I
></P
></I
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><P
>&#13;	  Years of bug writing experience has been distilled for your reading
    pleasure into the <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/bugwritinghelp.html"
TARGET="_top"
>&#13;    Bug Writing Guidelines</A
>.  
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.
	</P
><P
>&#13;    The procedure for filing a test bug is as follows:
  </P
><P
></P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
><P
>&#13;	      Go to <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/"
TARGET="_top"
>Landfill</A
> 
        in your browser and click  
        <A
HREF="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/enter_bug.cgi"
TARGET="_top"
> Enter a new bug report</A
>.
	    </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;	      Select a product - any one will do.
	    </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;        Fill in the fields.
	      Bugzilla should have made reasonable guesses, based upon
	      your browser, for the "Platform" and "OS" drop-down
	      boxes. If they are wrong, change them.
	    </P
></LI
><LI
><P
>&#13;	      Select "Commit" and send in your bug report. 
	    </P
></LI
></OL
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
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><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="why.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
ACCESSKEY="H"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="init4me.html"
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