path: root/docs/xml/using.xml

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<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>
  </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>Click the 
        <quote>Open a new Bugzilla account</quote>

        link, enter your email address and, optionally, your name in the
        spaces provided, then click 
        <quote>Create Account</quote>

        .</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Within moments, you should receive an email to the address
        you provided, which contains your login name (generally the
        same as the email address), and a password. 
        This password is randomly generated, but can be
        changed to something more memorable.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>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 into the spaces provided, and
        click 
        <quote>Login</quote>.
        </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.</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: 
        <simplelist>
        <member>
        <emphasis>Administration:</emphasis>
        Administration of a Bugzilla installation.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Bugzilla-General:</emphasis>
        Anything that doesn't fit in the other components, or spans
        multiple components.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Creating/Changing Bugs:</emphasis>
        Creating, changing, and viewing bugs.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Documentation:</emphasis>
        The Bugzilla documentation, including The Bugzilla Guide.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Email:</emphasis>
        Anything to do with email sent by Bugzilla.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Installation:</emphasis>
        The installation process of Bugzilla.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Query/Buglist:</emphasis>
        Anything to do with searching for bugs and viewing the
        buglists.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Reporting/Charting:</emphasis>
        Getting reports from Bugzilla.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>User Accounts:</emphasis>
        Anything about managing a user account from the user's perspective.
        Saved queries, creating accounts, changing passwords, logging in,
        etc.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>User Interface:</emphasis>
        General issues having to do with the user interface cosmetics (not
        functionality) including cosmetic issues, HTML templates,
        etc.</member>
        </simplelist>
        </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>*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 prioritise 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.
        <simplelist>
        <member>
        <emphasis>Orig. Est.:</emphasis>
        This field shows the original estimated time.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Current Est.:</emphasis>
        This field shows the current estimated time.
        This number is calculated from <quote>Hours Worked</quote>
        and <quote>Hours Left</quote>.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Hours Worked:</emphasis>
        This field shows the number of hours worked.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Hours Left:</emphasis>
        This field shows the <quote>Current Est.</quote> -
        <quote>Hours Worked</quote>.
        This value + <quote>Hours Worked</quote> will become the
        new Current Est.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>%Complete:</emphasis>
        This field shows what percentage of the task is complete.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Gain:</emphasis>
        This field shows the number of hours that the bug is ahead of the
        <quote>Orig. Est.</quote>.</member>

        <member>
        <emphasis>Deadline:</emphasis>
        This field shows the deadline for this bug.</member>
        </simplelist>
        </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.  Attachments are
          normally stored in the Bugzilla database, unless they are marked as
          Big Files, which are stored directly on disk and (unlike attachments
          kept in the database) may be deleted at some future time.
        </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, also known as work flow, of a bug is currently hardcoded
      into Bugzilla. <xref linkend="lifecycle-image"/> contains a graphical
      repsentation of this life cycle. 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" scale="66" />
        </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>
      Once you've run a search, you can save it as a Saved Search, which
      appears in the page footer.
      On the Saved Searches tab of your User Preferences page (the Prefs link
      in Bugzilla's footer), members of the group defined in the
      querysharegroup parameter can share such Saved Searches with user groups
      so that other users may use them.
      At the same place, you can see Saved Searches other users are sharing, and
      have them show up in your personal Bugzilla footer along with your own
      Saved Searches.
      If somebody is sharing a Search with a group she or he is allowed to
      <xref linkend="groups">assign users to</a>, it will show up in the
      group's direct members' footers by default.
    </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 field containing
          a user's ID (such as ReportedBy) with 
          a user's ID (such as the user running the query or the user
          to whom each bug is assigned). When the operator is either 
          "equals" or "notequals", the value can be "%reporter%", 
          "%assignee%", "%qacontact%", or "%user%."  The user pronoun
          referes 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>
      </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" "equals" "update") OR 
            ("component" "equals" "Documentation"))
            </para>
          </blockquote>
          to find bugs that are neither 
          in the update product or in the documentation component or
          <blockquote>
            <para>
              NOT(("commenter" "equals" "%assignee%") OR 
              ("component" "equals" "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>

  <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: 
    <simplelist>
      <member>
      <emphasis>Long Format:</emphasis>

      this gives you a large page with a non-editable summary of the fields
      of each bug.</member>

      <member>
      <emphasis>CSV:</emphasis>

      get the buglist as comma-separated values, for import into e.g.
      a spreadsheet.</member>
     
      <member>
      <emphasis>RSS</emphasis>

      get the buglist as an RSS 1.0 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.</member>

      <member>
      <emphasis>iCalendar</emphasis>

      Get the buglist as an iCalendar file. Each bug is represented as a 
      to-do item in the imported calendar.</member>
     
      <member>
      <emphasis>Change Columns:</emphasis>

      change the bug attributes which appear in the list.</member>

      <member>
      <emphasis>Change several bugs at once:</emphasis>

      If your account is sufficiently empowered, you can make the same
      change to all the bugs in the list - for example, changing their
      assignee.</member>

      <member>
      <emphasis>Send mail to bug assignees:</emphasis>

      Sends mail to the assignees of all bugs on the list.</member>

      <member>
      <emphasis>Edit Search:</emphasis>

      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.</member>
      
      <member>
      <emphasis>Remember Search As:</emphasis>

      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.
      </member>
    </simplelist>
    </para>

    <para>
      If you would like to access the bug list from another program 
      it is often useful to have the list returned in something other
      than HTML. By adding the ctype=type parameter into the bug list URL
      you can specify several alternate formats. The supported formats
      are: Comma Separated Values (ctype=csv), iCalendar (ctype=ics),
      RDF Site Summary (RSS) 1.0 (ctype=rss), ECMAScript, also known
      as JavaScript (ctype=js), and finally Resource Description Framework
      RDF/XML (ctype=rdf).
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="bugreports">
    <title>Filing Bugs</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 test bug is as follows:</para>

    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Go to 
        <ulink url="&landfillbase;">
        Landfill</ulink>
        in your browser and click 
        <ulink
        url="&landfillbase;enter_bug.cgi">
        Enter a new bug report</ulink>.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Select a product - any one will do.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>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.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Select "Commit" and send in your bug report.</para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
    
      <para>Try to make sure that everything said in the summary is also 
      said in the first comment. Summaries are often updated and this will
      ensure your original information is easily accessible.
      </para>
      
      <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="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. (Copy Link
      Location in Mozilla works as well.)</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 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="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
      "<filename>foo|bar</filename>" 
      into Quicksearch would search for "foo" or "bar" in the 
      summary and status whiteboard of a bug; adding 
      "<filename>:BazProduct</filename>" 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="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="attachments">
      <title>Attachments</title>
      
      <para>
      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>Trim screenshots. There's no need to show the whole screen if
      you are pointing out a single-pixel problem.
      </para>
      
      <para>Don't attach simple test cases (e.g. one HTML file, one 
      CSS file and an image) as a ZIP file. Instead, upload them in 
      reverse order and edit the referring file so that they point to the
      attached files. This way, the test case works immediately 
      out of the bug.
      </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>
        If you have a really large attachment, something that does not need to
        be recorded forever (as most attachments are), you can mark your
        attachment as a Big File, Assuming the administrator of the
        installation has enabled this feature.  Big Files are stored directly on
        disk instead of in the database, and can be deleted when it is no longer
        needed.  The maximum size of a Big File is normally larger than the
        maximum size of a regular attachment.
      </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="userpreferences">
    <title>User Preferences</title>

    <para>Once you have logged in, you can customise various aspects of
    Bugzilla via the "Edit prefs" link in the page footer.
    The preferences are split into three tabs:</para>

    <section id="accountpreferences" xreflabel="Account Preferences">
      <title>Account Preferences</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="generalpreferences" xreflabel="General Preferences">
      <title>General Preferences</title>

      <para>
        This tab allows you to change several Bugzilla behavior.
      </para>

      <itemizedlist spacing="compact">
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Field separator character for CSV files -
            This controls separator character used in CSV formatted Bug List.
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            After changing bugs - This controls which bugs or no bugs
            are shown in the page after you changed bugs.
            You can select the bug you've changed this time, or the next
            bug of the list.
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Add individual bugs to saved searches - this controls
            whether you can add individual bugs to saved searches
            or you can't.
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            When viewing a bug, show comments in this order -
            This controls the order of comments, you can select below:
            <simplelist>
              <member>Initial description, comment 1, comment 2, ...</member>
              <member>Initial description, last comment, ..., comment 2, comment 1.</member>
              <member>Initial last comment, ..., comment 2, comment 1, description.</member>
            </simplelist>
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Show a quip at the top of each bug list - This controls
            whether a quip will be shown on the Bug list page or not.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </section>

    <section id="emailpreferences">
      <title>Email Preferences</title>

      <para>
        This tab controls the amount of email Bugzilla sends you.
      </para>

      <para>
        The first item on this page is marked <quote>Users to watch</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>
        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>
          Your Bugzilla administrator can stop a user from receiving
          bugmail by adding the user's name to the 
          <filename>data/nomail</filename> file. This is a drastic step
          best taken only for disabled accounts, as it overrides 
          the user's individual mail preferences.
        </para>
      </note>
  
      <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>
        Two items not in the table (<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>) 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>
        By default, Bugzilla sends out email regardless of who made the
        change... even if you were the one responsible for generating
        the email in the first place. If you don't care to receive bugmail
        from your own changes, check the box marked <quote>Only email me
        reports of changes made by other people</quote>.
      </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 - what product groups you
      are in, and whether you can edit bugs or perform various administration
      functions.</para>
    </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>
        <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.
    </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 Queries).
      </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 query (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 Queries</title>

      <para>
        Each whining event is associated with zero or more queries.  A query is
        a saved search that is executed on the schedule specified (see above).
        You start out with zero queries attached to the event (which means that
        the event will not run, as there will never be any results to return).
        To add a query, press the "Add a new query" button.
      </para>

      <para>
        The first field to examine in your new query is the Sort field.  Queries
        are executed, and results returned, in the order specified by the Sort 
        field.  Queries with lower Sort values will run before queries with 
        higher 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 queries, the whining system acts as if you are the user
          executing the query.  This means that the whining system will ignore
          bugs that match your query, but that you can not access.
        </para>
      </note>

      <para>
        Once you have chosen the saved search to be executed, give the query a 
        descriptive title.  This title will appear in the email, above the 
        results of the query.  If you choose "One message per bug", the query 
        title will appear at the top of each email that contains a bug matching
        your query.
      </para>

      <para>
        Finally, decide if the results of the query 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 query 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 
        query, 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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