path: root/docs/sgml/using.sgml

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Chapter: Using Bugzilla
 Create an account
 Logging in
 Setting up preferences
  Account Settings
  Email Settings
  Page Footer
  Permissions
 Life cycle of a bug
 Creating a bug
  Checking for duplicates
  Overview of all bug fields
  Setting bug permissions
 The Query Interface
  Standard Queries
  Email Queries
  Boolean Queries
  Regexp Queries
 The Query Results
  Changing Columns
  Changing sorting order
  Mass changes 
 Miscellaneous usage hints

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<chapter id="using">
  <title>Using Bugzilla</title>

  <section id="whatis">
    <title>What is Bugzilla?</title>

    <para>Bugzilla is one example of a class of programs called "Defect
    Tracking Systems", or, more commonly, "Bug-Tracking Systems". Defect
    Tracking Systems allow individual or groups of developers to keep track
    of outstanding bugs in their product effectively. Bugzilla was originally
    written by Terry Weissman in a programming language called "TCL", to
    replace a crappy bug-tracking database used internally by Netscape
    Communications. Terry later ported Bugzilla to Perl from TCL, and in Perl
    it remains to this day. Most commercial defect-tracking software vendors
    at the time charged enormous licensing fees, and Bugzilla quickly became
    a favorite of the open-source crowd (with its genesis in the open-source
    browser project, Mozilla). It is now the de-facto standard
    defect-tracking system against which all others are measured.</para>

    <para>Bugzilla has matured immensely, and now boasts many advanced
    features. These include: 
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Powerful searching</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>User-configurable email notifications of bug changes</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Full change history</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Inter-bug dependency tracking and graphing</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Excellent attachment management</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Integrated, product-based, granular security schema</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Fully security-audited, and runs under Perl's taint mode</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>A robust, stable RDBMS back-end</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Web, XML, email and console interfaces</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Completely customisable and/or localisable web user
        interface</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Extensive configurability</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Smooth upgrade pathway between versions</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="why">
    <title>Why Should We Use Bugzilla?</title>

    <para>For many years, defect-tracking software has remained principally
    the domain of large software development houses. Even then, most shops
    never bothered with bug-tracking software, and instead simply relied on
    shared lists and email to monitor the status of defects. This procedure
    is error-prone and tends to cause those bugs judged least significant by
    developers to be dropped or ignored.</para>

    <para>These days, many companies are finding that integrated
    defect-tracking systems reduce downtime, increase productivity, and raise
    customer satisfaction with their systems. Along with full disclosure, an
    open bug-tracker allows manufacturers to keep in touch with their clients
    and resellers, to communicate about problems effectively throughout the
    data management chain. Many corporations have also discovered that
    defect-tracking helps reduce costs by providing IT support
    accountability, telephone support knowledge bases, and a common,
    well-understood system for accounting for unusual system or software
    issues.</para>

    <para>But why should 
    <emphasis>you</emphasis>

    use Bugzilla?</para>

    <para>Bugzilla is very adaptable to various situations. Known uses
    currently include IT support queues, Systems Administration deployment
    management, chip design and development problem tracking (both
    pre-and-post fabrication), and software and hardware bug tracking for
    luminaries such as Redhat, Loki software, Linux-Mandrake, and VA Systems.
    Combined with systems such as CVS, Bonsai, or Perforce SCM, Bugzilla
    provides a powerful, easy-to-use solution to configuration management and
    replication problems</para>

    <para>Bugzilla can dramatically increase the productivity and
    accountability of individual employees by providing a documented workflow
    and positive feedback for good performance. How many times do you wake up
    in the morning, remembering that you were supposed to do 
    <emphasis>something</emphasis>

    today, but you just can't quite remember? Put it in Bugzilla, and you
    have a record of it from which you can extrapolate milestones, predict
    product versions for integration, and by using Bugzilla's e-mail
    integration features be able to follow the discussion trail that led to
    critical decisions.</para>

    <para>Ultimately, Bugzilla puts the power in your hands to improve your
    value to your employer or business while providing a usable framework for
    your natural attention to detail and knowledge store to flourish.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="how">
    <title>How do I use Bugzilla?</title>

    <para>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.</para>

    <para>There is a Bugzilla test installation, called 
    <ulink url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/">Landfill</ulink>

    , 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.</para>

    <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="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/">
      http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/</ulink>
      </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 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.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Click the 
          <quote>Log In</quote>

          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 
          <quote>Login</quote>

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

      <para>You are now logged in. Bugzilla uses cookies for authentication,
      so (unless 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="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/show_bug.cgi?id=1">
      Bug 1 on Landfill</ulink>

      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.</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>

          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.</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>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="query">
      <title>Searching for Bugs</title>

      <para>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: 
      <ulink url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi">
      landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi</ulink>

      .</para>

      <para>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.</para>

      <para>Highly advanced querying is done using Boolean Charts, which have
      their own 
      <ulink
      url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/booleanchart.html">
      context-sensitive help</ulink>

      .</para>
    </section>

    <section id="list">
      <title>Bug Lists</title>

      <para>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!</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>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
        owner.</member>

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

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

        <member>
        <emphasis>Edit this query:</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>
      </simplelist>
      </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="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/bugwritinghelp.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="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/">
          Landfill</ulink>

          in your browser and click 
          <ulink
          url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/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>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="init4me">
    <title>User Preferences</title>

    <para>You can customise various aspects of Bugzilla, via the "Edit prefs"
    link in the page footer, once you have logged in, e.g. to 
    <ulink
    url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/query.cgi?GoAheadAndLogIn=1">
    Landfill</ulink>

    . The preferences are split into four tabs.</para>

    <section id="accountsettings" xreflabel="Account Settings">
      <title>Account Settings</title>

      <para>On this tab, you can change your basic Account Settings,
      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. 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="emailsettings">
      <title>Email Settings</title>

      <para>On this tab you can reduce or increase the amount of email sent
      you from Bugzilla, opting in our out depending on your relationship to
      the bug and the change that was made to it. (Note that you can also do
      client-side filtering using the X-Bugzilla-Reason header which Bugzilla
      adds to all bugmail.)</para>

      <para>By entering user email names, delineated by commas, into the
      "Users to watch" text entry box you can receive a copy of all the
      bugmail of other users (security settings permitting.) This powerful
      functionality enables seamless transitions as developers change
      projects, managers wish to get in touch with the issues faced by their
      direct reports, or users go on vacation.</para>

      <note>
        <para>This option may not be available in all Bugzilla installations.
        Ask your administrator.</para>
      </note>
    </section>

    <section id="footersettings">
      <title>Page Footer</title>

      <para>By default, this page is quite barren. However, if you explore
      the Search page some more, you will find that you can store numerous
      queries on the server, so if you regularly run a particular query it is
      just a drop-down menu away. Once you have a stored query, you can come
      here to request that it also be displayed in your page footer.</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>
</chapter>

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