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<HTML
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>Bugzilla's Future. Much of this is the present, now.</PRE
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><P
> Bugzilla's future is a constantly-changing thing, as various developers
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"scratch an itch"</SPAN
> when it comes to functionality.
Thus this section is very malleable, subject to change without notice, etc.
You'll probably also notice the lack of formatting. I apologize that it's
not quite as readable as the rest of the Guide.
</P
><P
> <P
CLASS="literallayout"
><br>
Bugzilla Blue Sky<br>
<br>
Customisability<br>
<br>
One of the major stumbling blocks of Bugzilla has been that it is too<br>
rigid and does not adapt itself well enough to the needs of an<br>
organisation. This has led to organisations making changes to the<br>
Bugzilla code that need to be redone each new version of Bugzilla.<br>
Bugzilla should attempt to move away from this to a world where this<br>
doesn't need to occur.<br>
<br>
Most of the subsections in this section are currently explicit design<br>
goals for the "Bugzilla 3" rewrite. This does not necessarily mean<br>
that they will not occur before them in Bugzilla 2, but most are<br>
significant undertakings.<br>
<br>
Field Customisation<br>
<br>
Many installations wish to customise the fields that appear on bug<br>
reports. Current versions of Bugzilla offer limited<br>
customisability. In particular, some fields can be turned off.<br>
<br>
However, many administrators wish to add their own fields, and rename<br>
or otherwise modify existing fields. An architecture that supports<br>
this would be extraordinarily useful.<br>
<br>
Indeed, many fields work similarly and could be abstracted into "field<br>
types", so that an administrator need write little or no code to<br>
support the new fields they desire.<br>
<br>
Possible field types include text (eg status whiteboard), numbers,<br>
dates (eg report time), accounts (eg reporter, qa, cc), inter-bug<br>
relationships (dependencies, duplicates), option groups (platform, os,<br>
severity, priority, target milestone, version) etc.<br>
<br>
Ideally an administrator could configure their fields through a<br>
Bugzilla interface that requires no code to be added. However, it is<br>
highly unlikely this ideal will never be met, and in a similar way<br>
that office applications have scripting languages, Bugzilla should<br>
allow new field types to be written.<br>
<br>
Similarly, a common desire is for resolutions to be added or removed.<br>
<br>
Allocations<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Option Groups<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Relations<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Database Integrity<br>
<br>
Furthermore, it is desirable for administrators to be able to specify<br>
rules that must or should apply between the fields on a bug report.<br>
<br>
For example, you might wish to specify that a bug with status ASSIGNED<br>
must have a target milestone field that that is not untargetted. Or<br>
that a bug with a certain number of votes should get ASSIGNED. Or<br>
that the QA contact must be different from the assignee.<br>
<br>
"Must" relationships could be implemented by refusing to make changes<br>
that violate the relationships, or alternatively, automatically<br>
updating certain fields in order to satisfy the criteria. Which<br>
occurs should be up to the administrator.<br>
<br>
"Should" relationships could be implemented by a combination of<br>
emitting warnings on the process bug page, the same on notification<br>
mails, or emitting periodic whine mails about the situation. Again,<br>
which occurs should be up to the administrator.<br>
<br>
It should also be possible for whine mails to be emitted for "must"<br>
relationships, as they might become violated through direct database<br>
access, Bugzilla bugs, or because they were there before the<br>
relationship was enforced.<br>
<br>
As well as implementing intra-bug constraints, it would be useful to<br>
create inter-bug constraints. For example, a bug that is dependent on<br>
another bug should not have an earlier milestone or greater priority<br>
than that bug.<br>
<br>
Database Adaptability<br>
<br>
Often an administrator desires that fields adapt to the values of<br>
other fields. For example, the value of a field might determine the<br>
possible values of another field or even whether it appears (whether<br>
it is "applicable").<br>
<br>
Limited adaptability is present in Bugzilla 2, and only on the<br>
"Product" field:<br>
* The possible values of the target milestone, version and component<br>
fields depend on the product.<br>
* UNCONFIRMED can be turned off for specific products.<br>
* Voting can be configured differently or turned off for different<br>
products, and there is a separate user vote limits for each<br>
product.<br>
<br>
It would be good if more adaptability was present, both in terms of<br>
all fields relying on the product, as well as the ability to adapt<br>
based on the value of all fields.<br>
<br>
Example ???<br>
<br>
General adaptability raises the issue of circular references between<br>
fields causing problems. One possible solution to this is to place<br>
the fields in a total ordering and require a field refer only to the<br>
previous fields.<br>
<br>
In Bugzilla 2, changing the product of a bug meant a second page would<br>
appear that allowed you to choose a new milestone, component and<br>
version, as those fields adapted themselves to the new product. This<br>
page could be generalised to support all instances where:<br>
* a field value must or might be changed because the possible values<br>
have changed<br>
* is going to drop off because it it is no longer applicable, and<br>
this should be confirmed<br>
* must be specified because it is suddenly applicable, and the<br>
default value, if one exists, might not be acceptable<br>
<br>
Database Independence<br>
<br>
Currently Bugzilla only runs on the MySQL database. It would be<br>
desirable for Bugzilla to run on other databases, because:<br>
* Organisations may have existing database products they use and<br>
would prefer to run a homogenous environment.<br>
* Databases each have their own shortcomings, including MySQL. An<br>
administrator might choose a database that would work better with<br>
their Bugzilla.<br>
<br>
This raises the possibility that we could use features that are only<br>
present in some databases, by appropriately falling back. For<br>
example, in the MySQL world, we live without:<br>
* record-level locking, instead we use table-level locking<br>
* referential and record constraints, instead we checking code<br>
* subselects, instead we use multiple queries and redundant "caches"<br>
<br>
Multiple Front Ends<br>
<br>
Currently Bugzilla is manipulated via the Web, and notifies via<br>
E-Mail. It would be desirable for Bugzilla to easily support various<br>
front ends.<br>
<br>
There is no reason that Bugzilla could not be controlled via a whole<br>
range of front ends, including Web, E-Mail, IRC, ICQ, etc, and<br>
similarly for how it notifies. It's also possible that we could<br>
introduce a special Bugzilla client that uses its own protocol, for<br>
maximum user productivity.<br>
<br>
Indeed a request reply might be returned via a totally different<br>
transport method than was use to submit the request.<br>
<br>
Internationalisation<br>
<br>
Bugzilla currently supports only English. All of the field names,<br>
user instructions, etc are written in English. It would be desirable<br>
to allow "language packs" so Bugzilla can be easily used in<br>
non-English speaking locales.<br>
<br>
To a degree field customisation supports this, because administrators<br>
could specify their own fields names anyway. However, there will<br>
always be some basic facilities not covered by this, and it is<br>
desirable that the administrator's interface also is<br>
internationalisable.<br>
<br>
Better Searching<br>
<br>
General Summary Reports<br>
<br>
Sometimes, the normal querying page leaves a lot to be desired. There<br>
are other facilities already in place or which people have asked for:<br>
<br>
Most Doomed Reports - All Bugs or All Bugs In A Product, Categorised<br>
On Assignee, Shows and Counts Number of Bugs For Each Assignee<br>
Most Voted For Bugs - All Bugs, Categorised On Product, Shows Top Ten<br>
Bugs Voters Most Want Fixed<br>
Number of Open Bugs For An Assignee - Bug List, Categorised On<br>
Developers, Counts Number of Bugs In Category<br>
<br>
The important thing to realise is that people want categorised reports<br>
on all sorts of things - a general summary report.<br>
<br>
In a categorised report, you choose the subset of bugs you wish to<br>
operate on (similar to how you would specify a query), and then<br>
categorise them on one or more fields.<br>
<br>
For each category you display the count of the number of things in<br>
that category. You can optionally display the bugs themselves, or<br>
leave them out, just showing the counts. And you can optionally limit<br>
the number of things (bugs or subcategories) that display in each<br>
category.<br>
<br>
Such a mechanism would let you do all of the above and more.<br>
Applications of this mechanism would only be recognised once it was<br>
implemented.<br>
<br>
Related Bugs<br>
<br>
It would be nice to have a field where you could enter other bugs<br>
related to the current bug. It would be handy for navigation and<br>
possibly even finding duplicates.<br>
<br>
Column Specification Support<br>
<br>
Currently bug lists use the columns that you last used. This doesn't<br>
work well for "prepackaged queries", where you followed a link. You<br>
can probably add a column by specifying a sort column, but this is<br>
difficult and suboptimal.<br>
<br>
Furthermore, I find that when I want to add a column to a bug list,<br>
it's usually a one off and I would prefer it to go away for the next<br>
query. Hence, it would be nice to specify the columns that appear on<br>
the bug list (and general summary report) pages. The default query<br>
mechanism should be able to let you specify your default columns.<br>
<br>
Advanced Querying Redesign<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Keywords<br>
<br>
People have a need to apply tags to bugs. In the beginning, people<br>
placed designators in the summary and status whiteboard. However,<br>
these fields were not designed for that, and so there were many flaws<br>
with this system:<br>
* They pollute the field with information that was never intended to<br>
be present.<br>
* Removing them with a bulk change is a difficult problem that has<br>
too many pitfalls to implement.<br>
* You can easily get the capitalisation wrong.<br>
<br>
Then dependencies were introduced (when?), and people realised that<br>
they could use them for "tracking bugs". Again, dependencies were not<br>
designed for that, and so there were more flaws, albeit different<br>
ones, including:<br>
* They aren't really bugs, so it's difficult to distinguish issues<br>
from bugs.<br>
* They can pollute bugs counts, and you must somehow exclude them<br>
from queries.<br>
* There is a whole lot of useless information on them. They have an<br>
assignee but there is nothing to fix, and that person can get<br>
whined at by Bugzilla. They have target milestones which must be<br>
manually maintained. And so on.<br>
<br>
Finally, keywords were introduced (when?) for this purpose to remove<br>
the need for these two systems. Unfortunately, the simple keywords<br>
implementation was itself lacking in certain features provided by the<br>
two previous systems, and has remained almost unchanged since its<br>
inception. Furthermore, it could not be forseen that in large<br>
installations, the sheer number of keywords could become unwieldly and<br>
could lead to a movement back to the other systems.<br>
<br>
The keywords system was the right idea, however, and it remains so.<br>
Fixing the keywords system is one of the most important Bugzilla<br>
issues.<br>
<br>
Bringing Keywords Up To Par<br>
<br>
For the most part, keywords are very good at what they do. It is easy<br>
to add and remove them (unlike summary/whiteboard designators), we can<br>
simply see what issues are present on a bug (unlike tracking bugs),<br>
and we do not confuse bugs with issues (unlike tracking bugs).<br>
<br>
However, there are still some "regressions" in the keyword system over<br>
previous systems:<br>
* Users wish to view the "dependency forest" of a keyword. While a<br>
dependency tree is of one bug, a dependency forest is of a bug<br>
list, and consists of a dependency tree for each member of the bug<br>
list. Users can work around this with tracking bugs by creating a<br>
tracking bug and viewing the dependency tree of that tracking bug.<br>
* Users wish to specify the keywords that initially apply to a bug,<br>
but instead they must edit the bug once it has already been<br>
submitted. They can work around this with summary designators,<br>
since they specify the summary at reporting time.<br>
* Users wish to store or share a bug list that contains a keywords<br>
column. Hence they wish to be able to specify what columns appear<br>
in the bug list URL, as mentioned earlier. They can work around<br>
this using summary designators, since almost all bug lists have a<br>
summary column.<br>
* Users wish to be able to view keywords on a bug list. However<br>
often they are only interested in a small number of keywords.<br>
Having a bug list with a keywords column means that all keywords<br>
will appear on a bug list. This can take a substantial amount of<br>
space where a bug has a lot of keywords, since the table columns<br>
in Bugzilla adjust to the largest cell in that column. Hence<br>
users wish to be able to specify which keywords should appear in<br>
the bug list. In a very real sense, each keyword is a field unto<br>
itself. Users can work around this by using summary designators,<br>
since they keywords will share the space in the summary column.<br>
* Users wish to know when bugs with a specific issue are resolved.<br>
Hence they wish to be able to receive notifications on all the<br>
bugs with a specific keyword. The introduction a generic watching<br>
facility (also for things like watching all bugs in a component)<br>
would achieve this. Users can work around this by using tracking<br>
bugs, as dependencies have an existing way of detecting fixes to<br>
bug a bug was blocked by.<br>
<br>
Dealing With The Keyword Overload<br>
<br>
At the time of writing, the mozilla.org installation has approximately<br>
100 keywords, and many more would be in use if the keywords system<br>
didn't have the problems it does.<br>
<br>
Such a large number of keywords introduces logistical problems:<br>
* It must be easy for someone to learn what a keyword means. If a<br>
keyword is buried within a lot of other keywords, it can be<br>
difficult to find.<br>
* It must be easy to see what keywords are on a bug. If the number<br>
of keywords is large, then this can be difficult.<br>
<br>
These lead some people to feel that there are "too many keywords".<br>
<br>
These problems are not without solutions however. It is harder to<br>
find a list of designators or tracking bugs than it is a list of<br>
keywords.<br>
<br>
The essential problem is it needs to be easy to find the keywords<br>
we're interested in through the mass of keywords.<br>
<br>
Keyword Applicability<br>
<br>
As has been previously mentioned, it is desirable for fields to be<br>
able to adapt to the values of other fields. This is certainly true<br>
for keywords. Many keywords are simply not relevant because of the<br>
bugs product, component, etc.<br>
<br>
Hence, by introducing keyword applicability, and not displaying<br>
keywords that are not relevant to the current bug, or clearly<br>
separating them, we can make the keyword overload problem less<br>
significant.<br>
<br>
Currently when you click on "keywords" on a bug, you get a list of all<br>
bugs. It would be desirable to introduce a list of keywords tailored<br>
to a specific bug, that reports, in order:<br>
* the keywords currently on the bug<br>
* the keywords not currently on the bug, but applicable to the bug<br>
* optionally, the keywords not applicable to the bug<br>
<br>
This essentially orders the keywords into three groups, where each<br>
group is more important than the previous, and therefore appears<br>
closer to the top.<br>
<br>
Keyword Grouping & Ordering<br>
<br>
We could further enhance both the global and bug specific keyword list<br>
by grouping keywords. We should always have a "flat" view of<br>
keywords, but other ways of viewing the keywords would be useful too.<br>
<br>
If keyword applicability was implemented, we could group keywords<br>
based on their "applicability condition". Keywords that apply to all<br>
bugs could be separated from keywords that apply to a specific<br>
product, both on the global keyword list and the keyword list of a bug<br>
that is in that product.<br>
<br>
We could specify groups of our own. For example, many keywords are in<br>
a mutually exclusive group, essentially like radio buttons in a user<br>
interface. This creates a natural grouping, although other groupings<br>
occur (which depends on your keywords).<br>
<br>
It is possible that we could use collapsing/expanding operations on<br>
"twisties" to only should the groups we are interested in.<br>
<br>
And instead of grouping keywords, we could order them on some metric<br>
of usefulness, such as:<br>
* when the keyword was last added to a bug<br>
* how many bugs the keyword is on<br>
* how many open bugs the keyword is on<br>
<br>
Opting Out Of Keywords<br>
<br>
Not all people are going to care about all keywords. Therefore it<br>
makes sense that you may wish to specify which keywords you are<br>
interested in, either on the bug page, or on notifications.<br>
<br>
Other keywords will therefore not bother users who are not interested<br>
in them.<br>
<br>
Keyword Security<br>
<br>
Currently all keywords are available and editable to all people with<br>
edit bugs access. This situation is clearly suboptimal.<br>
<br>
Although relying on good behaviour for people to not do what they<br>
shouldn't works reasonably well on the mozilla.org, it is better to<br>
enforce that behaviour - it can be breached through malice, accident<br>
or ignorance.<br>
<br>
And in the situation where it is desirable for the presence or absence<br>
of a keyword not to be revealed, organisations either need to be<br>
content with the divulgence, or not use keywords at all.<br>
<br>
In the situation where they choose to divulge, introducing the ability<br>
to restrict who can see the keyword would also reduce keyword<br>
overload.<br>
<br>
Personal Keywords<br>
<br>
Keywords join together a set of bugs which would otherwise be<br>
unrelated in the bug system.<br>
<br>
We allow users to store their own queries. However we don't allow<br>
them to store their own keywords on a bug. This reduces the<br>
usefulness of personal queries, since you cannot join a set of<br>
unrelated bugs together in a way that you wish. Lists of bug numbers<br>
can work, by they can only be used for small lists, and it is<br>
impossible to share a list between multiple queries.<br>
<br>
Personal keywords are necessary to replace personal tracking bugs, as<br>
they would not pollute the keyword space. Indeed, on many<br>
installations this could remove some keywords out of the global<br>
keyword space.<br>
<br>
In a similar vein and with similar effects, group keywords could be<br>
introduced that are only available to members of a specific group.<br>
<br>
Keyword Restrictions<br>
<br>
Keywords are not islands unto themselves. Along with their potential<br>
to be involved in the inter-field relationships mentioned earlier,<br>
keywords can also be related to other keywords.<br>
<br>
Essentially, there are two possibilities:<br>
* a set of keywords are mutually exclusive<br>
* the presence of a keyword implies another keyword must be present<br>
<br>
Introduction of the ability to specify these restrictions would have<br>
benefits.<br>
<br>
If mutually exclusive keywords were present on a bug, their removal<br>
would fix up the database, as well as reducing the number of keywords<br>
on that bug.<br>
<br>
In the situation where a keyword implies another keyword, there are<br>
two possiblities as to how to handle the situation.<br>
<br>
The first is automatically add the keyword. This would fix up the<br>
database, but it would increase the number of keywords on a bug.<br>
<br>
The second is to automatically remove the keyword, and alter queries<br>
so they pick up the first keyword as well as the removed keyword.<br>
This would fix up the database and reduce the number of keywords on a<br>
bug, but it might confuse users who don't see the keyword.<br>
Alternatively, the implied keywords could be listed separately.<br>
<br>
Notifications<br>
<br>
Every time a bug gets changed notifications get sent out to people<br>
letting them know about what changes have been made. This is a<br>
significant feature, and all sorts of questions can be raised, but<br>
they mainly boil down to when they should be sent and what they should<br>
look like.<br>
<br>
Changes You're Interested In<br>
<br>
As of version 2.12 users can specify what sort of changes they are<br>
interested in receiving notifications for. However, this is still<br>
limited. As yet there is no facility to specify which keywords you<br>
care about, and whether you care about changes to fields such as the<br>
QA contact changes.<br>
Furthermore, often an unnecessary comment will go along with a change,<br>
either because it is required, or the commenter is ignorant of how the<br>
new system works. While explaining why you did something is useful,<br>
merely commenting on what you did is not because that information is<br>
already accessible view "Bug Activity".<br>
<br>
Because of this unnecessary comment, a lot of changes that would<br>
otherwise not generate notifications for certain people do so, because<br>
few people are willing to turn off comments. One way to deal with<br>
this problem is to allow people to specify that their comments are<br>
purely explanatory, and that anyone who is not interested in the<br>
change will not be interested in the comment.<br>
<br>
Furthermore, one possible rationale for unnecessary comments is that<br>
the bug activity does not display on the normal page and hence it is<br>
difficult to cross reference comments and actions. Hence, it would be<br>
beneficial to be able to do this.<br>
<br>
Bugs You're Watching<br>
<br>
Currently to receive a notification about a bug you need to have your<br>
name on it. This is suboptimal because you need to know about a bug<br>
before you can receive notifications on it. Often you are interested<br>
in any bug with a field set to a specific value. For example, you<br>
might be interested in all bugs with a specific product, component or<br>
keyword.<br>
<br>
If someone could automatically receive notifications about these bugs,<br>
it would make everyone's lives easier. Currently the default assignee<br>
and QA contact for a component will automatically receive<br>
notifications for<br>
<br>
Question: This moves half way to a BCC.<br>
<br>
Bulk Changes<br>
<br>
A very useful feature of Bugzilla is the ability to perform an action<br>
on multiple bugs at once. However, this means that similar<br>
notifications are currently generated for each bug modified.<br>
<br>
This can result in a torrent of notifications that can annoy.<br>
<br>
Furthermore, since the bugs are all changed close to each other in<br>
time, it is easy for someone to mass delete all the notifications<br>
generated by a bulk change and miss an unrelated notification in the<br>
middle.<br>
<br>
These factors can lead to a tendency for people to delay bulk changes,<br>
or avoid them entirely. This is suboptimal.<br>
<br>
It would be better if a bulk change generated only one notification<br>
mail. This would vastly reduce the annoyance factor, and prevent<br>
accidental deletion of notifications.<br>
<br>
One problem with this change is that some people separate out<br>
notifications using filtering. This means that they would no longer<br>
be match parts of a bulk change under different filtering rules.<br>
<br>
One possibility to resolve this is to allow people to specify groups<br>
of bugs. All bugs within a group would go into the same<br>
notification. The filters could then distinguish the different bug<br>
groups.<br>
<br>
In any case, it is likely there would need to be a transition period<br>
to allow people to alter their filters.<br>
<br>
Nominations<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Linking Bugzilla Installations<br>
<br>
The first example of linking Bugzilla installations together has is<br>
the introduction of bug moving in version 2.12. However, it would be<br>
useful to be able to link installations in more ways.<br>
* Dependencies and other relationships between bugs in other<br>
installations. This is difficult because dependencies are<br>
synchronised on both bugs, so the installation that changes<br>
dependencies would need to communicate the new state to the other<br>
installation. It would also mean that relationships and<br>
notifications that refer to other bugs would need to communicate<br>
with the other installation.<br>
* References to bugs in other installations. Currently if you type<br>
"bug XXX" or "bug #XXX" where XXX is a number, you get an<br>
automatic hyperlink to that bug. It would be useful if you could<br>
say "YYY bug #XXX" where YYY is the name of another installation.<br>
<br>
Retirement<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Whiny Reports<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Group Redesign<br>
<br>
?<br>
<br>
Hard Wrapping Comments<br>
<br>
Currently Bugzilla "hard wraps" its comments to a specific line size,<br>
similar to E-Mail. This has various problems:<br>
* The way it currently works, wrapping is done in the browser at<br>
submission time using a non-standard HTML extension not supported<br>
by some (uncommon) browsers. These browsers generate comments<br>
that scroll off the right side of the screen.<br>
* Because comments are of fixed width, when you expand your browser<br>
window, the comments do not expand to fit available space.<br>
<br>
It would be much better to move to a world of soft wrapping, where the<br>
browser wraps the text at display time, similar to a world processor.<br>
And as in a word processor, soft wrapping does not preclude the<br>
insertion of newlines.<br>
<br>
Hard wrapping is too entrenched into text E-Mail to fix, but we can<br>
fix Bugzilla without causing any problems. The old content will still<br>
be wrapped too early, but at least new content will work.<br>
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