Hey! I'm Woody! Howdy, Howdy, Howdy! |
Bugzilla is a large, complex system. Describing how to use it - requires some time. If you are only interested in installing or administering - a Bugzilla installation, please consult the Installing and Administering - Bugzilla portions of this Guide. This section is principally aimed towards - developing end-user mastery of Bugzilla, so you may fully enjoy the benefits - afforded by using this reliable open-source bug-tracking software. -
Throughout this portion of the Guide, we will refer to user account - options available at the Bugzilla test installation, - landfill.tequilarista.org. -
Note: Some people have run into difficulties completing this tutorial. If - you run into problems, please check the updated, online documentation available - at http://www.trilobyte.net/barnsons. - If you're still stumped, please subscribe to the newsgroup and provide details of exactly - what's stumping you! If enough people complain, I'll have to fix it in the next - version of this Guide. You can subscribe to the newsgroup at - news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.webtools -
First thing's first! 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 the end-user Bugzilla experience, use this URL: - http://landfill.tequilarista.org/mozilla/bugzilla/ -
Click the "Open a new Bugzilla account" link. -
Enter your "E-mail address" and "Real Name" (or whatever name you want to call yourself) - in the spaces provided, then select the "Create Account" button. -
Within 5-10 minutes, 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 should be changed at your nearest opportunity (we'll go into how to do it later). -
Click the "Log In" link in the yellow area at the bottom of the page in your browser, - then enter your "E-mail address" and "Password" you just received into the spaces provided, - and select "Login". -
Note: If you ever forget your password, you can come back to this page, enter your - "E-mail address", then select the "E-mail me a password" button to have your password - mailed to you again so that you can login. -
| Caution |
Many modern browsers include an "Auto-Complete" or "Form Fill" feature to - remember the user names and passwords you type in at many sites. Unfortunately, - sometimes they attempt to "guess" what you will put in as your password, and guess - wrong. If you notice a text box is already filled out, please overwrite the contents - of the text box so you can be sure to input the correct information. - |
Congratulations! If you followed these directions, you now are the - proud owner of a user account on landfill.tequilarista.org (Landfill) or - your local Bugzilla install. You should now see in your browser a - page called the "Bugzilla Query Page". It may look daunting, but - with this Guide to walk you through it, you will master it in no time. -
The Bugzilla Query Page is the heart and soul of Bugzilla. It is the master - interface where you can find any bug report, comment, or patch currently in the Bugzilla - system. We'll go into how to create your own bug report later on. -
There are efforts underway to simplify query usage. If you have a local installation - of Bugzilla 2.12 or higher, you should have "quicksearch.html" available - to use and simplify your searches. There is also, or shortly will be, a helper - for the query interface, called "queryhelp.cgi". Landfill tends to run the latest code, - so these two utilities should be available there for your perusal. -
At this point, please visit the main Bugzilla site, - bugzilla.mozilla.org, to see a more fleshed-out query page. -
The first thing you need to notice about the Bugzilla Query Page is that - nearly every box you see on your screen has a hyperlink nearby, explaining what - it is or what it does. Near the upper-left-hand corner of your browser window - you should see the word "Status" underlined. Select it. -
Notice the page that popped up? Every underlined word you see on your screen - is a hyperlink that will take you to context-sensitive help. - Click around for a while, and learn what everything here does. To return - to the query interface after pulling up a help page, use the "Back" button in - your browser. -
I'm sure that after checking out the online help, you are now an Expert - on the Bugzilla Query Page. If, however, you feel you haven't mastered it yet, - let me walk you through making a few successful queries to find out what there - are in the Bugzilla bug-tracking system itself. -
Ensure you are back on the "Bugzilla Query Page" - Do nothing in the boxes marked "Status", "Resolution", "Platform", "OpSys", - "Priority", or "Severity". The default query for "Status" is to find all bugs that - are NEW, ASSIGNED, or REOPENED, which is what we want. If you don't select anything - in the other 5 scrollboxes there, then you are saying that "any of these are OK"; - we're not locking ourselves into only finding bugs on the "DEC" Platform, or "Windows 95" - OpSys (Operating System). You're smart, I think you have it figured out. -
Basically, selecting anything on the query page narrows your search - down. Leaving stuff unselected, or text boxes unfilled, broadens your search! -
You see the box immediately below the top six boxes that contains an "Email" text box, - with the words "matching as", a drop-down selection box, then some checkboxes with - "Assigned To" checked by default? This allows you to filter your search down based upon - email address. Let's put my email address in there, and see what happens. -
Type "barnboy@trilobyte.net" in the top Email text box. -
Let's narrow the search some more. Scroll down until you find the box with the word - "Program" over the top of it. This is where we can narrow our search down to only - specific products (software programs or product lines) in our Bugzilla database. - Please notice the box is a scrollbox. Using the down arrow on the - scrollbox, scroll down until you can see an entry called "Webtools". Select this entry. -
Did you notice that some of the boxes to the right changed when you selected "Webtools"? - Every Program (or Product) has different Versions, Components, and Target Milestones associated - with it. A "Version" is the number of a software program. -
Example 4-1. Some Famous Software Versions
Do you remember the hype in 1995 when Microsoft Windows 95(r) was released? - It may have been several years - ago, but Microsoft(tm) spent over $300 Million advertising this new Version of their - software. Three years later, they released Microsoft Windows 98(r), - another new version, to great fanfare, and then in 2000 quietly - released Microsoft Windows ME(Millenium Edition)(r). -
Software "Versions" help a manufacturer differentiate - their current product from their - previous products. Most do not identify their products - by the year they were released. - Instead, the "original" version of their software will - often be numbered "1.0", with - small bug-fix releases on subsequent tenths of a digit. In most cases, it's not - a decimal number; for instance, often 1.9 is an older version - of the software than 1.11, - but is a newer version than 1.1.1. -
In general, a "Version" in Bugzilla should refer to - released - products, not products that have not yet been released - to the public. Forthcoming products - are what the Target Milestone field is for. -
A "Component" is a piece of a Product. - It may be a standalone program, or some other logical - division of a Product or Program. - Normally, a Component has a single Owner, who is responsible - for overseeing efforts to improve that Component. -
Example 4-2. Mozilla Webtools Components
Mozilla's "Webtools" Product is composed of several pieces (Components): -
| Bonsai, - a tool to show recent changes to Mozilla |
| Bugzilla, - a defect-tracking tool |
| Build, - a tool to automatically compile source code - into machine-readable form |
| Despot, - a program that controls access to the other Webtools |
| LXR, - a utility that automatically marks up text files - to make them more readable |
| MozBot, - a "robot" that announces changes to Mozilla in Chat |
| TestManager, - a tool to help find bugs in Mozilla |
| Tinderbox, - which displays reports from Build |
A different person is responsible for each of these Components. - Tara Hernandez keeps - the "Bugzilla" component up-to-date. -
A "Milestone", or "Target Milestone" is a often a planned future "Version" of a - product. In many cases, though, Milestones simply represent significant dates for - a developer. Having certain features in your Product is frequently - tied to revenue (money) - the developer will receive if the features work by the time she - reaches the Target Milestone. - Target Milestones are a great tool to organize your time. - If someone will pay you $100,000 for - incorporating certain features by a certain date, - those features by that Milestone date become - a very high priority. Milestones tend to be highly malleable creatures, - though, that appear - to be in reach but are out of reach by the time the important day arrives. -
The Bugzilla Project has set up Milestones for future - Bugzilla versions 2.14, 2.16, 2.18, 3.0, etc. However, - a Target Milestone can just as easily be a specific date, - code name, or weird alphanumeric - combination, like "M19". -
OK, now let's select the "Bugzilla" component from its scrollbox. -
Skip down the page a bit -- do you see the "submit query" button? - Select it, and let's run - this query! -
Congratulations! You've completed your first Query, and have before you the Bug List - of the author of this Guide, Matthew P. Barnson (barnboy@trilobyte.net). If I'm - doing well, - you'll have a cryptic "Zarro Boogs Found" message on your screen. It is just - a happy hacker's way of saying "Zero Bugs Found". However, I am fairly certain I will - always have some bugs assigned to me that aren't done yet, - so you won't often see that message! -
I encourage you to click the bug numbers in the left-hand column and examine - my bugs. Also notice that if you click the underlined - links near the top of this page, they do - not take you to context-sensitive help here, - but instead sort the columns of bugs on the screen! - When you need to sort your bugs by priority, severity, - or the people they are assigned to, this - is a tremendous timesaver. -
A couple more interesting things about the Bug List page: -
| Change Columns: - by selecting this link, you can show all kinds - of information in the Bug List |
| Change several bugs at once: - If you have sufficient rights to change all - the bugs shown in the Bug List, you can mass-modify them. - This is a big time-saver. |
| Send mail to bug owners: - If you have many related bugs, you can request - an update from every person who owns the bugs in - the Bug List asking them the status. |
| Edit this query: - 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. |
Note: There are many more options to the Bugzilla Query Page - and the Bug List than I have shown you. - But this should be enough for you to learn to get around. - I encourage you to check out the - Bugzilla Home Page - to learn about the Anatomy - and Life Cycle of a Bug before continuing. -
And all this time, I thought we were taking bugs out... |
Before we plunge into writing your first bug report, I encourage you to read - Mozilla.org's Bug - Writing Guidelines. 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. -
While you are at it, why not learn how to find previously reported bugs? Mozilla.org - has published a great tutorial on finding duplicate bugs, available at - http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/beginning-duplicate-finding.html. -
I realize this was a lot to read. However, understanding the mentality of writing - great bug reports will help us on the next part! -
Go back to http://landfill.tequilarista.org/mozilla/bugzilla/ - in your browser. -
Select the - Enter a new bug report link. -
Select a product. -
Now you should be at the "Enter Bug" form. - The "reporter" should have been automatically filled out - for you (or else Bugzilla prompted you to Log In again - -- you did keep the email with your username - and password, didn't you?). -
Select a Component in the scrollbox. -
Bugzilla should have made reasonable guesses, based upon your browser, - for the "Platform" and "OS" drop-down - boxes. If those are wrong, change them -- if you're on an SGI box - running IRIX, we want to know! -
Fill in the "Assigned To" box with the email address you provided earlier. - This way you don't end up sending copies of your bug to lots of other people, - since it's just a test bug. -
Leave the "CC" text box blank. - Fill in the "URL" box with "http://www.mozilla.org". -
Enter "The Bugzilla Guide" in the Summary text box, - and place any comments you have on this - tutorial, or the Guide in general, into the Description box. -
Voila! Select "Commit" and send in your bug report! - Next we'll look at resolving bugs. -
OK, you should have a link to the bug you just created near the top of your page. - It should say - "Bug XXXX posted", with a link to the right saying "Back to BUG# XXXX". - Select this link. -
Scroll down a bit on the subsequent page, - until you see the "Resolve bug, changing resolution to (dropdown box). - Normally, you would - "Accept bug (change status to ASSIGNED)", fix it, and then resolve. - But in this case, we're - going to short-circuit the process because this wasn't a real bug. - Change the dropdown next to - "Resolve Bug" to "INVALID", make sure the radio button is - marked next to "Resolve Bug", then - click "Commit". -
Hey! It said it couldn't take the change in a big red box! - That's right, you must specify - a Comment in order to make this change. Select the "Back" - button in your browser, add a - Comment, then try Resolving the bug with INVALID status again. - This time it should work. -
You have now learned the basics of Bugzilla navigation, - entering a bug, and bug maintenance. - I encourage you to explore these features, and see what you can do with them! - We'll spend no more time on individual Bugs or Queries from this point on, so you are - on your own there. -
But I'll give a few last hints! -
There is a CLUE - on the Query page - that will teach you more how to use the form. -
If you click the hyperlink on the - Component - box of the Query page, you will be presented a form that will describe what all - the components are. -
Possibly the most powerful feature of the Query page is the - Boolean Chart section. - It's a bit confusing to use the first time, but can provide unparalleled - flexibility in your queries, - allowing you to build extremely powerful requests. -
Finally, you can build some nifty - Reports - using the "Bug Reports" link near the bottom of the query page, and also - available via the "Reports" link - at the footer of each page. -