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<chapter id="customization">
<title>Customising Bugzilla</title>
<section id="cust-templates">
<title>Template Customization</title>
<para>
Administrators can configure the look and feel of Bugzilla without
having to edit Perl files or face the nightmare of massive merge
conflicts when they upgrade to a newer version in the future.
</para>
<para>
Templatization also makes localized versions of Bugzilla possible,
for the first time. It's possible to have Bugzilla's UI language
determined by the user's browser. More information is available in
<xref linkend="template-http-accept"/>.
</para>
<section id="template-directory">
<title>Template Directory Structure</title>
<para>
The template directory structure starts with top level directory
named <filename>template</filename>, which contains a directory
for each installed localization. The next level defines the
language used in the templates. Bugzilla comes with English
templates, so the directory name is <filename>en</filename>,
and we will discuss <filename>template/en</filename> throughout
the documentation. Below <filename>template/en</filename> is the
<filename>default</filename> directory, which contains all the
standard templates shipped with Bugzilla.
</para>
<warning>
<para>
A directory <filename>data/templates</filename> also exists;
this is where Template Toolkit puts the compiled versions of
the templates from either the default or custom directories.
<emphasis>Do not</emphasis> directly edit the files in this
directory, or all your changes will be lost the next time
Template Toolkit recompiles the templates.
</para>
</warning>
</section>
<section id="template-method">
<title>Choosing a Customization Method</title>
<para>
If you want to edit Bugzilla's templates, the first decision
you must make is how you want to go about doing so. There are two
choices, and which you use depends mainly on the scope of your
modifications, and the method you plan to use to upgrade Bugzilla.
</para>
<para>
The first method of making customizations is to directly edit the
templates found in <filename>template/en/default</filename>.
This is probably the best way to go about it if you are going to
be upgrading Bugzilla through CVS, because if you then execute
a <command>cvs update</command>, any changes you have made will
be merged automagically with the updated versions.
</para>
<note>
<para>
If you use this method, and CVS conflicts occur during an
update, the conflicted templates (and possibly other parts
of your installation) will not work until they are resolved.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The second method is to copy the templates to be modified
into a mirrored directory structure under
<filename>template/en/custom</filename>. Templates in this
directory structure automatically override any identically-named
and identically-located templates in the
<filename>default</filename> directory.
</para>
<note>
<para>
The <filename>custom</filename> directory does not exist
at first and must be created if you want to use it.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The second method of customization should be used if you
use the overwriting method of upgrade, because otherwise
your changes will be lost. This method may also be better if
you are using the CVS method of upgrading and are going to make major
changes, because it is guaranteed that the contents of this directory
will not be touched during an upgrade, and you can then decide whether
to continue using your own templates, or make the effort to merge your
changes into the new versions by hand.
</para>
<para>
Using this method, your installation may break if incompatible
changes are made to the template interface. Such changes should
be documented in the release notes, provided you are using a
stable release of Bugzilla. If you use using unstable code, you will
need to deal with this one yourself, although if possible the changes
will be mentioned before they occur in the deprecations section of the
previous stable release's release notes.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Regardless of which method you choose, it is recommended that
you run <command>./checksetup.pl</command> after creating or
editing any templates in the <filename>template/en/default</filename>
directory, and after editing any templates in the
<filename>custom</filename> directory.
</para>
</note>
<warning>
<para>
It is <emphasis>required</emphasis> that you run
<command>./checksetup.pl</command> after creating a new
template in the <filename>custom</filename> directory. Failure
to do so will raise an incomprehensible error message.
</para>
</warning>
</section>
<section id="template-edit">
<title>How To Edit Templates</title>
<note>
<para>
If you are making template changes that you intend on submitting back
for inclusion in standard Bugzilla, you should read the relevant
sections of the
<ulink url="http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/developer.html">Developers'
Guide</ulink>.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The syntax of the Template Toolkit language is beyond the scope of
this guide. It's reasonably easy to pick up by looking at the current
templates; or, you can read the manual, available on the
<ulink url="http://www.template-toolkit.org">Template Toolkit home
page</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
One thing you should take particular care about is the need
to properly HTML filter data that has been passed into the template.
This means that if the data can possibly contain special HTML characters
such as <, and the data was not intended to be HTML, they need to be
converted to entity form, i.e. &lt;. You use the 'html' filter in the
Template Toolkit to do this. If you forget, you may open up
your installation to cross-site scripting attacks.
</para>
<para>
Also note that Bugzilla adds a few filters of its own, that are not
in standard Template Toolkit. In particular, the 'url_quote' filter
can convert characters that are illegal or have special meaning in URLs,
such as &, to the encoded form, i.e. %26. This actually encodes most
characters (but not the common ones such as letters and numbers and so
on), including the HTML-special characters, so there's never a need to
HTML filter afterwards.
</para>
<para>
Editing templates is a good way of doing a <quote>poor man's custom
fields</quote>.
For example, if you don't use the Status Whiteboard, but want to have
a free-form text entry box for <quote>Build Identifier</quote>,
then you can just
edit the templates to change the field labels. It's still be called
status_whiteboard internally, but your users don't need to know that.
</para>
</section>
<section id="template-formats">
<title>Template Formats and Types</title>
<para>
Some CGI's have the ability to use more than one template. For example,
<filename>buglist.cgi</filename> can output itself as RDF, or as two
formats of HTML (complex and simple). The mechanism that provides this
feature is extensible.
</para>
<para>
Bugzilla can support different types of output, which again can have
multiple formats. In order to request a certain type, you can append
the &ctype=<contenttype> (such as rdf or html) to the
<filename><cginame>.cgi</filename> URL. If you would like to
retrieve a certain format, you can use the &format=<format>
(such as simple or complex) in the URL.
</para>
<para>
To see if a CGI supports multiple output formats and types, grep the
CGI for <quote>get_format</quote>. If it's not present, adding
multiple format/type support isn't too hard - see how it's done in
other CGIs, e.g. config.cgi.
</para>
<para>
To make a new format template for a CGI which supports this,
open a current template for
that CGI and take note of the INTERFACE comment (if present.) This
comment defines what variables are passed into this template. If
there isn't one, I'm afraid you'll have to read the template and
the code to find out what information you get.
</para>
<para>
Write your template in whatever markup or text style is appropriate.
</para>
<para>
You now need to decide what content type you want your template
served as. The content types are defined in the
<filename>Bugzilla/Constants.pm</filename> file in the
<filename>contenttypes</filename>
constant. If your content type is not there, add it. Remember
the three- or four-letter tag assigned to your content type.
This tag will be part of the template filename.
</para>
<note>
<para>
After adding or changing a content type, it's suitable to edit
<filename>Bugzilla/Constants.pm</filename> in order to reflect
the changes. Also, the file should be kept up to date after an
upgrade if content types have been customized in the past.
</para>
</note>
<para>
Save the template as <filename><stubname>-<formatname>.<contenttypetag>.tmpl</filename>.
Try out the template by calling the CGI as
<filename><cginame>.cgi?format=<formatname>&ctype=<type></filename> .
</para>
</section>
<section id="template-specific">
<title>Particular Templates</title>
<para>
There are a few templates you may be particularly interested in
customizing for your installation.
</para>
<para>
<command>index.html.tmpl</command>:
This is the Bugzilla front page.
</para>
<para>
<command>global/header.html.tmpl</command>:
This defines the header that goes on all Bugzilla pages.
The header includes the banner, which is what appears to users
and is probably what you want to edit instead. However the
header also includes the HTML HEAD section, so you could for
example add a stylesheet or META tag by editing the header.
</para>
<para>
<command>global/banner.html.tmpl</command>:
This contains the <quote>banner</quote>, the part of the header
that appears
at the top of all Bugzilla pages. The default banner is reasonably
barren, so you'll probably want to customize this to give your
installation a distinctive look and feel. It is recommended you
preserve the Bugzilla version number in some form so the version
you are running can be determined, and users know what docs to read.
</para>
<para>
<command>global/footer.html.tmpl</command>:
This defines the footer that goes on all Bugzilla pages. Editing
this is another way to quickly get a distinctive look and feel for
your Bugzilla installation.
</para>
<para>
<command>global/variables.none.tmpl</command>:
This defines a list of terms that may be changed in order to
<quote>brand</quote> the Bugzilla instance In this way, terms
like <quote>bugs</quote> can be replaced with <quote>issues</quote>
across the whole Bugzilla installation. The name
<quote>Bugzilla</quote> and other words can be customized as well.
</para>
<para>
<command>list/table.html.tmpl</command>:
This template controls the appearance of the bug lists created
by Bugzilla. Editing this template allows per-column control of
the width and title of a column, the maximum display length of
each entry, and the wrap behaviour of long entries.
For long bug lists, Bugzilla inserts a 'break' every 100 bugs by
default; this behaviour is also controlled by this template, and
that value can be modified here.
</para>
<para>
<command>bug/create/user-message.html.tmpl</command>:
This is a message that appears near the top of the bug reporting page.
By modifying this, you can tell your users how they should report
bugs.
</para>
<para>
<command>bug/process/midair.html.tmpl</command>:
This is the page used if two people submit simultaneous changes to the
same bug. The second person to submit their changes will get this page
to tell them what the first person did, and ask if they wish to
overwrite those changes or go back and revisit the bug. The default
title and header on this page read "Mid-air collision detected!" If
you work in the aviation industry, or other environment where this
might be found offensive (yes, we have true stories of this happening)
you'll want to change this to something more appropriate for your
environment.
</para>
<para>
<command>bug/create/create.html.tmpl</command> and
<command>bug/create/comment.txt.tmpl</command>:
You may not wish to go to the effort of creating custom fields in
Bugzilla, yet you want to make sure that each bug report contains
a number of pieces of important information for which there is not
a special field. The bug entry system has been designed in an
extensible fashion to enable you to add arbitrary HTML widgets,
such as drop-down lists or textboxes, to the bug entry page
and have their values appear formatted in the initial comment.
A hidden field that indicates the format should be added inside
the form in order to make the template functional. Its value should
be the suffix of the template filename. For example, if the file
is called <filename>create-cust.html.tmpl</filename>, then
<programlisting><input type="hidden" name="format" value="cust"></programlisting>
should be used inside the form.
</para>
<para>
An example of this is the mozilla.org
<ulink url="http://landfill.bugzilla.org/bugzilla-tip/enter_bug.cgi?product=WorldControl&format=guided">guided
bug submission form</ulink>. The code for this comes with the Bugzilla
distribution as an example for you to copy. It can be found in the
files
<filename>create-guided.html.tmpl</filename> and
<filename>comment-guided.html.tmpl</filename>.
</para>
<para>
So to use this feature, create a custom template for
<filename>enter_bug.cgi</filename>. The default template, on which you
could base it, is
<filename>custom/bug/create/create.html.tmpl</filename>.
Call it <filename>create-<formatname>.html.tmpl</filename>, and
in it, add widgets for each piece of information you'd like
collected - such as a build number, or set of steps to reproduce.
</para>
<para>
Then, create a template like
<filename>custom/bug/create/comment.txt.tmpl</filename>, and call it
<filename>comment-<formatname>.txt.tmpl</filename>. This
template should reference the form fields you have created using
the syntax <filename>[% form.<fieldname> %]</filename>. When a
bug report is
submitted, the initial comment attached to the bug report will be
formatted according to the layout of this template.
</para>
<para>
For example, if your custom enter_bug template had a field
<programlisting><input type="text" name="buildid" size="30"></programlisting>
and then your comment.txt.tmpl had
<programlisting>BuildID: [% form.buildid %]</programlisting>
then something like
<programlisting>BuildID: 20020303</programlisting>
would appear in the initial comment.
</para>
</section>
<section id="template-http-accept">
<title>Configuring Bugzilla to Detect the User's Language</title>
<para>Bugzilla honours the user's Accept: HTTP header. You can install
templates in other languages, and Bugzilla will pick the most appropriate
according to a priority order defined by you. Many
language templates can be obtained from <ulink
url="http://www.bugzilla.org/download.html#localizations"/>. Instructions
for submitting new languages are also available from that location.
</para>
<para>After untarring the localizations (or creating your own) in the
<filename class="directory">BUGZILLA_ROOT/template</filename> directory,
you must update the <option>languages</option> parameter to contain any
localizations you'd like to permit. You may also wish to set the
<option>defaultlanguage</option> parameter to something other than
<quote>en</quote> if you don't want English to be the default language.
</para>
</section>
</section>
<section id="cust-hooks">
<title>The Bugzilla Extension Mechanism</title>
<warning>
<para>
Custom extensions require Template Toolkit version 2.12 or
above, or the application of a patch. See <ulink
url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=239112">bug
239112</ulink> for details.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
Extensions are a way for extensions to Bugzilla to insert code
into the standard Bugzilla templates and source files
without modifying these files themselves. The extension mechanism
defines a consistent API for extending the standard templates and source files
in a way that cleanly separates standard code from extension code.
Hooks reduce merge conflicts and make it easier to write extensions that work
across multiple versions of Bugzilla, making upgrading a Bugzilla installation
with installed extensions easier. Furthermore, they make it easy to install
and remove extensions as each extension is nothing more than a
simple directory structure.
</para>
<para>
There are two main types of hooks: code hooks and template hooks. Code
hooks allow extensions to invoke code at specific points in various
source files, while template hooks allow extensions to add elements to
the Bugzilla user interface.
</para>
<para>
A hook is just a named place in a standard source or template file
where extension source code or template files for that hook get processed.
Each extension has a corresponding directory in the Bugzilla directory
tree (<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/extensions/extension_name</filename>). Hooking
an extension source file or template to a hook is as simple as putting
the extension file into extension's template or code directory.
When Bugzilla processes the source file or template and reaches the hook,
it will process all extension files in the hook's directory.
The hooks themselves can be added into any source file or standard template
upon request by extension authors.
</para>
<para>
To use hooks to extend Bugzilla, first make sure there is
a hook at the appropriate place within the source file or template you
want to extend. The exact appearence of a hook depends on if the hook
is a code hook or a template hook.
</para>
<para>
Code hooks appear in Bugzilla source files as a single method call
in the format <literal role="code">Bugzilla::Hook->process("<varname>name</varname>");</literal>.
for instance, <filename>enter_bug.cgi</filename> may invoke the hook
"<varname>enter_bug-defaultvars</varname>". Thus, a source file at
<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/extensions/EXTENSION_NAME/code/enter_bug-entrydefaultvars.pl</filename>
will be automatically invoked when the code hook is reached.
</para>
<para>
Template hooks appear in the standard Bugzilla templates as a
single directive in the format
<literal role="code">[% Hook.process("<varname>name</varname>") %]</literal>,
where <varname>name</varname> is the unique name of the hook.
</para>
<para>
If you aren't sure what you want to extend or just want to browse the
available hooks, either use your favorite multi-file search
tool (e.g. <command>grep</command>) to search the standard templates
for occurrences of <methodname>Hook.process</methodname> or the source
files for occurrences of <methodname>Bugzilla::Hook::process</methodname>.
</para>
<para>
If there is no hook at the appropriate place within the Bugzilla
source file or template you want to extend,
<ulink url="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Bugzilla&component=User%20Interface">file
a bug requesting one</ulink>, specifying:
</para>
<simplelist>
<member>the source or template file for which you are
requesting a hook;</member>
<member>
where in the file you would like the hook to be placed
(line number/position for latest version of the file in CVS
or description of location);
</member>
<member>the purpose of the hook;</member>
<member>a link to information about your extension, if any.</member>
</simplelist>
<para>
The Bugzilla reviewers will promptly review each hook request,
name the hook, add it to the template or source file, and check
the new version of the template into CVS.
</para>
<para>
You may optionally attach a patch to the bug which implements the hook
and check it in yourself after receiving approval from a Bugzilla
reviewer. The developers may suggest changes to the location of the
hook based on their analysis of your needs or so the hook can satisfy
the needs of multiple extensions, but the process of getting hooks
approved and checked in is not as stringent as the process for general
changes to Bugzilla, and any extension, whether released or still in
development, can have hooks added to meet their needs.
</para>
<para>
After making sure the hook you need exists (or getting it added if not),
add your extension to the directory within the Bugzilla
extensions tree corresponding to the hook.
</para>
<para>
That's it! Now, when the source file or template containing the hook
is processed, your extension file will be processed at the point
where the hook appears.
</para>
<para>
For example, let's say you have an extension named Projman that adds
project management capabilities to Bugzilla. Projman has an
administration interface <filename>edit-projects.cgi</filename>,
and you want to add a link to it into the navigation bar at the bottom
of every Bugzilla page for those users who are authorized
to administer projects.
</para>
<para>
The navigation bar is generated by the template file
<filename>useful-links.html.tmpl</filename>, which is located in
the <filename>global/</filename> subdirectory on the standard Bugzilla
template path
<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/template/en/default/</filename>.
Looking in <filename>useful-links.html.tmpl</filename>, you find
the following hook at the end of the list of standard Bugzilla
administration links:
</para>
<programlisting><![CDATA[...
[% ', <a href="editkeywords.cgi">keywords</a>'
IF user.groups.editkeywords %]
[% Hook.process("edit") %]
...]]></programlisting>
<para>
The corresponding extension file for this hook is
<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/extensions/projman/template/en/hook/global/useful-links-edit.html.tmpl</filename>.
You then create that template file and add the following constant:
</para>
<programlisting><![CDATA[...[% ', <a href="edit-projects.cgi">projects</a>' IF user.groups.projman_admins %]]]></programlisting>
<para>
Voila! The link now appears after the other administration links in the
navigation bar for users in the <literal>projman_admins</literal> group.
</para>
<para>
Now, let us say your extension adds a custom "project_manager" field
to enter_bug.cgi. You want to modify the CGI script to set the default
project manager to be productname@company.com. Looking at
<filename>enter_bug.cgi</filename>, you see the enter_bug-entrydefaultvars
hook near the bottom of the file before the default form values are set.
The corresponding extension source file for this hook is located at
<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/extensions/projman/code/enter_bug-entrydefaultvars.pl</filename>.
You then create that file and add the following:
</para>
<programlisting>$default{'project_manager'} = $product.'@company.com';</programlisting>
<para>
This code will be invoked whenever enter_bug.cgi is executed.
Assuming that the rest of the customization was completed (e.g. the
custom field was added to the enter_bug template and the required hooks
were used in process_bug.cgi), the new field will now have this
default value.
</para>
<para>
Notes:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
If your extension includes entirely new templates in addition to
extensions of standard templates, it should store those new
templates in its
<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/extensions/template/en/</filename>
directory. Extension template directories, like the
<filename>default/</filename> and <filename>custom/</filename>
directories, are part of the template search path, so putting templates
there enables them to be found by the template processor.
</para>
<para>
The template processor looks for templates first in the
<filename>custom/</filename> directory (i.e. templates added by the
specific installation), then in the <filename>extensions/</filename>
directory (i.e. templates added by extensions), and finally in the
<filename>default/</filename> directory (i.e. the standard Bugzilla
templates). Thus, installation-specific templates override both
default and extension templates.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
If you are looking to customize Bugzilla, you can also take advantage
of template hooks. To do so, create a directory in
<filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/template/en/custom/hook/</filename>
that corresponds to the hook you wish to use, then place your
customization templates into those directories. For example,
if you wanted to use the hook "end" in
<filename>global/useful-links.html.tmpl</filename>, you would
create the directory <filename>BUGZILLA_ROOT/template/en/custom/hook/
global/useful-links.html.tmpl/end/</filename> and add your customization
template to this directory.
</para>
<para>
Obviously this method of customizing Bugzilla only lets you add code
to the standard source files and templates; you cannot change the
existing code. Nevertheless, for those customizations that only add
code, this method can reduce conflicts when merging changes,
making upgrading your customized Bugzilla installation easier.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</section>
<section id="cust-change-permissions">
<title>Customizing Who Can Change What</title>
<warning>
<para>
This feature should be considered experimental; the Bugzilla code you
will be changing is not stable, and could change or move between
versions. Be aware that if you make modifications as outlined here,
you may have
to re-make them or port them if Bugzilla changes internally between
versions, and you upgrade.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
Companies often have rules about which employees, or classes of employees,
are allowed to change certain things in the bug system. For example,
only the bug's designated QA Contact may be allowed to VERIFY the bug.
Bugzilla has been
designed to make it easy for you to write your own custom rules to define
who is allowed to make what sorts of value transition.
</para>
<para>
For maximum flexibility, customizing this means editing Bugzilla's Perl
code. This gives the administrator complete control over exactly who is
allowed to do what. The relevant function is called
<filename>CheckCanChangeField()</filename>,
and is found in <filename>process_bug.cgi</filename> in your
Bugzilla directory. If you open that file and search for
<quote>sub CheckCanChangeField</quote>, you'll find it.
</para>
<para>
This function has been carefully commented to allow you to see exactly
how it works, and give you an idea of how to make changes to it.
Certain marked sections should not be changed - these are
the <quote>plumbing</quote> which makes the rest of the function work.
In between those sections, you'll find snippets of code like:
<programlisting> # Allow the assignee to change anything.
if ($ownerid eq $whoid) {
return 1;
}</programlisting>
It's fairly obvious what this piece of code does.
</para>
<para>
So, how does one go about changing this function? Well, simple changes
can be made just by removing pieces - for example, if you wanted to
prevent any user adding a comment to a bug, just remove the lines marked
<quote>Allow anyone to change comments.</quote> If you don't want the
Reporter to have any special rights on bugs they have filed, just
remove the entire section that deals with the Reporter.
</para>
<para>
More complex customizations are not much harder. Basically, you add
a check in the right place in the function, i.e. after all the variables
you are using have been set up. So, don't look at $ownerid before
$ownerid has been obtained from the database. You can either add a
positive check, which returns 1 (allow) if certain conditions are true,
or a negative check, which returns 0 (deny.) E.g.:
<programlisting> if ($field eq "qacontact") {
if (Bugzilla->user->groups("quality_assurance")) {
return 1;
}
else {
return 0;
}
}</programlisting>
This says that only users in the group "quality_assurance" can change
the QA Contact field of a bug.
</para>
<para>
Getting more weird:
<programlisting><![CDATA[ if (($field eq "priority") &&
(Bugzilla->user->email =~ /.*\@example\.com$/))
{
if ($oldvalue eq "P1") {
return 1;
}
else {
return 0;
}
}]]></programlisting>
This says that if the user is trying to change the priority field,
and their email address is @example.com, they can only do so if the
old value of the field was "P1". Not very useful, but illustrative.
</para>
<warning>
<para>
If you are modifying <filename>process_bug.cgi</filename> in any
way, do not change the code that is bounded by DO_NOT_CHANGE blocks.
Doing so could compromise security, or cause your installation to
stop working entirely.
</para>
</warning>
<para>
For a list of possible field names, look in
<filename>data/versioncache</filename> for the list called
<filename>@::log_columns</filename>. If you need help writing custom
rules for your organization, ask in the newsgroup.
</para>
</section>
<section id="dbmodify">
<title>Modifying Your Running System</title>
<para>
Bugzilla optimizes database lookups by storing all relatively
static information in the <filename>versioncache</filename>
file, located in the <filename class="directory">data/</filename>
subdirectory under your installation directory.
</para>
<para>
If you make a change to the structural data in your database (the
versions table for example), or to the <quote>constants</quote>
encoded in <filename>defparams.pl</filename>, you will need to remove
the cached content from the data directory (by doing a
<command>rm data/versioncache</command>), or your changes won't show up.
</para>
<para>
<filename>versioncache</filename> gets regenerated automatically
whenever it's more than an hour old, so Bugzilla will eventually
notice your changes by itself, but generally you want it to notice
right away, so that you can test things.
</para>
</section>
<section id="dbdoc">
<title>MySQL Bugzilla Database Introduction</title>
<para>This information comes straight from my life. I was forced to learn
how Bugzilla organizes database because of nitpicky requests from users
for tiny changes in wording, rather than having people re-educate
themselves or figure out how to work our procedures around the tool. It
sucks, but it can and will happen to you, so learn how the schema works
and deal with it when it comes.</para>
<para>So, here you are with your brand-new installation of Bugzilla.
You've got MySQL set up, Apache working right, Perl DBI and DBD talking
to the database flawlessly. Maybe you've even entered a few test bugs to
make sure email's working; people seem to be notified of new bugs and
changes, and you can enter and edit bugs to your heart's content. Perhaps
you've gone through the trouble of setting up a gateway for people to
submit bugs to your database via email, have had a few people test it,
and received rave reviews from your beta testers.</para>
<para>What's the next thing you do? Outline a training strategy for your
development team, of course, and bring them up to speed on the new tool
you've labored over for hours.</para>
<para>Your first training session starts off very well! You have a
captive audience which seems enraptured by the efficiency embodied in
this thing called "Bugzilla". You are caught up describing the nifty
features, how people can save favorite queries in the database, set them
up as headers and footers on their pages, customize their layouts,
generate reports, track status with greater efficiency than ever before,
leap tall buildings with a single bound and rescue Jane from the clutches
of Certain Death!</para>
<para>But Certain Death speaks up -- a tiny voice, from the dark corners
of the conference room. "I have a concern," the voice hisses from the
darkness, "about the use of the word 'verified'."</para>
<para>The room, previously filled with happy chatter, lapses into
reverential silence as Certain Death (better known as the Vice President
of Software Engineering) continues. "You see, for two years we've used
the word 'verified' to indicate that a developer or quality assurance
engineer has confirmed that, in fact, a bug is valid. I don't want to
lose two years of training to a new software product. You need to change
the bug status of 'verified' to 'approved' as soon as possible. To avoid
confusion, of course."</para>
<para>Oh no! Terror strikes your heart, as you find yourself mumbling
"yes, yes, I don't think that would be a problem," You review the changes
with Certain Death, and continue to jabber on, "no, it's not too big a
change. I mean, we have the source code, right? You know, 'Use the
Source, Luke' and all that... no problem," All the while you quiver
inside like a beached jellyfish bubbling, burbling, and boiling on a hot
Jamaican sand dune...</para>
<para>Thus begins your adventure into the heart of Bugzilla. You've been
forced to learn about non-portable enum() fields, varchar columns, and
tinyint definitions. The Adventure Awaits You!</para>
<section>
<title>Bugzilla Database Basics</title>
<para>If you were like me, at this point you're totally clueless about
the internals of MySQL, and if it weren't for this executive order from
the Vice President you couldn't care less about the difference between
a
<quote>bigint</quote>
and a
<quote>tinyint</quote>
entry in MySQL. I recommend you refer to the
<ulink url="http://www.mysql.com/documentation/">MySQL documentation</ulink>
. Below are the basics you need to know about the Bugzilla database.
Check the chart above for more details.</para>
<para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>To connect to your database:</para>
<para>
<prompt>bash#</prompt>
<command>mysql</command>
<parameter>-u root</parameter>
</para>
<para>If this works without asking you for a password,
<emphasis>shame on you</emphasis>
! You should have locked your security down like the installation
instructions told you to. You can find details on locking down
your database in the Bugzilla FAQ in this directory (under
"Security"), or more robust security generalities in the
<ulink url="http://www.mysql.com/php/manual.php3?section=Privilege_system">MySQL
searchable documentation</ulink>.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>You should now be at a prompt that looks like this:</para>
<para>
<prompt>mysql></prompt>
</para>
<para>At the prompt, if
<quote>bugs</quote>
is the name you chose in the
<filename>localconfig</filename>
file for your Bugzilla database, type:</para>
<para>
<prompt>mysql</prompt>
<command>use bugs;</command>
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>
<section>
<title>Bugzilla Database Tables</title>
<para>Imagine your MySQL database as a series of spreadsheets, and
you won't be too far off. If you use this command:</para>
<para>
<prompt>mysql></prompt>
<command>show tables from bugs;</command>
</para>
<para>you'll be able to see the names of all the
<quote>spreadsheets</quote>
(tables) in your database.</para>
<para>From the command issued above, you should have some
output that looks like this:
<programlisting>
+-------------------+
| Tables in bugs |
+-------------------+
| attachments |
| bugs |
| bugs_activity |
| cc |
| components |
| dependencies |
| fielddefs |
| groups |
| keyworddefs |
| keywords |
| logincookies |
| longdescs |
| milestones |
| namedqueries |
| products |
| profiles |
| profiles_activity |
| tokens |
| user_group_map |
| versions |
| votes |
| watch |
+-------------------+
</programlisting>
</para>
<literallayout>
Here's an overview of what each table does. Most columns in each table have
descriptive names that make it fairly trivial to figure out their jobs.
attachments: This table stores all attachments to bugs. It tends to be your
largest table, yet also generally has the fewest entries because file
attachments are so (relatively) large.
bugs: This is the core of your system. The bugs table stores most of the
current information about a bug, with the exception of the info stored in the
other tables.
bugs_activity: This stores information regarding what changes are made to bugs
when -- a history file.
cc: This tiny table simply stores all the CC information for any bug which has
any entries in the CC field of the bug. Note that, like most other tables in
Bugzilla, it does not refer to users by their user names, but by their unique
userid, stored as a primary key in the profiles table.
components: This stores the programs and components (or products and
components, in newer Bugzilla parlance) for Bugzilla. Curiously, the "program"
(product) field is the full name of the product, rather than some other unique
identifier, like bug_id and user_id are elsewhere in the database.
dependencies: Stores data about those cool dependency trees.
fielddefs: A nifty table that defines other tables. For instance, when you
submit a form that changes the value of "AssignedTo" this table allows
translation to the actual field name "assigned_to" for entry into MySQL.
groups: defines bitmasks for groups. A bitmask is a number that can uniquely
identify group memberships. For instance, say the group that is allowed to
tweak parameters is assigned a value of "1", the group that is allowed to edit
users is assigned a "2", and the group that is allowed to create new groups is
assigned the bitmask of "4". By uniquely combining the group bitmasks (much
like the chmod command in UNIX,) you can identify a user is allowed to tweak
parameters and create groups, but not edit users, by giving him a bitmask of
"5", or a user allowed to edit users and create groups, but not tweak
parameters, by giving him a bitmask of "6" Simple, huh?
If this makes no sense to you, try this at the mysql prompt:
mysql> select * from groups;
You'll see the list, it makes much more sense that way.
keyworddefs: Definitions of keywords to be used
keywords: Unlike what you'd think, this table holds which keywords are
associated with which bug id's.
logincookies: This stores every login cookie ever assigned to you for every
machine you've ever logged into Bugzilla from. Curiously, it never does any
housecleaning -- I see cookies in this file I've not used for months. However,
since Bugzilla never expires your cookie (for convenience' sake), it makes
sense.
longdescs: The meat of bugzilla -- here is where all user comments are stored!
You've only got 2^24 bytes per comment (it's a mediumtext field), so speak
sparingly -- that's only the amount of space the Old Testament from the Bible
would take (uncompressed, 16 megabytes). Each comment is keyed to the
bug_id to which it's attached, so the order is necessarily chronological, for
comments are played back in the order in which they are received.
milestones: Interesting that milestones are associated with a specific product
in this table, but Bugzilla does not yet support differing milestones by
product through the standard configuration interfaces.
namedqueries: This is where everybody stores their "custom queries". Very
cool feature; it beats the tar out of having to bookmark each cool query you
construct.
products: What products you have, whether new bug entries are allowed for the
product, what milestone you're working toward on that product, votes, etc. It
will be nice when the components table supports these same features, so you
could close a particular component for bug entry without having to close an
entire product...
profiles: This table contains details for the current user accounts,
including the crypted hashes of the passwords used, the associated
login names, and the real name of the users.
profiles_activity: Need to know who did what when to who's profile? This'll
tell you, it's a pretty complete history.
user_group_map: This table stores which user belongs to which group,
whether the user can bless others, and how the users obtained the
membership of the group.
versions: Version information for every product
votes: Who voted for what when
watch: Who (according to userid) is watching who's bugs (according to their
userid).
===
THE DETAILS
===
Ahh, so you're wondering just what to do with the information above? At the
mysql prompt, you can view any information about the columns in a table with
this command (where "table" is the name of the table you wish to view):
mysql> show columns from table;
You can also view all the data in a table with this command:
mysql> select * from table;
-- note: this is a very bad idea to do on, for instance, the "bugs" table if
you have 50,000 bugs. You'll be sitting there a while until you ctrl-c or
50,000 bugs play across your screen.
You can limit the display from above a little with the command, where
"column" is the name of the column for which you wish to restrict information:
mysql> select * from table where (column = "some info");
-- or the reverse of this
mysql> select * from table where (column != "some info");
Let's take our example from the introduction, and assume you need to change
the word "verified" to "approved" in the resolution field. We know from the
above information that the resolution is likely to be stored in the "bugs"
table. Note we'll need to change a little perl code as well as this database
change, but I won't plunge into that in this document. Let's verify the
information is stored in the "bugs" table:
mysql> show columns from bugs
(exceedingly long output truncated here)
| bug_status| enum('UNCONFIRMED','NEW','ASSIGNED','REOPENED','RESOLVED','VERIFIED','CLOSED')||MUL | UNCONFIRMED||
Sorry about that long line. We see from this that the "bug status" column is
an "enum field", which is a MySQL peculiarity where a string type field can
only have certain types of entries. While I think this is very cool, it's not
standard SQL. Anyway, we need to add the possible enum field entry
'APPROVED' by altering the "bugs" table.
mysql> ALTER table bugs CHANGE bug_status bug_status
-> enum("UNCONFIRMED", "NEW", "ASSIGNED", "REOPENED", "RESOLVED",
-> "VERIFIED", "APPROVED", "CLOSED") not null;
(note we can take three lines or more -- whatever you put in before the
semicolon is evaluated as a single expression)
Now if you do this:
mysql> show columns from bugs;
you'll see that the bug_status field has an extra "APPROVED" enum that's
available! Cool thing, too, is that this is reflected on your query page as
well -- you can query by the new status. But how's it fit into the existing
scheme of things?
Looks like you need to go back and look for instances of the word "verified"
in the perl code for Bugzilla -- wherever you find "verified", change it to
"approved" and you're in business (make sure that's a case-insensitive search).
Although you can query by the enum field, you can't give something a status
of "APPROVED" until you make the perl changes. Note that this change I
mentioned can also be done by editing checksetup.pl, which automates a lot of
this. But you need to know this stuff anyway, right?
</literallayout>
</section>
</section>
</section>
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&integration;
</chapter>
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