<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Hints and Tips</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="The Bugzilla Guide"
HREF="index.html"><LINK
REL="UP"
TITLE="Using Bugzilla"
HREF="using.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="How do I use Bugzilla?"
HREF="how.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="User Preferences"
HREF="userpreferences.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="section"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>The Bugzilla Guide</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="how.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
>Chapter 3. Using Bugzilla</TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="userpreferences.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H1
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="hintsandtips">3.2. Hints and Tips</H1
><P
>This section distills some Bugzilla tips and best practices
that have been developed.</P
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="AEN434">3.2.1. Autolinkification</H2
><P
>Bugzilla comments are plain text - so posting HTML will result
in literal HTML tags rather than being interpreted by a browser.
However, Bugzilla will automatically make hyperlinks out of certain
sorts of text in comments. For example, the text
http://www.bugzilla.org will be turned into
<A
HREF="http://www.bugzilla.org"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.bugzilla.org</A
>.
Other strings which get linkified in the obvious manner are:
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
>bug 12345</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
>bug 23456, comment 53</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
>attachment 4321</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
>mailto:george@example.com</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
>george@example.com</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
>ftp://ftp.mozilla.org</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
>Most other sorts of URL</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
</P
><P
>A corollary here is that if you type a bug number in a comment,
you should put the word "bug" before it, so it gets autolinkified
for the convenience of others.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="quicksearch">3.2.2. Quicksearch</H2
><P
>Quicksearch is a single-text-box query tool which uses
metacharacters to indicate what is to be searched. For example, typing
"<TT
CLASS="filename"
>foo|bar</TT
>"
into Quicksearch would search for "foo" or "bar" in the
summary and status whiteboard of a bug; adding
"<TT
CLASS="filename"
>:BazProduct</TT
>" would
search only in that product.
</P
><P
>You'll find the Quicksearch box on Bugzilla's
front page, along with a
<A
HREF="../../quicksearch.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Help</A
>
link which details how to use it.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="commenting">3.2.3. Comments</H2
><P
>If you are changing the fields on a bug, only comment if
either you have something pertinent to say, or Bugzilla requires it.
Otherwise, you may spam people unnecessarily with bug mail.
To take an example: a user can set up their account to filter out messages
where someone just adds themselves to the CC field of a bug
(which happens a lot.) If you come along, add yourself to the CC field,
and add a comment saying "Adding self to CC", then that person
gets a pointless piece of mail they would otherwise have avoided.
</P
><P
> Don't use sigs in comments. Signing your name ("Bill") is acceptable,
particularly if you do it out of habit, but full mail/news-style
four line ASCII art creations are not.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="attachments">3.2.4. Attachments</H2
><P
> Use attachments, rather than comments, for large chunks of ASCII data,
such as trace, debugging output files, or log files. That way, it doesn't
bloat the bug for everyone who wants to read it, and cause people to
receive fat, useless mails.
</P
><P
>Trim screenshots. There's no need to show the whole screen if
you are pointing out a single-pixel problem.
</P
><P
>Don't attach simple test cases (e.g. one HTML file, one
CSS file and an image) as a ZIP file. Instead, upload them in
reverse order and edit the referring file so that they point to the
attached files. This way, the test case works immediately
out of the bug.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="section"
><H2
CLASS="section"
><A
NAME="AEN463">3.2.5. Filing Bugs</H2
><P
>Try to make sure that everything said in the summary is also
said in the first comment. Summaries are often updated and this will
ensure your original information is easily accessible.
</P
><P
> You do not need to put "any" or similar strings in the URL field.
If there is no specific URL associated with the bug, leave this
field blank.
</P
><P
>If you feel a bug you filed was incorrectly marked as a
DUPLICATE of another, please question it in your bug, not
the bug it was duped to. Feel free to CC the person who duped it
if they are not already CCed.
</P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="how.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
ACCESSKEY="H"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="userpreferences.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>How do I use Bugzilla?</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="using.html"
ACCESSKEY="U"
>Up</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>User Preferences</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>