README upon which the UNIX installation documentation is largely based.
</para>
<para>
<ulinkurl="mailto://tara@tequilarista.org">Tara
Hernandez</ulink> for keeping Bugzilla development going
strong after Terry left Mozilla.org
</para>
<para>
<ulinkurl="mailto://dkl@redhat.com">Dave Lawrence</ulink> for
providing insight into the key differences between Red Hat's
customized Bugzilla, and being largely responsible for the "Red
Hat Bugzilla" appendix
</para>
<para>
<ulinkurl="mailto://endico@mozilla.org">Dawn Endico</ulink> for
being a hacker extraordinaire and putting up with my incessant
questions and arguments on irc.mozilla.org in #mozwebtools
</para>
<para>
Last but not least, all the members of the <ulink
url="news://news.mozilla.org/netscape/public/mozilla/webtools"> netscape.public.mozilla.webtools</ulink> newsgroup. Without your discussions, insight, suggestions, and patches, this could never have happened.
</para>
<para>
Thanks also go to the following people for significant contributions
to this documentation (in no particular order):
</para>
<para>
Zach Liption, Andrew Pearson, Spencer Smith, Eric Hanson, Kevin Brannen,
Ron Teitelbaum, Jacob Steenhagen, Joe Robins.
</para>
</section>
<sectionid="translations">
<title>Translations</title>
<para>
<para>
<simplelisttype="inline">
The Bugzilla Guide needs translators! Please volunteer your
<member>Matthew P. Barnson</member>
translation into the language of your choice. If you will
<member>Kevin Brannen</member>
translate this Guide, please notify the members of the
<member>Dawn Endico</member>
mozilla-webtools mailing list at
<member>Ben FrantzDale</member>
<email>mozilla-webtools@mozilla.org</email>, and arrange with
. While some of the advice is Mozilla-specific, the basic principles of
Before we plunge into writing your first bug report, I
reporting Reproducible, Specific bugs, isolating the Product you are
encourage you to read some bug-writing guidelines. If you
using, the Version of the Product, the Component which failed, the
are reading this document as part of a Bugzilla CVS checkout
Hardware Platform, and Operating System you were using at the time of
or un-tarred Bugzilla distribution, you should be able to
the failure go a long way toward ensuring accurate, responsible fixes
read them by clicking <ulink
for the bug that bit you.</para>
url="../../bugwritinghelp.html">here</ulink>. If you are reading this online, check out the Mozilla.org bug-writing guidelines at <ulinkurl="http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html">http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html</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>
<para>
While you are at it, why not learn how to find previously
<orderedlist>
reported bugs? Mozilla.org has published a great tutorial
url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/"> http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/</ulink> in your browser.
<listitem>
</para>
<para>Select a product - any one will do.</para>
</listitem>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<listitem>
Select the <ulink
<para>Fill in the fields. Bugzilla should have made reasonable
url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/enter_bug.cgi"> Enter a new bug report</ulink> link.
guesses, based upon your browser, for the "Platform" and "OS"
</para>
drop-down boxes. If they are wrong, change them.</para>
</listitem>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<listitem>
Select a product.
<para>Select "Commit" and send in your bug report.</para>
</para>
</listitem>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
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?).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Select a Component in the scrollbox.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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!
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Leave the "CC" text box blank. Fill in the "URL" box
with "http://www.mozilla.org".
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
Voila! Select "Commit" and send in your bug report! Next
we'll look at resolving bugs.
</para>
</section>
<sectionid="bug-manage">
<title>Managing your Bug Reports</title>
<para>
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.
</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
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".
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
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.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
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.
</para>
<para>
But I'll give a few last hints!
</para>
<para>
There is a <ulink
url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/help.html">CLUE</ulink> on the Query page that will teach you more how to use the form.
</para>
<para>
If you click the hyperlink on the <ulink
url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/describecomponents.cgi">Component</ulink> box of the Query page, you will be presented a form that will describe what all the components are.
</para>
<para>
Possibly the most powerful feature of the Query page is the
<ulink
url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/booleanchart.html">Boolean Chart</ulink> 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.
</para>
<para>
Finally, you can build some nifty <ulink
url="http://landfill.tequilarista.org/bugzilla-tip/reports.cgi">Reports</ulink> 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.
</para>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<sectionid="init4me">
<sectionid="init4me">
<title>User Preferences</title>
<title>Where can I find my user preferences?</title>
<epigraph>
<para>You can customise various aspects of Bugzilla, via the "Edit prefs"
<para>
link in the page footer, once you have logged in, e.g. to
Indiana, it feels like we walking on fortune cookies!
<para>On this tab, you can change your basic Account Settings,
On this page, you can change your basic Account Settings,
including your password, email address and real name. For security
including your password and full name. For security reasons,
reasons, in order to change anything on this page you must type your
in order to change anything on this page you must type your
<emphasis>current</emphasis>
<emphasis>current</emphasis> password into the <quote>Old
Password</quote> field. If you wish to change your
password into the
password, type the new password you want into the <quote>New
<quote>Password</quote>
Password</quote> field and again into the <quote>Re-enter
new password</quote> field to ensure you typed your new
field. If you attempt to change your email address, a confirmation
password correctly. Select the <quote>Submit</quote> button
email is sent to both the old and new addresses, with a link to use to
and you are done.
confirm the change. This helps to prevent account hijacking.</para>
</para>
</section>
</section>
<sectionid="emailsettings">
<sectionid="emailsettings">
<title>Email Settings</title>
<title>Email Settings</title>
<sectionid="notification"xreflabel="">
<para>On this tab you can reduce or increase the amount of email sent
<title>Email Notification</title>
you from Bugzilla, opting in our out depending on your relationship to
<para>
the bug and the change that was made to it. (Note that you can also do
Here you can reduce or increase the amount of email sent you
client-side filtering using the X-Bugzilla-Reason header which Bugzilla
from Bugzilla. Although this is referred to as
adds to all bugmail.)</para>
<quote>Advanced Email Filtering Options</quote>, they are,
in fact, the standard email filter set. All of them are
<para>By entering user email names, delineated by commas, into the
self-explanatory, but you can use the filters in interesting
"Users to watch" text entry box you can receive a copy of all the
ways. For instance, some people (notably Quality Assurance
bugmail of other users (security settings permitting.) This powerful
personnel) often only care to receive updates regarding a
functionality enables seamless transitions as developers change
bug when the bug changes state, so they can track bugs on
projects, managers wish to get in touch with the issues faced by their
their flow charts and know when it is time to pull the bug
direct reports, or users go on vacation.</para>
onto a quality assurance platform for inspection. Other
people set up email gateways to
<note>
<xreflinkend="bonsai"/> or <xreflinkend="tinderbox"/>, and
<para>This option may not be available in all Bugzilla installations.
restrict which types of Bugzilla information are fed to
Ask your administrator.</para>
these systems..
</note>
</para>
</section>
<sectionid="newemailtech">
<title>New Email Technology</title>
<note>
<para>
This option may not be available in all Bugzilla
installations, depending upon the preferences of the
systems administrator responsible for the setup of your
Bugzilla. However, if you really want this functionality,
ask her to "enable newemailtech in Params" and "make it
the default for all new users", referring her to the
Administration section of this Guide.
</para>
</note>
<para>
Disregard the warnings about "experimental and bleeding
edge"; the code to handle email in a cleaner manner than
that historically used for Bugzilla is quite robust and
well-tested now.
</para>
<para>
I recommend you enable the option, "Click here to sign up
(and risk any bugs)". Your email-box will thank you for it.
The fundamental shift in "newemailtech" is away from
standard UNIX "diff" output, which is quite ugly, to a
prettier, better laid-out email.
</para>
</section>
<sectionid="watchsettings">
<title>"Watching" Users</title>
<note>
<para>
This option may not be available in all Bugzilla
installations, depending upon the preferences of the
systems administrator responsible for the setup of your
Bugzilla. However, if you really want this functionality,
ask her to "enable watchers in Params".
</para>
</note>
<para>
By entering user email names into the "Users to watch" text
entry box, delineated by commas, you can watch bugs of other
users. 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. If any of these three situations
apply to you, you will undoubtedly find this feature quite
convenient.
</para>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<sectionid="footersettings">
<sectionid="footersettings">
<title>Page Footer</title>
<title>Page Footer</title>
<note>
<para>By default, this page is quite barren. However, if you explore
<para>
the Search page some more, you will find that you can store numerous
By default, this page is quite barren. However, go explore
queries on the server, so if you regularly run a particular query it is
the Query Page some more; you will find that you can store
just a drop-down menu away. Once you have a stored query, you can come
numerous queries on the server, so if you regularly run a
here to request that it also be displayed in your page footer.</para>
particular query it is just a drop-down menu away. On this
page of Preferences, if you have many stored queries you can
elect to have them always one-click away!
</para>
</note>
<para>
If you have many stored queries on the server, here you will
find individual drop-downs for each stored query. Each
drop-down gives you the option of that query appearing on the
footer of every page in Bugzilla! This gives you powerful
one-click access to any complex searches you may set up, and
is an excellent way to impress your boss...
</para>
<tip>
<para>By default, the "My Bugs" link appears at the bottom of
each page. However, this query gives you both the bugs you
have reported, as well as those you are assigned. One of
the most common uses for this page is to remove the "My
Bugs" link, replacing it with two other queries, commonly
called "My Bug Reports" and "My Bugs" (but only referencing
bugs assigned to you). This allows you to distinguish those
bugs you have reported from those you are assigned. I
commonly set up complex Boolean queries in the Query page
and link them to my footer in this page. When they are
significantly complex, a one-click reference can save hours
of work.</para>
</tip>
</section>
</section>
<sectionid="permissionsettings">
<sectionid="permissionsettings">
<title>Permissions</title>
<title>Permissions</title>
<para>
<para>This is a purely informative page which outlines your current
This is a purely informative page which outlines your current
permissions on this installation of Bugzilla - what product groups you
permissions on this installation of Bugzilla. If you have
are in, and whether you can edit bugs or perform various administration
permissions to grant certain permissions to other users, the
functions.</para>
"other users" link appears on this page as well as the footer.
For more information regarding user administration, please
consult the Administration section of this Guide.
</para>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<sectionid="usingbz-conc">
<title>Using Bugzilla-Conclusion</title>
<para>
Thank you for reading through this portion of the Bugzilla
Guide. I anticipate it may not yet meet the needs of all
readers. If you have additional comments or corrections to
make, please submit your contributions to the <ulink
url="mailto://mozilla-webtools@mozilla.org">mozilla-webtools</ulink> mailing list/newsgroup. The mailing list is mirrored to the netscape.public.mozilla.webtools newsgroup, and the newsgroup is mirrored to mozilla-webtools@mozilla.org
