Wikipedia:Bugzilla
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Upon discovering a bug in MediaWiki (the software powering the Wikimedia wikis), please report it on our bug tracker.
Bugzilla lets you report bugs with the MediaWiki software, technical problems with the Wikimedia sites, and make Wikipedia:feature requests. You can head over to our bugzilla right now, or read the detailed instructions below first.
Bugzilla is a tool for software developers, not a discussion forum. To discuss bug reports and feature requests, use the wikitech-l mailing list.
Before you enter a new bug, it's best to check whether it has already been reported by searching for bugs. You need to login to bugzilla before you can add a new bug.
Article content errors are not considered bugs, so do not report them, but rather discuss them on the article's discussion page or fix them yourself.
Contents |
[edit] About Bugzilla
Bugzilla is a bug reporting tool and organization system used by many software projects. Wikimedia's installation at bugzilla.wikimedia.org has been customised for the MediaWiki software and the Wikimedia sites that use it. Bugzilla is also used to handle feature requests.
Our bugzilla was launched in August 2004 to replace the old MediaWiki bug tracker at SourceForge.
[edit] How to use Bugzilla
[edit] Searching for bugs
Use the query or quicksearch pages to find reported bugs.
The query page includes some drop down boxes to narrow down your search. If you want to be really specific in your search, go to the advanced query form. There are 3000 words of help on this at queryhelp. There is also a quicksearchhack form.
You can type one or more words or word fragments. The search is not case-sensitive. "Bookmark" will find "bookmark", "Bookmarks", "bookmarking" etc. You can add various operators to your search. Use a minus sign for "not", a space for "and" and a pipe or comma for "or". For example "login,logout cookie,password" will search for "(login or logout) AND (cookie or password).
By default, only open (unfixed) bugs are shown. Add "ALL" at the start of your search to find closed ones too.
There are more tips on the quicksearch page.
[edit] Login
You must create a new account or login to an existing one before adding a bug. You only need to give your email address, and a password will be sent to you straight away. Your login name will be your email address. Your email address will be visible on any report you make, and on any votes you cast, to anyone visiting the site (hence the address might get harvested by spambots, so beware and take any anti-spam precautions if you care). Your email address is important in case the developer needs more information about how to reproduce the bug. It also allows you to receive updates on your bug. You can customise your email options on the email preferences page. If you are logged in, this page allows you to decide when you want to receive emails. For example, for new Comments added to your bug, or for all changes to your bug.
[edit] Enter a new bug
Go to the enter new bug page. First, you must pick a "product" on which to enter a bug. For example, is the bug about the MediaWiki software or about the configuration of the site? Click the one that seems best.
On the next page, you will see a form like the one in the screenshot below. Make sure you fill in at least the summary (a title for the bug) and the description. Fill in the other boxes if you know them, but don't worry so much about those. Some of them will be filled in automatically for you.
There are links on the enter bugs page that explain in detail what each field means.
Well written bug reports are likely to be dealt with more quickly, so see the bug writing guidelines for advice on writing the perfect bug report. Good bug reports will include your operating system, which browser you use, and your user settings such as skin and quickbar options. If your problem is visual, attaching a screen shot is a good idea.
[edit] Updates on your bug
You will be emailed with updates on the status of your bug. Sometimes developers may reject, or misunderstand a bug report or feature request and close a report that you think is still valid. If you believe there's still an issue, you can reopen it and try to make a better explanation, or you can take it to the mailing list. If you do not want to get updates on your bug, you can state this in your email preferences.
[edit] Vote for a bug
If AfD and RfA haven't made you bored of voting already, come and vote for a bug!
Use the search form to find a bug, then click on the "Vote for this bug" link that appears just above the "Additional Comments" field. Each user can assign one vote to each bug. You have 1000 votes per product (that is 1000 votes relating to MediaWiki and 1000 votes relating to the Wikimedia web sites and 1000 votes for MediaWiki extensions). You can change your mind later and remove your vote by going to your "my votes" page. You will automatically get an email notifying you of any changes that occur on bugs you vote for unless you disable this in your email preferences.
There is no guarantee that the number of votes will influence which bugs the developers choose to work on.
See also voting help.
[edit] Other features
- Bug graphs can be made on the generate table report page.
- Random quotes are shown at the top of the buglist. You can add new ones to the quipslist.
- You can view all new bugs (ones that have not yet been assigned to a developer) on the new bugs list.
- If you use Mozilla or Netscape 6, you can add the bugs page to your sidebar using the link on the main page.
