Bugzilla

User Guide

Rev. 1.0
November 2005
Copyright© 2005 ABC Corporation
All Rights Reserved
Printed in U.S.A.

Notice
Every effort was made to ensure that the information in this document was complete and
accurate at the time of printing. However, information is subject to change.

Rev. 1.0, 11/17/2005

 User Guide

Contents

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

Who This Guide Is For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
What Is In This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Conventions Used In This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
Bugzilla Main Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
Bugzilla Footer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

2 Bug Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
Entering a New Bug. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
Accepting and Resolving a Bug. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
Verifying and Closing a Bug. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
View Bug Activity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7

3 Bugzilla Bug Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
Basic Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1
— Accessing the Basic Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Advanced Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

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 ABC Corporation

Contents - cont.

— Accessing the Advanced Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

— Using the Advanced Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Single Bug Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
— Using the Single Bug Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Search Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7
— Customizing the Bug List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7
— Viewing the Bug Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8
Save a Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

ii Bugzilla User Guide

 About This Guide

Who This Guide Is For

This user guide is intended to be used by the end-users of Bugzilla.

What Is In This Guide

This guide contains an overview of Bugzilla and simple steps to get
started using Bugzilla.
Below is a summary of each chapter in this guide:
Chapter 1, "Getting Started" : This chapter provides an overview of the
Bugzilla and shows you how to access and navigate through the
system.
Chapter 2, "Bug Life Cycle" ; This chapter provides instructions on how
to enter, modify and close a bug.
Chapter 3, "Bugzilla Bug Search" ; This chapter provides instructions on
how to access and use the search functions.

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Conventions Used In This Guide
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
• Blue underlined text insets are hyperlinks. If you are read-
ing this document online, click on the hypertext to jump
to the referenced location. e.g., "proceed to Step 2."

iv Bugzilla
User Guide
 1 Getting Started

Overview
This chapter covers:
• Bugzilla Main Page
• Bugzilla Footer

Bugzilla Main Page

When you access the Bugzilla system from the Wiki website, the
Bugzilla Main Page is displayed. The main page contains links to major
functions of Bugzilla including searching for bugs, entering a new bug,
generating reports or accessing your user preferences. Depending on
your task, click the appropriate link to access.
In order to access the system, you need to have auser name and
password. Your email address serves as you user name and your
password can be obtained by the system administrator.

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Getting Started

Figure 1-1 Bugzilla Main Page

Bugzilla Footer
The footer is located at the bottom on the every page in a pale
yellow box. There are three different rows of information in the
footer; Actions, Edit, and Saved Searches. The Action row
provides links to the different functions or "actions" of Bugzilla.
The Edit row displays the areas you have the ability to edit. The
Saved Searches row displays links to searches you have saved.
To learn how to save a search, go to Save a Search.

Figure 1-2 Footer

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 2 Bug Life Cycle

Overview
This section covers:
• Entering a New Bug
• Accepting and Resolving a Bug
• Verifying and Closing a Bug

Entering a New Bug

You are required to enter a bug for all reported bugs, problems and
questions from a customer. As soon as you can, enter the bug into
Bugzilla to keep timely reporting. Bugs for internal problems and
questions should also be entered.
To enter a new bug into Bugzilla, do the following steps:

Procedure
1. Click the "New" link on the Actions row in the footer or the
"Enter a New Bug Report" link on the home page. This displays

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Bug Life Cycle

the product list.

Figure 2-1 Product List

2. Select a product from the product list. This displays the
bug entry screen.

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 Entering a New Bug

Figure 2-2 Bug Entry Screen

3. Select a version number from the Version combo box.

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Bug Life Cycle

4. Select a component from the Component combo box. This

populates the Assigned To field with the person responsi-
ble for the selected component.
NOTE: If you want to see who is assigned to each component, click the
Component link. This displays all of the components and their assigned users in
a new window.

5. Select a customer from the drop-down menu.

6. If you have a contact person associated with the bug,
enter the contact information in the text box. (Not
required for submission)
7. Select a severity level from the drop-down menu.
8. Select a priority from the drop-down menu. (Not required
for submission)
9. Since the Component field populates the Assign To, you
do not have to enter a user. If you want to assign the bug
to another user, clear out the text box and enter another
username.
NOTE: You can only assign a bug to user in the system. The bug submission is
rejected if the user does not exist.

10. If you want to send a copy of the bug to other users,

select their username(s) from the CC combo box. (Not
required for submission)
11. If you want to include the URL of the page where the
error occurred, enter it in the URL text box. (Not required
for submission)
12. Enter a short description in the Summary text box.

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 Accepting and Resolving a Bug

13. Enter all of the details of the bug in the description text
box.
NOTE: For the most effective bug reporting, Bugzilla provides guidelines on
how to enter useful bug reports. At the top of the Bug Entry screen, there is a
"bug writing guidelines" link.

14. If the bug depends on another bug(s), enter the bug

number(s) in the Depends On text box. (Not required for
submission)
15. If the bug blocks on another bug(s), enter the bug num-
ber(s) in the Blocks text box. (Not required for submis-
sion)
16. If the bug is closed before the bug is entered or a ques-
tion is answered on the same call, mark the bug as Closed
using the checkbox at the bottom of the screen. (Not
required for submission)
17. Click the Commit button.
Stop! End of Task.
After you commit the bug, a confirmation screen with the details
of the bug is displayed. Depending on the user preferences of the
user assigned to the bug, Bugzilla sends an email with a link to
the bug. This informs the assigned user that a bug has been
submitted.

Accepting and Resolving a Bug

After a bug is submitted, the assigned user is notified by email. If
you are the assigned user, you have several options.
The options include:
• Leave as NEW

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Bug Life Cycle

• Accept bug (change status to ASSIGNED)

• Resolve bug, changing resolution to Fixed or Invalid.
• Resolve bug, mark it as duplicate of bug # ____
• Reassign bug to a selected user
• Reassign bug to owner or QA contact of selected compo-
nent
In normal circumstances, you accept the bug. After you accept,
the status of the bug is set to ASSIGNED. You or any other user
can modify any field of the bug or add new comments. Once you
assess the bug and take the appropriate action to fix the problem,
change the resolution to the appropriate selection.

Figure 2-3 Select Status of Bug

Verifying and Closing a Bug

Once the bug is resolved, the QA or tester needs to verify the
bug has been resolved. If you are the QA person, you are notified
of the fix and need to verify the problem has been fixed in the
system. If the you satisfied with the fix, change the status of the
bug to CLOSED. If the customer also needs to approve the fix,
mark the bug as VERIFIED. If you are not satisfied, you have the

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 View Bug Activity

option to reopen the bug to restart the process.

Figure 2-4 Select Status of Bug

Even after a bug is statused as CLOSED, it can be reopened if the
problem occurs again.

View Bug Activity

Since the status of a bug can constantly change, sometimes it is
necessary to view the activity of the bug. Bugzilla captures all of
the changes made to each bug. The who, what, when, added and
removed information is captured.

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Bug Life Cycle

Figure 2-5 Activity Log

To access the activity log, open the bug you want to view and
click the "View Bug Activity" link which is located below the
Commit button. To return to the bug details, click the "Back to
bug <#>" link.

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 3 Bugzilla Bug
Search
Overview
This section covers:
• Basic Search
• Advanced Search
• Single Bug Search
• Search Results
• Save a Search
Above, the first three items are the three methods to search for bugs in
Bugzilla. The fourth item explains the search results. The fifth item
describes how to save a search.

Basic Search
The basic search function allows you to search on three fields; status,
product and keywords. It is a simple search to help you quickly look for
a bug. It also allows you to search for all of the bugs.

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Bugzilla Bug Search

Accessing the Basic When you click the Search link in the footer, one of the two
Search searches; "Find a Specific Bug" (basic search) or advanced search
screen is displayed. Depending on the last search screen you
visited, that search page is displayed. If the "Find a Specific Bug"
screen is not displayed, click the “Find a Specific Bug” link on
the top of the page.

Figure 3-1 "Find a Specific Bug" Search Screen

You can select Open, Closed or All for the status drop-down
menu. The drop-down list for Product contains all of the
products available in the database. The default value for Product
is “All”. The Words field is available to enter text that describes
the bug. This field searches the Summary and Description fields
in a bug. If this field is left blank, Bugzilla displays all of the bugs
that meet the Status and Product criteria. If “All” is selected for
the Status and Product fields and the Words field is left blank,
Bugzilla displays all of the bugs in the system. After you run a
search, the Bug List is displayed with the results.

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 Advanced Search

Advanced Search

Accessing the Advanced To access the advanced search screen, click the Search link in the
Search Actions row in the footer. Depending on the last search screen
you visited, that search page is displayed. If the "Advanced
Search" screen is not displayed, click the “Advanced Search” link

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Bugzilla Bug Search

on the top of the page.

Figure 3-2 Advanced Search Screen

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 Single Bug Search

Using the Advanced The advanced search allows you to search by every field in the
Search database. It also provides flexibility to search on multiple fields
at one time, such as selecting multiple statuses or severities.
Since select and entering search criteria for the advanced search
screen can be cumbersome, there is a checkbox that remembers
the search options as defaults.

Single Bug Search

Using the Single Bug If you know the number of the bug you are looking for, Bugzilla
Search provides a quick search in the footer on every screen. On the
right of the Search link in the Actions row, enter the number of
the bug in the field labeled bug# and click the Find button. This

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Bugzilla Bug Search

displays the Bugzilla Bug details screen.

Figure 3-3 Bugzilla Bug

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 Search Results

Search Results
After you click the Search button on the basic or advanced search
screen, the Bug List is displayed with the search results.

Figure 3-4 Bug List

Customizing the Bug The bug list contains several customizing features. First, the
List columns can be sorted in ascending and descending order. The
format of the list can also be expanded to display all of the fields
by clicking the Long Format button. There are also two
download features that allow you to download the list in .csv
and .ics format. The final feature allows you to change the
columns being displayed.

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Bugzilla Bug Search

Viewing the Bug Report To view a bug report, click the link of the bug you want to view.
After you make a change to a bug, the bug report confirmation
page is displayed. Click the Show List link to return to the search
results. The bug list also allows you to change several bugs at
once.

Save a Search
If you repeatedly run the same search, Bugzilla allows you to
save the search. Bugzilla creates links in the footer of the page
that perform a saved search when the link is clicked. After you
run a search, you can save the search from the Bug List screen.
To save a search, do the following steps:

Procedure
1. Run the search you want to save.
2. When the search is complete, enter a name for the search
in the Remember Search text field, which is located on the
bottom of the screen.
3. Click the Remember Search button to save. A message is
displayed stating, “OK, you have a new search named
Some Bugs” and a link is added in the footer in the Saved
Searches row.
Stop! End of Task.
If you save a search and want to modify or delete the search, go
to the Saved Searches tab in the Prefs section.
There is also a Saved Search link labeled My Bugs. This search
displays all of the bugs assigned to you. This is a default search
link when the user account is created.

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