Bug Triage Extension

Project Name

Bug Triage Extension - Buggy Bar

Project Description

Mike Beltzner suggested this one after his talk. The idea is to make it trivial for testers to follow-through a bug's Steps To Reproduce (STR) so as to confirm it. A tester should be able to use this Extension to ask for a bug (i.e., one would be picked for him/her--no querying) and then a sidebar or similar would appear showing the steps to follow. Under that would need to be a way (e.g., buttons) to say that the bug is confirmed or not. Ideally the QA team could prioritize bugs so they appear in this list automatically, making it easier for testers to get the "right" bugs quickly.

Reference: talk to beltzner.

Project Leader(s)

• David Hamp-Gonsalves
  • buggybar@gmail.com

Project Contributor(s)

• Jeff Mossop - Created Images for the Bug Triage Extension - Click Here to View
  
• Liz Chak - logo, testing

Project Status

13/12/2006

Buggy Bars First Release!
With the first release out There are still a long list of things to do. While the first release supports all the initial requested functionality it doesn't have much error checking and other areas are lacking as well. I want to overhaul the back end and fix some areas that were coded poorly because of my inexperience with javascript and also the icons and images for the project which will be done by my friend and graphic designer Rich Lawson. For the next release I'm expecting these areas to be fixed and I hope to release it public use. Currently I am looking for suggestions about changes and improvements and looking for testers and I can be reached at buggybar@gmail.com

17/12/2006

waiting for account approval to get buggy bar on the firefox extension page. Rich Lawson finished the buggy bar logo and I did the new buttons:

18/12/2006

the buggy bar is now on the Firefox add-ons page. New design first draft completed. Received first suggestion questions.

5/01/2007

hit over 1000 downloads and got a mention on the mozillazine QA blog thanks to robcee: weblogs.mozillazine.org/qa

31/01/2007

Release 0.2 is out and about and will be on the add-ons site soon as user testing has been finished

21/04/2008

Release 0.3 is out and will be on the add-ons site soon, other then that the project is done

Project News

• first try at creating a FF extension
• emailed beltzner
• release 0.1
• release 0.2
• release 0.3

• Spoke to robcee and jay on irc, and they are both interested in following this and helping out. Jay is going to be away until Oct 16. Contact him then. (dave)

• Research time: lots of IRC talk, web searching, and such. Mostly XPCOM stuff and ways to handle the database connectivity, also a bit of java but I've put that idea aside. Looking for an existing XPCOM componet that can handle this.

• New good link added: http://www.allpeers.com/blog/creating-complex-firefox-extensions

• possiable answer to database connection stuff: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mozilla/2002/12/17/app_dev.html?page=last
• working on installing SQL functionality:
  • https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81653
  • http://eu.mozdev.org/Brussels2003/talks/jan/index.html
  • http://www.mozilla.org/projects/sql/
• rethink...
• talked to Dave Humphrey and Reed got some new ideas
• back on track, bugzilla offers a webservice interface... but the api for it is still in the works.
• learning how to connect to webservice through extension
• away from October 14th-19th,2006
• no much on the XMLRPC webservice api for bugzilla 2.23.3 but more is being added all the time. http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/tip/html/api/index.html
• because of the bugzilla web services delays I have decided I can't wait any longer and am going to do what I can now. This is try two at extension development. I've decided to post whatever I have at the end of every work session, this was only about an hour and a half while eating dinner but its a step in the right direction.
• I finally had more time to work on the extension again. This release actually does something which is nice.
  • created build scripts for linux/windows
  • possible name:buggy bar
  • downloads top hottest bugs and displays them in a list
  • progress bar for refreshing list
  • designed screens and feature list
  • separated bugzilla facing code from GUI code to make future switch to web service based connections easier

• I'm going to try and release as soon as possible again but this week is jammed with school work, I'm expecting to release again in a week.
• I'm also looking for better name and a logo if anyone wants an easy way contribute. If I use it I'll add you.
• I pushed back my other work and got another update in before the busy week started. I started adding the preferences as well as started the view bug specs feature.
• new version more features
• new version is getting closer, right now the preferences is set up pretty good but they have to be manually changed. You can alter the rows of each bug to view, and the bugzilla instance to hit in the preferences.
• new version fixes some html parsing problems, adds two new features: the view bug page button and the send email button.
• preferences added, and search and better html tag stripping
• exams so not much time, but I've been fixing things and looking at bugzilla code to overcome final update hurdle will post new version soon.
• >Break Through< the buggy bar finally updated its first bug on landfill. finally fixed some bugs after working through some wrong information and finally getting the XmlRequest post methods to work. Will have new version up tonight or tomorrow but I've postponed studying for long enough so I'll have to do that first.
• Save functionality update with some extras
  • added new bugaccess class which uses the XML format for bugspecs.
  • Save functionality works on bugzilla 2.20.3 and onwards
  • Fast bugzilla instance switching from a drop down on buglist tab
  • Will make old pure html parsing bugAccess class an option for older bugzilla versions. Save functionality works on bugzilla 2.20.3 and onwards but the mozilla instance is 2.20 so it has a bug but you can test it on the landfill instances, still waiting for my new account on the 2.18 instance to see if that one works. also fixed some things up in the back end, going to rip out the field handling soon and stick a nice object in there. Oh and the save feature shows the results in the main window I'll finish that up later.
• after some more research and some talk on the irc.mozilla.org channel #webtools I found out that the problem with the current(12/12/2006) instance of bugzilla is limited to that one subversion(2.20.0) and in 2 weeks bugzilla will be updated. This being the case I'm not planning on supporting the version currently, later I could but It seams like a small user group so its not a big deal now.
• added better searching for the "steps to reproduce" and now if not found the output label changes to more understandable text
• Buggy Bars first release!
  • features
  • view hot bug list
  • view individual bugs specs
  • customize field options
  • change bugs from "NEW" or "UNCONFIRMED" status to "CONFIRMED" or "ASSIGNED"
    • screen shot1
    • screen shot2
    • screen shot3
  • download here! and try it out!
• completed user input phase and completed new paper design. now its back into the code. started by putting totalField in bugSpecs. more to come
• rewrote preferences section into much nicer object. Now instances have their own login information as well as can read an XML file to determine the status options or can use the default mozilla one. Also moved options to its own section. Next I'll be working on fields which will be a big part. I wont be releasing until I get a version that works, currently some portions don't work with other portions and it will break if you don't know how to use it. I've also been talking to the QA guys about writing a similar extension for litmus and test day.
• more work on ver 0.2. Integrated new Pref management system with rest of code. Fixed some bugs in Pref management system and its now at the point it was in ver 0.1 from a functional stand point. Next I'll be setting up the bug list options in the preference management system. I'll post a work in progress by the end of the weekend.
• implemented new feature using new pref management system so remember current instance when buggy bar is closed or Firefox is shutdown. A small one but a good one, now I'll start on the new bugList options. Also fixed some bugs, end of weekend release still pending.
• ok I was a bit late on this development release but here it is : buggybar-dev-0.1.2.xpi. This version has the newer preference system although still incomplete. This allows a user name and passwrd to be set for each instance as well as the buglist parameters to be set by instance. the preferences for this version can be found on the add-ons window and then click the options button for buggy bar.
• fixed some little bugs after some questions from current users as well as changed the pref manager so that passwords are stored in the password manager. Also you can set up many of the same instances so you can have different accounts with different bug list settings. I'm also trying to figure out how those settings should be set for both search and buglist as most of the fields (ie: product, status, etc.) are instance specific so I may have to pull them from the xml file. Right now you have to manually create the url fields.
• more progress with the xml file portions implemented, specific search almost done, bug access cleaned up some and some more fixes. Next I'm going to finish the specific search and the xml file portion and then I'll post a dev release. I'm hoping to have a full public release in the near future.
• Had a sick day from school so I got some more done. This dev release is looking much better with the search working along with the removal of the old preference code and some other small additions such as being able to load each area (bug list, bug search, and bug details) into the main browser window. Next I'm going to finish the status and knob stuff which ties into the instance specific xml file. buggybar-dev-0.1.3.xpi
• Finished bugzilla login and it works pretty well, just one last feature and its release time!
• Finished bugzilla instance specific commit options XML parsing. This completes the the feature list for ver 0.2 and once I finish documenting and setting up the add-ons pages this version will be posted.
• BuggyBar 0.2 Release!
  • supports login and storing of user name and passwords using the pref manager
  • completely redone preference manager which allows:
    • setting up multiple profiles for each instance each with user name, password and custom XML specs file
    • able to set the buglist url parameters used for each instance for customization
    • in its own window which is under buggybar options in the add-ons window
  • Instance spesific information can be set by creating new instance files in XML: example file
    • you can set product list for search and status and know actions
  • Specific bug search is now available for fast finding of bugs
  • all areas can be transfered into main window at any time
  • instance selector is always availiable
  • download it here and try it out!
• ver 0.2.1 Modified bugAccess to be less picky about bugList syntax to support some other Bugzilla instances. Download ver 0.2 above for changes
• ver 0.2.2 made some more small changes to bug list so it has actual columns and modified some back end code. Change log will be coming soon as I get a chance.
• I have a cast on my foot for the next two weeks without much to do so I updated this to work on FF3
  • ver 0.3

Example XML Bugzilla Instance File

This file is the default bug instance file which is meant for the Mozilla instance. It can be used for reference when designing a new file for another instance. This file defines three main things. First the product list which is used by the specific search. Second the bug statuses and what statuses each one can be changed to. Finally it defines the "Knob" for each status which is the parameter used by Bugzilla to change these statuses.

• This file can be downloaded here

Extension Progress

• 01/11/2006 -> press shift + ctrl + b
• 02/11/2006 -> start firefox with console open(firefox -console) press shift + ctrl + b
• 02/11/2006 -> open the buggy bar under view -> sidebars
• 02/11/2006 -> screen shot
• 27/11/2006
• 28/11/2006 -> screen shot
• 28/11/2006
• 29/11/2006
  • screen shot1
  • screen shot2
  • screen shot3
• 11/12/2006 -> screen shots coming for next release
• 13/12/2006
  • screen shot1
  • screen shot2
  • screen shot3
• small addition to version 0.1 just changed the XUL as part of a user request so that it would remain functional even at a smaller size. This was only done in this version because it doesn't affect the actual code and is essential for many users. 0.2 is on the way and I'm in the design phase with some draft diagrams already completed.
  • 0.1.1
• 0.1.2
• 0.1.3
• 0.2
• 0.3

Releases

13/12/2006 - buggybar 0.1
31/01/2007 - buggybar 0.2 21/04/2008 - buggybar 0.3

Source

This being a Fire Fox extension you can just rename the "*.xpi" to "*.zip" and unzip the file to view source.

To Do 0.1(striked out means complete)

• create user preferences feature
• switch html special character back to original character
• view bug specs feature
  • steps to reproduce
  • summary
  • etc
• login to bugzilla feature
• control bug list search parameters
• update bug
• allow for bugxilla instances to be saved and selected
• rip field code out and put it in object (will not be done)
• use XML for bug Specs

To Do 0.2(striked out means complete)

• incorporate user input
• code overhaul
• support all bug status changes
• comment code
• create button images
• decide on logo
• allow setting buglist search parameters
• allow searches with full search parameters
• move preferences to own window
• alert when empty list returns or if a bug doesn't exist

To Do 0.3(striked out means complete)

• code conditional password management to support ff2 and ff3

Project Resources

• http://www.allpeers.com/blog/creating-complex-firefox-extensions

• http://www.borngeek.com/firefox/tutorial/

• http://roachfiend.com/archives/2004/12/08/how-to-create-firefox-extensions/
• http://www.orablogs.com/duffblog/archives/000536.html
• http://www.bengoodger.com/software/mb/extensions/howto.html