NAME

Webhelp - help for the web interface

DESCRIPTION

Help for users of the web interface, searching, objects and their fields, etc.

SEARCH

mask

The search mask has no pre-selected entries, click query and an indiscriminate list of all the bugs in the database will be returned.

Filterering is achieved by selecting options from the popup menus, or entering data in the text fields, as described below.

Once an item is returned for viewing, links to it's constituent parts may be followed.

The following describe fields not described under "OBJECTS" below.

admin

List of active administrators who are registered against 1 or more bugs.

and_or

Boolean switch to decide whether or not to AND or to OR the query fields together, in the creation of the SQL search query.

asc_desc

Determine whether to return records found in ASCENDING or DESCENDING order.

dates

Restrict records created on or after the selected date.

Note that you can also construct a query to retrieve the bugs since this Christmas by using something of the form:

http://bugs.perl.org/perlbug/perlbug.cgi?req=date&date=20001225

Usage of a valid 8 figure date is recommended, otherwise you're on your own :-)

format

Determine the display format of the records found. This for example, means you can still get an ascii list (for applying a script against, perhaps), even while using the web frontend which naturally has the default return format in HTML form.

message_id

The contents of the actual Message-Id: field belonging to each bug or reply.

restrict

Restrict the number of found records to the given number. Also divides the remainder up into similarly sized chunks for convenient browsing thereafter.

messages

Restrict returns to bugs which have this many messages/replies in the thread.

show_sql

Display the SQL executed. This may help to pinpoint problems where searches are not returning expected results.

wildcards

All text fields are searched using the SQL LIKE operator. "bugid", "noteid", "patchid", "testid", "version", "change" and /fixed fields are used as seen, that is, if a wildcard is not provided, one will not be used.

Conversly subject, body and source address fields have % pre-placed around the search query by default.

What this means is that entering 20001122., in the bugid field, will probably not return much, but 20001122.%' might. Of course a complete bugid could be entered on it's own eg: 20001122.003 Whereas entering only strict in the subject field will still use %strict% during the search.

The available SQL wildcards: any single character _ and none or more characters % are allowed in all fields. Note also that for convenience(?), an asterisk(*) will be simply mapped to the sql wildcard %'.

N.B. It can be a good idea to use the "show_sql" switch to display what's being searched for.

retrieval

Bugs are initially returned in either list or block format, with an optional trimming mechanism which defaults to 25. At the base of the page is a list of all the other bugs found during the query, sectioned into similarly managable portions. The list format is designed for quickly moving around a list of bugs, while the block format is aimed at finding all information relating to said bug, without having to hop around.

DESCRIPTION

OBJECTS

Certain fields are common to all objects:

created

The date this record was created in the database.

modified

The date this record was in some way modified.

history

The list of all modifications to each item, and who submitted them.

BUG

The main potato:

bugid

The internally generated bugid.

subject

The subject line of the original report.

source_addr

Usually the From: address of the original report.

body

The body of the original message which generated the bug report.

During a web search, the bodies of all messages in the database will be inspected, unless the boolean "and_or" switch AND is selected whereby the search criteria is narrowed down.

status

The status of the bug, with the following options:

abandoned   -	no longer worked on

busy        -	currently being looked at by an administrator

closed      -	considered fixed

duplicate   -	a report erroneously filed a second time

ok          -	a 'build reported OK:' report, (not the same as closed)

onhold      -	undecided as to whether this is a bug or not

open        -	undealt with, needing attention

category

The category of the bug has the following options:

bounce      -	report had invalid format, common with spam mail

core        -	central functionality affected

docs        -	not a code bug, a docs bug (or typo)

install     -	bug in the installation procedure

library     -	not a central routine, rather a library or module bug

notabug     -	at all, could be misread instructions or even spam

patch       -	this fixed another bug

unknown     -	first port of call, bug usually assigned to another valid group	

utilities   -	a utility function misbehaved

severity

The severity of the bug has the following options, in descending order or severity:

fatal       -	top priority!

high        -	non-fatal, but has to be fixed quickly

medium      -	should be fixed soon

low         -	would be good to fix when time permits

wishlist    -	would be nice to have someone look at this sometime

none        -	a bit like 'wishlist' but more so

osname

The name of the operating system this report was generated on:

Many differing values possible.

aix, dec, hpux, irix, linux, macos, next, os2, solaris, vms, winnt, etc.

...	

project

The Project, which currently uses the

perl4		- once 

perl5		- and [now]

perl6		- future

...

VERSIONING

There are several field relating to versions, patches, changes which may at first be somewhat inter-related.

version

The version against which this report was first noticed/generated.

Typically has one of the following forms:

5

5.0053

5.00.5.3

5.6

5.6.0

5.7.1

...

fixed

The version in which this bug was fixed, same format as "version" above.

change

The changeID of the target source for the fix. this is an external reference about which we know very little.

Typically has one of the following forms:

5

5810

0053

...

history

History of administrative operations against this bug, changes of status/category, etc..

cc

List of email addresses for this bug. Will contain the source address, any adminitrator who has modified the bug record, and any people who have been on the Cc: list of any of the messages assigned to this bug.

messagids

The internal-ids of messages belonging to this bug (replies).

Not to be confused with the externally supplied "message_id"'s of each email.

parent

The "bugid" of any other bug to which this bug may belong.

child

The "bugid" of any other bug which belongs to this bug.

DESCRIPTION

NOTE

An administrator can assign a note to a bug when he/she modifies it.

note

The body of the note.

noteid

The internally generated noteid.

DESCRIPTION

PATCH

A bug may be fixed by a patch, this can be assigned along with a "changeid".

Bear in mind the difference between the internally generated /patchid and the externally offered /changeid.

patch

The body of the patch.

patchid

The internally generated patchid.

DESCRIPTION

TEST

A test may be assigned to a bug, if the test succeeds the bug may be regarded as fixed.

test

The body of the test.

testid

The internally generated testid.

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

Richard Foley <richard@rfi.net> 2001