BMO/How to Use Bugzilla

How to use Bugzilla(.mozilla.org)

This is meant as a draft for a new spin on the Bugzilla Users' Guide that is specific to bugzilla.mozilla.org users -- bug reporters, people submitting fixes, code reviewers, triagers, release teams, and others.

BMO vs Bugzilla

What is Bugzilla, what is bmo, and how are they different?

Reporting a bug

To report a bug, you will need an account on bugzilla.mozilla.org. Bug triagers, developers, and QA folks will need to be able to understand and reproduce the bug. It helps to give the bug a specific and descriptive "summary" which functions as the title of the bug.

• Describe the exact steps to make the bug happen again.
• Attach a screen shot or code, or link to a page, if that will help others understand the bug.

If you're new to bugzilla.mozilla.org, you'll see the Guided Bug Entry form. This form walks you through three steps in filing a bug.

(screenshots with annotation)

There's a detailed guide to making your bug as well formed as possible, the writing guidelines on MDN.

needinfo flag

it's good and you should use it

dashboards

trying to answer the "what should i do today" question? go no further than the dashboards.

Products and components

Explain a bit and link to their descriptions, and the module owners page

Searching bugzilla.mozilla.org

Why do we have so many ways to search bmo, and how do they work?

Quicksearch

Quickseach rocks! You should use it.

Advanced search

Advanced search looks hardcore, but the rewards for learning how to drive it are plentiful.

Search pronouns

also, pronouns are amazing

Bugmail

bugmail filtering (via x- headers)

too much bugmail? filter!

Bug tagging

want to organise or keep track on bugs which are important to you? use tags.

Keywords and whiteboard

What are all these keywords and weird whiteboard stuff? what is a whiteboard anyhow? which should i use?

tracking flags

tracking-firefox-25? who's doing the tracking? should i even set these flags? When and why?

api (xmlrpc, jsonrpc, jsonp, rest)

I hear you want to integrate with bmo. where to start, what to do next, and best practices which won't get you blocked

copy of bmo database

Before you point wget at bmo, we can give you a dump of the database. really.

custom reports

For when advanced searching isn't advanced enough .. ask a bmo developer to write you a custom report.

whining

bugzilla can automatically send you buglists (requires canconfirm)