QA/Bugzilla/Reports

This page is about Reports in Bugzilla.

What are Reports?
Reports are "a view of the current state of the Bugzilla database"

New Charts
One of the types of reports that Bugzilla can provide is so-called "New Charts". Don't let the name deceive you -- New Charts have been around since at least Bugzilla 2.18 (released in 2005). I'll let the docs from 2.18 tell you all about them:

Bugzilla currently has two charting systems - Old Charts and New Charts. Old Charts have been part of Bugzilla for a long time; they chart each status and resolution for each product, and that's all. They are deprecated, and going away soon - we won't say any more about them. New Charts are the future - they allow you to chart anything you can define as a search.

In what is probably a surprise to none of you, guess what's happened to Old Charts over the last decade? That's right: absolutely nothing. They're easy to use, and they've never been removed.

There aren't a lot of docs about the New Charts, or about creating data sets, so we'll go over that in more detail here.

Creating New Data Sets
The Bugzilla docs are very terse regarding the creation of new data sets:

You may also create new data sets of your own. To do this, click the "create a new data set" link on the Create Chart page. This takes you to a search-like interface where you can define the search that Bugzilla will plot. At the bottom of the page, you choose the category, sub-category and name of your new data set. If you have sufficient permissions, you can make the data set public, and reduce the frequency of data collection to less than the default seven days.

Let's walk through this process so it's clearer for you.

Getting Started

 * Navigate to the New Charts page:
 * Bugzilla Main Page -> Reports -> New Charts


 * Under the Create New Data Set heading, click the button Create a new data set
 * The page will change to the Bug Query interface. You'll use these tools to create a query that can be run periodically

Selecting Your Filter
I want to keep track of how many NEW bugs we have in LibreOffice each week, so I'll select
 * Product: LibreOffice
 * Status: NEW

If you scroll down towards the end of the page, you can click the Run Search button to see a real-time search of what this new data set will track. It's really important to do a dry-run of a query, especially if it's something complicated, as the actually collection of data can take multiple weeks!


 * If the search results look good, hit the Back button in your browser, and continue reading down the page.

Data Set Parameters
The Data Set Parameters section is somewhat confusing to me. As far as I can tell, this is just a way of categorizing the available data sets so that it's easier for you to find them later when you want to graph them.

Because my query was for LibreOffice bugs with Status:NEW, I'm going to choose
 * Category: LibreOffice
 * Sub-category: All
 * Name: NEW_set

In another super-confusing interface choice, those greyed-out text boxes below the selection elements aren't off-limits to you. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom in Category or Sub-category, you can select "New (name below)", and then add your own text to the (now-available) text box. So I could instead file my new data set under:
 * Category: Useful Data Sets
 * Sub-category: Bug Status Sets
 * Name: NEW bugs

Depending upon your privilege level, you may be able to alter the Run every day(s) parameter. Unless it's necessary, it's probably best to stick to a weekly schedule, as it's a good compromise for frequency of data collection.

Create the Data Set
Click the Create Data Set button. The series LibreOffice / All / NEW_set has been created. Note that you may need to wait up to 14 days before there will be enough data for a chart of this series to be produced.
 * You should see a new page, with the following in greentext:

Plotting a Data Set
There's some basic info in the Bugzilla docs.

Plotting
Navigate to the New Charts page:
 * Bugzilla Main Page -> Reports -> New Charts

Select an existing data set to plot:
 * Category: LibreOffice
 * Sub-category: All
 * Name: NEW_set

Click the Add To List button.

You can add additional data sets at this time.
 * I added another set I made previously: UNCONFIRMED_set
 * If you select more than one data set, you can hide the Grand Total set by selecting the checkbox next to it, and then clicking the Remove button.

Set a Date Range.
 * I chose 2015-01-01 to 2015-10-01

Click the Chart This List button, and see the chart results.

Patience and Practice
Remember: It can take multiple weeks for data sets to be built, so have patience if you graphs look empty initially. In the meantime, look for some of the LibreOffice/All data sets which are made public, and try graphing with those, just to make sure you get the hang of the tool.

Better Graphing
Bugzilla's graphs are great for quick visualization, but if you want to prepare information for a presentation or formal report, get the raw graphing data and create a graph using an external tool:
 * Look for the CSV link below the chart
 * Import the data to LibreOffice Calc or another program