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Only in component Linguistic: for problems with the LibO ''Hunspell Spell Checker''.
Only in component Linguistic: for problems with the LibO ''Hunspell Spell Checker''.


==== {{FdoSS1|TDF Site}} ====
==== {{FdoSS1|TDF&nbsp;Site}} ====
Only in component WWW: for problems observed on http://www.libreoffice.org/ and http://www.documentfoundation.org/
Only in component WWW: for problems observed on http://www.libreoffice.org/ and http://www.documentfoundation.org/



Revision as of 08:07, 13 March 2013

Here you find answers to Frequently Asked Questions


Bugzilla HowTos

What does it mean if Bugzilla Field QA Contact is not empty?

Draft, still in discussion

The QA-Team member who added his name there will do all necessary efforts like

  1. gain more info, sample documents and similar from reporter
    1. especially if QA Wanted action is triggered by the developer
  2. delivering BT or similar crash report (or ask someone else who can contribute)
  3. creating bug summary when nominated for HardHacks
  4. is available to check the bug when it is platform specific
  5. janitor the bug
  6. will give assistance to the developer when needed

QA-team members who only left a comment or are in CC will not do further efforts necessarily. This field has similar function as the "Assigned to" for developers.

How to cite other comments

Please avoid any superfluous citing! It's tedious to have to read useless repetitions. Only If you do not reply to the comment before it is useful to use the Bugzilla [reply] function. If you think it's necessary for understanding of your reply, you can cite 1 ... 2 relevant lines of the comment directly before you reply, but not a full-quote.

What also means: please do NEVER use the mail interface for your comments, please reply on the Bug the web page. There you have a lot of information what is not visible in the last comment you see as a mail.

How to eliminate confidential data from sample document

If you don't even want to mail your sample document to developers or QA team, you can try to eliminate confidential text data in a copy of your document with following trick:

  • Menu Edit ▸ find and Replace (Dialog appears)
  • Type a dot (".") into the 'Find pane and an "i" into the 'Replace pane'
  • Under 'More Options' activate "Regular expressions"
  • In spreadsheet check "All Sheets"
  • Button 'Replace all'

Now you have a document containing only lots of "i". With a little luck the bug still will be reproducible with that document.


How to cite other Libreoffice Bugs in FDO Bugzilla

To get a link to an other bug into your comment, simply write something like Bug 12345, "12345" replaced by the Bug Number. No "#", no other frills in the bug number. Generally most times it is useful to cite the complete Summary line of the other bug, transferred by a simple Copy/Paste.

How to interpret Whiteboard Target information

target:3.7.0 in Whiteboard currently (2012-08-10) means that a fix has been "pushed" to the code for the master, the first public Version where it will be available will be 4.0.0.x. If you wonder why the fix has not been integrated into the code for the current Versions (3.5, 3.6), be patient! Before a fix can be integrated into current Version code branches the fix has to be reviewed by other developers to avoid regressions. That will take some time. As long as the bug has not changed status to FIXED you can hope for fix integration into current branches' code.


How to handle Bug Report Clones

Screenshot

Sometimes a reporter accidentally creates several clones of his intended bug report. Please do NOT mark those useless clones as DUPLICATES. Many Duplicates should be an indicator that a particular problem affects many users. To keep this function, the clones have to be closed as RESOLVED - INVALID with comment "Clone of Bug xxxxx".


How to use attached sample documents for multiple Bug Reports

Screenshot, please delete "Details " after copy&paste "Attachment ..." from Window heading to comment!

It is not necessary and not useful to attach the same document in multiple bug reports again and again. You can simply create a link with the text "attachment 12345 from Bug 6789" in the comment text or report text. So you get a link to download the attachment easily and additionally you contribute information in what Bug report other interesting information concerning the document can be found. You find the attachment number by mouseover at the link in the original bug as the screenshot shows. Or you can copy / paste that info from the Bugzilla Attachment Details Info page. It's important to know at what Bug the attachment has been submitted, the Comments often contain important additional information.

The advantage compared to a copy is that everybody knows that the sample document in the new document is identical (the same) as in the other bug where the attachment has been added; so it is much more easy to compare results.

How to use the appropriate Version with Bugzilla Version Selector

Please see Bug Report – Details.


How to add Bugs to MAB Tracking Bugs

Please see the special page about Most Annoying Bugs.

How to get help

We are currently trying to get a team of QA mentors, so feel free to add your name to the list right down here. Also feel free to contact someone, if you need some help.

Name Contact via E-Mail Skype IRC nickname Most wanted
Florian Reisinger reisi.007@t-online reisi.007 reisi007 E-Mail or Skype
Rainer Bielefeld ./. ./. only after appointment Add LibreOffice@bielefeldundbuss.de to CC in the Bug
Joel Madero jmadero.dev@gmail joel_madero jmadero Email or IRC
<YOURNAME> mail@domain <SKYPENAME> <IRC Nick> The way you would like to be contacted most

How to Validate a Bug Fix

If you tried to reproduce a bug with a version for what the fix should have been integrated (see target information in Whiteboard) and you can confirm that the bug does no longer exist, you can modify Bugzilly Bug Status to VERIFIED what indicates that Fix has been confirmed. If you still can reproduce the bug please keep in mind How to reopen a bug!

How to attach Backtraces

If you want to provide extra information for the developers like Backtraces and similar, you will have to decide whether you will contribute information

  • As text in a Comment
    • Advantages:
      • queries can be done for Backtrace contents
    • Disadvantages:
      • strings in Backtrace might bring up unwanted hits in queries
      • bad readability of the Bugzilla Bug because of endless Backtrace comment texts
  • As Attachment - text document
    • Advantages:
      • readability of the Bugzilla Bug not interferred
      • If there are new findings you can mark an attachment as obsolete
    • Disadvantages:
      • No queries concerning Backtrace contents possible
      • No unwanted hits in queries by strings in Backtrace matching with "normal" query strings

It's your decision what way you prefer.

How to mention Attachments or other LibO related Bugs

The most simple and reliable way is to write Bug 47712 (for example) instead of <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47712> (or even <https://www.libreoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=47712>. Bugzilla will add a link to the text when it's shown in a report or comment. Same with attachments, you should write attachment 61814 instead of <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=61814>.

What's libreoffice.org/bugzilla?

No, not a new own bugzilla, but the Bugzilla environment for our Bugzilla Bug Submission Assistant. Mostly if you find such a link (in an URL field) concerning reported Bugs outside the assistant (queries and similar) you should replace it by a bugs.freedesktop.org/ URL to avoid login problems and similar (please compare Bug Links in #How to mention Attachments or other LibO related Bugs

How do I report a Bug?

If you believe to have found a bug in Libreoffice please follow the instructions here: How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice.

Are "nightly builds" available?

Yes, but we call them Daily Builds. More information on Testing Daily Builds.

bibisected

You find hints concerning the meaning of those Whiteboard entries on QA/HowToBibisect

How do I find information I need?

Here you can find several useful queries:

  • [1] still waiting for a developer
  • Bugs waiting for QA Review
    • Old bugs before 2011-10-16 or ID 41983; More than 2400 ones (2011-11-13)
    • New ones

For users of 64-bit operating systems

It is possible to run 32-bit applications on 64-bit operating systems. This might make the Platform chooser in Bugzilla a bit confusing. In general, please enter what your version of LibreOffice was built for. This information is sadly not visible in the application, however:

  • Windows users: there is currently no official 64-bit version. You are most probably using a 32-bit version, use "x86 (IA32)". Please mention your operating system under Description.
  • Linux users: in most cases you should be using a 64-bit version of LibreOffice, if your system is also 64-bit. Your package manager might give further hints. It's most probable that you can use "x86-64 (AMD64)".
  • Mac OS users: ...

How to reopen a bug

Details please see here!

How to Mark a Bug as Duplicate

If you find out that a Bug (for example fdo#40691 is a DUPLICATE of an other one (fdo#37195) you can mark the duplicate Bug (fdo#40691) as DUP inserting the number of the remaining bug (37195) into the pane opening when you click Mark as Duplicate. It is not necessary to transfer reporter and CC list to the remaining fdo#37195, because Bugzilla will send information to all changes in remaining Bug 37195 to reporters and CC of duplicated bugs. Generally the latest report will be marked as a DUP of a more early report, except the new report contains more information or has a more advanced status (Assigned).

How to use Status or Keyword NEEDINFO

Status NEEDINFO should be used if information in the report is not sufficient to start the bug fixing process. When you change Status to NEEDINFO please list info provider and missing information in your comment.

Please, do NOT assign the bug to the info provider. This field is reserved for developer working in the bug.

How to terminate a Bug if it can't be reproduced any longer

If a bug has been confirmed, but the problem vanished with a later LibreOffice version, do not use Resolved Fixed, what is reserved for bugs with a real reviewed Fix. The appropriate Status for a Bug where the problem simply vanished is Resolved WORKSFORME. Reason: A reviewed Fix is a much more reliable solution that an unknown reason for a vanished problem, this difference should be visible in the Status information. The Version where the bug can no longer be reproduced should be mentioned in the Whiteboard as Target. Especially if it's your first contact with the particular bug (so that you had not reproduced the problem yet) please contribute information how you did your test. That might contribute important information:

  • May be
    • step by step instruction is too unclear so that you did a test different from reporter's test
    • the problem is related to particular (yet) unknown conditions, and it has to be done additional research to find those conditions.

How to use subcomponents

On BugReport Details lots of subcomponents are listed with links to Bugzilla Search and Bugzilla bug submission. In the following you find hints for what kind of problems what Subcomponents should be used in the Bugzilla' Subject line. In the following listing a click on the Sub Component heading will start a Bugzilla query for that sub component.

ASKLIBREOFFICE

Only in component WWW for ASK LibreOffice related problems like malfunction, typos, violation, ...

BUGZILLA

Only in component WWW for FDO Bugzilla related problems.

BUGZILLAASSISTANT

Only in component WWW, for problems related to the LibreOffice specific Bug Report Assistant. May be you want to learn some more about this tool here?

BlogPlanet

Only appropriate with Component WWW: for issues related with The Document Foundation Planet

CONFIGURATION

Use for instance, if the configuration of LibreOffice applications (WRITER, DRAW, CALC, ...) is broken or if the Installation associates file extensions wrongly.

EXTENSIONSWEBSITE

Only in component WWW: for problems with the LibO Extensions-website

FILEOPEN

For all problems related to opening documents, as well as for problems when opening non-ODF file types like MS-Office, XHTML or XML, Picture formats like PNG, SVG, WMF, ... . Please generally mention the document type and if known and appropriate the Version of the document or of the software with what it has been created in parenthesis. Examples:

  • CRASH when FILEOPEN particular XLSX (MSO2007)
  • FILEOPEN particular .CDR (X6) shows ...

FILESAVE

For all problems related to saving documents, as well as for problems when exporting to the file types XHTML or XML and Picture formats like PNG, SVG, WMF, ...

HYPHENATION

Only in component Linguistic: for problems with the LibO Libhyphen Hyphenator.

IDE

Only available for Component BASIC for problems with the Integrated Development Environment like broken search function or similar.

MAILING

Only in component WWW: for problems with the LibO Mailing Lists, like bounced postings, submit/unsubmit problems, ...

MAILMERGE

For problems with the LibreOffice Mailmerge function from menu 'Tools -> Mail Merge Wizard' or with the Form Letter function in menu 'File -> Print'.

MinGW

MinGW (Minimalist GNU for Windows) is a free toolchain based on GCC (the GNU Compiler Collection). So far we are using the Microsoft VisualStudio C++ compiler to provide the Windows builds, but the intent is to switch to MinGW to produce the Windows binaries. At the current stage, the MinGW builds start, and are somewhat usable, but contain bugs, and need testing.

Bugs should be marked with MinGW only when they appear in the builds from here, but not in other Windows, or Linux builds.

Please note that MinGW builds are binary incompatible with the MSVC, which means that extensions written in C++ built with MSVC cannot work in MinGW builds.

MIRROR

Only appropriate with Component WWW! If the automatic download forward leads to an empty page, you get other error messages, download speed is too slow, ... Name and URL of the Mirror will be required.

MozTrap

Only appropriate with Component WWW: for issues related with Moztrap for Libreoffice

odf_validation

Only temporarily available for Impress Documents ODF validation, deprecated since 2013

PDF

For PDF export problems only visible in one component like Drawing, Presentation, Spreadsheet or Writer. In DRAW together with FILEOPEN for PDF import problems.

RTF

RichText Format related issues, only useful for WRITER Bugs. If the problem is limited to a particular localization or language, please ad localization or language in square brackets like [AR] in the summary line.

RTL

For all text direction Right To Left related problems. If the problem is limited to a particular localization or language, please ad localization or language in square brackets like [AR] in the summary line. We have Bug fdo#43808 - (rtl-meta) Meta bug for Most Annoying RTL related issues.

SLIDESHOW

For problems only visible during running presentation, but ok in Presentation edit mode. Also appropriate for problems visible in custom animation preview.

SPELL

Only in component Linguistic: for problems with the LibO Hunspell Spell Checker.

TDF Site

Only in component WWW: for problems observed on http://www.libreoffice.org/ and http://www.documentfoundation.org/

THESAURUS

Only component Linguistic: for problems with the LibO OpenOffice.org New Thesaurus.

VIEWING

Use, if document contents are not shown (correctly) on the screen, but print and PDF export look ok. An additional indication might be that other LibreOffice or OpenOffice versions correctly show the contents on screen, meaning it's not a problem with the document itself.

How to select correct Bug Status

Unfortunately the explications in Bugzilla are not for the existing Bug Status items.

  • UNCONFIRMED for Bugs what have not been reproduced by other users or on a different PC
  • NEW for bugs that can be reproduced and still need a fix. Minimum condition are
    • The bug still exists for a currant LibO version. NEW may not be used for LibreOffice 3.3.0 Bugs reproduced on 3.3.1 or similar
    • It's a real bug. Do not use this Status if you only do not understand the observed behavior
    • No Duplicate can be found (bug has not been reported yet).
    • All information required for starting to fix the bug has been gained.

How to assign a bug (QA team only)

It has become a de-facto standard in 2011 (decided by ESC) to proceed as following:

  • User Account of Friendly Expert (or known developer for the issue) will be inserted to CC by an experienced user, Status remains (or becomes) New
  • Developer accepts bug by
    • adding himself to Assigned to and
    • changing Status to ASSIGNED
or does not accept bug

The following queries will have to be modified!

Bug still visible although bug status FIXED?

You can not be sure whether the Fix has been integrated into the next release. Please see Target information in Whiteboard or GIT link.

RC Version vanished?

You filed a Bug and can not find it with "Search by Version" (for example using a link you bookmarked)? Reason might be that you discovered the bug with the last Release Candidate before the release. If the LibreOffice Release version is bit by bit identical to the last RC, the RC version from Version Picker will be changed to Release Version (for Example: 3.4.2 RC to 3.4.2 release by the administrator

Bugzilla Voting?

Currently the Engineering Steering Committee does not believe that a simple Voting will bring enough new information. That does not mean that there is a fundamental resistance against any way of "user poll". If someone has an well founded conclusive concept we can discuss the question again and if feedback is positive we will find an infrastructure for the process. We have an experimental Vote_for_Enhancement, but user interest seems not to be big, and current use is far away from intention to find good arguments instead of counting votes.

Useful Bugzilla Statistics

May be Following FDO Bugzilla statistics are interesting for you:
Weekly statistic (last 7 days)

General

Example

Charts:

Bugzilla Submission Asistant


How to use information

Zipped attachments of Mac users

Contents has to be added


Integrated Bugfixes

For detailed info concerning new features and fixed Bugs please select a version in Category:Release!

LibreOffice 3.5.4

Please see here

QA related announcements

We have a new low traffic mailing lists for all QA related announcements. You can subscribe here

Who should subscribe?

QA team members, users active in QA and everyone else interested in QA news.

Users frequently active in Bug confirmation or Bug reporting have been added for the first announcement concerning IRC Bug Hunting Session.

Who can post?

Only subscribers, the list is not public.

For what should libreoffice-qa be used?

Please only post mails with news of general interest for QA. For example

  • Bugzilla handling news like new Subcategories, ...
  • New test tools or available special LibO Test Builds
  • New QA related projects or important progress for existing projects
    • New Key Words
    • other decisions
  • Important modifications on Bugzilla help Wiki pages
  • Invitations for IRC sessions

For discussions a thread should be opened in an appropriate mailing list (mostly: discuss@documentfoundation.org) and mentioned in the posting. Comments concerning announcements are unwanted.

How often?

Currently it's forseeable that there might be 1 to 3 announcements a week, we will see ...