I've found this nice little summary on another blog somewhere on the internet (completely unrelated to Astaro):
[SIZE="4"]Often the difference between an average bug report and a great one
is whether the engineer has to spend a lot of time figuring how to see
the reported behavior or if they can reproduce it immediately and
find the cause in short order.[/SIZE]
This begins with a well choosen "Title" for your report. Make sure that it has something to do with what you are going to report, names roughly the section you are talking about and isn't too long. If you start that "Title]" with the version number you are testing [in square brackets] - currently this is "[FONT="Courier New"][ 8.160 ][/FONT]" - the Betabot automatically adds a post to that thread, and we get a notification email. If you want to give us an additional hint, you can also add another keyword to indicate whether your thread is a Question[FONT="Courier New"] [QUESTION][/FONT], a bugreport [FONT="Courier New"][BUG][/FONT] or just something that you want to let us know [FONT="Courier New"][INFO][/FONT].
But it's not a problem if you forget to add them or simply leave them out, i can (and will) manually add them later.
Regarding the bugreport text itself:
We don't put too much restrictions on the form of the feedback, just write down whatever catches your attention, but try to write it in a way that we have a chance to reproduce it:
- provide enough information about the problem itself
- provide the relevant information about your setup
- write in a way that we don't have to guess what you mean (this basically boils down to avoid "l33t speak")
Your post doesn't have to be perfect
If it has something to do with the visual appearance or if you feel that it's easier to show than to describe, just add a screenshot. We love screenshots (see below)!
Oh, and don't forget to mention your OS/browser version if it's a display issue.
Just write down what you did, and what happened. If appropriate, write down what you expected to happen (for example in the case of a missing error message).
Just stay with the facts, and please stay on the topic. Don't put multiple unrelated issues in one thread, because we can only track them one-by-one in our (non-public) bugtracker (Mantis, as you already might have guessed).
Oh and please be patient. I'm located in our German HQ, as are most of our developers. I try my very best to reply quickly, but since I depend on feedback from my coworkers, it might take a few days - depending on holidays, vacation, the number of new posts on that special day and so on - before I come back to you. There's no need to "push" threads by adding a "please don't forget".
Sometimes it's necessary to take a look at the logfiles. If you feel comfortable with logfiles, take a look at them and see if there are any related bits of information and include them in your post. Logs are best displayed when wrapped in a
block (or use the "#"-sign in the rich text editor).
If you are a die-hard sysadmin or longtime ASG user and feel comfortable using the console and/or ssh, you are welcome to send us all the additional related information you can find.
As for "looking" at your machine, we don't have the resources to do one-on-one support, and we think that it's better to do this as forum communication, because then everybody else can follow the steps we did and help themselves.
We will ask you to enter commands and post the results if necessary from time to time.
Regarding screenshots:
PNG and JPG are our preferred formats, because they are most effective (file size).
There's no need to post the whole browser or screen. It's sufficient to put the relevant part in the picture. But remember that many parts of the Webadmin look very similar to each other, so it's better to leave the menu on the left and the tabs on the top within the picture.
Summary::
- start title with version (like this: [8.1xx])
- name the problem in the title
- one thread per problem
- stay on the topic
- stay with facts, don't assume
- be patient
- screenshots are welcome (PNG preferred)
- logfile excerpts are welcome (wrap in
)
- no "pushing" of threads without new information
Feedback and Comments welcome, and now: Happy Testing, Everyone [:)]
