Bugzilla/Fields

Here are some details about what the various Bugzilla fields are for. Some of the fields only apply to the MediaWiki software itself - others are more general. Not all of these fields have to be filled out always - in case that you don't know, simply ignore the field. Also note that some of these fields are not shown initially when you file a new bug report.

Component

See https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/describecomponents.cgi

Version

The latest version of MediaWiki, that the bug is known to affect. Check Special:Version on the wiki where you noticed the problem to find out the version it is.

For extensions, use the version of MediaWiki that the extension was running on, or leave as 'unspecified' if not relevant.

For most other products this field is not used, and should be left as 'unspecified'. However providing information in the bug report description about the version of an extension is often welcome.

Hardware / OS / Platform

Only use if the bug is specific to your hardware or your desktop operating system. If you are not sure, it does not hurt to fill it in anyway.

Importance

The importance of a bug is a combination of its priority and severity, as described below.

Priority

Priority	Meaning
immediate	Must be fixed immediately (means: "Drop any other work"). Reports should have an assignee set in the "Assigned to" field, and both assignees and further affected parties (e.g. Engineering Management) should also be informed by private email, to be on the safe side.
highest	Should be fixed as next task by a team and certainly before the next deployment. Teams should only have very few issues (preferably one) with highest priority at the same time. Reports should have an assignee set in the "Assigned to" field. In case of Platform Engineering tickets, notify RobLa separately.
high	Not the next task, but should be fixed soon. Depending on teams & manpower this can take between one and six months.
normal	Medium priority; would be good to get fixed somewhere in the future. Contributed patches might speed fixing up.
low	This can be fixed, but we're not going to worry about it. Patches very welcome and required for progress.
lowest	This can be fixed, but we're not going to worry about it. Patches very welcome and required for progress.

In addition, “Unprioritized” was added as the default priority level in April 2011. If this is the priority level on a bug, then the bugwrangler is either not concerned with it (e.g. Semantic Wiki items are tracked in Bugzilla, but the bugwrangler does not set priority on those items) or hasn't seen it.

Severity

Severity	Meaning
Blocker	Blocks further development and/or testing work.
Critical	Crashes, loss of data (internally, not your edit preview!) in a widely used and important component.
Major	Major loss of function in an important area.
Normal	Default/average.
Minor	Minor loss of function, or other problem that does not affect many people or where an easy workaround is present.
Trivial	Cosmetic problem like misspelled words or misaligned text which does not really cause problems.
Enhancement	Request for a new feature or change in functionality for an existing feature.

See also: http://www.eclipse.org/tptp/home/documents/process/development/bugzilla.html

Target Milestone

Used by maintainers and developers for release planning.

Assigned To / Assignee

The field will automatically get filled, don't touch it unless you are also planning a fix (in which case assign it to yourself) or you know the development team well enough to know who should be responsible.

URL

A specific URL for the bug, if relevant. This maybe a URL where you can see the bug in action, or a link to further information (but not generally to screenshots giving an example - these should be uploaded as attachments).

Summary

Describe the bug in 60 characters or less. This will show up in searches, etc. Try to use relevant keywords so the report is easy to find.

Whiteboard

A freetext field used by developers to add certain categories of personal tags to reports.

Keywords

There is a set of fixed keywords used across all products and components. See https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/describekeywords.cgi for the list.

CC / CC List

This field will add people to a mailing list which notifies users when a bug has been changed. It's generally not a good idea to add people other than yourself to the CC list unless you know that they welcome such notifications.

See Also

For links to the same bug report in other issue trackers (e.g. if the bug is in upstream code)

Web Browser

Only use if the bug happens with a specific browser. If you are not sure, it does not hurt to fill it in anyway.

Mobile Platform

Only use if the bug happens with mobile devices.