Bugzilla Helper

A tool to help you write a good Mozilla bug report.
Comments to Gerv
(Please, no bug reports to this address)

IMPORTANT: Mozilla has two layout modes: quirks and standard. The quirks mode mimics the behavior of Netscape Navigator 4.x while the standards mode aims to comply with the Recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium. The mode is picked based on the doctype declaration (or the lack thereof) at the beginning of an HTML document.

When reporting a bug about page handling, it is recommended that you test the problem isn't an intentional difference between the modes. Some “bugs” are intentional in the quirks mode and do not appear in the standards mode. Also, the default vertical sizing of layout boxes and the default vertical alignment of images in the standards mode as specified the CSS2 specification differs from the behavior of old browsers and the quirks mode.

When no doctype declaration is used, the quirks layout mode is activated. These doctype declarations, for example, activate the standards layout mode:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

If your bug is with the layout of a particular web page, and the problem is caused by either:

  • The page using proprietary HTML, such as the LAYER tag
  • The page using proprietary DOM extensions, such as document.all
  • The page being rendered in quirks mode (as described above)
then these are not bugs in Mozilla. Please file bugs in the Evangelism component, so the webmaster can be requested to fix their site to work with web standards.

You can often see if you have a problem with the page trying to use proprietary DOM extensions by opening the Javascript Console (Tasks | Tools | Javascript Console) and looking for error messages like "document.all/document.layers has no properties".

Why should you use this form?

This form prompts you for information that is essential to Mozilla developers. They need this information to understand and reproduce the bug. Being able to understand and reproduce bugs is the first step towards getting the bug fixed. Please do not report bugs in other places, such as in newsgroups or on IRC - they will almost certainly get ignored, and this may annoy you :-)

Step 1. Create a Bugzilla account and log in.

Create a Bugzilla account if you don't already have one. After you receive your Bugzilla password, log in if you haven't already logged in.

Step 2. Search for your bug.

See if your bug has already been reported. Check the list of most frequently filed bugs . If you don't find your bug, then search Bugzilla here. Enter two or three of the main words having to do with your bug. For example: crash mail or copy paste
Search Bugzilla
Only Look in Summary Fields
Look in both Summary and Description Fields

Look through the search results. If you get the cryptic Zarro Boogs message, Bugzilla found no bugs that match. Check for typos, or add fewer or different keywords.

If you find a bug that looks the same as yours, you can add comments to that bug, but please don't open a new one.

If you find bugs similar to yours, read them. Note their Component; you'll need it later.

Step 3. Gather information.

Please try to complete this form as accurately as you can. The more you can tell us, the better our chance of being able to understand and reproduce your bug.

Product

Component


This is the hard part. Here are some tips on picking the right component.

  • Read the MailNews and Browser component descriptions, and try to pick the best component for your bug.
  • Go back to Step 2 . Search for bugs that are similar to yours, and put yours in the same Component.
  • If you can't decide, select a component from the list above, and click the button to see the bugs in that component. Decide if your bug fits in that group.
Platform
Operating System
Build ID
This is the number in the title bar of your Browser window. If your copy of Mozilla won't start, the Build ID is the date in the form YYYYMMDD.
URL
URL that demonstrates the problem you are seeing.
Summary

Please be descriptive and use lots of keywords.


Examples:
Bad example: mail crashed

Good example: crash if I close the mail window while checking for new POP mail

Description

Expand on the Summary. Please be as specific as possible about what is wrong.


Examples:
Bad: This page looks wrong in Mozilla. Other browsers display it correctly.

Good: In the page at http://www.foo.com/, text in the first column should be fully justified -- text should be aligned with both the left and right margins. In Mozilla, the text is only left-justified.

Reproducibility
How often can you reproduce the problem?
Steps to Reproduce

Describe how to reproduce the problem, step by step. Include any special setup steps.


Actual Results

What happened after you performed the steps above?


Expected Results

What should Mozilla have done instead?


Additional Information

Add any additional information you feel may be relevant to this bug, such as a few lines of HTML that demonstrate the problem, a Talkback crash ID, or special information about your computer's configuration.

If you are reporting a crash, note the module in which Mozilla crashed (e.g., Application Violation in gkhtml.dll). If you can provide a stack trace, paste that information here. OnMacintosh, if you have MacsBug, paste the results of the how and sc commands.


Severity

Step 4. Submit your bug to Bugzilla.

Now that you've gathered all the right information, you're ready to report your bug to Bugzilla.

Click the button below. If you've filled in all the right fields, Bugzilla's Enter Bug page will open in a new window. The form should be filled with all the information you've entered here.

Submit your bug by clicking the Commit button on Bugzilla's Enter Bug page..

Your bug will not be submitted until you click the Commit button near the bottom of the Bugzilla's Enter Bug form.

Congratulations!

You've submitted your bug. You should soon receive an e-mail message that says your bug was successfully filed.

If you have other information, such as test cases that demonstrate the bug, you can attach them to the bug report. In the e-mail message you receive, click on the link to view the bug report, then click the link to Create a new attachment.

What's next?
Check out the Bugzilla Fact Sheet 's Life Cycle of a Bug section to see what will happen to your bug.

Thanks for making the effort to file a good bug!

This is based on Mozilla's Bug Writing Guidelines , and was originally written by christine begle . If you have comments or problems with this form, please send mail to Gerv .