Wikipedia:Bug reports and feature requests
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This page is a how-to guide, detailing processes or procedures of some aspect or aspects of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. |
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Bug reports and feature requests relating to the MediaWiki software that powers Wikipedia should be filed on Wikimedia's Phabricator. Phabricator is a software suite that includes tools for bug reporting and project management. The bug report management tool of Phabricator is called Maniphest.
Bugs that are not directly related to the MediaWiki software should be discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical). When in doubt, discuss issues at the Village pump before filing a bug on Wikimedia's Phabricator.
Contents
Reporting a bug[edit]
- See also "How to report a bug" on MediaWiki.
You've got a bug, and you're itching to report it. The first thing you should do is search for an existing report by using the search field in the upper corner. Someone may have already reported the bug. Searching first helps to prevent duplicates. To be effective, try multiple synonyms and rephrasings of what the bug might have been called.
Create account[edit]
The next step is to create an account in Phabricator. Thanks to Wikimedia's Single User Login (SUL), you can use your account on mediawiki.org for login and don't have to remember another separate password. Please follow the instructions how to create an account on MediaWiki.org. In contrast to the previous bug tracking system (Bugzilla), your email address will not be displayed in Phabricator. If you had a Bugzilla account prior to the launch of Phabricator, this process will join the Phabricator and Bugzilla accounts.
Details[edit]
Enter your bug! To understand what the fields mean and how to write a useful bug report it is recommended to read "How to report a bug" on MediaWiki.
Updates on your bug[edit]
- See also "Receiving updates and notifications" on MediaWiki.
By default you will be emailed with updates on the status of your bug. Sometimes developers may reject or misunderstand a bug report or feature request and close a report that you think is still valid. If you believe there's still an issue, you can add a comment and try to make a better explanation, or you can take it to the mailing list. If you do not want to get updates on your bug, you can state this in your email preferences.
Finding bugs you have joined the CC/Subscribers list for[edit]
Go to the list of open tasks that you have subscribed to[dead link]. You can also edit the search query (e.g. to also include closed tasks) to alter the results.
Tokens[edit]
Tokens in Phabricator allow you to show which bugs you care about. You can add a token to a report by clicking "Award Token" in the side bar at the top of a report.
Note that developers are not obligated to implement a request just because it has a large number of tokens.
Etiquette[edit]
Phabricator is a place to notify developers of bugs and contribute information that would be useful in the fixing of the bugs. It is not a place for advocacy viz. "I REALLY WANT THIS BUG FIXED!" With that in mind, please keep the following rules in mind when using Phabricator:
- Contribute useful comments; useless comments (i.e. advocacy) decrease the signal to noise ratio
- The developers are under no obligation to fix your bug or add a feature you want.
- No personal abuse: do not make threats like "I will not edit Wikipedia until this bug is fixed"
- Don't mess around with fields unless you are the bug's assignee or you know what you are doing, instead, comment on the suggested change
- Don't whine about "declined" decisions
- Applicability varies, but when in doubt, follow the rules
If you see someone not following these rules, politely mention it to them via their talk page or private email: do not bugspam some more by chastising the user for their conduct publicly.
Linking to bugs from Wikipedia[edit]
- See "Template:Tracked" on MediaWiki for more information about that template.
{{tracked|T1000}}
creates the first right-floating box -->>
If you would like to note the fact that the task has been resolved, you can note its status via {{tracked|T1234|resolved}}
. See the second right-floating box -->
If you enable the "Enable tracking bugs on Phabricator using the {{tracked}} template" gadget in your preferences, you will always see up to date statuses for Phabricator references that use the {{tracked}} template (even if the template call omits the status or has not been manually updated).
You can link to bugs using the phab:
interwiki prefix. For example, type [[phab:T1000]]
for phab:T1000. The phab:
prefix can be used for linking to any static page in Wikimedia's Phabricator. For example, type [[phab:project/query/all/]]
for phab:project/query/all/.
Note that [[bug:T1000]]
links to the Buginese Wikipedia, not to Phabricator or its predecessor Bugzilla.
Links from within Phabricator[edit]
- Please see "Writing comments and descriptions" on MediaWiki for general information on available linking options.
Standard bracketed MediaWiki-style internal links or section links are not supported. Interwiki links such as language prefixes, and other interwiki links, are not supported.
It is highly recommended to use full web addresses instead which can be copied and pasted from the web browser's location bar. Full URLs are automatically made into working links. Brackets are not needed.
Glossaries[edit]
- Category:Glossaries of computers
- Glossary of computer terms
- Manual:Glossary - MediaWiki
- Wikipedia:Glossary
- List of computer term etymologies
See also[edit]
- WP:DevMemo, monthly memos to the developers
- Category:Wikipedia feature requests
- How to create a good first Bug Report by Valerie Juarez (though refering to Bugzilla instead of Phabricator)
- Wikipedia:Phase II bug reports archives bug reports for the Phase II software used by Wikipedia from 25 January 2016 to 20 July 2016.
External links[edit]
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MediaWiki has documentation related to: How to report a bug |
- Phabricator.org
- Phabricator home page – where bugs in Phabricator itself are worked on
- Phabricator home page for Wikimedia and MediaWiki bugs
- MediaWiki page about Phabricator
- The bug report life cycle