Include a bug tracker in core

[Alpha1]

I think it would do xenforo and xenforo 3rd party addons a lot of good if every xenforo install would have an optional bug tracker that the admin could activate/deactivate.

End users rarily visit xenforo.com to report bugs. Bugs are only reported in case a webmaster spots it, or if end users see a bug, understand it, report it to the webmaster and the webmaster then understands it and reports it to the developer(s). Thats a major bottleneck to receive bug reports.

Most sites do not have a bug tracker. If XF would come with a simple bug tracker then this would increase the number of bug reports which would increase stability of core and addons. Bugs would be found much quicker. Software quality would be exposed and increased much faster.

Such bug tracker would need to have a few simple functions to expose:

• browser
• device
• OS
• if the user has generated errors in the error log

It would also be useful if the form has a few simple questions:

1. What steps did you take before experiencing the issue?
2. What exactly went wrong?
3. What error messages did you encounter?
4. Can you replicate the issue? (explain how)

It would also be useful to be able to give the issue:

• a status
• what functionality it pertains to (gallery, forum, etc)

An easy way to copy the whole report(like a copy/export button), including all necessary details and excluding all private data, would be really helpful. This would include:

1. The report
2. Related error report without server path and url.
3. XF version
4. Server stack

Over the years I have filed thousands of bug reports to XF and mostly addon developers. The above would save me a ton of time. Especially if private data is automatically removed from error reports ad there would be a quick way to report the whole thing.

It would be nice but not essential if the software would have a function to submit an exported bug report/xml to the tracker of the developer or even here on xenforo.com

 

[DragonByte Tech]

The only way I can see this as actually working would be if it was somehow possible to determine the source of an error with a reasonable degree of certainty. Sadly though, that's not really possible without significant re-engineering of the way the XFCP works, and may not be possible at all.

For instance, let's say 2 addons extend \XF\Entity\User.
Addon A's extension is flawed in some way.
Addon B's extension, and entire addon, is flawless, but its extension runs after Addon A.

If an error is generated in the User entity somewhere, be it field someField doesn't have a default value or something else, then the stack trace will display Addon B's class name.
If Addon A has used a sensible vendor prefix on its new column, then the author of Addon B can redirect the user to Addon A's support area. If they haven't, then the user needs to disable all addons and re-enable them one by one until they find the culprit.

My fear is that if there was such a thing as an auto-poster of bugs, authors like Addon B's author will be flooded with support tickets because they had the audacity to have their extension run last.

Of course, that is if we assume there's some way of actually tying any given error message to an addon, based off of analysing the stack trace for references to an addon's prefix. What if that's not possible? Where do the bug reports go?

All of this being said, maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion. The above was written with the assumption you wanted this new system to auto-sort bug reports by addon (or core) and file the report in the correct location. If you are instead suggesting that all error reports are posted in a centralised location, like a Jira, and addon authors can search for errors that may pertain to their mod, then that would give the idea more merit in my eyes.

An addon for World of Warcraft called "TradeSkillMaster" actually does this, it uses an external application to automatically collect error reports and file them away, and duplicate errors are filed as comments instead of new reports.

In short, I don't believe it's possible to accurately determine what addon caused any given error, and while making a system for centralising bug reports may very well be possible, it would likely take months of development time for what is arguably limited benefit (after all, server errors shouldn't be a daily occurrence).


Fillip

 

[Alpha1]

I'm not suggesting a centralized system with auto-posting, as that would require a lot more thought. I am suggesting a pre-packed bug tracker in xenforo core. A tracker with an export/copy button that will allow the admin to decide if or where to manually submit a bug report. I will clarify that in the suggestion.

 

[RobinHood]

Tied into this, it could make sense for each resource to have it's own forum for users to discuss and track issues.

Wordpress does this, every plugin in the main repo has it's own forum, with the ability to mark threads as support threads and then for them to be marked as resolved. It's better than having one monster resource thread for big plugins.

 

[sub_ubi]

Tied into this, it could make sense for each resource to have it's own forum for users to discuss and track issues.

Wordpress does this, every plugin in the main repo has it's own forum, with the ability to mark threads as support threads and then for them to be marked as resolved. It's better than having one monster resource thread for big plugins.

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I came here to say the same thing, maybe the XFRM version of this idea needs its own suggestion thread.

Whatever the solution, a monster thread for each resource is insufficient.

Wordpress delivering a better forum solution for resources is unacceptable