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Bug Reporting

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It is important to be as descriptive, clear, and concise as possible when describing bugs in a report that the developers would have to use to fix said bugs. Nothing is more frustrating to a developer than getting a bug report that only states, “it doesn’t work” or something similarly vague and non-descriptive. Developers will then have a battery of questions for the user who reported the bug to know as many details as possible to root out the cause of the bug more easily and efficiently and implement whatever fix is needed. All those emails, texts, and phone meetings necessary to garner a clearer picture of the issue can be a time-consuming matter especially if the software involved is under a rigorous deadline. All bug reporting boils down to one major question:

What is the software’s intended result, and what is its observed result?

If the observed result is not intended, then a bug report must be made as concise and descriptive as possible. But first there are a few things that can be done to insure it is not actually a bug in the code but rather an issue that can be resolved with a little house cleaning.

## Things to Try BEFORE Submitting a Report

  • Was the website refreshed? Using F5, Control+R (Command+R), or maybe a hard refresh using Control+Shift+R (Command+Shift+R)?

  • Was the cache cleared? Constant changes to code or other external files could require a clearing of the cache to work correctly; the site may still have old data in memory from an external file that has been saved with new data recently. This is especially true if the site and/or software code has been updated recently.

    How to Clear the Cache on Different Browsers

    • Chrome: You can reach this process in a few ways. You can press Command+Y OR click the Customize and control Google Chrome button in the upper right hand corner which looks like three vertical dots, trace to History, then trace to and click History. Then, click on Clear browsing data on the left. From there, it will give you a window with some choices for time and the types of history data you wish to have deleted. Then click the Clear data button.

    • Safari: Click on a Safari window so it is active, click on the Safari drop-down menu and select Preferences, click the Advanced tab, select the Show Develop menu in menu bar checkbox and close the Preferences window. Then select the Develop drop-down menu and click Empty Cache. If you also wish to clear browser history, then click the History drop-down menu button, trace to and click Clear History...

    • Firefox: Press Command+, OR click the Firefox drop-down menu and select Preferences. Then on the left, select Privacy and Security, then scroll down to the Cookies and Site Data section and click the Clear Data... button, then click the Clear button.

  • Was the page tried on multiple browsers; Chrome, Safari, or Firefox? Different browsers have varying ways of dealing with validation, the use of javascript, popups, and security measures that may or may not need to be dis/enabled.

  • If an error message was displayed, what was it? Sometimes the answer could be something simple like a text validation message from a misspelled word in a text field. Point being, don’t ignore the message, see what it’s saying and determine if the issue is a bug or possibly user error.

If the house cleaning methods above still didn’t yield intended results, then let’s move on reporting the bug and all its detail. These details can be compartmentalized into three sections: what, when and where.

1) WHAT

What is supposed to happen? What is the desired outcome that is not occurring or what is occurring that shouldn’t? Does some functionality on an app or page throw an error containing error codes or line numbers where code has supposedly failed? If so, what are those codes? What are the lines of code referenced in the error message? Try to include as many details about the error as possible.

  • DON’T: I pressed the Submit button and an error message came up.

  • DO: After completing the online form on the Orders page while using the Chrome browser, I pressed the Submit button and I should be taken to a new page that should have a message reading “You have successfully submitted the order.” But instead after pressing the Submit button, I was not taken to a new page and a popup error box appeared with the following message: “There is an error…”

  • DO ADDITIONALLY: Taking screen shots of the error message and submitting them in the bug report will go a long way to helping developers resolve the problem, as well.

    How to take screen shots.

    • MAC: You can use the native screen shot application by pressing Command+Shift+3 to take a shot of the entire screen and edit it as you will in whatever graphic editing software you have and save the resulting graphic, or Command+Shift+4 then move the crosshair pointer to where you want to start the screenshot, press the mouse or trackpad button and drag over the area you want to capture, then release the mouse or trackpad button, or Command+Shift+5 to bring up a menu bar that will show options for how to take screen captures.

    • PC/Windows: Locate the Print Screen key on your keyboard, usually abbreviated PrtSc or PrtScn. Press the Print Screen key once to capture the entire screen. If you wish to edit it, open Microsoft Paint, Photoshop, or whatever graphic editing software you use and Paste it in the graphic editing software, edit then save the resulting graphic. If you want to capture a specific window, click on the window to make it active and then press the Alt+Print Screen keys together.

2) WHEN

Does the error or malfunction occur every time, or only intermittently? Is the error reproduceable; can you do it again and again at the same place using the same process every time to consistently reproduce the error? If the error is reproduceable, it is likely a coding issue. Also, it could be helpful to let the developer know what Operating System your computer is utilizing.

  • DON’T: I clicked the hamburger menu icon, but the drop-down menu didn’t appear, but sometimes it does.

  • DO: On the site’s home page while using the Safari browser, I clicked the hamburger menu in the upper right-hand corner of the page and the drop-down menu that shows all the data options did not appear. After clicking multiple times on the hamburger menu icon, it consistently did not bring up the drop-down menu. The page was refreshed, and cache was cleared and the results on Safari were the same, the drop-down menu will not appear upon clicking the hamburger menu icon. When using the Chrome or Firefox browser, the drop-down menu does appear when the menu icon was clicked. My computer has macOS Monterey Version 12.6.

  • DO ADDITIONALLY: A screen shot of the intended result, in this case the drop-down menu appearing on the page when the menu icon was clicked, will help the developer understand what to look for normally. While this seems redundant, the developer assigned to fix the bug may not have been the one that designed or wrote the code for the site. Make sure to note or label such a screen shot as something like “this is what it is supposed to show”.

The error could be a connection issue to a database or server because the permissions on one of them could be set to private thus rendering connection to either untenable. Check with your database administrator to see if the correct permissions have been set to allow you to access the database or server.

  • DON’T: I clicked on the Graph Data button, but I don’t get anything.

  • DO: After entering and saving data on the Data Entry page, I click on the Graph Data button and I’m sent to a new page where a graph should appear, but no graph is created. I waited for a few minutes, but the page remained blank. I checked the data in mysql, and the data I saved on the Data Entry page was saved to the table EnteredData. I tried the Graph Data button on Chrome, Firefox and Safari, the results were the same for each browser; a blank page and no graph even though the data was in the database. No error message appeared.

If it is more intermittent, these are admittedly harder to describe, especially if the issue is something like a slow internet connection or over-taxed computer memory. However, if you were to describe the error as much as possible, citing all the attempts made to make the site function correctly, a developer will have an easier time deciphering the problem.

  • DON’T: I clicked on the Graph Data button and sometimes the graph doesn’t appear.

  • DO: After entering and saving data on the Data Entry page, I click on the Graph Data button and I’m sent to a new page where a graph of the data is shown, but sometimes it is just blank, and no graph is created. I checked the data in mysql, and the data I saved in the Data Entry page was saved to the table EnteredData. I tried using Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and the results were the same for each browser, sometimes the graph would appear, sometimes it’s just a blank page. Tried multiple times on each browser, clearing the cache each time, but there doesn’t seem to be a consistent time when the graph is created or not. No error message appeared.

3) WHERE

Does this error occur on the home page or few pages in? Does the user have to go down a few levels of menus to reach the location of the error? Make sure to let the developers know if the error requires a significant process to occur. Mark each of the steps required to get to the error.

  • DON’T: I clicked on Go To Messages but I was taken to the Assignments page.

  • DO: On the main page I clicked on the Navigation button, then clicked on Messages in the drop-down menu, then clicked on Go To Messages in the sub drop down menu, and I should be taken to the Messages page but I was taken to the Assignments page instead. Tried multiple times on Firefox and Safari and Chrome and this happens every time.

If the steps require certain data to be inputted, let the developer know what data needs to be used to reproduce the error. If the data is sensitive, the developer can use dummy data, which are made up names, numbers, or roles used in place of real data in a development environment.

SUBMITTING A BUG REPORT

If all the house cleaning steps as noted above in the Things to Try BEFORE Submitting a Report section don’t yield the desired results and you have gathered all the details, screen shots and descriptions necessary to send to the developers, it’s time to create a bug report, or “ticket” as it is called.

  • Go to Service Now (https://ucf.service-now.com/ucfit) and click the Report an Issue tile.
  • There are a lot of choices, but for software related issues, click on Something Broken?
    • Click on Webcourses Support Ticket for any issues with Webcourses@UCF.
  • Fill out the form starting with What’s Happening. Other fields will appear as needed depending on what is entered first in the What’s Happening field. Click the Next button.
  • Fill out contact information and then click the Next button.
  • Fill out Location of Issue information. This will be where on campus you are located and working. Click the Next button.
  • The Details page will be your opportunity to describe in detail what your issue is using the methods outlined above in the What, Where, and When sections of this handbook. You can also attach any and all screenshots you have made to further illustrate your issue by clicking the Add Attachments link in the field at the bottom of any of the four sections, What’s Happening, Contact Information, Location of Issue or Details. Then click the Submit button. You will be contacted via your method of contact by UCF IT once they receive your ticket.