Querying and tracking issues

More help on IssueZilla: Index

About querying the issue database

The IssueZilla query form allows you to call up a subset of issues from a project's issue database. If you do not select an option, the designated default values are included in the query. Submitting a query without setting any options at all, for example, returns all project issues with a status of NEW, STARTED, or REOPENED. You can narrow query results by selecting options and/or entering information in the query form fields. You can save your results list in your bookmark file. You can also save your query configuration to reuse later.

Issue query selection fields

The following fields aer available for narrowing the query results.

Type
the classification of issues as either tasks, defects, features, or enhancements.
Component
the part of the project associated with the issue you are querying to find. If you don't choose a component or subcomponent, the query addresses all issues for the project.
Sub Component
a subset of the component you selected in the previous field. If you don't choose a sub component, the query includes all issues for the component.
Status
default values for this fields are NEW, STARTED and REOPENED. When searching for issues that are UNCONFIRMED, RESOLVED, VERIFIED, or CLOSED, remember to change this status field appropriately.
Resolution
the qualification of issues with a status of RESOLVED, VERIFIED, OR CLOSED. All resolved issues must be assigned one of these values.
Priority
queries for issues by their rank of importance using the following scale: P1 is highest priority, given to issues that should be addressed as soon as possible; P5 is the lowest priority.
Platform
is the type of computer the issues is associated with. This field is most critical when searching for defects. When querying for other types of issues, it may not be necessary to make a selection in this field.
OS
is the type of operating system the issue is associated with. Again, when querying for other types of issues, it may not be necessary to make a selection in this field.
Version
The release of the software associated with this issue. Leaving this field unselected queries all versions of the selected project or component.
Target Milestone
queries for issues associated with different project milestones, if your project has these. Milestones typically are dates when certain features or overall versions are expected to be completed.
Email
lets you query for issues by the email address of assignee, reporter, QA contact, cc list, or added comments. A duplicate field lets you further refine queries based on this criteria. To search for issues associated with an email address:
  • Type a portion of an email address into the text field.
  • Select fields to query for association with that email address.

The second field enables you to look for two different email addresses. If you specify both, then only issues matching both are returned in your query results. For example, this is useful to find issues "created by Ralph" and "assigned to Fred."

You can also use the drop down menus to specify whether you want to match addresses by doing a substring match or exact match of a fully specified email address.

  • Additional input fields let you further qualify queries by issue number(s), date changes, number of votes, and changes in field values.
  • Summary is the one-line abbreviated description of the issue used by default in reports and query results.
  • A description entry enables querying by text string from the longer, detailed issue description.
  • URL lets you query by the web page location associated with issues, when applicable.
  • Status Whiteboard is a field defined by the project owner (or users with administrative permissions in IssueZilla). Input values to query by this field thus depend upon how it is being used in a particular project.

    Those who prefer to devise their own query schemes beyond options provided in these from fields provided can set up Boolean chart queries.

Sorting and customizing query results

Before submitting a query, you can select to sort by issue number, importance, or assignee. After you submitted a query during a IssueZilla login session, you have the option to "Reuse the same sort as last time."

Once you view the query results, clicking on any of the column headings will sort the displayed results within that column.

Using the links at the bottom of the query results page, you can also:

To add the target milestone for each issue to your query results -- and you should do so when a particular issue is slated for release --

  1. Do a query (or click "view assigned issues").
  2. Click the "change columns" link at the bottom.
  3. Click the "target milestone" check box.
  4. Submit.

The target milestone column will now included for all your subsequent queries because login sessions are cookie-based. You can unmark this checkbox or mark others at any time to change your customized query results.

Remembered queries

Once you've set up a fairly complex query to ferret out certain issues, you can tell IssueZilla to "remember" your custom queries as a time saver. Using the options just above the Submit query button, you can save your most recent query under a unique name and reuse it anytime you are logged in to IssueZilla. You can also change and reset the default query that the query page loads during your login sessions.

To include your custom, named queries in the footer of the query page, click on the "Edit prefs" link on any of the IssueZilla pages and select the "Page footer link". All of your named queries have the option to be included on every page or only on the query page.

Tracking issues by assignee

To view a list of project issues assigned to you, click the My Issues link in the Issue Tracking page.

Once you have invoked IssueZilla, you can also click the My issues link in the secondary Issue Tracking tool bar.

You have two options for viewing other project members' assigned issues:

You can also generate reports by user and create a page of project members listed by name, each with a link to their specific list of issues.

Running queries not supported by the query fields

You can perform some searches that aren't supported by the query form by usine the issue list script to build queries based on the URL. You can add other criteria to these queries.

For example, if you wanted to see all issues reported against the X platform and assigned to user "jwz," you could ask for all issues assign to jwz, then edit the URL in the "Location" box, adding the clause "&rep_platform=X-Windows" to the URL.

Here is a list of some of the field names you could use for additional unsupported searches ...

Browser notes

Because IssueZilla uses several non-standard Netscape extensions, the Lynx may cache results of a .cgi. Press CONTROL-R to reload the screen to see an update.