Bug Reporting Form, Forum Consolidation, and Bug Search
by Markus · in Site Feedback · 08/19/2010 (9:43 pm) · 1 replies
In light of reading this forum:
http://www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/118559
Why not just create a bug reporting form that asks these very precise questions? When the user submits the form, the "T3D 1.1 Beta 2 - " (or whatever version) gets appended to the topic title.
Example:
Bug Name: [Thread Title]
Product Name: <dropdown box>: [ iTorque | Torque3D | Torque Game Builder | ...]
Version: <context-sensitive dropdown box>: [ 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | ...]
Release Stage: <dropdown box>: [ alpha | beta | final ] <input field>: "Enter alpha/beta/release version here" (e.g. 1/2/3/NA)
Platform: <dropdown box>: [ XP - 32bit | XP - 64bit | Mac OS 10.5 | Mac OS 10.6 | etc. ]
Target: <Input field>: Editors, Visual Studio, Torsion, Xcode, ...
Bug Status (moderator field): [ RESOLVED | PENDING | SUBMITTED | CONFIRMED ]
Bug Description: <TextArea>: "When pressing F7 in-game the player doesn't drop with the rotation of the camera. Instead it's dropped always facing down the world X axis.
Steps To Repeat: <TextArea>:
"Steps to Repeat:
1. Launch the game
2. Press F8 to enter the fly camera
3. Face a direction opposite the World X axis
4. Press F7, player should drop in facing down the World X axis"
Console Log (if applicable): <TextArea>: "..."
Suggested Fix (optional): <TextArea>: "Have the player drop at the camera with it's Z rotation."
I think it would really expedite the development and QA processes if a standardized bug-reporting form is integrated into the forum software. It doesn't waste time with mods or contractors having to sift through data trying to make sure the bug reporting format is consistent or make bug submitters look at dozens of sticky threads to make sure they're doing everything correctly. Makes it harder to miss bugs too. Just overall, it streamlines the whole development process.
If you have this standardized form, you can just have all the bugs consolidated into a single topic on the forum ("Torque Product Bugs") instead of creating threads for each new version. When the user clicks the mentioned link, they could be taken to an advanced search box that allows the user to query for as broad or as narrow a bug search as they want.
I would also suggest using the GET method so that the search becomes a permalink of sorts for future similar bug queries. If nothing else, their bug search history can be saved in the "Torque Product Bugs" and suggested as a list of recommended links below the search box. The user could also have the option of "bookmarking" the search link in the future so the software stores it as part of their user preferences for future searches. So all of this is sort of like a Google search, but for Torque bugs.
Some of this may have already been suggested, however. But I hope this helps anyways.
http://www.torquepowered.com/community/forums/viewthread/118559
Why not just create a bug reporting form that asks these very precise questions? When the user submits the form, the "T3D 1.1 Beta 2 - " (or whatever version) gets appended to the topic title.
Example:
Bug Name: [Thread Title]
Product Name: <dropdown box>: [ iTorque | Torque3D | Torque Game Builder | ...]
Version: <context-sensitive dropdown box>: [ 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | ...]
Release Stage: <dropdown box>: [ alpha | beta | final ] <input field>: "Enter alpha/beta/release version here" (e.g. 1/2/3/NA)
Platform: <dropdown box>: [ XP - 32bit | XP - 64bit | Mac OS 10.5 | Mac OS 10.6 | etc. ]
Target: <Input field>: Editors, Visual Studio, Torsion, Xcode, ...
Bug Status (moderator field): [ RESOLVED | PENDING | SUBMITTED | CONFIRMED ]
Bug Description: <TextArea>: "When pressing F7 in-game the player doesn't drop with the rotation of the camera. Instead it's dropped always facing down the world X axis.
Steps To Repeat: <TextArea>:
"Steps to Repeat:
1. Launch the game
2. Press F8 to enter the fly camera
3. Face a direction opposite the World X axis
4. Press F7, player should drop in facing down the World X axis"
Console Log (if applicable): <TextArea>: "..."
Suggested Fix (optional): <TextArea>: "Have the player drop at the camera with it's Z rotation."
I think it would really expedite the development and QA processes if a standardized bug-reporting form is integrated into the forum software. It doesn't waste time with mods or contractors having to sift through data trying to make sure the bug reporting format is consistent or make bug submitters look at dozens of sticky threads to make sure they're doing everything correctly. Makes it harder to miss bugs too. Just overall, it streamlines the whole development process.
If you have this standardized form, you can just have all the bugs consolidated into a single topic on the forum ("Torque Product Bugs") instead of creating threads for each new version. When the user clicks the mentioned link, they could be taken to an advanced search box that allows the user to query for as broad or as narrow a bug search as they want.
I would also suggest using the GET method so that the search becomes a permalink of sorts for future similar bug queries. If nothing else, their bug search history can be saved in the "Torque Product Bugs" and suggested as a list of recommended links below the search box. The user could also have the option of "bookmarking" the search link in the future so the software stores it as part of their user preferences for future searches. So all of this is sort of like a Google search, but for Torque bugs.
Some of this may have already been suggested, however. But I hope this helps anyways.
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake