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Codex Home → Participate and Contribute → Reporting Bugs

Reporting Bugs

Thanks to people like you, the BuddyPress community grows stronger each day. More and more people are testing or using BuddyPress for their websites. Naturally this means we are getting more bug reports, feature suggestions and other enhancement ideas than ever.

Please read this useful information on how to report bugs and features, and how you can help fix them.

Overview of Bug Reporting and Resolution

  1. A user finds a bug that appears to be in the core of BuddyPress (not in a Theme or Plugin).
  2. The user tries to make sure it is actually a bug; they can post on our forums if they are not sure.
  3. If it is determined to be a bug, the user submits the bug report, called a ticket, to Trac (the BuddyPress bug tracking system).
  4. A BuddyPress developer (who could be a volunteer like you) confirms that the bug does actually exist, and that it should be fixed, and marks it as such in the ticket. See Trac Keywords list (below).
  5. A BuddyPress developer (which could be you) decides to fix the bug. The developer may choose to take responsibility for the bug by clicking on the Accept ticket option near the bottom of the ticket, though this is not required. Then the developer fixes the bug, creates one or more patch files, and uploads them to Trac.
  6. Other BuddyPress developers may check the patch to see if it fixes the bug and doesn’t break anything else. They add comments and keywords to the ticket to indicate their results. See Trac Keywords list (below).
  7. Andy Peatling (the only BuddyPress developer with authority to modify the official BuddyPress source code) will then commit the patch to the core code.  This means the fix will be included in the next release of BuddyPress.

Details of Bug Reporting and Resolution

The sections below add details to some of the steps outlined above.

Before You Report a Bug

Your bug may have already been reported. It’s very important to check to be sure it’s not already in the system before you submit it. If you are new to reporting bugs in BuddyPress or WordPress, it is also a good idea to discuss the issue with more experienced developers before reporting it. Please follow the steps below.

  1. Search for your bug or feature request in Trac.
    • If your issue has already been reported, please do not report a duplicate bug. If you have further information to contribute, log in and add a note to the existing bug.
    • If your issue is similar, but not quite the same as another issue, you may decide whether to add a note to the similar issue, or report a new one. It can be difficult to decide whether your issue warrants a new submission, but in general if you just have more information to contribute to a current, open issue, simply add a note to that issue. If you have a different enough issue, or if you are experiencing a recurrence of an issue that was previously resolved, report a new bug.
    • If your issue was recently reported and then closed, and you do not agree with the resolution, you can also reopen the ticket and add a comment as to your reasoning.
  2. To discuss a bug before reporting it in Trac (e.g. to figure out if it is really a bug in the core of BuddyPress and not in a Plugin or Theme), you can post a question on the BuddyPress Support Forum or discuss your issue on the #buddypress-dev IRC channel (irc.freenode.net).

Reporting a Bug

To report a bug, read Before You Report a Bug (above), and verify that you have a new bug that is appropriate to report.

  1. Log into BuddyPress Trac using your forum username and password and select New Ticket in Trac to reach the bug reporting page.
  2. Fill in the following fields on the new ticket page.
    • Short Summary
      Make the summary short but informative and accurate, as this is the ticket title that will be displayed in search results.
    • Full Description
      Fill in a full description of your bug or feature request. Include a description of the problem, steps someone else would have to take to reproduce the problem and maybe an example of the bug in action (i.e. a URL) or a screenshot. The better your description, the easier it is for a developer to find the bug.
    • Priority
      Unless it is a critical bug, this is best left to the default as developers will usually rank the bug’s priority.
    • Assign to (optional)
      You can also take responsibility for the bug yourself, by putting your username here.
    • Milestone
      By what version this issue should be resolved, at the latest. Do not change this. This is an option that a BuddyPress developer will set.
    • Keywords
      Keywords identify the areas the bug affects. An example might be ‘wire’ for a bug involving the Wire component. Also, there are some standard keywords used to flag your bug’s status (see Trac Keywords below).
    • CC (optional)
      Who bug information and updates should be sent to. If you want to be kept informed, enter your email address. You will then be notified by email any time a change is made to this report, or a note to the bug is added. Note: If you are the bug’s reporter, you will already get messages, so no need for CC.

Trac Keywords

There are a number of keywords with defined meaning used in Trac that are commonly used.

Finding Bugs to Fix

Please view this forum post as it continues links to a number of Trac reports, allowing you to see which bugs are still awaiting a fix.

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Article Contributors

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Paul Wong-Gibbs
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Updated 11 years ago / Published 15 years ago

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