Guidelines on Reporting Product Issues

1. Always search the existing issues first

There is a high probability that if you've found a problem, someone else has found it too. If you spend a few minutes of your time making sure that you're not filing a duplicate bug, that's a few more minutes someone can spend helping to fix that bug rather than sorting out duplicate bug reports.

2. Refrain from submitting multiple issues in a single bug report

Avoid reporting different issues in a single issue report. Split them up into different issues and report them separately. This makes it easier for different people to deal with the different bugs.

Example:-

Incorrect:

Cannot add a new user in the management console.

The add new user functionality is not working in the management console. It throws a java.lang.NullPointer exception when submitting new user information.

Also, the removing of the existing users is not possible on the 'User Management page'

Correct:

Cannot add a new user in the management console.

The add new user functionality is not working in the management console. It throws a java.lang.NullPointer exception when submitting new user information.

3. Provide steps to reproduce the issue

When you report a bug, provide step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce the issue. Even though it seems trivial for describing some obvious scenarios, the others can easily try the same if you are specific and supply correct steps. Detailed information will reduce the effort required by the others to reproduce the bug and view the error.

Example:-

Cannot add a new user in the management console

The add new user functionality is not working in the management console. It throws a java.lang.NullPointer exception when submitting new user information.

Steps to reproduce the error:

1. Log in to the management console as an admin user.

2. Click on User Management in the left navigation menu.

3. Click the Add New User link.

4. Provide valid information for a new user.

   user name=test
   password= abcd123
   Role=user

5. Click Submit.

4. Provide a meaningful summary

A meaningful summary should quickly and uniquely identify a bug report. Be specific on the issue and provide precise and clear information.

Incorrect:

Problems on the user management page.

Correct:

Cannot add a new user in the management console.

5. Specify the expected result and the actual result

You need to specify what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. This information provides the other users with identifying whether the issue is a bug or the functionality has been misunderstood by the submitter.

Example:

Cannot add a new user in the management console

Actual Result:

java.lang.NullPointer exception was thrown

Expected Result:

The new user should be added and a confirmation message should be displayed.

6. Add all the necessary artifacts related to the issue

A picture can provide information which cannot be easily described using text. If the issue is a User Interface problem, attach a screen shot in .jpeg format. If there is a documentation issue, attach the necessary documents.

Always attach the log files when the issue is related to an exception.

If there are multiple artifacts (eg:- class library), zip them up and attach.

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