Optional Additional Configuration

The Bugzilla Guide - 3.6.8 Release
Prev | Chapter 2. Installing Bugzilla | Next

# 2.3. Optional Additional Configuration

Bugzilla has a number of optional features. This section describes how to configure or enable them.

## 2.3.1. Bug Graphs

If you have installed the necessary Perl modules you can start collecting statistics for the nifty Bugzilla graphs.

    bash# crontab -e

This should bring up the crontab file in your editor. Add a cron entry like this to run `collectstats.pl` daily at 5 after midnight:

    5 0 * * * cd <your-bugzilla-directory> && ./collectstats.pl

After two days have passed you'll be able to view bug graphs from the Reports page.

| Windows does not have 'cron', but it does have the Task Scheduler, which performs the same duties. There are also third-party tools that can be used to implement cron, such as nncron.

## 2.3.2. The Whining Cron

What good are bugs if they're not annoying? To help make them more so you can set up Bugzilla's automatic whining system to complain at engineers which leave their bugs in the NEW or REOPENED state without triaging them.

This can be done by adding the following command as a daily crontab entry, in the same manner as explained above for bug graphs. This example runs it at 12.55am.

    55 0 * * * cd <your-bugzilla-directory> && ./whineatnews.pl

| Windows does not have 'cron', but it does have the Task Scheduler, which performs the same duties. There are also third-party tools that can be used to implement cron, such as nncron.

## 2.3.3. Whining

As of Bugzilla 2.20, users can configure Bugzilla to regularly annoy them at regular intervals, by having Bugzilla execute saved searches at certain times and emailing the results to the user. This is known as "Whining". The process of configuring Whining is described in Section 5.13, but for it to work a Perl script must be executed at regular intervals.

This can be done by adding the following command as a daily crontab entry, in the same manner as explained above for bug graphs. This example runs it every 15 minutes.

    */15 * * * * cd <your-bugzilla-directory> && ./whine.pl

| Whines can be executed as often as every 15 minutes, so if you specify longer intervals between executions of whine.pl, some users may not be whined at as often as they would expect. Depending on the person, this can either be a very Good Thing or a very Bad Thing.

| Windows does not have 'cron', but it does have the Task Scheduler, which performs the same duties. There are also third-party tools that can be used to implement cron, such as nncron.

## 2.3.4. Serving Alternate Formats with the right MIME type

Some Bugzilla pages have alternate formats, other than just plain HTML. In particular, a few Bugzilla pages can output their contents as either XUL (a special Mozilla format, that looks like a program GUI) or RDF (a type of structured XML that can be read by various programs).

In order for your users to see these pages correctly, Apache must send them with the right MIME type. To do this, add the following lines to your Apache configuration, either in the `<VirtualHost>` section for your Bugzilla, or in the `<Directory>` section for your Bugzilla:

    AddType application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml .xul
    AddType application/rdf+xml .rdf

Prev | Home | Next
Configuration | Up | Multiple Bugzilla databases with a single installation