3. Administering Bugzilla — Bugzilla 4.5.3 documentation

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# 3. Administering Bugzilla

## 3.1. Bugzilla Configuration

Bugzilla is configured by changing various parameters, accessed from the "Parameters" link in the Administration page (the Administration page can be found by clicking the "Administration" link in the footer). The parameters are divided into several categories, accessed via the menu on the left. Following is a description of the different categories and important parameters within those categories.

### 3.1.1. Required Settings

The core required parameters for any Bugzilla installation are set here. These parameters must be set before a new Bugzilla installation can be used. Administrators should review this list before deploying a new Bugzilla installation.

maintainer
  Email address of the person responsible for maintaining this Bugzilla installation. The address need not be that of a valid Bugzilla account.
urlbase
  Defines the fully qualified domain name and web server path to this Bugzilla installation. For example, if the Bugzilla query page is `http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/query.cgi`, the `urlbase` should be set to `http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/`.
docs_urlbase
  Defines path to the Bugzilla documentation. This can be a fully qualified domain name, or a path relative to "urlbase". For example, if the "Bugzilla Configuration" page of the documentation is `http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/docs/html/parameters.html`, set the `docs_urlbase` to `http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/docs/html/`.
sslbase
  Defines the fully qualified domain name and web server path for HTTPS (SSL) connections to this Bugzilla installation. For example, if the Bugzilla main page is `https://www.foo.com/bugzilla/index.cgi`, the `sslbase` should be set to `https://www.foo.com/bugzilla/`.
ssl_redirect
  If enabled, Bugzilla will force HTTPS (SSL) connections, by automatically redirecting any users who try to use a non-SSL connection.
cookiedomain
  Defines the domain for Bugzilla cookies. This is typically left blank. If there are multiple hostnames that point to the same webserver, which require the same cookie, then this parameter can be utilized. For example, If your website is at `https://www.foo.com/`, setting this to `.foo.com/` will also allow `bar.foo.com/` to access Bugzilla cookies.
cookiepath
  Defines a path, relative to the web server root, that Bugzilla cookies will be restricted to. For example, if the urlbase is set to `http://www.foo.com/bugzilla/`, the cookiepath should be set to `/bugzilla/`. Setting it to "/" will allow all sites served by this web server or virtual host to read Bugzilla cookies.
utf8

  Determines whether to use UTF-8 (Unicode) encoding for all text in Bugzilla. New installations should set this to true to avoid character encoding problems. Existing databases should set this to true only after the data has been converted from existing legacy character encoding to UTF-8, using the `contrib/recode.pl` script.

  Note

  If you turn this parameter from "off" to "on", you must re-run `checksetup.pl` immediately afterward.

shutdownhtml

  If there is any text in this field, this Bugzilla installation will be completely disabled and this text will appear instead of all Bugzilla pages for all users, including Admins. Used in the event of site maintenance or outage situations.

  Note

  Although regular log-in capability is disabled while shutdownhtml is enabled, safeguards are in place to protect the unfortunate admin who loses connection to Bugzilla. Should this happen to you, go directly to the `editparams.cgi` (by typing the URL in manually, if necessary). Doing this will prompt you to log in, and your name/password will be accepted here (but nowhere else).

announcehtml
  Any text in this field will be displayed at the top of every HTML page in this Bugzilla installation. The text is not wrapped in any tags. For best results, wrap the text in a `<div>` tag. Any style attributes from the CSS can be applied. For example, to make the text green inside of a red box, add `id=message` to the `<div>` tag.
proxy_url
  If this Bugzilla installation is behind a proxy, enter the proxy information here to enable Bugzilla to access the Internet. Bugzilla requires Internet access to utilize the upgrade_notification parameter (below). If the proxy requires authentication, use the syntax: `http://user:pass@proxy_url/`.
upgrade_notification
  Enable or disable a notification on the homepage of this Bugzilla installation when a newer version of Bugzilla is available. This notification is only visible to administrators. Choose "disabled", to turn off the notification. Otherwise, choose which version of Bugzilla you want to be notified about: "development_snapshot" is the latest release on the trunk; "latest_stable_release" is the most recent release available on the most recent stable branch; "stable_branch_release" the most recent release on the branch this installation is based on.

### 3.1.2. Administrative Policies

This page contains parameters for basic administrative functions. Options include whether to allow the deletion of bugs and users, and whether to allow users to change their email address.

### 3.1.3. User Authentication

This page contains the settings that control how this Bugzilla installation will do its authentication. Choose what authentication mechanism to use (the Bugzilla database, or an external source such as LDAP), and set basic behavioral parameters. For example, choose whether to require users to login to browse bugs, the management of authentication cookies, and the regular expression used to validate email addresses. Some parameters are highlighted below.

emailregexp
  Defines the regular expression used to validate email addresses used for login names. The default attempts to match fully qualified email addresses (i.e. 'user@example.com') in a slightly more restrictive way than what is allowed in RFC 2822. Some Bugzilla installations allow only local user names (i.e 'user' instead of 'user@example.com'). In that case, this parameter should be used to define the email domain.
emailsuffix
  This string is appended to login names when actually sending email to a user. For example, If emailregexp has been set to allow local usernames, then this parameter would contain the email domain for all users (i.e. '@example.com').

### 3.1.4. Attachments

This page allows for setting restrictions and other parameters regarding attachments to bugs. For example, control size limitations and whether to allow pointing to external files via a URI.

### 3.1.5. Bug Change Policies

Set policy on default behavior for bug change events. For example, choose which status to set a bug to when it is marked as a duplicate, and choose whether to allow bug reporters to set the priority or target milestone. Also allows for configuration of what changes should require the user to make a comment, described below.

commenton*

  All these fields allow you to dictate what changes can pass without comment, and which must have a comment from the person who changed them. Often, administrators will allow users to add themselves to the CC list, accept bugs, or change the Status Whiteboard without adding a comment as to their reasons for the change, yet require that most other changes come with an explanation. Set the "commenton" options according to your site policy. It is a wise idea to require comments when users resolve, reassign, or reopen bugs at the very least.

  Note

  It is generally far better to require a developer comment when resolving bugs than not. Few things are more annoying to bug database users than having a developer mark a bug "fixed" without any comment as to what the fix was (or even that it was truly fixed!)

noresolveonopenblockers
  This option will prevent users from resolving bugs as FIXED if they have unresolved dependencies. Only the FIXED resolution is affected. Users will be still able to resolve bugs to resolutions other than FIXED if they have unresolved dependent bugs.

### 3.1.6. Bug Fields

The parameters in this section determine the default settings of several Bugzilla fields for new bugs, and also control whether certain fields are used. For example, choose whether to use the "target milestone" field or the "status whiteboard" field.

useqacontact
  This allows you to define an email address for each component, in addition to that of the default assignee, who will be sent carbon copies of incoming bugs.
usestatuswhiteboard
  This defines whether you wish to have a free-form, overwritable field associated with each bug. The advantage of the Status Whiteboard is that it can be deleted or modified with ease, and provides an easily-searchable field for indexing some bugs that have some trait in common.

### 3.1.7. Bug Moving

This page controls whether this Bugzilla installation allows certain users to move bugs to an external database. If bug moving is enabled, there are a number of parameters that control bug moving behaviors. For example, choose which users are allowed to move bugs, the location of the external database, and the default product and component that bugs moved from other bug databases to this Bugzilla installation are assigned to.

### 3.1.8. Dependency Graphs

This page has one parameter that sets the location of a Web Dot server, or of the Web Dot binary on the local system, that is used to generate dependency graphs. Web Dot is a CGI program that creates images from `.dot` graphic description files. If no Web Dot server or binary is specified, then dependency graphs will be disabled.

### 3.1.9. Group Security

Bugzilla allows for the creation of different groups, with the ability to restrict the visibility of bugs in a group to a set of specific users. Specific products can also be associated with groups, and users restricted to only see products in their groups. Several parameters are described in more detail below. Most of the configuration of groups and their relationship to products is done on the "Groups" and "Product" pages of the "Administration" area. The options on this page control global default behavior. For more information on Groups and Group Security, see Groups and Group Security

makeproductgroups
  Determines whether or not to automatically create groups when new products are created. If this is on, the groups will be used for querying bugs.
usevisibilitygroups
  If selected, user visibility will be restricted to members of groups, as selected in the group configuration settings. Each user-defined group can be allowed to see members of selected other groups. For details on configuring groups (including the visibility restrictions) see Editing Groups and Assigning Group Permissions.
querysharegroup
  The name of the group of users who are allowed to share saved searches with one another. For more information on using saved searches, see Saved Searches.

### 3.1.10. LDAP Authentication

LDAP authentication is a module for Bugzilla's plugin authentication architecture. This page contains all the parameters necessary to configure Bugzilla for use with LDAP authentication.

The existing authentication scheme for Bugzilla uses email addresses as the primary user ID, and a password to authenticate that user. All places within Bugzilla that require a user ID (e.g assigning a bug) use the email address. The LDAP authentication builds on top of this scheme, rather than replacing it. The initial log-in is done with a username and password for the LDAP directory. Bugzilla tries to bind to LDAP using those credentials and, if successful, tries to map this account to a Bugzilla account. If an LDAP mail attribute is defined, the value of this attribute is used, otherwise the "emailsuffix" parameter is appended to LDAP username to form a full email address. If an account for this address already exists in the Bugzilla installation, it will log in to that account. If no account for that email address exists, one is created at the time of login. (In this case, Bugzilla will attempt to use the "displayName" or "cn" attribute to determine the user's full name.) After authentication, all other user-related tasks are still handled by email address, not LDAP username. For example, bugs are still assigned by email address and users are still queried by email address.

Warning

Because the Bugzilla account is not created until the first time a user logs in, a user who has not yet logged is unknown to Bugzilla. This means they cannot be used as an assignee or QA contact (default or otherwise), added to any CC list, or any other such operation. One possible workaround is the `bugzilla_ldapsync.rb` script in the `contrib` directory. Another possible solution is fixing bug 201069.

Parameters required to use LDAP Authentication:

user_verify_class
  If you want to list `LDAP` here, make sure to have set up the other parameters listed below. Unless you have other (working) authentication methods listed as well, you may otherwise not be able to log back in to Bugzilla once you log out. If this happens to you, you will need to manually edit `data/params` and set user_verify_class to `DB`.
LDAPserver

  This parameter should be set to the name (and optionally the port) of your LDAP server. If no port is specified, it assumes the default LDAP port of 389. For example: `ldap.company.com` or `ldap.company.com:3268` You can also specify a LDAP URI, so as to use other protocols, such as LDAPS or LDAPI. If port was not specified in the URI, the default is either 389 or 636 for 'LDAP' and 'LDAPS' schemes respectively.

  Note

  In order to use SSL with LDAP, specify a URI with "ldaps://". This will force the use of SSL over port 636. For example, normal LDAP: `ldap://ldap.company.com`, LDAP over SSL: `ldaps://ldap.company.com` or LDAP over a UNIX domain socket `ldapi://%2fvar%2flib%2fldap_sock`.

LDAPbinddn [Optional]
  Some LDAP servers will not allow an anonymous bind to search the directory. If this is the case with your configuration you should set the LDAPbinddn parameter to the user account Bugzilla should use instead of the anonymous bind. Ex. `cn=default,cn=user:password`
LDAPBaseDN
  The LDAPBaseDN parameter should be set to the location in your LDAP tree that you would like to search for email addresses. Your uids should be unique under the DN specified here. Ex. `ou=People,o=Company`
LDAPuidattribute
  The LDAPuidattribute parameter should be set to the attribute which contains the unique UID of your users. The value retrieved from this attribute will be used when attempting to bind as the user to confirm their password. Ex. `uid`
LDAPmailattribute
  The LDAPmailattribute parameter should be the name of the attribute which contains the email address your users will enter into the Bugzilla login boxes. Ex. `mail`

### 3.1.11. RADIUS Authentication

RADIUS authentication is a module for Bugzilla's plugin authentication architecture. This page contains all the parameters necessary for configuring Bugzilla to use RADIUS authentication.

Note

Most caveats that apply to LDAP authentication apply to RADIUS authentication as well. See LDAP Authentication for details.

Parameters required to use RADIUS Authentication:

user_verify_class
  If you want to list `RADIUS` here, make sure to have set up the other parameters listed below. Unless you have other (working) authentication methods listed as well, you may otherwise not be able to log back in to Bugzilla once you log out. If this happens to you, you will need to manually edit `data/params` and set user_verify_class to `DB`.
RADIUS_server
  This parameter should be set to the name (and optionally the port) of your RADIUS server.
RADIUS_secret
  This parameter should be set to the RADIUS server's secret.
RADIUS_email_suffix
  Bugzilla needs an e-mail address for each user account. Therefore, it needs to determine the e-mail address corresponding to a RADIUS user. Bugzilla offers only a simple way to do this: it can concatenate a suffix to the RADIUS user name to convert it into an e-mail address. You can specify this suffix in the RADIUS_email_suffix parameter. If this simple solution does not work for you, you'll probably need to modify `Bugzilla/Auth/Verify/RADIUS.pm` to match your requirements.

### 3.1.12. Email

This page contains all of the parameters for configuring how Bugzilla deals with the email notifications it sends. See below for a summary of important options.

mail_delivery_method
  This is used to specify how email is sent, or if it is sent at all. There are several options included for different MTAs, along with two additional options that disable email sending. "Test" does not send mail, but instead saves it in `data/mailer.testfile` for later review. "None" disables email sending entirely.
mailfrom
  This is the email address that will appear in the "From" field of all emails sent by this Bugzilla installation. Some email servers require mail to be from a valid email address, therefore it is recommended to choose a valid email address here.
smtpserver
  This is the SMTP server address, if the `mail_delivery_method` parameter is set to SMTP. Use "localhost" if you have a local MTA running, otherwise use a remote SMTP server. Append ":" and the port number, if a non-default port is needed.
smtp_username
  Username to use for SASL authentication to the SMTP server. Leave this parameter empty if your server does not require authentication.
smtp_password
  Password to use for SASL authentication to the SMTP server. This parameter will be ignored if the `smtp_username` parameter is left empty.
smtp_ssl
  Enable SSL support for connection to the SMTP server.
smtp_debug
  This parameter allows you to enable detailed debugging output. Log messages are printed the web server's error log.
whinedays
  Set this to the number of days you want to let bugs go in the CONFIRMED state before notifying people they have untouched new bugs. If you do not plan to use this feature, simply do not set up the whining cron job described in the installation instructions, or set this value to "0" (never whine).
globalwatcher
  This allows you to define specific users who will receive notification each time a new bug in entered, or when an existing bug changes, according to the normal groupset permissions. It may be useful for sending notifications to a mailing-list, for instance.

### 3.1.13. Patch Viewer

This page contains configuration parameters for the CVS server, Bonsai server and LXR server that Bugzilla will use to enable the features of the Patch Viewer. Bonsai is a tool that enables queries to a CVS tree. LXR is a tool that can cross reference and index source code.

### 3.1.14. Query Defaults

This page controls the default behavior of Bugzilla in regards to several aspects of querying bugs. Options include what the default query options are, what the "My Bugs" page returns, whether users can freely add bugs to the quip list, and how many duplicate bugs are needed to add a bug to the "most frequently reported" list.

### 3.1.15. Shadow Database

This page controls whether a shadow database is used, and all the parameters associated with the shadow database. Versions of Bugzilla prior to 3.2 used the MyISAM table type, which supports only table-level write locking. With MyISAM, any time someone is making a change to a bug, the entire table is locked until the write operation is complete. Locking for write also blocks reads until the write is complete.

The `shadowdb` parameter was designed to get around this limitation. While only a single user is allowed to write to a table at a time, reads can continue unimpeded on a read-only shadow copy of the database.

Note

As of version 3.2, Bugzilla no longer uses the MyISAM table type. Instead, InnoDB is used, which can do transaction-based locking. Therefore, the limitations the Shadow Database feature was designed to workaround no longer exist.

### 3.1.16. User Matching

The settings on this page control how users are selected and queried when adding a user to a bug. For example, users need to be selected when choosing who the bug is assigned to, adding to the CC list or selecting a QA contact. With the "usemenuforusers" parameter, it is possible to configure Bugzilla to display a list of users in the fields instead of an empty text field. This should only be used in Bugzilla installations with a small number of users. If users are selected via a text box, this page also contains parameters for how user names can be queried and matched when entered.

Another setting called 'ajax_user_autocompletion' enables certain user fields to display a list of matched user names as a drop down after typing a few characters. Note that it is recommended to use mod_perl when enabling 'ajax_user_autocompletion'.

## 3.2. User Administration

### 3.2.1. Creating the Default User

When you first run checksetup.pl after installing Bugzilla, it will prompt you for the administrative username (email address) and password for this "super user". If for some reason you delete the "super user" account, re-running checksetup.pl will again prompt you for this username and password.

Note

If you wish to add more administrative users, add them to the "admin" group and, optionally, edit the tweakparams, editusers, creategroups, editcomponents, and editkeywords groups to add the entire admin group to those groups (which is the case by default).

### 3.2.2. Managing Other Users

#### 3.2.2.1. Searching for existing users

If you have `editusers` privileges or if you are allowed to grant privileges for some groups, the `Users` link will appear in the Administration page.

The first screen is a search form to search for existing user accounts. You can run searches based either on the user ID, real name or login name (i.e. the email address, or just the first part of the email address if the "emailsuffix" parameter is set). The search can be conducted in different ways using the listbox to the right of the text entry box. You can match by case-insensitive substring (the default), regular expression, a reverse regular expression match (which finds every user name which does NOT match the regular expression), or the exact string if you know exactly who you are looking for. The search can be restricted to users who are in a specific group. By default, the restriction is turned off.

The search returns a list of users matching your criteria. User properties can be edited by clicking the login name. The Account History of a user can be viewed by clicking the "View" link in the Account History column. The Account History displays changes that have been made to the user account, the time of the change and the user who made the change. For example, the Account History page will display details of when a user was added or removed from a group.

#### 3.2.2.2. Creating new users

##### 3.2.2.2.1. Self-registration

By default, users can create their own user accounts by clicking the `New Account` link at the bottom of each page (assuming they aren't logged in as someone else already). If you want to disable this self-registration, or if you want to restrict who can create his own user account, you have to edit the `createemailregexp` parameter in the `Configuration` page, see Bugzilla Configuration.

##### 3.2.2.2.2. Accounts created by an administrator

Users with `editusers` privileges, such as administrators, can create user accounts for other users:

1. After logging in, click the "Users" link at the footer of the query page, and then click "Add a new user".

2. Fill out the form presented. This page is self-explanatory. When done, click "Submit".

   Note

   Adding a user this way will not send an email informing them of their username and password. While useful for creating dummy accounts (watchers which shuttle mail to another system, for instance, or email addresses which are a mailing list), in general it is preferable to log out and use the `New Account` button to create users, as it will pre-populate all the required fields and also notify the user of her account name and password.

#### 3.2.2.3. Modifying Users

Once you have found your user, you can change the following fields:

- Login Name: This is generally the user's full email address. However, if you have are using the `emailsuffix` parameter, this may just be the user's login name. Note that users can now change their login names themselves (to any valid email address).

- Real Name: The user's real name. Note that Bugzilla does not require this to create an account.

- Password: You can change the user's password here. Users can automatically request a new password, so you shouldn't need to do this often. If you want to disable an account, see Disable Text below.

- Bugmail Disabled: Mark this checkbox to disable bugmail and whinemail completely for this account. This checkbox replaces the data/nomail file which existed in older versions of Bugzilla.

- Disable Text: If you type anything in this box, including just a space, the user is prevented from logging in, or making any changes to bugs via the web interface. The HTML you type in this box is presented to the user when they attempt to perform these actions, and should explain why the account was disabled. Users with disabled accounts will continue to receive mail from Bugzilla; furthermore, they will not be able to log in themselves to change their own preferences and stop it. If you want an account (disabled or active) to stop receiving mail, simply check the `Bugmail Disabled` checkbox above.

  Note

  Even users whose accounts have been disabled can still submit bugs via the e-mail gateway, if one exists. The e-mail gateway should not be enabled for secure installations of Bugzilla.

  Warning

  Don't disable all the administrator accounts!

- <groupname>: If you have created some groups, e.g. "securitysensitive", then checkboxes will appear here to allow you to add users to, or remove them from, these groups. The first checkbox gives the user the ability to add and remove other users as members of this group. The second checkbox adds the user himself as a member of the group.

- canconfirm: This field is only used if you have enabled the "unconfirmed" status. If you enable this for a user, that user can then move bugs from "Unconfirmed" to a "Confirmed" status (e.g.: "New" status).

- creategroups: This option will allow a user to create and destroy groups in Bugzilla.

- editbugs: Unless a user has this bit set, they can only edit those bugs for which they are the assignee or the reporter. Even if this option is unchecked, users can still add comments to bugs.

- editcomponents: This flag allows a user to create new products and components, as well as modify and destroy those that have no bugs associated with them. If a product or component has bugs associated with it, those bugs must be moved to a different product or component before Bugzilla will allow them to be destroyed.

- editkeywords: If you use Bugzilla's keyword functionality, enabling this feature allows a user to create and destroy keywords. As always, the keywords for existing bugs containing the keyword the user wishes to destroy must be changed before Bugzilla will allow it to die.

- editusers: This flag allows a user to do what you're doing right now: edit other users. This will allow those with the right to do so to remove administrator privileges from other users or grant them to themselves. Enable with care.

- tweakparams: This flag allows a user to change Bugzilla's Params (using `editparams.cgi`.)

- <productname>: This allows an administrator to specify the products in which a user can see bugs. If you turn on the `makeproductgroups` parameter in the Group Security Panel in the Parameters page, then Bugzilla creates one group per product (at the time you create the product), and this group has exactly the same name as the product itself. Note that for products that already exist when the parameter is turned on, the corresponding group will not be created. The user must still have the `editbugs` privilege to edit bugs in these products.

#### 3.2.2.4. Deleting Users

If the `allowuserdeletion` parameter is turned on, see Bugzilla Configuration, then you can also delete user accounts. Note that this is most of the time not the best thing to do. If only a warning in a yellow box is displayed, then the deletion is safe. If a warning is also displayed in a red box, then you should NOT try to delete the user account, else you will get referential integrity problems in your database, which can lead to unexpected behavior, such as bugs not appearing in bug lists anymore, or data displaying incorrectly. You have been warned!

#### 3.2.2.5. Impersonating Users

There may be times when an administrator would like to do something as another user. The sudo feature may be used to do this.

Note

To use the sudo feature, you must be in the bz_sudoers group. By default, all administrators are in this group.

If you have access to this feature, you may start a session by going to the Edit Users page, Searching for a user and clicking on their login. You should see a link below their login name titled "Impersonate this user". Click on the link. This will take you to a page where you will see a description of the feature and instructions for using it. After reading the text, simply enter the login of the user you would like to impersonate, provide a short message explaining why you are doing this, and press the button.

As long as you are using this feature, everything you do will be done as if you were logged in as the user you are impersonating.

Warning

The user you are impersonating will not be told about what you are doing. If you do anything that results in mail being sent, that mail will appear to be from the user you are impersonating. You should be extremely careful while using this feature.

## 3.3. Classifications

Classifications tend to be used in order to group several related products into one distinct entity.

The classifications layer is disabled by default; it can be turned on or off using the useclassification parameter, in the Bug Fields section of the edit parameters screen.

Access to the administration of classifications is controlled using the editclassifications system group, which defines a privilege for creating, destroying, and editing classifications.

When activated, classifications will introduce an additional step when filling bugs (dedicated to classification selection), and they will also appear in the advanced search form.

## 3.4. Products

Products typically represent real-world shipping products. Products can be given Classifications. For example, if a company makes computer games, they could have a classification of "Games", and a separate product for each game. This company might also have a `Common` product for units of technology used in multiple games, and perhaps a few special products that represent items that are not actually shipping products (for example, "Website", or "Administration").

Many of Bugzilla's settings are configurable on a per-product basis. The number of `votes` available to users is set per-product, as is the number of votes required to move a bug automatically from the UNCONFIRMED status to the CONFIRMED status.

When creating or editing products the following options are available:

Product
  The name of the product
Description
  A brief description of the product
Default milestone
  Select the default milestone for this product.
Closed for bug entry
  Select this box to prevent new bugs from being entered against this product.
Maximum votes per person
  Maximum votes a user is allowed to give for this product
Maximum votes a person can put on a single bug
  Maximum votes a user is allowed to give for this product in a single bug
Confirmation threshold
  Number of votes needed to automatically remove any bug against this product from the UNCONFIRMED state
Version
  Specify which version of the product bugs will be entered against.
Create chart datasets for this product
  Select to make chart datasets available for this product.

When editing a product there is also a link to edit Group Access Controls, see Assigning Group Controls to Products.

### 3.4.1. Creating New Products

To create a new product:

1. Select `Administration` from the footer and then choose `Products` from the main administration page.
2. Select the `Add` link in the bottom right.
3. Enter the name of the product and a description. The Description field may contain HTML.
4. When the product is created, Bugzilla will give a message stating that a component must be created before any bugs can be entered against the new product. Follow the link to create a new component. See Components for more information.

### 3.4.2. Editing Products

To edit an existing product, click the "Products" link from the "Administration" page. If the 'useclassification' parameter is turned on, a table of existing classifications is displayed, including an "Unclassified" category. The table indicates how many products are in each classification. Click on the classification name to see its products. If the 'useclassification' parameter is not in use, the table lists all products directly. The product table summarizes the information about the product defined when the product was created. Click on the product name to edit these properties, and to access links to other product attributes such as the product's components, versions, milestones, and group access controls.

### 3.4.3. Adding or Editing Components, Versions and Target Milestones

To edit existing, or add new, Components, Versions or Target Milestones to a Product, select the "Edit Components", "Edit Versions" or "Edit Milestones" links from the "Edit Product" page. A table of existing Components, Versions or Milestones is displayed. Click on a item name to edit the properties of that item. Below the table is a link to add a new Component, Version or Milestone.

For more information on components, see Components.

For more information on versions, see Versions.

For more information on milestones, see Milestones.

### 3.4.4. Assigning Group Controls to Products

On the `Edit Product` page, there is a link called `Edit Group Access Controls`. The settings on this page control the relationship of the groups to the product being edited.

Group Access Controls are an important aspect of using groups for isolating products and restricting access to bugs filed against those products. For more information on groups, including how to create, edit add users to, and alter permission of, see Groups and Group Security.

After selecting the "Edit Group Access Controls" link from the "Edit Product" page, a table containing all user-defined groups for this Bugzilla installation is displayed. The system groups that are created when Bugzilla is installed are not applicable to Group Access Controls. Below is description of what each of these fields means.

Groups may be applicable (e.g bugs in this product can be associated with this group) , default (e.g. bugs in this product are in this group by default), and mandatory (e.g. bugs in this product must be associated with this group) for each product. Groups can also control access to bugs for a given product, or be used to make bugs for a product totally read-only unless the group restrictions are met. The best way to understand these relationships is by example. See Common Applications of Group Controls for examples of product and group relationships.

Note

Products and Groups are not limited to a one-to-one relationship. Multiple groups can be associated with the same product, and groups can be associated with more than one product.

If any group has Entry selected, then the product will restrict bug entry to only those users who are members of all the groups with Entry selected.

If any group has Canedit selected, then the product will be read-only for any users who are not members of all of the groups with Canedit selected. Only users who are members of all the Canedit groups will be able to edit bugs for this product. This is an additional restriction that enables finer-grained control over products rather than just all-or-nothing access levels.

The following settings let you choose privileges on a per-product basis. This is a convenient way to give privileges to some users for some products only, without having to give them global privileges which would affect all products.

Any group having editcomponents selected allows users who are in this group to edit all aspects of this product, including components, milestones and versions.

Any group having canconfirm selected allows users who are in this group to confirm bugs in this product.

Any group having editbugs selected allows users who are in this group to edit all fields of bugs in this product.

The MemberControl and OtherControl are used in tandem to determine which bugs will be placed in this group. The only allowable combinations of these two parameters are listed in a table on the "Edit Group Access Controls" page. Consult this table for details on how these fields can be used. Examples of different uses are described below.

### 3.4.5. Common Applications of Group Controls

The use of groups is best explained by providing examples that illustrate configurations for common use cases. The examples follow a common syntax: Group: Entry, MemberControl, OtherControl, CanEdit, EditComponents, CanConfirm, EditBugs. Where "Group" is the name of the group being edited for this product. The other fields all correspond to the table on the "Edit Group Access Controls" page. If any of these options are not listed, it means they are not checked.

#### 3.4.5.1. Basic Product/Group Restriction

Suppose there is a product called "Bar". The "Bar" product can only have bugs entered against it by users in the group "Foo". Additionally, bugs filed against product "Bar" must stay restricted to users to "Foo" at all times. Furthermore, only members of group "Foo" can edit bugs filed against product "Bar", even if other users could see the bug. This arrangement would achieved by the following:

    Product Bar:
    foo: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY, CANEDIT

Perhaps such strict restrictions are not needed for product "Bar". A more lenient way to configure product "Bar" and group "Foo" would be:

    Product Bar:
    foo: ENTRY, SHOWN/SHOWN, EDITCOMPONENTS, CANCONFIRM, EDITBUGS

The above indicates that for product "Bar", members of group "Foo" can enter bugs. Any one with permission to edit a bug against product "Bar" can put the bug in group "Foo", even if they themselves are not in "Foo". Anyone in group "Foo" can edit all aspects of the components of product "Bar", can confirm bugs against product "Bar", and can edit all fields of any bug against product "Bar".

#### 3.4.5.2. General User Access With Security Group

To permit any user to file bugs against "Product A", and to permit any user to submit those bugs into a group called "Security":

    Product A:
    security: SHOWN/SHOWN

#### 3.4.5.3. General User Access With A Security Product

To permit any user to file bugs against product called "Security" while keeping those bugs from becoming visible to anyone outside the group "SecurityWorkers" (unless a member of the "SecurityWorkers" group removes that restriction):

    Product Security:
    securityworkers: DEFAULT/MANDATORY

#### 3.4.5.4. Product Isolation With a Common Group

To permit users of "Product A" to access the bugs for "Product A", users of "Product B" to access the bugs for "Product B", and support staff, who are members of the "Support Group" to access both, three groups are needed:

1. Support Group: Contains members of the support staff.
2. AccessA Group: Contains users of product A and the Support group.
3. AccessB Group: Contains users of product B and the Support group.

Once these three groups are defined, the product group controls can be set to:

    Product A:
    AccessA: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
    Product B:
    AccessB: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY

Perhaps the "Support Group" wants more control. For example, the "Support Group" could be permitted to make bugs inaccessible to users of both groups "AccessA" and "AccessB". Then, the "Support Group" could be permitted to publish bugs relevant to all users in a third product (let's call it "Product Common") that is read-only to anyone outside the "Support Group". In this way the "Support Group" could control bugs that should be seen by both groups. That configuration would be:

    Product A:
    AccessA: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
    Support: SHOWN/NA
    Product B:
    AccessB: ENTRY, MANDATORY/MANDATORY
    Support: SHOWN/NA
    Product Common:
    Support: ENTRY, DEFAULT/MANDATORY, CANEDIT

#### 3.4.5.5. Make a Product Read Only

Sometimes a product is retired and should no longer have new bugs filed against it (for example, an older version of a software product that is no longer supported). A product can be made read-only by creating a group called "readonly" and adding products to the group as needed:

    Product A:
    ReadOnly: ENTRY, NA/NA, CANEDIT

Note

For more information on Groups outside of how they relate to products see Groups and Group Security.

## 3.5. Components

Components are subsections of a Product. E.g. the computer game you are designing may have a "UI" component, an "API" component, a "Sound System" component, and a "Plugins" component, each overseen by a different programmer. It often makes sense to divide Components in Bugzilla according to the natural divisions of responsibility within your Product or company.

Each component has a default assignee and (if you turned it on in the parameters), a QA Contact. The default assignee should be the primary person who fixes bugs in that component. The QA Contact should be the person who will ensure these bugs are completely fixed. The Assignee, QA Contact, and Reporter will get email when new bugs are created in this Component and when these bugs change. Default Assignee and Default QA Contact fields only dictate the default assignments; these can be changed on bug submission, or at any later point in a bug's life.

To create a new Component:

1. Select the `Edit components` link from the `Edit product` page
2. Select the `Add` link in the bottom right.
3. Fill out the `Component` field, a short `Description`, the `Default Assignee`, `Default CC List` and `Default QA Contact` (if enabled). The `Component Description` field may contain a limited subset of HTML tags. The `Default Assignee` field must be a login name already existing in the Bugzilla database.

## 3.6. Versions

Versions are the revisions of the product, such as "Flinders 3.1", "Flinders 95", and "Flinders 2000". Version is not a multi-select field; the usual practice is to select the earliest version known to have the bug.

To create and edit Versions:

1. From the "Edit product" screen, select "Edit Versions"
2. You will notice that the product already has the default version "undefined". Click the "Add" link in the bottom right.
3. Enter the name of the Version. This field takes text only. Then click the "Add" button.

## 3.7. Milestones

Milestones are "targets" that you plan to get a bug fixed by. For example, you have a bug that you plan to fix for your 3.0 release, it would be assigned the milestone of 3.0.

Note

Milestone options will only appear for a Product if you turned on the "usetargetmilestone" parameter in the "Bug Fields" tab of the "Parameters" page.

To create new Milestones, and set Default Milestones:

1. Select "Edit milestones" from the "Edit product" page.
2. Select "Add" in the bottom right corner.
3. Enter the name of the Milestone in the "Milestone" field. You can optionally set the "sortkey", which is a positive or negative number (-32768 to 32767) that defines where in the list this particular milestone appears. This is because milestones often do not occur in alphanumeric order For example, "Future" might be after "Release 1.2". Select "Add".

## 3.8. Flags

Flags are a way to attach a specific status to a bug or attachment, either `+` or `-`. The meaning of these symbols depends on the text the flag itself, but contextually they could mean pass/fail, accept/reject, approved/denied, or even a simple yes/no. If your site allows requestable flags, then users may set a flag to `?` as a request to another user that they look at the bug/attachment, and set the flag to its correct status.

### 3.8.1. A Simple Example

A developer might want to ask their manager, `Should we fix this bug before we release version 2.0?` They might want to do this for a lot of bugs, so it would be nice to streamline the process...

In Bugzilla, it would work this way:

1. The Bugzilla administrator creates a flag type called `blocking2.0` that shows up on all bugs in your product. It shows up on the `Show Bug` screen as the text `blocking2.0` with a drop-down box next to it. The drop-down box contains four values: an empty space, `?`, `-`, and `+`.
2. The developer sets the flag to `?`.
3. The manager sees the `blocking2.0` flag with a `?` value.
4. If the manager thinks the feature should go into the product before version 2.0 can be released, he sets the flag to `+`. Otherwise, he sets it to `-`.
5. Now, every Bugzilla user who looks at the bug knows whether or not the bug needs to be fixed before release of version 2.0.

### 3.8.2. About Flags

#### 3.8.2.1. Values

Flags can have three values:

`?`
  A user is requesting that a status be set. (Think of it as 'A question is being asked'.)
`-`
  The status has been set negatively. (The question has been answered `no`.)
`+`
  The status has been set positively. (The question has been answered `yes`.)

Actually, there's a fourth value a flag can have -- `unset` -- which shows up as a blank space. This just means that nobody has expressed an opinion (or asked someone else to express an opinion) about this bug or attachment.

### 3.8.3. Using flag requests

If a flag has been defined as 'requestable', and a user has enough privileges to request it (see below), the user can set the flag's status to `?`. This status indicates that someone (a.k.a. `the requester`) is asking someone else to set the flag to either `+` or `-`.

If a flag has been defined as 'specifically requestable', a text box will appear next to the flag into which the requester may enter a Bugzilla username. That named person (a.k.a. `the requestee`) will receive an email notifying them of the request, and pointing them to the bug/attachment in question.

If a flag has not been defined as 'specifically requestable', then no such text-box will appear. A request to set this flag cannot be made of any specific individual, but must be asked `to the wind`. A requester may `ask the wind` on any flag simply by leaving the text-box blank.

### 3.8.4. Two Types of Flags

Flags can go in two places: on an attachment, or on a bug.

#### 3.8.4.1. Attachment Flags

Attachment flags are used to ask a question about a specific attachment on a bug.

Many Bugzilla installations use this to request that one developer `review` another developer's code before they check it in. They attach the code to a bug report, and then set a flag on that attachment called `review` to `review?boss@domain.com`. boss@domain.com is then notified by email that he has to check out that attachment and approve it or deny it.

For a Bugzilla user, attachment flags show up in three places:

1. On the list of attachments in the `Show Bug` screen, you can see the current state of any flags that have been set to ?, +, or -. You can see who asked about the flag (the requester), and who is being asked (the requestee).
2. When you `Edit` an attachment, you can see any settable flag, along with any flags that have already been set. This `Edit Attachment` screen is where you set flags to ?, -, +, or unset them.
3. Requests are listed in the `Request Queue`, which is accessible from the `My Requests` link (if you are logged in) or `Requests` link (if you are logged out) visible in the footer of all pages.

#### 3.8.4.2. Bug Flags

Bug flags are used to set a status on the bug itself. You can see Bug Flags in the `Show Bug` and `Requests` screens, as described above.

Only users with enough privileges (see below) may set flags on bugs. This doesn't necessarily include the assignee, reporter, or users with the `editbugs` permission.

### 3.8.5. Administering Flags

If you have the `editcomponents` permission, you can edit Flag Types from the main administration page. Clicking the `Flags` link will bring you to the `Administer Flag Types` page. Here, you can select whether you want to create (or edit) a Bug flag, or an Attachment flag.

No matter which you choose, the interface is the same, so we'll just go over it once.

#### 3.8.5.1. Editing a Flag

To edit a flag's properties, just click the flag's name. That will take you to the same form as described below (Creating a Flag).

#### 3.8.5.2. Creating a Flag

When you click on the `Create a Flag Type for...` link, you will be presented with a form. Here is what the fields in the form mean:

##### 3.8.5.2.1. Name

This is the name of the flag. This will be displayed to Bugzilla users who are looking at or setting the flag. The name may contain any valid Unicode characters except commas and spaces.

##### 3.8.5.2.2. Description

The description describes the flag in more detail. It is visible in a tooltip when hovering over a flag either in the `Show Bug` or `Edit Attachment` pages. This field can be as long as you like, and can contain any character you want.

##### 3.8.5.2.3. Category

Default behaviour for a newly-created flag is to appear on products and all components, which is why `__Any__:__Any__` is already entered in the `Inclusions` box. If this is not your desired behaviour, you must either set some exclusions (for products on which you don't want the flag to appear), or you must remove `__Any__:__Any__` from the Inclusions box and define products/components specifically for this flag.

To create an Inclusion, select a Product from the top drop-down box. You may also select a specific component from the bottom drop-down box. (Setting `__Any__` for Product translates to, `all the products in this Bugzilla`. Selecting `__Any__` in the Component field means `all components in the selected product.`) Selections made, press `Include`, and your Product/Component pairing will show up in the `Inclusions` box on the right.

To create an Exclusion, the process is the same; select a Product from the top drop-down box, select a specific component if you want one, and press `Exclude`. The Product/Component pairing will show up in the `Exclusions` box on the right.

This flag will and can be set for any products/components that appearing in the `Inclusions` box (or which fall under the appropriate `__Any__`). This flag will not appear (and therefore cannot be set) on any products appearing in the `Exclusions` box. IMPORTANT: Exclusions override inclusions.

You may select a Product without selecting a specific Component, but you can't select a Component without a Product, or to select a Component that does not belong to the named Product. If you do so, Bugzilla will display an error message, even if all your products have a component by that name.

Example: Let's say you have a product called `Jet Plane` that has thousands of components. You want to be able to ask if a problem should be fixed in the next model of plane you release. We'll call the flag `fixInNext`. But, there's one component in `Jet Plane,` called `Pilot.` It doesn't make sense to release a new pilot, so you don't want to have the flag show up in that component. So, you include `Jet Plane:__Any__` and you exclude `Jet Plane:Pilot`.

##### 3.8.5.2.4. Sort Key

Flags normally show up in alphabetical order. If you want them to show up in a different order, you can use this key set the order on each flag. Flags with a lower sort key will appear before flags with a higher sort key. Flags that have the same sort key will be sorted alphabetically, but they will still be after flags with a lower sort key, and before flags with a higher sort key.

Example: I have AFlag (Sort Key 100), BFlag (Sort Key 10), CFlag (Sort Key 10), and DFlag (Sort Key 1). These show up in the order: DFlag, BFlag, CFlag, AFlag.

##### 3.8.5.2.5. Active

Sometimes, you might want to keep old flag information in the Bugzilla database, but stop users from setting any new flags of this type. To do this, uncheck `active`. Deactivated flags will still show up in the UI if they are ?, +, or -, but they may only be cleared (unset), and cannot be changed to a new value. Once a deactivated flag is cleared, it will completely disappear from a bug/attachment, and cannot be set again.

##### 3.8.5.2.6. Requestable

New flags are, by default, `requestable`, meaning that they offer users the `?` option, as well as `+` and `-`. To remove the ? option, uncheck `requestable`.

##### 3.8.5.2.7. Specifically Requestable

By default this box is checked for new flags, meaning that users may make flag requests of specific individuals. Unchecking this box will remove the text box next to a flag; if it is still requestable, then requests may only be made `to the wind.` Removing this after specific requests have been made will not remove those requests; that data will stay in the database (though it will no longer appear to the user).

##### 3.8.5.2.8. Multiplicable

Any flag with `Multiplicable` set (default for new flags is 'on') may be set more than once. After being set once, an unset flag of the same type will appear below it with `addl.` (short for `additional`) before the name. There is no limit to the number of times a Multiplicable flags may be set on the same bug/attachment.

##### 3.8.5.2.9. CC List

If you want certain users to be notified every time this flag is set to ?, -, +, or unset, add them here. This is a comma-separated list of email addresses that need not be restricted to Bugzilla usernames.

##### 3.8.5.2.10. Grant Group

When this field is set to some given group, only users in the group can set the flag to `+` and `-`. This field does not affect who can request or cancel the flag. For that, see the `Request Group` field below. If this field is left blank, all users can set or delete this flag. This field is useful for restricting which users can approve or reject requests.

##### 3.8.5.2.11. Request Group

When this field is set to some given group, only users in the group can request or cancel this flag. Note that this field has no effect if the `grant group` field is empty. You can set the value of this field to a different group, but both fields have to be set to a group for this field to have an effect.

#### 3.8.5.3. Deleting a Flag

When you are at the `Administer Flag Types` screen, you will be presented with a list of Bug flags and a list of Attachment Flags.

To delete a flag, click on the `Delete` link next to the flag description.

Warning

Once you delete a flag, it is gone from your Bugzilla. All the data for that flag will be deleted. Everywhere that flag was set, it will disappear, and you cannot get that data back. If you want to keep flag data, but don't want anybody to set any new flags or change current flags, unset `active` in the flag Edit form.

## 3.9. Keywords

The administrator can define keywords which can be used to tag and categorise bugs. For example, the keyword "regression" is commonly used. A company might have a policy stating all regressions must be fixed by the next release - this keyword can make tracking those bugs much easier.

Keywords are global, rather than per-product. If the administrator changes a keyword currently applied to any bugs, the keyword cache must be rebuilt using the Checking and Maintaining Database Integrity script. Currently keywords cannot be marked obsolete to prevent future usage.

Keywords can be created, edited or deleted by clicking the "Keywords" link in the admin page. There are two fields for each keyword - the keyword itself and a brief description. Once created, keywords can be selected and applied to individual bugs in that bug's "Details" section.

## 3.10. Custom Fields

The release of Bugzilla 3.0 added the ability to create Custom Fields. Custom Fields are treated like any other field - they can be set in bugs and used for search queries. Administrators should keep in mind that adding too many fields can make the user interface more complicated and harder to use. Custom Fields should be added only when necessary and with careful consideration.

Note

Before adding a Custom Field, make sure that Bugzilla cannot already do the desired behavior. Many Bugzilla options are not enabled by default, and many times Administrators find that simply enabling certain options that already exist is sufficient.

Administrators can manage Custom Fields using the `Custom Fields` link on the Administration page. The Custom Fields administration page displays a list of Custom Fields, if any exist, and a link to "Add a new custom field".

### 3.10.1. Adding Custom Fields

To add a new Custom Field, click the "Add a new custom field" link. This page displays several options for the new field, described below.

The following attributes must be set for each new custom field:

- Name: The name of the field in the database, used internally. This name MUST begin with `cf_` to prevent confusion with standard fields. If this string is omitted, it will be automatically added to the name entered.

- Description: A brief string which is used as the label for this Custom Field. That is the string that users will see, and should be short and explicit.

- Type: The type of field to create. There are several types available:

  Bug ID:

    A field where you can enter the ID of another bug from the same Bugzilla installation. To point to a bug in a remote installation, use the See Also field instead.

  Large Text Box:

    A multiple line box for entering free text.

  Free Text:

    A single line box for entering free text.

  Multiple-Selection Box:

    A list box where multiple options can be selected. After creating this field, it must be edited to add the selection options. See Viewing/Editing legal values for information about editing legal values.

  Drop Down:

    A list box where only one option can be selected. After creating this field, it must be edited to add the selection options. See Viewing/Editing legal values for information about editing legal values.

  Date/Time:

    A date field. This field appears with a calendar widget for choosing the date.

- Sortkey: Integer that determines in which order Custom Fields are displayed in the User Interface, especially when viewing a bug. Fields with lower values are displayed first.

- Reverse Relationship Description: When the custom field is of type `Bug ID`, you can enter text here which will be used as label in the referenced bug to list bugs which point to it. This gives you the ability to have a mutual relationship between two bugs.

- Can be set on bug creation: Boolean that determines whether this field can be set on bug creation. If not selected, then a bug must be created before this field can be set. See Filing Bugs for information about filing bugs.

- Displayed in bugmail for new bugs: Boolean that determines whether the value set on this field should appear in bugmail when the bug is filed. This attribute has no effect if the field cannot be set on bug creation.

- Is obsolete: Boolean that determines whether this field should be displayed at all. Obsolete Custom Fields are hidden.

- Is mandatory: Boolean that determines whether this field must be set. For single and multi-select fields, this means that a (non-default) value must be selected, and for text and date fields, some text must be entered.

- Field only appears when: A custom field can be made visible when some criteria is met. For instance, when the bug belongs to one or more products, or when the bug is of some given severity. If left empty, then the custom field will always be visible, in all bugs.

- Field that controls the values that appear in this field: When the custom field is of type `Drop Down` or `Multiple-Selection Box`, you can restrict the availability of the values of the custom field based on the value of another field. This criteria is independent of the criteria used in the `Field only appears when` setting. For instance, you may decide that some given value `valueY` is only available when the bug status is RESOLVED while the value `valueX` should always be listed. Once you have selected the field which should control the availability of the values of this custom field, you can edit values of this custom field to set the criteria, see Viewing/Editing legal values.

### 3.10.2. Editing Custom Fields

As soon as a Custom Field is created, its name and type cannot be changed. If this field is a drop down menu, its legal values can be set as described in Viewing/Editing legal values. All other attributes can be edited as described above.

### 3.10.3. Deleting Custom Fields

Only custom fields which are marked as obsolete, and which never have been used, can be deleted completely (else the integrity of the bug history would be compromised). For custom fields marked as obsolete, a "Delete" link will appear in the `Action` column. If the custom field has been used in the past, the deletion will be rejected. But marking the field as obsolete is sufficient to hide it from the user interface entirely.

## 3.11. Legal Values

Legal values for the operating system, platform, bug priority and severity, custom fields of type `Drop Down` and `Multiple-Selection Box` (see Custom Fields), as well as the list of valid bug statuses and resolutions can be customized from the same interface. You can add, edit, disable and remove values which can be used with these fields.

### 3.11.1. Viewing/Editing legal values

Editing legal values requires `admin` privileges. Select "Field Values" from the Administration page. A list of all fields, both system fields and Custom Fields, for which legal values can be edited appears. Click a field name to edit its legal values.

There is no limit to how many values a field can have, but each value must be unique to that field. The sortkey is important to display these values in the desired order.

When the availability of the values of a custom field is controlled by another field, you can select from here which value of the other field must be set for the value of the custom field to appear.

### 3.11.2. Deleting legal values

Legal values from Custom Fields can be deleted, but only if the following two conditions are respected:

1. The value is not used by default for the field.
2. No bug is currently using this value.

If any of these conditions is not respected, the value cannot be deleted. The only way to delete these values is to reassign bugs to another value and to set another value as default for the field.

## 3.12. Bug Status Workflow

The bug status workflow is no longer hardcoded but can be freely customized from the web interface. Only one bug status cannot be renamed nor deleted, UNCONFIRMED, but the workflow involving it is free. The configuration page displays all existing bug statuses twice, first on the left for bug statuses we come from and on the top for bug statuses we move to. If the checkbox is checked, then the transition between the two bug statuses is legal, else it's forbidden independently of your privileges. The bug status used for the "duplicate_or_move_bug_status" parameter must be part of the workflow as that is the bug status which will be used when duplicating or moving a bug, so it must be available from each bug status.

When the workflow is set, the "View Current Triggers" link below the table lets you set which transitions require a comment from the user.

## 3.13. Voting

All of the code for voting in Bugzilla has been moved into an extension, called "Voting", in the `extensions/Voting/` directory. To enable it, you must remove the `disabled` file from that directory, and run `checksetup.pl`.

Voting allows users to be given a pot of votes which they can allocate to bugs, to indicate that they'd like them fixed. This allows developers to gauge user need for a particular enhancement or bugfix. By allowing bugs with a certain number of votes to automatically move from "UNCONFIRMED" to "CONFIRMED", users of the bug system can help high-priority bugs garner attention so they don't sit for a long time awaiting triage.

To modify Voting settings:

1. Navigate to the "Edit product" screen for the Product you wish to modify
2. Maximum Votes per person: Setting this field to "0" disables voting.
3. Maximum Votes a person can put on a single bug: It should probably be some number lower than the "Maximum votes per person". Don't set this field to "0" if "Maximum votes per person" is non-zero; that doesn't make any sense.
4. Number of votes a bug in this product needs to automatically get out of the UNCONFIRMED state: Setting this field to "0" disables the automatic move of bugs from UNCONFIRMED to CONFIRMED.
5. Once you have adjusted the values to your preference, click "Update".

## 3.14. Quips

Quips are small text messages that can be configured to appear next to search results. A Bugzilla installation can have its own specific quips. Whenever a quip needs to be displayed, a random selection is made from the pool of already existing quips.

Quip submission is controlled by the quip_list_entry_control parameter. It has several possible values: open, moderated, or closed. In order to enable quips approval you need to set this parameter to "moderated". In this way, users are free to submit quips for addition but an administrator must explicitly approve them before they are actually used.

In order to see the user interface for the quips, it is enough to click on a quip when it is displayed together with the search results. Or it can be seen directly in the browser by visiting the quips.cgi URL (prefixed with the usual web location of the Bugzilla installation). Once the quip interface is displayed, it is enough to click the "view and edit the whole quip list" in order to see the administration page. A page with all the quips available in the database will be displayed.

Next to each quip there is a checkbox, under the "Approved" column. Quips who have this checkbox checked are already approved and will appear next to the search results. The ones that have it unchecked are still preserved in the database but they will not appear on search results pages. User submitted quips have initially the checkbox unchecked.

Also, there is a delete link next to each quip, which can be used in order to permanently delete a quip.

Display of quips is controlled by the display_quips user preference. Possible values are "on" and "off".

## 3.15. Groups and Group Security

Groups allow for separating bugs into logical divisions. Groups are typically used to isolate bugs that should only be seen by certain people. For example, a company might create a different group for each one of its customers or partners. Group permissions could be set so that each partner or customer would only have access to their own bugs. Or, groups might be used to create variable access controls for different departments within an organization. Another common use of groups is to associate groups with products, creating isolation and access control on a per-product basis.

Groups and group behaviors are controlled in several places:

1. The group configuration page. To view or edit existing groups, or to create new groups, access the "Groups" link from the "Administration" page. This section of the manual deals primarily with the aspect of group controls accessed on this page.
2. Global configuration parameters. Bugzilla has several parameters that control the overall default group behavior and restriction levels. For more information on the parameters that control group behavior globally, see Group Security.
3. Product association with groups. Most of the functionality of groups and group security is controlled at the product level. Some aspects of group access controls for products are discussed in this section, but for more detail see Assigning Group Controls to Products.
4. Group access for users. See Assigning Users to Groups for details on how users are assigned group access.

Group permissions are such that if a bug belongs to a group, only members of that group can see the bug. If a bug is in more than one group, only members of all the groups that the bug is in can see the bug. For information on granting read-only access to certain people and full edit access to others, see Assigning Group Controls to Products.

Note

By default, bugs can also be seen by the Assignee, the Reporter, and by everyone on the CC List, regardless of whether or not the bug would typically be viewable by them. Visibility to the Reporter and CC List can be overridden (on a per-bug basis) by bringing up the bug, finding the section that starts with `Users in the roles selected below...` and un-checking the box next to either 'Reporter' or 'CC List' (or both).

### 3.15.1. Creating Groups

To create a new group, follow the steps below:

1. Select the `Administration` link in the page footer, and then select the `Groups` link from the Administration page.

2. A table of all the existing groups is displayed. Below the table is a description of all the fields. To create a new group, select the `Add Group` link under the table of existing groups.

3. There are five fields to fill out. These fields are documented below the form. Choose a name and description for the group. Decide whether this group should be used for bugs (in all likelihood this should be selected). Optionally, choose a regular expression that will automatically add any matching users to the group, and choose an icon that will help identify user comments for the group. The regular expression can be useful, for example, to automatically put all users from the same company into one group (if the group is for a specific customer or partner).

   Note

   If `User RegExp` is filled out, users whose email addresses match the regular expression will automatically be members of the group as long as their email addresses continue to match the regular expression. If their email address changes and no longer matches the regular expression, they will be removed from the group. Versions 2.16 and older of Bugzilla did not automatically remove users who's email addresses no longer matched the RegExp.

   Warning

   If specifying a domain in the regular expression, end the regexp with a "$". Otherwise, when granting access to "@mycompany\.com", access will also be granted to 'badperson@mycompany.com.cracker.net'. Use the syntax, '@mycompany\.com$' for the regular expression.

4. After the new group is created, it can be edited for additional options. The "Edit Group" page allows for specifying other groups that should be included in this group and which groups should be permitted to add and delete users from this group. For more details, see Editing Groups and Assigning Group Permissions.

### 3.15.2. Editing Groups and Assigning Group Permissions

To access the "Edit Groups" page, select the `Administration` link in the page footer, and then select the `Groups` link from the Administration page. A table of all the existing groups is displayed. Click on a group name you wish to edit or control permissions for.

The "Edit Groups" page contains the same five fields present when creating a new group. Below that are two additional sections, "Group Permissions," and "Mass Remove". The "Mass Remove" option simply removes all users from the group who match the regular expression entered. The "Group Permissions" section requires further explanation.

The "Group Permissions" section on the "Edit Groups" page contains four sets of permissions that control the relationship of this group to other groups. If the 'usevisibilitygroups' parameter is in use (see Bugzilla Configuration) two additional sets of permissions are displayed. Each set consists of two select boxes. On the left, a select box with a list of all existing groups. On the right, a select box listing all groups currently selected for this permission setting (this box will be empty for new groups). The way these controls allow groups to relate to one another is called inheritance. Each of the six permissions is described below.

Groups That Are a Member of This Group
  Members of any groups selected here will automatically have membership in this group. In other words, members of any selected group will inherit membership in this group.
Groups That This Group Is a Member Of
  Members of this group will inherit membership to any group selected here. For example, suppose the group being edited is an Admin group. If there are two products (Product1 and Product2) and each product has its own group (Group1 and Group2), and the Admin group should have access to both products, simply select both Group1 and Group2 here.
Groups That Can Grant Membership in This Group
  The members of any group selected here will be able add users to this group, even if they themselves are not in this group.
Groups That This Group Can Grant Membership In
  Members of this group can add users to any group selected here, even if they themselves are not in the selected groups.
Groups That Can See This Group
  Members of any selected group can see the users in this group. This setting is only visible if the 'usevisibilitygroups' parameter is enabled on the Bugzilla Configuration page. See Bugzilla Configuration for information on configuring Bugzilla.
Groups That This Group Can See
  Members of this group can see members in any of the selected groups. This setting is only visible if the 'usevisibilitygroups' parameter is enabled on the the Bugzilla Configuration page. See Bugzilla Configuration for information on configuring Bugzilla.

### 3.15.3. Assigning Users to Groups

A User can become a member of a group in several ways:

1. The user can be explicitly placed in the group by editing the user's profile. This can be done by accessing the "Users" page from the "Administration" page. Use the search form to find the user you want to edit group membership for, and click on their email address in the search results to edit their profile. The profile page lists all the groups, and indicates if the user is a member of the group either directly or indirectly. More information on indirect group membership is below. For more details on User administration, see User Administration.
2. The group can include another group of which the user is a member. This is indicated by square brackets around the checkbox next to the group name in the user's profile. See Editing Groups and Assigning Group Permissions for details on group inheritance.
3. The user's email address can match the regular expression that has been specified to automatically grant membership to the group. This is indicated by "*" around the check box by the group name in the user's profile. See Creating Groups for details on the regular expression option when creating groups.

### 3.15.4. Assigning Group Controls to Products

The primary functionality of groups is derived from the relationship of groups to products. The concepts around segregating access to bugs with product group controls can be confusing. For details and examples on this topic, see Assigning Group Controls to Products.

## 3.16. Checking and Maintaining Database Integrity

Over time it is possible for the Bugzilla database to become corrupt or to have anomalies. This could happen through normal usage of Bugzilla, manual database administration outside of the Bugzilla user interface, or from some other unexpected event. Bugzilla includes a "Sanity Check" script that can perform several basic database checks, and repair certain problems or inconsistencies.

To run the "Sanity Check" script, log in as an Administrator and click the "Sanity Check" link in the admin page. Any problems that are found will be displayed in red letters. If the script is capable of fixing a problem, it will present a link to initiate the fix. If the script cannot fix the problem it will require manual database administration or recovery.

The "Sanity Check" script can also be run from the command line via the perl script `sanitycheck.pl`. The script can also be run as a cron job. Results will be delivered by email.

The "Sanity Check" script should be run on a regular basis as a matter of best practice.

Warning

The "Sanity Check" script is no substitute for a competent database administrator. It is only designed to check and repair basic database problems.

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