Posted by Bill on January 7th, 2008
The page features answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
1. Overview
- What is Bugs Dashboard and what does it do?
- Why should organizations and teams consider using Bugs Dashboard?
- How do I know Bugs Dashboard is right for my organization?
- Does Bugs Dashboard work with all bug tracking tools?
2. Features
- What are the key features of Bugs Dashboard?
- Can I customize Bugs Dashboard?
3. Licensing & Options
- Yikes! Is there a monthly fee to license Bugs Dashboard?
- Is there a fee for portlets?
- Why do you use PayPal?
- There are many open-source bug tracking systems for free, why is there a fee for Bugs Dashboard?
4. Requirements, Installation and Configuration
- What issue tracking systems does the Bugs Dashboard work with?
- What versions of Bugzilla are supported?
- What access to Bugzilla is necessary?
- How do I change the size of each column in the portal?
- How do I change the number of columns in the portal?
5. Troubleshooting
- I've followed all the instructions to install on my Linux server with MySQL, but when I open the dashboard I don't see any bugs listed, counts, etc.
- I'm getting the error FileNotFound: /home/bugsd3/public_html/logs/out.log (No such file or directory). What is the problem?
- Clicking on a bug number gives me an error: The requested resource (/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi) is not available. What do I do?
- The counts in the Dashboard don't appear to agree with a search of the same criteria in Bugzilla. Is there a reason why?
- I have a 3-column portal defined, but I only see 2. Where's the third column?
- How do I add an Issue to a Priority when the Priority currently has no issues in it?
- What happens when I update a priority or severity?
- Help, I can't drop my bug!
- After setting maxConnections in my db_en_US.properties file, MySQL (or Tomcat) tells me I've reached the maximum number of connections and it's lower than my property. Why?
- When loading a list of bugs or issues or when saving a very large comment, I received an error stating I had exceeded the amount of memory available. Why?
- I get a "timeout value is negative" error when trying to access the login page. What's the problem?
- We added some bugs today and want to see them in the aging on the "Outstanding" page. If we enter 0 for the number of days, they don't appear. How can we include today's entries?
1. Overview
Q: 1. What is Bugs Dashboard and what does it do?
A: The Bugs Dashboard is a visualization and reporting tool for mining the data within bug tracking tools. It currently works with Bugzilla, but is under development to work with other bug tracking systems such as GForge, Scarab and Mantis. With the Bugs Dashboard, there are many different views into the bug tracking database, such as looking at priorities, severities, workload and activity. Bugs Dashboard stands out because it allows authorized individuals to manipulate multiple bugs in an easy drag-and-drop interface. By looking at the big picture, it's possible to evaluate the state of development relative to deadlines, milestones, or workload and easily adjust to meet the demands. Bugs Dashboard is also a valuable tool for communicating with senior management and customers as it presents the big picture, but still allows drill down. Bugs Dashboard also stands out in that it is simple to implement; it uses the users and encrypted passwords of Bugzilla to manage logins, Bugzilla groups can be used to manage who has authority to manipulate the priorities and severities of bugs, and there are often many portlets of the same capability to allow you to find the best means of communicating the significance of your status. The Bugs Dashboard is also extremely flexible, allowing the construction of multiple portals per dashboard, multiple portlets per portal and even allowing you to create your own portlets and plug them into Bugs Dashboard.
Q: 2. Why should organizations and teams consider using Bugs Dashboard?
A: Any organization currently using Bugzilla should investigate the Bugs Dashboard for their projects because of the ease of use, depth of tools, flexibility of extending the product with their own tools, and the growing community contributed portlets. Bugzilla, and other bug tracking systems, are fine tools for entering and manipulating bugs - single bugs and lists of bugs. They are typically difficult to use to manipulate multiple bugs, but the Bugs Dashboard handles it with ease. It's often difficult to get a particular report the way you need it, when you need it or to get multiple reports that can be easily compared side-by-side. The Bugs Dashboard currently has over 25 portlets which can be included in any dashboard and can be duplicated and used for side-by-side comparisons. Organizations and teams can be more efficient and effective with the Bugs Dashboard to give them that big picture.
Q: 3. How do I know Bugs Dashboard is right for my organization?
A: The Bugs Dashboard works well for small and large projects. It's been implemented in organizations with over 140 users and thousands of open, active bugs in over 30 projects. To help you appreciate what it can do for your organization, we encourage you i) use the online demos and then download one of our evaluation trial copies. The trial copies are fully functional and provide you with two weeks of use to really test them out.
Q: 4. Does Bugs Dashboard work with all bug tracking tools?
A: Currently, the Bugs Dashboard only works with Bugzilla version 2.20 to 3.0.x. We are working to align it with other tools such as GForge, Scarab and Mantis. If you have a particular bug tracking tool you would like us to align with, please use our contact form to let us know how we can help.
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2. Features
Q: 1. What are the key features of Bugs Dashboard?
A: The Bugs Dashboard offers flexibility in reporting and visualizing the data within bug tracking systems thus helping to improve the quality and reduce the cost to produce the product. The Bugs Dashboard has three key elements amongst its many, many features:
- Flexible Dashboards
The Bugs Dashboard allows you to create one or more dashboards (depending on your version) to report on and help you visualize the state of your development. You may create dashboards that are specific to an individual product/project or you may wish to create dashboards that contrast two products using the same portlets. Another common configuration is to use the same portlet within a dashboard to report across many projects with the same tool allowing you to compare all projects with a common measurement.
- Ability To See The Big Picture
The Bugs Dashboard provides a listing of all bugs, whether specific to a project or across all projects, by their priority and also by their severity. This helps you see the big picture, to focus your resources where they are needed most, to make informed decisions on schedules and milestones, and to clearly communicate expectations. This is a powerful feature for teams and organizations!
- Ability To Easily Extend The Bugs Dashboard
We understand that you have specific needs and that you are the authority on how you do business. We cannot anticipate every need you may have so we have given you the ability to easily add to the Bugs Dashboard with your own portlets. It's as simple as creating a Java class that returns a String object. You may do anything you want in that Java class, including reporting from other data sources such as tying in the financial impact of resolving issues. A few simple configuration updates and your portlet may be easily used on any dashboard you choose.
Q: 2. Can I customize Bugs Dashboard?
A: Yes! You may customize Bugs Dashboard in many ways:
- Your dashboard(s) may be customized in the number of portals and portlets, which portlets are included on your dashboard(s), the number of columns to each portal, and the width of each of those columns.
- You may choose from several different types of tabs for the menu bar.
- You may create your own portlets and easily incorporate them into your dashboard(s).
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3. Licensing
Q: 1. Yikes! Is there a monthly fee to license Bugs Dashboard?
A: No, not for the software license. The Bugs Dashboard license is written in such a way as to cover a host of different scenarios. One of these options is for us to host the services for Bugzilla and the Bugs Dashboard while another is for us to provide implementation, data migration, and process improvement services. Thus, that portion of the license would relate to those scenarios.
Q: 2. Is there a fee for portlets?
A: We have a forum for sharing portlets in which you will find community contributed portlets; many are free, but there is a "premium" section for any that a community member wishes to charge for.
Q: 3. Why do you use PayPal?
A: We recognize the need to secure credit card information and transactions and frankly, we did not want the responsibility of housing yet-another-database-of-customer-information on the Internet with your credit card information in it. PayPal is a recognized leader in managing financial transactions via the Internet and the WordPress e-commerce plugin from Instinct Entertainment available to us works well with them. We felt it was in your best interests to have PayPal manage the transaction.
Q: 4. There are many open-source bug tracking systems for free, why is there a fee for Bugs Dashboard?
A: There are many different aspects to this question. First and foremost, we respect those give of their time to work on the various open-source projects. We simply cannot pay the overhead by giving away our product and there isn't a big company standing behind us to leverage in this business. We believe we bring value to the software development process for which we ask the licensing fees. We also believe that you do not want to be without ongoing development and support and recognize that it takes money to sustain a business.
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4. Requirements, Installation and Configuration
Q: 1. What issue tracking systems does the Bugs Dashboard work with?
A: The Bugs Dashboard currently works with Bugzilla releases 2.18 through 3.0, both with MySQL and PostGres. We are currently working on interfacing to GForge, Scarab, Mantis and others. If you are interested in this work effort or have another system you would like us to investigate, please drop us an e-mail!
Q: 2. What versions of Bugzilla are supported?
A: The Bugs Dashboard currently works with both MySQL and PostGres versions of Bugzilla 2.20.x through 3.0. Please note that as-of v1.4.0, Bugs Dashboard no longer supports 2.18.x versions of Bugzilla. This is in keeping with Bugzilla's desupport notice for that version.
Q: 3. What access to Bugzilla is necessary?
A: You must provide an account which has the authority to edit bugs. This account will be used to perform updates to the priority and/or severity. If you wish to drill down into an issue, you must also have an active account in Bugzilla. You will be prompted to login when you choose to drill down.
Q: 4. How do I change the size of each column in the portal?
A: Locate the portal.css file in the deployed css directory (e.g. /webapps/bugs/css). Open it with a text editor. You'll see three columns defined as "#widget_col_0", "#widget_col_1", and "#widget_col_2". Each of these have a "width" property. The defaults are: 30, 50 and 20% respectively. You may change the width of the columns by adjusting the "width" property of one or more columns. Now, locate the "page.css" file in the same directory. Open it with a text editor and find the same three widget_col entries. Change their width properties as well, saving both files. Changes to these files may necessitate a restart of your web application server.
Q: 5. How do I change the number of columns in the portal?
A: You cannot increase the number of columns in v2.0, but you can decrease them, thus giving you larger columns if you wish. Locate the portal.css file in the deployed css directory (e.g. /webapps/bugs/css). Open it with a text editor. You'll see three columns defined as "#widget_col_0", "#widget_col_1", and "#widget_col_2". Each of these have a "width" property. The defaults are: 30, 50 and 20% respectively. Setting the width of #widget_col_2 to 0% will cause it to not appear on the portal. You should remember to not only increase the remaining columns, but also update the portal.properties file (i.e. /webapps/bugs/WEB-INF/classes/portal.properties) so that the portlets appear in the proper column of those that remain. You may also set #widget_col_1 to 0% if you wish to have only one large column on the portal. Now, locate the "page.css" file in the same directory. Open it with a text editor and find the same three widget_col entries. Change their width properties as well, saving both files. Changes to these files may necessitate a restart of your web application server.
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5. Troubleshooting
Q: 1. I've followed all the instructions to install on my Linux server with MySQL, but when I open the dashboard I don't see any bugs listed, counts, etc.
A: You must ensure that you can connect to MySQL via TCP/IP. Simply using a command-line to test can be misleading as that uses a socket. For further information, see: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/can-not-connect-to-server.html
Q: 2. I'm getting the error FileNotFound: /home/bugsd3/public_html/logs/out.log (No such file or directory). What is the problem?
A: Step 1: shoot the guy who packaged the zip! (Wait, that's me! Don't shoot!!) This is an artifact of testing and we apologize for the inconvenience. The log4j.properties file was still referring to the location on our hosted server. Please open the properties file at /bugs/WEB-INF/log4j.properties and look at line 1. It should say
log4j.rootLogger=fatal, R
Then change the path on line 5 to something like
./logs/out.log
If the logs directory isn't one level up from your Tomcat binaries, please set the appropriate path. I promise not to make you do this again. Well, not on purpose anyway!
Q: 3. Clicking on a bug number gives me an error: The requested resource (/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi) is not available. What do I do?
A: This is most likely due to the "bugURL" property not being set to match your installation of Bugzilla. Go to any bug in Bugzilla and note the url to display the bug. It will typically end in something like ?id=. Open your db_en_US.properties (or localized copy) file from /bugs/WEB-INF/classes and look for the bugURL property. Set the bugURL to be that which matches your installation of Bugzilla. For example, the default is /bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=, but one of our testing platforms would require this to be changed to: /bugzilla313/show_bug.cgi?id=.
Q: 4. The counts in the Dashboard don't appear to agree with a search of the same criteria in Bugzilla. Is there a reason why?
A: In the configuration of Bugs Dashboard, you can specify projects and states which you wish to exclude from reporting in the Bugs Dashboard. Doing so can make it appear as if the counts do not agree with a search in Bugzilla. For example, if you exclude "RESOLVED" and "CLOSED" statuses in Bugs Dashboard, then do a count of "open" bugs in both it and Bugzilla, they may not agree. That's most likely because Bugzilla considers the status "VERIFIED" to be a closed bug whereas the Bugs Dashboard was not configured to exclude that status.
Q: 5. I have a 3-column portal defined, but I only see 2. Where's the third column?
A: We have seen this behavior in Internet Explorer 7 when it is maximized to the full width of the screen. Interestingly, the solution is to minimize IE7 which will cause the columns to line up correctly. You can then manually expand it back out to the width of the screen - just do not use the maximize button in the window!
Q: 6. How do I add an Issue to a Priority when the Priority currently has no issues in it?
A: When you drag your Issue over the empty container (as represented by an empty box), it will expand to incorporate your Issue. Simply drop the Issue while the container is expanded in the background.
Q: 7. What happens when I update a priority or severity?
A: We first check to see that the account provided in our configuration has the authority to edit issues in the issue tracking system you use. We then use that account to update the issue, setting the new priority. We also log an entry into the history file with your comments. Finally, we trigger an e- mail notifying the users configured in your issue tracking system of the change (assuming you have this configured properly.
Q: 8. Help, I can't drop my bug!
A: We've noticed that after recent updates to Firefox, dragging and dropping bugs in both Priorities and Severities can seem a little sticky. That is, you click on the bug and drag it just fine, but when you release the mouse, the bug continues to follow you around. If this happens to you, double-click when releasing the mouse.
Q: 9. After setting maxConnections in my db_en_US.properties file, MySQL (or Tomcat) tells me I've reached the maximum number of connections and it's lower than my property. Why?
A: You may need to set the MySQL property "max_connections" to zero (for unlimited connections) or to the same value you set the maxConnections property. On Windows, you can do this in your my.ini file.
Q: 10. When loading a list of bugs or issues or when saving a very large comment, I received an error stating I had exceeded the amount of memory available. Why?
A: MySQL has a default maximum packet size of 1M. If you are entering large reports (perhaps citing a source), you may need to increase the "max_allowed_packet" size in your my.ini file. If it doesn't exist, add it to the .ini file and use a larger setting, e.g. 20M or 32M or as appropriate for your largest updates.
Q: 11. I get a "timeout value is negative" error when trying to access the login page. What's the problem?
A: If you see something like the following:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: timeout value is negative java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
com.wmpnj.statusreports.components.ConnectionPool.getConn(ConnectionPool.java:191)
com.wmpnj.statusreports.components.ConnectionPool.getConn(ConnectionPool.java:206)
com.wmpnj.statusreports.components.ConnectionPool.getConnection(ConnectionPool.java:174)
com.wmpnj.statusreports.authentication.Login.doPost(Login.java:83)
com.wmpnj.statusreports.authentication.Login.doGet(Login.java:62)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:689)
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
check your db_en_US.properties file. The most probable cause for this type of error is that you've mistyped some part of the jdbc URL. For example, if the database instance is incorrect, you'll see the above error.
Q: 12 We added some bugs today and want to see them in the aging on the "Outstanding" page. If we enter 0 for the number of days, they don't appear. How can we include today's entries?
A: The calculation for the Outstanding page is to find bugs entered "less than" the current date minus any days you specify. If you wish to see bugs older than 30 days, you enter 30. That will give you bugs entered 31+ days ago. To see today's bugs, enter a -1 for the days. (Current date - (-1) = tomorrow, meaning you'll see all bugs older than 1 day from today or, in other words, all bugs including today's.)
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