r1180: Old Edoc formatting structure exported
[bugdar.git] / locale / en_US / manual-xml / admin.xml
1 <chapter id="admin" revision="$Revision$">
2 <title>The Administration Panel</title>
3
4 <!-- =================================================================== -->
5
6 <section id="admin.about">
7 <title>About the Administration Panel</title>
8 <para>Once you have logged into your user account, you will see an "Administration" tab in the top navigation bar. Click this to be presented with the login screen. Here, login again for an added layer of security.</para>
9
10 <para>In the administration panel, there are numerous options and features that can be accessed through the <link linkend="admin.menu">main menu</link>.</para>
11
12 <para>If you would like more information about a feature, most sections have a small <strong>Help</strong> link in the upper-right corner. You can click this or the section's title to bring up the documentation page for the specific section.</para>
13 </section>
14
15 <!-- =================================================================== -->
16
17 <section id="admin.menu">
18 <title>The Main Menu</title>
19 <para>The primary page of the administration screen is the main menu:</para>
20
21 <mediaobject>
22 <imageobject>
23 <imagedata fileref="images/admin_index/main_menu.png" format="PNG" align="center" />
24 </imageobject>
25 </mediaobject>
26
27 <para>In this menu there is a listing of all the various mutable aspects of your &product; installation. In this manual, we will explain each item in the main menu in the order that they appear.</para>
28
29 <para>We should also note that any option available in the main menu is also in the navigation menu (the pull down bar in the upper-left corner of the window):</para>
30
31 <mediaobject>
32 <imageobject>
33 <imagedata fileref="images/admin_index/navigation_menu.png" format="PNG" align="center" />
34 </imageobject>
35 </mediaobject>
36
37 <para>The <em>Administration Location</em> section of the navigation is simple: the <em>Home</em> link returns you to the main menu and the <em>Logout</em> link logs you out of the administration panel.</para>
38
39 <note>The logout link in the administration panel will not log you out of the entire &product; system--just the administration panel. However, the opposite is true of the logout link in the non-administration interface: if you log out there, you will also be logged out of the administration panel.</note>
40 </section>
41
42 <!-- =================================================================== -->
43
44 <section id="admin.settings">
45 <title>Bugdar Settings</title>
46 Bugdar's main options are broken up into three different sections: <em>General Options</em>, <em>Bug Reporting Options</em>, and <em>Pagination Options</em>.
47
48 For the most part, you will only have to alter the general settings. In the following three pages, we will explain the key options of each page.
49
50
51 <!-- ################################################################### -->
52
53 <section id="admin.settings.general">
54 <title>General Options</title>
55 Most of the general settings are explained by their descriptions, however a few of the options are explicated here.
56
57 <strong>Tracker Title</strong>: This is the name of the entire bug tracking system. The value of this setting will appear at the top of the bug tracker and in most emails sent out to users.
58
59 <strong>Tracker Base URL</strong>: Set this to the root URL of your tracker--the initial location of the tracker in your web browser. Make sure that there is no trailing slash ("/") at the end of the URL as it could possibly break links that the URL is used in.
60
61 <strong>Date Format</strong>: For most users, this option will not need to change as the default is perfectly fine. However, if you wish to change the way in which dates appear in your bug tracker, you will need to use PHP's date formatting characters. Follow the table <a href="http://www.php.net/date" target="_blank">here</a> for the formatting characters.
62 </section>
63
64 <!-- ################################################################### -->
65
66 <section id="admin.settings.reporting">
67 <title>Bug Reporting Options</title>
68 <strong>Allow HTML in Bug Reports</strong>: This is an option that should be set to <em>No</em> unless there is good reason to change it. By allowing HTML in bug reports, users would be able to post malicious code that could break the display of the tracker and exploit the system via JavaScript. Only enable this option if you are confident in the users of the system, generally only in private bug trackers.
69
70 The rest of the options in <em>Bug Reporting Options</em> are defaults. What that means is that in the new report screen, these values will be entered in by default. If a user has permissions to change the field, he or she can; however, if the user does not, this value will be inserted.
71 </section>
72
73 <!-- ################################################################### -->
74
75 <section id="admin.settings.pagination">
76 <title>Pagination Options</title>
77 The pagination options are advanced features. If you are a novice user and do not have to worry about server load with BugStrike, these settings do not need changing.
78
79 These settings control the number of bugs that appear in a listing and how many page navigation links are displayed.
80
81 <strong>Default Per-Page Amount</strong>: The default number of items to be displayed on a single page.
82
83 <strong>Maximum Per-Page Value</strong>: If a user manually enters a per-page amount, it cannot exceed this value; if it does, the system will use this value instead. If server load is a concern for your system, this setting may need to be lowered.
84
85 <strong>Number of Page Links</strong>: This controls how many page navigator links appear on either side of the current page. Settings this to <em>0</em> will display all pages, which is highly not recommended. A setting greater than <em>5</em> is also not recommended.
86 </section>
87
88 </section>
89
90 <!-- =================================================================== -->
91
92 <section id="admin.language">
93 <title>Manage Languages</title>
94 In the <em>Manage Languages</em> section, you are presented with the language manager:
95
96 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/language_manage/language_manager.png" title="The Language Manager" /></div>
97
98 In Bugdar, localization is a complicated process which is explained in the <a href="page://19" target="_blank">ISSO manual</a>. What you need to know, however, is that the actual English text is embedded in templates and files. When a new language is added, this English text is looked up against a table of the language's translated text; if there's an entry for a given phrase (called a <em>string</em>), it displays that instead.
99
100 What this means is that the default language ("English (US)") doesn't need to exist. However, we have left it in place because if an administrator wants to change a string, all he or she has to do is edit a translation and then reload the XML file. All of this will be explained later in the manual.
101
102 The language manager has an important link next to each language: <strong>[Reload XML]</strong>. When a language is reloaded, the cache of strings is flushed and recreated from the XML file. This needs to be done if changes made to a language XML file are to be displayed. You will learn about this in the next section.
103
104 <!-- ################################################################### -->
105
106 <section id="admin.language.edit">
107 <title>Adding or Editing a Language</title>
108 When you add or edit a language, you are presented with this screen:
109
110 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/language_edit/edit_language.png" title="Editing a Language" /></div>
111
112 <strong>Title</strong>: The name of the language that is to be displayed to users (if they can select it) and in the administration panel.
113
114 <strong>Character Set</strong>: This character set often determines what symbols can be displayed on a page. English can be <em>iso-8859-1</em> or <em>utf-8</em>, either value will work. By default, however, we have set it to be <em>utf-8</em> because it will display most characters. If you are unsure, use <em>utf-8</em>.
115
116 <strong>Direction</strong>: This determines the direction of the text on a page. For instance, English is read left-to-right, while Arabic is read right-to-left.
117
118 <strong>Path to XML</strong>: This is the most important setting as it is the path to the translated strings. The default strings file is in <em>./includes/strings/english-us.strings.xml</em>. We recommend placing additional string files in the <em>includes/strings/</em> folder for continuity.
119
120 Strings are stored in this XML file, however, they can be cached in the database (see the <em>Debug Mode</em> setting here) to increase speed. If you make changes to the XML file and you do not have debug mode enabled, you will need to reload the language. You can reload the language by clicking <strong>[Reload Language]</strong> in the <a href="page://20">language manager</a>.
121
122 <strong>User Selectable</strong>: If this enabled, users will be able to select this language in their options. If it is not, then it will be a private language and only viewable in the administration panel.
123
124 <strong>Debug Mode</strong>: Debug mode is a special setting that allows strings to be read directly from the XML file on every page load. This is very useful for translators as they can see their results without having to reload the XML every time. If this setting is disabled, which it should be in a production environment, then the strings will be cached from the XML file in the database. This cache will need to be rebuilt (by clicking <strong>[Reload Language]</strong> in the <a href="page://20">language manager</a>) if any changes made to the XML file are to be displayed.
125 </section>
126
127 <!-- ################################################################### -->
128
129 <section id="admin.language.translate">
130 <title>Translating a Language</title>
131 Translating strings for BugStrike follows the same rules as translating strings for any other ISSO-based application.
132
133 This page will give you the information that is BugStrike-specific to translating. However, for the general practice of translating in ISSO, please refer to the <a href="page://22" target="_blank">ISSO translation manual</a>.
134
135 The "master strings file" (as it is called in the ISSO translation manual) is located at <em>includes/strings/english-us.strings.xml</em>. When you are translating, you will need to:
136
137 a) Duplicate the file, if you are editing the XML strings directly, or
138 b) Download the XML file to your computer (if you have not already) and then specify that file as the master in the translation tool.
139
140 For further instructions, please consult the ISSO manual.
141 </section>
142
143 <!-- ################################################################### -->
144
145 <section id="admin.language.upgrade">
146 <title>Languages and Upgrades</title>
147 When a new version of Bugdar is released, a small strings file will be placed in <em>install/strings/</em>. This smaller file is a localization-delta file (localization changes). You can read more about the format of the file in the <a href="page://24">ISSO manual</a>.
148
149 The files in the <em>install/strings/</em> folder are labeled by version number. If you upgraded from 1.0.0 to 1.0.1, you would look for the <em>1-0-1.strings.xml</em> file and then merge it into your strings file.
150
151 If you were to upgrade to a version more than one version above, then you will need to use all the string files. For example, if you were running 1.3.2 and you wanted to upgrade to 1.3.5 (and versions 1.3.3 and 1.3.4 existed), you would need to repeat the merging process for <strong>all</strong> those string files.
152
153 For information on how to merge--both manually and using the translation tool--see the <a href="page://24">ISSO manual</a>.
154 </section>
155
156 </section>
157
158 <!-- =================================================================== -->
159
160 <section id="admin.userhelp">
161 <title>Edit User Help</title>
162 The user help manager allows you to edit the help text that is displayed in popups in the user's browser. Next to fields that are help-enabled, a small "?" is placed next to the name of the field; clicking this results in a small pop-up that displays help text.
163
164 By default, Bugdar has default text entries for all the fields. These entries cannot be deleted (but the text can be modified) as they are standard Bugdar fields.
165
166 The help text for custom fields is set through the <a href="page://29">description field</a> in the custom field editor.
167
168 You can also create your own help text entries by clicking <strong>[Add New Help Text]</strong>. You then enter a unique key that is used to identify the text, the title of the text, and then the body.
169
170 Once you have created a custom entry, you can place the following code in any Bugdar template to create the help link:
171
172 [php]$help[UNIQUE_KEY][/php]
173
174 ... where "UNIQUE_KEY" is the unique key you specified.
175 </section>
176
177 <!-- =================================================================== -->
178
179 <section id="admin.products">
180 <title>Products and Versions</title>
181 Bugdar organizes bugs into products and versions. When a user enters a bug report, he or she is required to specify a product <strong>and</strong> a version. Therefore, you need at least one product and one version in your system to be usable.
182
183 Components are essentially sub-products. They behave in the exact same fashion as products (in that they require a version to be selected, too) but they are like a part of the project. For instance, in a calendar application there could be components for making events, displaying the calendar, notifications and reminders, etc. These are smaller--but yet still significant--portions of the product.
184
185 In the product manager, you see this:
186
187 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/products_and_versions/product_manager.png" title="Product Manager" /></div>
188
189 This screen allows you to change the display order (the lower the value, the higher it appears in the list) and manage any components or versions. If you wish to add a component or version, simply choose the option from the pulldown on the far-right.
190
191 In this screen, products (but not components) are bold, both components and products are underlined, and versions have no special formatting. This interface feature will help you differentiate (along with the depth marks) which is a product and which is a version.
192
193 [note]A product has all of its versions and then any global versions. A component will inherit the global versions, its product's versions along with the versions defined specifically for the component. This allows you to specify components without locally-defined versions; instead, they can be inherited.[/note]
194 </section>
195
196 <!-- =================================================================== -->
197
198 <section id="admin.standardfields">
199 <title>Priorities, Resolutions, Severities, and Statuses</title>
200 Priorities, resolutions, severities, and statuses all follow the same pattern when adding or editing a new one and therefore they are grouped together in this document.
201
202 The following is an explanation of each bug field:
203
204 <strong>Priority</strong>: This is the field that represents the celerity with witch developers should work with to resolve the bug.
205
206 <strong>Resolution</strong>: Usually this is the reason why a certain bug has been marked "closed." For instance, if a bug is not reproducible, then it would be closed and this field would probably be set to "Works for Me."
207
208 <strong>Severity</strong>: The user defines this field based on how critical the bug is. Be careful to not confuse this with priority. An example is if a security issue (marked "Critical" in this field) was found in an old version of the software that did not affect the new version; while the severity may be critical, because the version is old, the priority would not need to be marked "High."
209
210 <strong>Status</strong>: The state of the bug; this is usually set when the bug is triaged--marked as "Verified" or "Assigned" and then again when it is "Closed." It is usually changed to mark a major shift in the bug's occurrence in a product and version.
211
212 All of these fields have a title, which is the value of the field; for instance "Normal" is the title of a default priority. Each field also has a display order; this value can be used to control the appearance of a given value in the selection list. If you want to change the default value for new bug reports, see <a href="page://17">here</a>.
213
214 [note]The status field also has a colour field associated with it. By filling this value in with a HEX code (be sure to include the <em>#</em> when you specify the value), the background colour of the bug rows in lists will fill to this colour according to bug status (this is a user option). For instance, any unconfirmed bugs will be highlighted in red when viewing the bug list.[/note]
215 </section>
216
217 <!-- =================================================================== -->
218
219 <section id="admin.customfields">
220 <title>Custom Bug Fields</title>
221 Bugdar offers many fields to help you track and triage bugs. However, sometimes additional fields are needed for your specific setup. The additional bug fields feature allows you to create those extra fields and exert fine control over the fields.
222
223 The manager shows you all the information regarding the field:
224
225 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/custom_bug_fields/custom_field_manager.png" alt="Custom Bug Field Manager" /></div>
226
227 There are three types of field that can be created: single-line text boxes, check boxes, and drop-down menus. When you click <strong>[Add New Bug Field]</strong>, you are presented with this screen:
228
229 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/custom_bug_fields/add_new_field_type.png" alt="Add New Custom Field - Step 1" /></div>
230
231 Here you select the type of field you want. After selecting the type of field you want and pressing <strong>[Submit]</strong>, you are taken to the options screen; here you specify all the various options for your field. This is discussed <a href="page://29">here</a>.
232
233 <!-- ################################################################### -->
234
235 <section id="admin.customfields.options">
236 <title>Custom Bug Field Options</title>
237 All custom fields have the same standard options:
238
239 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/custom_bug_fields_options/global_options.png" alt="Global Options" /></div>
240
241 <strong>Field Type</strong>: The type of field that you are creating (selected previously)
242
243 <strong>Description</strong>: Describe the field and its use; this is displayed as the help text to users.
244
245 <strong>Required</strong>: Whether or not the field is required to be specified by the user.
246
247 <strong>Can Be Searched</strong>: Whether or not the field appears on the search form.
248
249 Additionally, each field has custom permissions that you can set on a per-usergroup level (these can also be set in the <a href="page://32">usergroup editor</a>. You can specify <em>No Permission</em>, <em>Can View</em>, or <em>Can View and Edit</em> settings:
250
251 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/custom_bug_fields_options/field_permissions.png" alt="Field Permissions" /></div>
252
253 Each type of field also has a unique set of options:
254
255 <u>Single-Line Text Field</u>
256 <blockquote>
257 <strong>Default Value</strong>: Specify a default value for the field to be entered in new reports.
258
259 <strong>Regular Expression Match</strong>: You can use a regular expression to match against the field's contents and the value will be rejected if the match fails.
260
261 <strong>Maximum Length</strong>: If you want to limit the amount of characters (including spaces) that can be typed in the field, you can specify it here.
262 </blockquote>
263 <u>Checkbox Flag</u>
264 <blockquote>
265 <strong>Checked By Default</strong>: Setting this to <em>Yes</em> will make the checkbox clicked on.
266 </blockquote>
267 <u>Drop-Down Menu</u>
268 <blockquote>
269 <strong>Selection Values</strong>: A list of values to display in the menu, separated by a new line. If you remove a value that has been set by some bugs, it will still display in the non-edit mode of the bug display.
270
271 <strong>Make the First Option Default</strong>: If you want to make the first option in the selection values list (above) be selected by default, change this to <em>Yes</em>. Otherwise, the menu will have a blank option selected by default.
272 </blockquote>
273 </section>
274
275 </section>
276
277 <!-- =================================================================== -->
278
279 <section id="admin.automations">
280 <title>Automations</title>
281 Often, the same task is performed repeatedly, such as marking a bug "closed and fixed," or "not reproducible," or "please provide more information."
282
283 These common responses often involve changing multiple fields (status, resolution, etc.) and then leaving a standard comment. Automatic actions make this process significantly easier as you simply define a "macro" of sorts that sets all of the fields and enters the comment automatically.
284
285 You use these "macros" when viewing a bug. You select one of the automatic actions from a list and when you commit the changes to the bug, the changes specified in the automatic action will be applied.
286
287 The three required fields are:
288
289 <strong>Name</strong>: The name of the automatic action. This is displayed on the bug display and users select an action by this name.
290
291 <strong>Description</strong>: Remarks about what the action does.
292
293 <strong>Add Comment</strong>: The comment to add to the bug when the action is run. If the user has specified a comment and runs the automatic action at the same time, the automatic comment will be appended to the user's.
294
295 Below this is a list of fields and you can specify a value for each. When the automatic action is run, these will set the bug's field accordingly. If a field is left blank here, then it will have no effect on the bug. If the user specifies a value for one of the fields and runs an automatic action at the same time, the automatic action will take precedence and override the user.
296
297 [note]If the user is in a usergroup that does not have permission to change one of the fields that is specified in the automatic action, the field will change despite this when the automatic action is run.[/note]
298 </section>
299
300 <!-- =================================================================== -->
301
302 <section id="admin.users">
303 <title>User Management</title>
304 In Bugdar, you can control and edit the profiles of all registered users. If you want to change a user's options, simply specify a display name, email, or a user ID at this screen:
305
306 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/user_manage/user_search.png" alt="User Search" /></div>
307
308 If more than one user matches your search criteria, you will get a listing of users that match. Otherwise, you will be redirected to the edit screen:
309
310 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/user_manage/user_edit.png" alt="Edit User" /></div>
311
312 Here, you can change all the options that the user can change in his or her profile.
313 </section>
314
315 <!-- =================================================================== -->
316
317 <section id="admin.usergroups">
318 <title>Usergroups</title>
319 Usergroups are at the backbone of BugStrike's permissions system. There are two textual options for usergroups:
320
321 <strong>Usergroup Title</strong>: This is the internal name of the usergroup; it is never displayed to the users, but administrators use it to place users in groups.
322
323 <strong>Display Title</strong>: Under a comment poster's name, this text is placed to help distinguish regular users from developers, administrators, and guests.
324
325 The majority of the permissions on this page are similar to those of <a href="page://33"></a> and they are explained in-depth <a href="page://34">here</a>. Those that are not part of the usergroup permissions system are listed here.
326
327 <strong>Can Search Bugs</strong>: A usergroup's ability to use the search function. If this is not enabled, then searches cannot be performed by the given usergroup.
328
329 <strong>Can Be Assigned Bugs</strong>: If this is set to <em>Yes</em>, all the users in this usergroup will appear in the "Assigned" field drop-down menu for bug reports.
330
331 <strong>Can Access Control Panel</strong>: This controls whether or not users in this usergroup can login to the <a href="page://13">Admin Control Panel</a>.
332
333 <strong>Can Administer Bug Reports</strong>: Currently, this only controls access to the <a href="page://30">Automatic Actions</a> feature.
334
335 <strong>Can Administer Additional Bug Fields</strong>: If this is set to <em>Yes</em>, users in this group will be able to define and edit <a href="page://28">custom bug fields</a>.
336
337 <strong>Can Administer Products / Components / Versions</strong>: Allows users to define and edit <a href="page://26">products, versions, and components</a>. This privilege should be sparingly given out as users can also delete products, versions, and components and thus remove all associated bugs.
338
339 <strong>Can Administer Users</strong>: Controls access to the <a href="page://31">user manager</a> and the ability to edit and delete users.
340
341 <strong>Can Administer Usergroups</strong>: Setting this to <em>Yes</em> gives the users in this group the ability to control all aspects of usergroups--including permissions. Please be careful when defining this permission.
342
343 <strong>Can Administer Settings / Maintenance Tools</strong>: Access to this allows control of <a href="page://20">languages</a> and <a href="page://15">settings</a>.
344
345 Additionally, the usergroup manager has the custom field permissions system, similar to the one found on the <a href="page://29">custom field editor page</a>, the difference being that this is by field whereas the other is by usergroup.
346
347 <!-- ################################################################### -->
348
349 <section id="admin.usergroups.permissions">
350 <title>Usergroup Permissions</title>
351 In the <a href="page://32">usergroups manager</a>, you can set the default permissions that apply to every product. However, sometimes you may need finer control over the permissions.
352
353 Using the permissions manager, you can override the default permissions set by the usergroup.
354
355 The default screen shows a list of all the usergroups with an <strong>[Expand]</strong> link next to them. Clicking this link will display a list of all available products underneath the usergroup:
356
357 <div align="center"><img src="/support/images/bugdar/usergroups_permissions/expanded.png" alt="Usergroup Permissions" /></div>
358
359 If you want to override the permissions for a certain product, simply click the <strong>[Customize]</strong> link to go to a permissions page, similar to the one in the usergroup editor. You can find an explanation of these permissions <a href="page://34">here</a>.
360
361 After you have customized permissions, but you find that you no longer want the customizations, simply click the <strong>[Revert]</strong> link.
362 </section>
363
364 <!-- ################################################################### -->
365
366 <section id="admin.usergroups.permissions.reference">
367 <title>Permissions Reference</title>
368 This is a list of the permissions that can be customized on the <a href="page://33">per-product level</a>. These--plus some additional permissions that are not available on the product-level can be found in the <a href="page://32">usergroup editor</a>.
369
370 <strong>Can View Bugs</strong>: Permits the ability to view bugs of this product.
371
372 <strong>Can View Hidden Bugs and Comments</strong>: Allows viewing of bugs and comments that have been marked <em>Hidden</em>. {{NEED LINK: HIDING}}
373
374 <strong>Can Subscribe to Bugs</strong>: Controls the ability to add bugs of this product to the user's "favourite" list. {{NEED LINK: FAVOURITES}}
375
376 <strong>Can Vote on Polls</strong>: The ability to vote for a bug. Voting shows the amount of interest in a bug. {{NEED LINK: VOTING}}
377
378 <strong>Can Submit Bugs</strong>: Determines if users can submit bugs under this product.
379
380 <strong>Can Post Comments</strong>: Controls whether or not users can post comments to bugs with this product.
381
382 <strong>Can View Attachments</strong>: Ability to view attachments in bugs with this product.
383
384 <strong>Can Upload/Edit Own Attachments</strong>: Whether or not the user can edit and upload his or her own attachments to bugs with this product.
385
386 <strong>Can Manage All Attachments</strong>: Ability to edit other users' attachments.
387
388 <strong>Can Edit Own Bugs</strong>: Can edit the basic fields of bugs submitted by the user herself. The basic fields are: hidden, summary, product/component/version, severity, duplicates, and dependencies.
389
390 <strong>Can Edit Others' Bugs</strong>: The same as <em>Can Edit Own Bugs</em> except it applies to bugs that the user did not submit.
391
392 <strong>Can Edit Own Comments</strong>: Ability to edit comments submitted by the user herself to bugs with this product.
393
394 <strong>Can Edit Others' Comments</strong>: The same as <em>Can Edit Own Comments</em> but it applies to comments submitted by everybody who is not the current logged in user.
395
396 <strong>Can Assign Bugs</strong>: The ability to control the "Assigned To" field.
397
398 <strong>Can Change Status</strong>: Controls the ability to edit the status, resolution, and priority fields.
399 </section>
400
401 </section>
402
403 </chapter>