How to report a bug?

[Steve Garman]

When I report a bug, I try to second-guess what may be useful information for the developers to track down the source of the trouble.

Hopefully, Dave and Chris will be able to give us a rundown of what they like to see (and not see) in a bug-report.

I thought perhaps I could present them with some first thoughts of my own, that they can rip up and replace with the things they actually want.

Here is my first draft

If you wish to report a bug, please ensure that you give as much detail of the problem as the developers may need to identify what has actually happened.

It may help if you include the following:

• Brief description of the problem. Try to remember the developers start knowing nothing about your problem.
• What did you do?
• What did you expect to happen?
  
• What happened that was different from what you expected?
  
• If this is in code you wrote, please include a code listing that will reproduce the problem (cut it down as much as you can without the problem going away)
  
• If this only happens when accessing external data, please supply a copy of (part of) the data, which will allow the developers to reproduce the problem.
  
• What sort of device were you using?
• Phone or tablet? 
• Make and model? 
• Version of Android?
• What version of AndroidScript were you using? If the most recent public version downloaded from Google Play and you don't know the version number, just say "current release"
  

[Chris Hopkin]

Looks good Steve, it will be a big help to us if this guide is followed when reporting bugs.

Just a few points I would add to this:

When answering the What did you do? question, bear in mind that we need to be able to reproduce the bug, so an answer in the form of a step-by-step description of the actions you took to reproduce it, will be a huge help.

If reporting an issue relating to visuals (either in the App or Wifi IDE) screenshots can be extremely useful. They can help us diagnose the problem and make sure we are seeing what you are seeing when we reproduce it.

For bugs relating to the Wifi IDE, please tell us what browser and it's version that you are using, and also your OS.

Thanks

Chris

[Steve Garman]

I seem to have forgotten my own favourite obsession here.

If you get an error message, for heaven's sake, please report exactly what the message says.
This may require resorting to pen and paper so you remember it exactly, or a screenshot may work but please remember, there are few things more irritating than trying to find a bug when the only report you have is "I get an error message"