We were assigned several exercises from the Chapter 6 in the open source text we are reading. The first was to search our project's bug tracker for the oldest bug. So I visited Bugzilla's website and searched for Banshee. Many results popped up, nearly 1,500 bug reports. Finding the oldest proved a bit tricky at first because the report opened date was not a displayed column in the bugs list. I figured that there had to be a way to view the opened date without viewing every case. After exploring the page I found a link to change the displayed columns. I changed columns to display the opened date and then sorted by date; up popped the oldest bug.
So I checked out the report:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=122391
It appears this bug pertains to the system icon not appearing properly when Banshee is set to startup automatically on login. When set to startup automatically the tray icon appears only a pixel thick. This bug report was opened In September of 03 and its last update was in 2007. I think it is odd that even though this is the oldest bug it is still marked as 'new'. I figure this bug is still open because it is a minor situation and there is a work around available and posted for it. Reading further through the report I see that this error has been discovered to be a fault on the part of the Gnome panel so it has been assigned to their maintenance team. Then I realized, this is why it is still open. This bug affecting Bashee is probably not a high priority fix on the Gnome developer's list. As of 2007 this bug is still occurring and it has been stale for over three years now. I am not for sure if this bug will ever be resolved.
The next task at hand was to create a Bugzilla account but I did this a long time ago. I have been exploring the Bugzilla website for a couple weeks now and am beginning to feel fairly comfortable with its interface.
After supposedly creating an account it was on to triage duty. I am familiar with this term because we have triage duty where I intern. I began to look over the Banshee bug list and decided to start with the newest because I figured no one had the chance to get to them yet. I sorted by status and began looking through all the bugs marked 'new', there were hundreds! The first couple I visited had extensive histories to them. I took time to read a couple more then I realized there is nothing I can add to these cases, I need to find the fresh cases. So I sorted by date again but this time listing the newest bugs at the top. Some of these bug reports were from today. I thought to myself, 'there has be some untouched cases here.' I opened the most recent case which was from earlier this morning and one of the main developers had already responded to it. I thought, 'WOW, these guys are really on top of things!'
After reading the top couple reports, I found one where the reporter posted this long error in the report instead of attaching it in a file. I wanted to cut out the text of the error and just attach in a file it to the report but was unable to do this. There was hardly any information left in the report except the long error message so I wanted to request more info but I am just not familiar enough yet with Linux, Ubuntu or Banshee to know what information to request. I looked through many other bugs but for the same reason I felt I could not help. I need to really dive into the program and learn its insides before I can really request the appropriate information. Knowledge of this code will come with a little time I am hoping.
I was beginning to get a bit discouraged when I came across a report that I felt I could do something about.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=640736
This user would like better descriptive text of the process when logging into a Last.fm account. I have a Last.fm account and have already set it up in Banshee so I am familiar with the login process. It is a bit convoluted and it requires the user to visit a Last.fm web page in order to allow access but it is sufficient. There is a dialog box that opens as you mouse-over the login button that explains the process better. I was going to post on the bug report to inform the reporter of the dialog box that pops up displays almost the exact information he is requesting but felt the need to ask first since I am a noob. I sent an email to the project emailing list with a link to the bug and my proposed actions. I explained to them the user request and my planned actions and asked for their input. Also mentioned I would be happy to look into changing the Last.fm login window to display the extra information if they thought the suggestion was a good idea.
After finally finding something, it renewed my interest. I thought that there may be other simple things I can do to start off. Well as I expected, I came across a few others.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=638571
This user would like a better description in the dialog box that is displayed as you mouse over the “Simplify” button in the “Now Playing” pane. Not sure this change is necessary, but the dialog could be a bit more descriptive.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=640124
This user would like the text “Transferring” removed from the pod cast download progress that appears in the sidebar of the program. This is an easy fix although I am not sure whether it is necessary either. I do experience the same issue as this user. Maybe replacing 'transferring' with a shorter word (although nothing comes to mind) or stacking it on top of the 'x of y files at...' text would be a feasible solution. Removing it, as the user suggested, is an option as well.
As with the first bug report, I emailed the project mailing list with the links to the bugs and my suggested resolutions. Don't know if these guys will think I'm a total idiot or if they will be excited for me to get involved but I am hoping the latter. We will find out, just waiting to hear back from someone now. If the project leads approve these changes I have already located the places within the code that needs changed. I can make these fixes and submit them for approval quickly. Even though these are very minor contributions it still feels pretty cool to be contributing to a very large project.
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