123565 - Add to FAQ: Why can't I close bugs from "Change Several Bugs at Once" ?

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Bugzilla :: Documentation, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Stuart Meisel]

After one performs a query, an option appears at the bottom of the query to 
change multiple bugs at once.  When you hit that button, check boxes appear 
next to all bugs in the query.  At the bottom of the page, are the data items 
that you can change for all bugs you have checked.

However, "Close" is NOT one of these options, but it should be.

Comment 1

[timeless]

i'm not sure i agree. the current suggestion is that mass closes be done directly through the SQL engine.  You can't mass reopen, or resolve, or duplicate either.

Comment 2

[Stuart Meisel]

Please explain your thinking a little more.  I guess I find it difficult to 
follow the logic of:
--->  It is OK to allow a "bug tester" or "bug reporter" to access the SQL data 
directly (and possibly do damage).  
--->  It is NOT OK to give the features to them through the application.   

All the security issues, and technical expertise that is required by testing 
folks is not necessarily possessed by the testing folks!  Isn't it always a 
good idea to keep access to the databases as restricted as possible?

Comment 3

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

I think timeless didn't explain himself well.

The logic flow currently is Resolved, then Verified, then Closed.

You *CAN* mass-CLOSE bugs from the change several bugs at once page.  BUT, every
bug listed on the page has to be in VERIFIED state before the control to do it
will show up on the form.  You can also mass-VERIFY, but every bug listed has to
be RESOLVED in order for the control to show up on the form.  The logic behind
this is that if you pick one of the bugs that's not VERIFIED and try to CLOSE
it, the bug change will fail miserably (thus killing any changes in the list
after it while doing the bulk change) so it doesn't even give you the choice.

Comment 4

[Stuart Meisel]

Dave:

Thank you.  I just verified (No pun intended!) your comments.  You are 
correct.  In the queries, RESOLVED bugs get the VERIFY option, and VERIFY bugs 
get the CLOSE option.

The little "hair in the ointment" is that the query must produce 
only "RESOLVED" bugs to get the "VERIFY" option, and/or the query must produce 
only "VERIFY" bugs to get the CLOSE option.  The operative word here 
is "only!!"  If your queries result in any other STATE, the corresponding mass 
change options do not appear.

Thanks for your help!!

Comment 5

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

Can this get moved to Documentation for an FAQ entry? 

I wasn't able to find this out through lots of googling - I almost installed the
e-mail interface to be able to do it, and I found some folks evaluating Bugzilla
listing the inability to close multiple bugs as a deficiency. :)

Comment 6

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

.

Comment 7

[Vlad Dascalu]

Attachment: XML docs patch

Comment 8

[Vlad Dascalu]

<-- me

Comment 9

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Comment on attachment 134571 [details] [diff] [review]
XML docs patch

my only nit on this is the "*CAN*" should be just "CAN" but enclosed in tags
that do some sort of emphasis effect on it (boldface?).  If you can't come up
with a tag that does that just leave it and we can let Jake fix it later. :)

Comment 10

[Vlad Dascalu]

I used <emphasis>can</emphasis> in order to mark it in a special way (italics).

Checking in faq.xml;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/docs/xml/faq.xml,v  <--  faq.xml
new revision: 1.21; previous revision: 1.20
done

Comment 11

[Vlad Dascalu]

Checking in faq.xml;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/docs/xml/faq.xml,v  <--  faq.xml
new revision: 1.8.2.8; previous revision: 1.8.2.7
done

Comment 12

[Antonis Christofides]

A single bug can goto CLOSED directly from RESOLVED. If this is correct,
shouldn't mass changing be also possible?