284243 - "Hours Left" field is zeroed out without user confirmation

Status: NEW

(Bugzilla :: Creating/Changing Bugs, defect)

Description

[Stephen Lee]

ref: bug 283139

Prior to the patch on that bug landing, there was a big red error that 
chastised the user for attempting to resolve a bug with hours still remaining, 
which was almost always a stupid waste of time, and risked data loss due to bug 
36843.

This was replaced with a message stating that "The Hours Left field has been 
set to zero automatically as part of marking this bug as either RESOLVED or 
CLOSED."

This is far better than the alternative of risking data loss as before.


However, this does mean that Bugzilla is automatically changing user input with 
no confirmation from the user. There are two cases in which the "Hours Left" 
can be non-zero:

1) User has already entered some "Hours Worked", but had completed the changes 
faster than expected, so "Hours Left" remained which he did not set to zero 
(either because he did not know he was supposed to, or because he forgot).
2) User forgot to adjust either "Hours Worked" or "Hours Left".

In case 1 the current action is correct almost 100% of the time.

In case 2, the user may appreciate the opportunity to transfer some of all of 
the "Hours Left" into "Hours Worked" during this bug update, as otherwise he 
will need to generate another round of bugspam.


This bug is primarily about case 2. It seems to me to be incorrect behaviour 
for a webapp to automatically adjust user input and give the user no 
opportunity to confirm this change. I would therefore suggest that once bug 
36843 has been fixed, consideration should be given to whether the form should 
be echoed back to the user with a message along the lines of "The Hours Left 
field has been set to zero automatically as part of marking this bug as either 
RESOLVED or CLOSED. Please check that Time Tracking information is now correct."

The user can then double-check whether any additional "Hours Worked" should 
have been entered, and that the final "Gain" shown seems plausible, etc.


The patch author for bug 283139 had a differing point of view, which as I 
understand it was primarily due to his site having a customisation to force 
hours to be entered on resolving a bug. This is understandable because it 
eliminates the possibility of case 2 occurring.

I leave it as an open question whether user confirmation should be sought every 
time that "Hours Left" is zeroed, or only in case 2 (which can be detected by 
also checking whether the user entered any "Hours Worked" during that update).


Steps to Reproduce [as just checked on landfill.b.o/bugzilla-tip/]
1. Go to a bug with "Hours Left"
2. RESOLVE the bug, but forget to enter your hours worked.
3. Observe a message that "Hours Left" has been set to zero.

Expected Results:
Bugzilla should request confirmation of the change, which would give the 
opportunity to enter these hours as having been "Worked".

Actual Results:
The "Hours Left" are destroyed, leaving the bug as resolved with no time 
remaining and no hours recorded as having been worked during the final 
resolution.


Results in Previous version:
Bugzilla had a disproportionate and "stupid" response with a red box error 
instructing user to go back and set "Hours Left" to zero, which risked dataloss 
if the "back" button didn't preserve the form data.