73637 - "All" shouldn't be a choice for OS and Platform on query page (Change to "Multiple?")

Status: NEW

(Bugzilla :: Query/Bug List, defect)

Description

[Tim Wunder]

Search for Mail News bugs related to Server settings not finding bug#14295. 
Results in duplicate bug entries (like 73596).
Go to Bugzilla's query page and query Status: All, Opsys: All, Program: 
Mail/News, Component: Account Manager, Summary: Server
Bug # 14295 does not get listed.

Bug # 14295 Refers to not being able to edit the Server Name for the Mail/News 
account. It should certainly appear using the search criteria referenced.

Comment 1

[Jacob Steenhagen]

I just ran the exact query you refered to, and it was there. (on my page it was
second from the bottom, but YMMV due to different sort orders).

Comment 2

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

verif. worksforme.  That exact query finds it for me, too.

Comment 3

[Tim Wunder]

Hmm. I just re-ran the query and it won't work for me. I've tried with Moz 
0.8.1, Nav 4.75, and IE5.5. I get 51 bugs listed, none of which are 14295, none 
address the issue that 14295 addresses, which happens to be the bug I reported 
in bug# 73596, not being able to edit the server in mail/news. 
Why would the results that you two found be different from mine?

I've run this query 10 times, at least. Always getting the same results, 51 bugs 
found, none are 14295. 

OK. I think I know what's going on here... Be sure to click on the "All" under 
OpSys, if you don't select the "All", 14295 will show up as one of the 118 bugs 
found. But, if you DO select "All", 14295 will not show up as one of only 51 
bugs found. Looks like it's a problem where the "all" under OpSys doesn't really 
search ALL.

Comment 4

[Jacob Steenhagen]

OK, now I see what going on. "All" does not imply anything. Selecting "All"
implies that you want the OS Field to be "All".  The OS field in bug 14295 is
"Windows NT".

The basic prinicipal of the query page is blank has no effect, selecting
anything (or typing anything in the case of a text box) limits the query.  So in
the case of the OpSys field, leaving it blank is the same as selecting all the
options, but only selecting on of them (even the one labled "All") limits the
results.

See http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/queryhelp.cgi#opsys for more information.

Comment 5

[Tim Wunder]

What's to imply? For a query, ALL should be ALL, no implying required. I want to 
find if a bug appears for any of the listed O/S's. Sure, if you happen to know 
that a query specifying ALL only means to search for bugs where ALL is listed as 
the affected O/S (or Platform, for that matter), it's perfectly clear, sort of. 
But if you are not a veteran Bugzilla user (as I am not), you would think that 
searching on ALL would search ALL O/S's (as I thought).

How many duplicate bugs are submitted as a result of this? I bet it's alot. I 
recommend that selections for "All" be removed from the query page. Leave it on 
the bug submittal page, but remove it from the query page. I suspect that you'll 
be chasing fewer Dup's in the long run.

Comment 6

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Changing summary to reflect what we've discovered here.  Not sure where it'll go, 
but it's worthy of some discussion.

Comment 7

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

Maybe rename All to All OSs and All Platforms to make this clearer.

Comment 8

[Tim Wunder]

Changing the wording to All OS's doesn't make the behavior clearer at all. The 
cetegory is Opsys, All would obviously mean All OS's. What is unclear is that it 
means only bugs where All is in the Opsys field, not All OS's. A distinction 
that is, IMO, counter-intuitive.

What would happen, BTW, if a user selects, say, Windows NT as the O/S? Would 
bugs with "All" as the affected O/S not show up? If so, you have another problem 
that could cause duplicate bug reporting. 

The best solution, AFAIC, is to remove the "All"'s from the selection critera. 
Include bugs with All in the Opsys field in every query. Same with the Platform 
field.

Comment 9

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

Changing from one interpretation to another isn't going to make things any
easier, and would just confuse those used to the other way, especially as that's
the way all of the fields work.

It would probably be best to remove All as you say, by doing something like bug
#9468.

Comment 10

[Tim Wunder]

I think the query page can be changed independant of any changes to the entry 
page like bug #9468. I don't think that I even agree with 9468. 

My goal in starting this bug was to try to determine why I entered a duplicate 
bug when I thought that I performed a valid search that should've uncovered a 
simlar bug. As it turns out, from what I've learned about Bugzilla as a result 
of taking the time to enter THIS bug has been invaluable to me. It is unlikely 
that I'll enter any future duplicate bugs because I now know how the search is 
done. But I still think bugzilla has a wonderful duplicate bug generation system 
because of the All selections under Platform and Opsys. This is because I don't 
think everyone who submits bug reports understands how to search properly. 
That's what implementing this bug would address. Not the veteran bugzilla user, 
but the relative newbie. 

Again, the data that gets entered into a field is independant of what data is 
searched on. Implementing a change to the query could be done regardless of 
whether or not 9648 gets implemented.

Comment 11

[Jacob Steenhagen]

There was brief discussion of this in gnome's bugzilla.

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50021

Comment 12

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Mass moving to new product Bugzilla...

Comment 13

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

I think that the "All" entries should be renamed "Multiple", both in b.m.o and
new Bugzillas. That's what they are used for, anyway.

Gerv

Comment 14

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

We are currently trying to wrap up Bugzilla 2.16.  We are now close enough to
release time that anything that wasn't already ranked at P1 isn't going to make
the cut.  Thus this is being retargetted at 2.18.  If you strongly disagree with
this retargetting, please comment, however, be aware that we only have about 2
weeks left to review and test anything at this point, and we intend to devote
this time to the remaining bugs that were designated as release blockers.

Comment 15

[Christopher Stone]

hmm why not add an "Any" field which would be the same as not clicking anything
at all (or selecting all fields).  The difference between "Any" and "All" could
be clarified in the help text.

Comment 16

[timeless]

Users shouldn't select a field unless they understand its repercussions. This
bug describes a user error. We can try to educate them, but advanced users do
use this field.

I think the best we can do is modify simple search so that when someone selects
'windows' it searches for Win95..WinXP+All. And similarly for other os flavors.
New users should probably not see the query page which includes All, however it
should not be removed.

Comment 17

[Joel Peshkin]

These bugs appear to be abandoned.  Retargeting to 2.20

Comment 18

[Max Kanat-Alexander]

We changed it to "Multiple" at Kerio. I think it's uglier and less intuitive,
but people complain less.

Comment 19

[Tiago Ratto]

I really think that the best option it's change the option from All to Any, i
don think ppl will get confused using that word.