832657 - no way to manipulate column values in extension before display in buglist.cgi

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Bugzilla :: Extensions, enhancement)

Description

[posita]

Attachment: adds buglist_process_record hook and other column flags to allow more efficient inclusion and manipulation of values before display in search results

I had asked on developers@ how to do some creative manipulation with columns for display in search results (see <http://old.nabble.com/How-do-I-process-column-values-after-retrieval%2C-but-before-display-in-buglist.cgi--td34866448.html> and <http://old.nabble.com/Multi-table-buglist.cgi-join-from-Extension.pm--td34881432.html>).

As far as I can tell, there is currently no way for an extension to manipulate values after retrieval but before display in the search results. buglist.cgi does some of this for special internal values (like date stamps and hours), but this is generally unavailable to custom fields without either: a) doing the manipulation in SQL, which is limited and awkward; or b) doing the manipulation in the template, which is also limited and sometimes awkward.

What is needed is a generic way to manipulate records after retrieval IN PERL, but before they are passed to the template from buglist.cgi.

Attached is a proposal patch that adds a buglist_process_record hook. The hook is called for each record retrieved from buglist.cgi before it is passed to the template. Also included are additional column fields (see object_columns hook) which increases efficiency and flexibility to extension writers who wish to assemble and format multiple values into a single display column.