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HowToReportBugs

Questions answered by this recipe

How can I report in bug in such a way that I can get the best possible assistance from the PmWiki community,

with the least possible waste of their time and effort for respondents?

Description

Some tips and hints on how to seek help with a PmWiki issue.

Answer

When you have an issue with PmWiki, Cookbook recipies, or the environment PmWiki is installed in it is worthwhile to undertake some or all of the following preparations and precautions

• ensure you are, as much as possible, running the current version of all software.
• review the current documentation for updates and changes
• search the mailing lists
• search PmWiki
• inspect your current environment (see PHPInfo)
• check the troubleshooting guide
• there is help on specific error messages
• see the FAQ and FAQ candidate pages

Since a query may relate to any, or all, of

• environment (OS, server, PHP)
• PmWiki, or recipes
• functionality of PmWiki or PmWiki documentation

the appropriate accurate information will go a long way to isolating a cause and determining a solution

The next step is to reproduce the issue in a different environment if it is feasible.

• the test pages are a good place to do this
• consider disabling all recipes in your config.php, then adding them in one at a time until the problem occurs
• another useful way is to create a group and use a group specific customisation to diagnose the problem

Having done all of this, and being none the wiser about your issue (although probably somewhat wiser about PmWiki) you could

• leave a query on the questions page
• post a message the the PmWiki mailing lists

When making a request for help, feel free to

• provide a link to the wiki in question
• provide edit access to the wiki
• have an example of the issue on your wiki
• set $EnableDiag to allow helpers to examine your environment
• provide, where appropriate, versions of your OS, web server, and PHP
• provide, where appropriate, the version of PmWiki, and recipes
• provide one or more test cases
• provide links to the documention you thought pertinent and used in your research (this will also facilitate updating of the documentation)

All of these things will greatly assist and incentivise^[1] those who wish to help you get to the nub of the problem without having to ask further probing questions.

Release Notes

• a future candidate for adding to the PmWiki group and perhaps to be included in releases

If the recipe has multiple releases, then release notes can be placed here. Note that it's often easier for people to work with "release dates" instead of "version numbers".

See Also

• How to report bugs effectively
• How to ask questions the smart way

Contributors

Simon

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