4.2.8

Release Notes

Bugzilla 4.2.8 Release Notes

Introduction

Welcome to Bugzilla 4.2! It has been almost a year since we released Bugzilla 4.0 on February 2011, and this new major release comes with several new features and improvements. This release contains major improvements to search, support for SQLite, improved WebServices, and lots of other enhancements.

If you are upgrading from a release before 4.0, make sure to read the release notes for all the previous versions in between your version and this one, particularly the Upgrading section of each version's release notes.

Updates in this 4.2.x Release

4.2.8

This release fixes one minor security issue. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following bugs have been fixed in this release:

4.2.7

This release fixes several security issues. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following bugs have been fixed in this release:

4.2.6

The following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

4.2.5

This release fixes one security issue. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

4.2.4

This release fixes several security issues. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

4.2.3

This release fixes two security issues. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

4.2.2

This release fixes two security issues. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

4.2.1

This release fixes two security issues. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

Minimum Requirements

Any requirements that are new since 4.0.2 will look like this.

Perl

Perl v5.8.1

For MySQL Users

For PostgreSQL Users

For Oracle Users

For SQLite Users

Required Perl Modules

Module Version
CGI 3.51
Digest::SHA (Any)
Date::Format 2.21
DateTime 0.28
DateTime::TimeZone 0.71
DBI 1.41
Template 2.22
Email::Send 2.00
Email::MIME 1.904
URI 1.37
List::MoreUtils 0.22
Math::Random::ISAAC 1.0.1

Optional Perl Modules

The following perl modules, if installed, enable various features of Bugzilla:

Module Version Enables Feature
GD 1.20 Graphical Reports, New Charts, Old Charts
Chart::Lines 2.1.0 New Charts, Old Charts
Template::Plugin::GD::Image (Any) Graphical Reports
GD::Text (Any) Graphical Reports
GD::Graph (Any) Graphical Reports
MIME::Parser 5.406 Move Bugs Between Installations
LWP::UserAgent (Any) Automatic Update Notifications
XML::Twig (Any) Move Bugs Between Installations, Automatic Update Notifications
PatchReader 0.9.6 Patch Viewer
Net::LDAP (Any) LDAP Authentication
Authen::SASL (Any) SMTP Authentication
Authen::Radius (Any) RADIUS Authentication
SOAP::Lite 0.712 XML-RPC Interface
JSON::RPC (Any) JSON-RPC Interface
JSON::XS 2.0 Make JSON-RPC Faster
Test::Taint (Any) JSON-RPC Interface, XML-RPC Interface
HTML::Parser 3.40 More HTML in Product/Group Descriptions
HTML::Scrubber (Any) More HTML in Product/Group Descriptions
Encode 2.21 Automatic charset detection for text attachments
Encode::Detect (Any) Automatic charset detection for text attachments
Email::MIME::Attachment::Stripper (Any) Inbound Email
Email::Reply (Any) Inbound Email
TheSchwartz (Any) Mail Queueing
Daemon::Generic (Any) Mail Queueing
mod_perl2 1.999022 mod_perl
Apache2::SizeLimit 0.96 mod_perl

Optional Apache Modules

If you are using Apache as your webserver, Bugzilla can take advantage of some Apache features if you have the below Apache modules installed and enabled. Currently, certain Bugzilla features are enabled only if you have all of the following modules installed and enabled:

On most systems (but not on Windows), checksetup.pl is able to tell whether or not you have these modules installed, and it will tell you.

New Features and Improvements

Experimental SQLite Support

SQLite is now supported by Bugzilla and becomes the 4th supported database besides MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle. SQLite support must be considered as experimental, at least till the next major release.

Note that use of SQLite is only recommended for small installations. Larger installations should use MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle.

Creating an Attachment by Pasting Text Into a Text Field

You can now create a new attachment simply by pasting some text into a text field, in addition to the normal upload process for attachments.

HTML Bugmail

By default, bugmails (email notifications about changes to bugs) are now sent in an HTML format that is more readable than the old text format. Those who prefer the old text format can still choose it in their Preferences, however.

The Custom Search section in the Advanced Search page has been redesigned to work in a more sensible way. Complex queries are easier to build and have more sensible results, as they are built using a more intuitive logic. Some very complicated queries are still impossible to generate, though. Things should improve in future releases.

Disabling Old Components, Versions and Milestones

Older components, versions and milestones can now be disabled. Bugs already using them are not affected, but these values will no longer be available for new bugs.

Displaying a Custom Field Value Based on Multiple Values of Another Field

A custom field can now be displayed based on multiple values of another field. (For example, one custom field could now appear in multiple products.) Previously, you could only display a custom field based on a single value of another field.

Auditing of All Changes Within Bugzilla

Most changes made through the admin interface are now logged to the database, in the audit_log table. There is no UI to access this table yet, but developers are free to create their own tools to track changes made into their installation. This is only a first step, and improvements are expected in future releases.

Accessibility Improvements

A project has started thanks to Francisco Donalisio from IBM to make Bugzilla compliant with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative standards. A lot more work still needs to be done, but we expect a much better compatibility for the next major release.

Other Enhancements and Changes

Enhancements for Users

Enhancements for Administrators and Developers

WebService Changes

Outstanding Issues

Code Changes Which May Affect Customizations and Extensions

Bugzilla 4.0 Release Notes

Introduction

This is Bugzilla 4.0! Since 3.6 (our previous major release) we've come a long way, and we've come even further compared to 3.0 in 2007! Since Bugzilla 3.0, almost every major user interface in Bugzilla has been redesigned, the WebServices have evolved enormously, there's a great new Extensions system, and there are hundreds of other new features. With the major redesigns that come particularly in this release compared to 3.6, we felt that it was time to call this release 4.0.

It's not just major WebService and UI enhancements that are new in Bugzilla 4.0—there are many other exciting new features, including automatic duplicate detection, enhanced custom field functionality, autocomplete for users, search improvements, and much more. Overall, 4.0 is far and away the best version of Bugzilla we've ever released.

If you're upgrading, make sure to read Notes On Upgrading From a Previous Version. If you are upgrading from a release before 3.6, make sure to read the release notes for all the previous versions in between your version and this one, particularly the Upgrading section of each version's release notes.

We would like to thank ITA Software, the IBM Linux Technology Center, and Red Hat for funding the development of certain features and improvements in this release of Bugzilla.

Updates in this 4.0.x Release

4.0.2

This release fixes several security issues. See the Security Advisory for details.

In addition, the following important fixes/changes have been made in this release:

4.0.1

Minimum Requirements

Any requirements that are new since 3.6.3 will look like this.

Perl

Perl v5.8.1

For MySQL Users

For PostgreSQL Users

For Oracle Users

Required Perl Modules

ModuleVersion
CGI 3.51
Digest::SHA (Any)
Date::Format 2.21
DateTime 0.28
DateTime::TimeZone 0.71
DBI 1.41
Template 2.22
Email::Send 2.00
Email::MIME 1.904
URI (Any)
List::MoreUtils 0.22

Optional Perl Modules

The following perl modules, if installed, enable various features of Bugzilla:

ModuleVersionEnables Feature
GD 1.20 Graphical Reports, New Charts, Old Charts
Chart::Lines 2.1 New Charts, Old Charts
Template::Plugin::GD::Image (Any) Graphical Reports
GD::Text (Any) Graphical Reports
GD::Graph (Any) Graphical Reports
MIME::Parser 5.406 Move Bugs Between Installations
LWP::UserAgent (Any) Automatic Update Notifications
XML::Twig (Any) Move Bugs Between Installations, Automatic Update Notifications
PatchReader 0.9.4 Patch Viewer
Net::LDAP (Any) LDAP Authentication
Authen::SASL (Any) SMTP Authentication
Authen::Radius (Any) RADIUS Authentication
SOAP::Lite 0.712 XML-RPC Interface
JSON::RPC (Any) JSON-RPC Interface
JSON::XS 2.0 Make JSON-RPC Faster
Test::Taint (Any) JSON-RPC Interface, XML-RPC Interface
HTML::Parser 3.40 More HTML in Product/Group Descriptions
HTML::Scrubber (Any) More HTML in Product/Group Descriptions
Email::MIME::Attachment::Stripper (Any) Inbound Email
Email::Reply (Any) Inbound Email
TheSchwartz (Any) Mail Queueing
Daemon::Generic (Any) Mail Queueing
mod_perl2 1.999022 mod_perl
Apache2::SizeLimit 0.93 mod_perl
Math::Random::Secure 0.05 Improve cookie and token security

Optional Apache Modules

If you are using Apache as your webserver, Bugzilla can now take advantage of some Apache features if you have the below Apache modules installed and enabled. Currently, certain Bugzilla features are enabled only if you have all of the following modules installed and enabled:

On most systems (but not on Windows), checksetup.pl is able to tell whether or not you have these modules installed, and it will tell you.

New Features and Improvements

Automatic Duplicate Detection When Filing Bugs

When filing a bug, as soon as you start typing in the summary field, Bugzilla will suggest possible duplicates of the bug you are filing.

In order for this feature to work, all pre-requisites for JSON-RPC support must be installed on your Bugzilla. It will be much faster on installations that run under mod_perl than it will be on other installations.

New Advanced Search UI

Thanks to the UI work of Guy Pyrzak, the Advanced Search UI has been completely redesigned. It is now much simpler, and far more approachable for new users, while still retaining all of the features that power users are used to.

New Attachment Details UI

The UI used for editing attachment details has been completely redesigned, allowing for a normally-size comment box to be used when commenting on attachments, and allowing nearly the entire screen width to be used when doing code reviews or editing an attachment as a comment.

Thanks to Guy Pyrzak for his excellent work on this UI redesign.

Autocomplete for Users and Keywords

Once you type at least three characters in any field that can contain a user (including the CC, QA Contact, or Assignee fields), a list will appear containing all of the users whose real names or usernames match what you are typing. Your Bugzilla must have all of the optional Perl modules required for JSON-RPC support installed, though, in order for this feature to work. Also, this feature will be much faster on installations that run under mod_perl than it will be on other installations.

There is also a similar autocomplete for the Keywords field. The Keywords autocomplete does not require JSON-RPC.

General Usability Improvements

In addition to the enhancements listed above, there have been many improvements made across the Bugzilla user interface. For a list of specific enhancements that were significant, see the Other Enhancements and Changes section.

New Default Status Workflow

For new installations of Bugzilla, the default set of statuses will now be:

And the UNCONFIRMED status will be enabled by default in all products.

On upgrade, existing installations will not be affected--you will retain your existing status workflow. However, we strongly recommend that you update your existing workflow to the new one, using a special tool we've included, contrib/convert-workflow.pl, which you can run after you use checksetup.pl to upgrade. The whineatnews.pl and bugzilla-submit scripts will probably not work properly if you continue to use the old workflow (though most other parts of Bugzilla will still function normally).

For more information about the workflow and our rationale for changing it, see the blog post about it and the bug where the change was made.

"Last Search" Now Remembers Multiple Searches

At the top of every bug in Bugzilla, there are links that look like: "First", "Last", "Prev", "Next", and "Show last search results". In earlier versions of Bugzilla, if you did two separate searches in separate windows, these links would only work for the last search you did. Now, Bugzilla will "remember" which search result you came from and give you the right "last search results" or "next bug" from that list, instead of always using your most recent search.

There are still some situations where Bugzilla will have to "guess" which search you are trying to navigate through, but it does its best to get it right.

Cross-Domain WebServices with JSONP

Bugzilla now supports making WebService calls from another domain, inside of a web browser, thanks to support for JSONP. This will allow for web "mash-ups" to use Bugzilla data. When using JSONP, you may only call functions that get data, you may not call functions that change data.

For more details, see the JSONP section of the JSON-RPC WebService documentation.

Major WebService Enhancements

The WebService has been expanded considerably. The WebService should now be able to do everything with bugs that you can do via the web interface, including updating bugs, adding attachments, and getting attachment data. For specifics, see the WebService Changes section of these release notes.

Mandatory Custom Fields

You can now specify that certain custom fields are "mandatory", meaning that they must have a value when a bug is filed, and they can never be empty after that.

Voting Is Now An Extension

All of the code for voting in Bugzilla has been moved into an extension, called "Voting", in the extensions/Voting/ directory. To enable it, you must remove the disabled file from that directory, and run checksetup.pl.

In a future version of Bugzilla, the Voting extension will be moved outside of the Bugzilla core code, so we are looking for somebody who has an interest in the Voting system and would like to maintain it as a separate extension. There are many enhancement requests that have been made against the Voting system, and the best way for those to get addressed is for somebody to step up and offer to maintain the system outside of Bugzilla's core code.

Users Get New CSS and Javascript Automatically

In past versions of Bugzilla, if you changed Bugzilla's CSS or Javascript files, then every user of Bugzilla would have to clear their cache in order to get the updated files. Now, if you are using Apache as your webserver and you have the optional Apache modules installed and enabled, users will automatically get every new version of Bugzilla's Javascript and CSS without having to clear their caches.

This feature also gives a slight performance speedup to Bugzilla in some cases, and so we recommend that all administrators install and enable the optional Apache modules if possible.

Many New Hooks

Many new code hooks have been added for use by Extensions, in Bugzilla 4.0. Now Extensions can access and modify nearly every part of Bugzilla.

New Apache Configuration

If you run Bugzilla under Apache (as most people do), you most likely require a new Apache configuration for this version of Bugzilla. See the Notes On Upgrading From a Previous Version section for details.

Other Enhancements and Changes

Enhancements for Users

Enhancements for Administrators and Developers

WebService Changes

Outstanding Issues

Notes On Upgrading From a Previous Version

IMPORTANT: Apache Configuration Change

mod_cgi

If you run Bugzilla under mod_cgi (this is the most common configuration, involving a <Directory> block in your Apache config file), you will need to update the configuration of Apache for Bugzilla. In particular, this line in the Bugzilla <Directory> block:

AllowOverride Limit

needs to become:

AllowOverride Limit FileInfo Indexes

For full details on how to configure Apache for Bugzilla, see the Configuration section of the Bugzilla Guide.

mod_perl

If your Bugzilla runs under mod_perl, the required Apache configuration is now simpler. The line that used to look like:

PerlSwitches -w -T -I/var/www/html/bugzilla -I/var/www/html/bugzilla/lib

Now should be only:

PerlSwitches -w -T

The PerlConfigRequire line should stay the same, however.

New .htaccess file

In previous versions of Bugzilla, there was a file in Bugzilla's root directory called ".htaccess" that was generated by checksetup.pl. This file is now shipped with Bugzilla instead of being generated during installation.

If you update via CVS or bzr, you will get a message that your existing .htaccess file conflicts with the new one. You must remove your existing .htaccess file and use the new one instead. Continuing to use your old .htaccess file will cause certain new features of Bugzilla to not work properly, and may also lead to security issues for your system in the future.

Code Changes Which May Affect Customizations and Extensions

Release Notes For Previous Versions

Release Notes for Bugzilla 3.x and Earlier