Using the New Report wizard in QC Plus
| By: Jeremy North | Last Updated: December 3rd, 2007 |
To add reports to QualityCentral with QC Plus you need to use the Report Wizard. The Report Wizard is accessible from the File menu (File | New | Report Wizard) or from the New toolbar button.
Pages in the wizard
The Report Wizard contains the following pages.
The project page is officially the first page of the New Report wizard however; you won't get to see it very often.
The search page is unofficially the first page of the wizard. The only time you don't get to see the search page is when you are editing an existing report using the wizard.
The search page allows you to perform a keyword search for the selected project (Project name appears in the title bar). If the search finds reports that match your search criteria then you have the option of viewing the found reports, to see if someone has already logged your specific issue.
Example
So there are 16 reports in the Delphi project that have TActionManager in them. To actually perform the search and view the results, select the View Reports button. This will add the search and the results of the search to the Search page in the QC Plus interface.
If you find your issue has already been logged then you can easily cancel the New Report wizard.
The project details page allows you to set version specific information about the project you selected.
To save reentering this information continually, you can save the information entered. To save the information, complete all of the required details and then click on the Save Details button.
QC Plus has some knowledge of build numbers for certain releases. When entering in the Build, it is important to be as accurate as possible. If possible select one of the builds from the drop down list. To read more about maintaining the list of Build numbers, check out the Help Topic under the How do I … section called How to add build numbers to the drop down list.
Set as default
You are able to save this information for multiple versions of a project. This means you can have details saved for Delphi 2007 and Delphi 7. Use the Set as default checkbox to stipulate when the current project is selected, this wizard page will automatically complete with the default version information.
In previous version of JED, QC this page was skipped when default version information was saved for the selected project. With QC Plus this is no longer the case. The detail information is still loaded automatically but with the inception of the Search Page and the need for more visual indication from users about which Version information the wizard was using, the Project Details page was made to be always visible in the wizard.
The area you select for your report is important. Some sysops might only view reports from a specific area and by putting your report in a generic or incorrect area, may mean the report gets overlooked unnecessarily.
The number of areas can be overwhelming and also hard to find. This is why at the bottom of the area page there is the ability to filter the area tree to aid in finding the most applicable area.
Using the Area Filter
The area filter allows you to type in the characters for a potential area and have only the areas that match the characters displayed.
Since some area names may be duplicated (with reason) there are two check box options that exist for using the area filter.
Recreate Tree
Recreate tree creates the parent nodes for the matching area names. This means that you have a better visual indication of what areas are being filtered.
Auto Expand Tree
Auto expand tree expands the found nodes to further enhance the visual appeal of the area filter.
Note: The areas only begin filtering when 3 characters have been entered in the filter string.
Example
Set the severity and type of your report on the Category page. There are numerous values possible for each field. It is important that you select realistic values for your report on this page. Sysops are not too receptive to people making all of their reports critical, especially when there are workarounds available.
Note: If you have a documentation issue, please use the specific documentation type. Currently the description for this type is "documentation problem".
Each report must have a short description. The short description should be informative and give a brief (200+ chars are allowed) summary of what the report is about. Remember that many Sysops will read the short description of a report to get an idea of what the report entails. A good short description is a great way to get your report noticed.
Do not: A short description should not start with words such as SUGGESTION, CRITICAL or IMPORTANT. The category field is used to indicate this information to the consumer of the report. Also do not use all UPPERCASE characters in your short description, stick to normal case.
The long description is optional*. Elaborate on your short description and be sure to be as detailed as you possibly can.
When entering a feature request or suggestion/enhancement, the long description is the most important part of the report.
Do not: Please don't fill the long description with back handed jabs or rants. These definitely do not help your report get acted upon quicker than a well written professional description.
* The long description is only optional if the report contains steps.
Steps are optional if your report already has a long description. However, steps are not optional if your report is a bug and you need a Sysop to reproduce the bug.
You can never have two many steps in a report. While making the bug reproducible in the shortest number of steps possible is a good thing.
When writing steps to reproduce the bug you are adding the report for, it is best to assume that the Sysop or CodeGear QA person has no specific knowledge of the area of the IDE where the bug occurs.
Many say that it is best to start your steps from the very beginning.
- Start XXXX
Steps should always end with what you expected to see and what you actually saw. This way the person reviewing your report can tell whether what you were expecting to see is not correct.
When you get a report closed as "As Designed" this means that what you actually thought you were supposed to see is not what the person reviewing your report expects.
The following Developer Network article gives brief descriptions on the resolutions your reports might encounter.
http://dn.codegear.com/article/33888
If you have discovered a workaround that addresses the issue you are reporting, you should include it. Including a workaround can enhance the possibility of the report being addressed in a future version of the product.
Do not: If you do not have a workaround for your report please don't add meaningless text such as N/A or none. The fact that a workaround is empty instantly tells the report reviewer there is no workaround.
To enter a workaround using the New Report wizard you have to uncheck the No workaround at this time check box. This is to prevent meaningless workarounds being added to a report.
Naturally a workaround is optional.
The screen capture page in the wizard checks the clipboard for an image and if found displays the image that is currently on the clipboard.
Attach Image
Check Attach Image to include the attached image in your report.
Filename
If you want, you can enter a filename for the attachment image. The filename should not contain path details or a file extension. This is done automatically. If you don't add a filename, one is automatically generated.
Annotating the attachment
You can make basic modifications to the attached image by double clicking on the screen capture. This brings up a very basic image editor. A new image editor will be available in a future version.
The image editor allows for adding elliptical regions to highlight specific portions of a screen and other basic imaging tools such as a pen, line and text are available. Changing the line width, color and font details is also possible.
The updated screen capture page
Note: For any image modifications to be kept, you must click on the Close toolbar button.
The annotating of images is currently very basic. It be improved in a future version.
To further enhance your report consider adding attachments to it. Attachments do not have to be zipped before you can add them with QC Plus. To add any file as an attachment just select the Add button and change the filter to view All Files. Select the files you want to attach and then select OK.
Note: If you are also attaching a screen capture this file will not be listed here. QC Plus does all the combining of attachments in the background for you, so you don't need to worry about those details.
The final page of the New Report wizard contains many final options for your New Report.
Add created report to watch list
Add this new report onto your watch list.
Save report in Cache for bulk upload later
If you are running QC Plus disconnected from the server this option is mandatory. It allows you to create many reports while you are offline and then use the File | Upload from cache… option to save the reports to the server once you are online.
Open newly created report
Once the wizard has completed the new report is displayed.
Save a copy of my report locally
Keep a backup of your report on your local system incase a issue with the QualityCentral server causes the report to get lost.
Mark Report as private
Make this report a private report. This means the report can only be viewed by sysops and the report creator.
Restart wizard after finish
Start the wizard from scratch once the current report has been saved.
Copy to clipboard options
Copy specific details of the new report to the clipboard once saved.
| None | No report information is copied to the clipboard. |
| Report Number | The report number is copied to the clipboard once the report has been saved. |
| Report Summary | A summary of the report is copied to the clipboard. This is the same as selecting the Copy | XXXX Report Summary when a report is open. Where XXXX default copying the default, long or short summary of the report. |
Report Summary Type
Allows you to specify what type of report summary you want to appear on the clipboard. Report summary type is only valid when Copy to clipboard options is Report Summary.
By clicking the Finish button you have successfully completed the QC Plus New Report wizard.
Where to get QC Plus
You can download QC Plus from http://www.jed-software.com/qc_download.htm.
The QC Plus homepage is http://www.jed-software.com/qc.htm.
Tips and Tricks will be posted on my blog http://jedqc.blogspot.com/.
About the author
You can contact Jeremy via the contact page on his website at http://www.jed-software.com/.
JED Software provides the Delphi community with developer tools, specialized components and other IDE enhancements. Some are free, while others incur a small fee.