Bug 111231

Summary: Usability improvements for bug search query page
Product: Documentation Reporter: Victor Engmark <victor.engmark>
Component: Books & ArticlesAssignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: Latest   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   

Description Victor Engmark 2007-04-04 15:10:09 UTC
Being able to efficiently and (most importantly) effectively search bug reports is very important for users to contribute and check up on any problems they are experiencing. Here are some suggestions for how the current system can be approved - All IMHO and vulnerable to flaming :)

Major stuff:
- It should be possible to search using the "OR" operator, having the results ranked according to how many terms they fit. In fact, making this the default would give that nice fuzzy Google feeling to the results.
- It should be possible to specify /which/ single / multi-line input fields that should be searched. Having to know + remember which fields are single / multi-line is cumbersome.
- The "responsible" field should work with substrings, not just "starts with". E.g., searching for "wpau" and "wpaul" give the same results, but "paul" gives nothing...
- The "responsible" field should work with full names and emails, if available.
- Most of the selection boxes should be multi-selection, to be able to do broader searches.

Minor stuff:
- Using <abbr> can help usability and accessibility when dealing with unfamiliar abbreviations (PR / GNATS).
- Using <label> gives the user a bigger area to click on in order to focus an input field.
- The "title" attribute can be used to give "tooltips" to users.

I could help with the web development part of this if you'd like.

Fix: 

Bugzilla already does most of this stuff. I'd suggest to use it if possible.
How-To-Repeat: n/a
Comment 1 Victor Engmark 2007-04-04 15:50:39 UTC
Apropos this bug: The Bugzilla wiki page
<http://wiki.freebsd.org/Bugzilla>is not editable, and the con "does
not run under mod_perl" has been fixed.
Actually, I've yet to find any editable pages on the wiki (when logged in),
even where feedback is requested. I'd love to help, but it's very difficult
without being able to report problems, suggestions, and so forth.

-- 
Victor Engmark
Comment 2 Remko Lodder freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2007-04-04 17:01:42 UTC
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

duplicate of 111228