BugTrack Help Contents
Table of Contents

Overview

Notes View

Bugs View

Using Find/Show All

Multi-User vs Single User

Managing Lookup Tables

Printing Notes/Bugs

Table Editor

Managing User

Source Code


Overview

BugTrack is a program, with which you can manage bugs in the software development environment of small to medium sized company. You can attach multiple details - or bug history - to each bug record. You can browse bugs filtered out in any way you want and in any order you specify.

In case you outgrow this program and need more features or if you want to change the behavior of the program, you can get the source code and customize it yourself.


Multi-user vs Single User
Multi-User vs Single-User

BugTrack can be used in multiuser as well as in single user environment.

In multi-user environment, you should type in your user name and password at the time of starting BugTrack. User name will subsequently be used everytime you add Bug Master and Bug Items record. Each user can be assigned different access rights using User on System menu.

If you are a System Administrator, then you have the full rights including accessing System menu.

If you can edit lookup table, Table menu will be enabled through which you can add, edit, or delete all lookup tables such as Category, Status, Product, etc.

You can or cannot delete Bug Master or Bug Items record depending on your right status.

The first time you use this program, it is defaulted to run in single-user mode. If you want to run in multi-user mode, check Multi-user check box in System-Options dialog box. User table will be available for editing once you change to Multi-user mode.

In single-user mode, you dont have to worry about the user table(it is grayed out). You are the Manager implicitly and you have all the rights.


Bug View
Bugs

Bugs view is divided into two sections; upper half shows list view of bug master records, lower half shows bug items attached to the individual bug master record, if any. Bug items can be used as a history of each bug.

You can add or edit bug master records using Add and Edit button. For many of the combo boxes in Bug Master dialog box, previous sessions values are carried over when you add a new record, to save you several keystrokes.

Every time you add or edit bug items, AssignTo field of Bug Master gets overwritten by the value of AssignTo field of Bug Items, depending on the option you selected in System-Option.


Using Find/Show All

You may want to use Find feature to search for specific records in Bugs view or Notes view. You need to  specify the search criteria for Summary and/or Detail fields.  Once you click Find button in Find Dialog, upper portion of either Notes or Bugs view changes its color to signify that the lists are the result of the Find operation. You can restore to its normal state by clicking Show All button.


Managing Lookup Tables

All combo boxes in Bugs and Notes view have their corresponding lookup tables and you can manage those table from the Table menu. Most of the lookup tables are being used in Bugs view only. However, Category and Status tables are used in both Bugs and Notes, so you need to select table in Category or Status dialog.


Printing Notes/Bugs

You can print either summary or detail report on Notes or Bugs. You can run a report on only those records that are of interest to you by specifying filter conditions. Specify the sort expression to list the records in certain order. Once you click OK, print preview screen will come up to give you a chance to review whether the reports is what you wanted.


Notes View

You use Notes view to manage anything you want to keep track of. Release notes or To-Do lists will be good candidates which can be managed in Notes view.


Table Editor

Table editor is a tool you can use to edit any table in BugTrack in its raw form. Since it can break the integrity of the data, you are advised not to use this feature, unless it is absolutely necessary, such as when the data table is corrupted.


Managing User

If you setup the BugTrack as multi-user, you will need to manage each user using User command from System menu. Initially, there will be one record in the User table: user Manager with password Manager and all the rights. You may want to change the password(and user name) for this record. Whatever you do, make sure that there is at least one record with system administration right. Otherwise you will not be able to access User table where you can assign rights.


Source Code

BugTrack was designed in such a way that it can be used in most typical development environment without any changes. In some cases, however, you may want to change the program, such as adding more fields which are relevant to your environment.

The source code of this program is available for those who wish to customize the program. If you need to add a new feature or modify existing behavior, you can do it so easily since the complete source of BugTrack was written with clear and standardized manner.

BugTrack was written in 100% 32-bit Visual Basic 4, not using any other commercially available custom controls. It uses Microsoft Access database and Crystal Reports. This means that the only thing you need to modify this program in its entirety is Visual Basic Professional Edition, nothing else.

Every effort was made to be consistant in the coding style, including standardized controls and variable names. Check Order Information under Help menu if you are interested in getting the source code.