Have you wondered what is in a new release? Maybe you found a bug and want to see if the problem has been fixed in the new release. Or, perhaps your Web site behaves differently after upgrading and you want to figure out why. Or, maybe you are just curious and want to learn more.  There are many reasons to track changes in a release and review Issue Reports on the Joomla! 1.5 Bug Tracker.

First, a bit of background...

For each release, information from the Joomla! 1.5 Bug Tracker is gathered and used as a basis for the Release Notes section of the release announcement.

Each patch in the release is briefly documented. These items are organized into broad categories: Components, Modules, Plugins, Legacy, Templates, Language, Administrator, and System. The idea is to make it easier for community members to isolate specific changes.

Starting with Joomla! 1.5.9, the Tracker ID for each issue is presented to the right of the item. The Tracker ID can be used to locate an Issue Report on the Tracker where the original issue description, discussion between the community and Bug Squad, results from testers, and the patch can be found.

So, let's try an example...

Say you have a Web site that uses the Beez Template and you would like to add the "Last Updated" date to your articles. In the past, you tried to do so, but found the date is incorrect. So, you want to review the fixes included in Joomla! 1.5.9 to see if this issue has been addressed.

First, review the release announcement.

In reviewing the Joomla! 1.5.9 release announcement, you could look at each of the 14 items within the Templates section. In doing so, you would find the item "Corrected Last Updated date for Beez Template (13632)."  Alternatively, you could use the "Find" function of your Browser to search for "Last Updated" and locate the same item.

Once you have identified the item, write down the Tracker ID located in parenthesis at the end of each item. In this case, the Tracker ID is 13632.

Next, head to the Joomla! 1.5 Bug Tracker.

Once you have the Tracker ID, go to the Joomla! 1.5 Bug Tracker to review the Issue Report:

• Navigate to http://JoomlaCode.org.
• Look for the Joomla! Project link close to the top of the page. This is the literal you will find: Joomla! Project (incl downloads and tracker): http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/.
• Click the word Tracker in the left Menu.
• Next, locate and click the Joomla! 1.5.x Bug Tracker link.
• On the Tracker, enter the Tracker ID in the ID text field and press the Browse button.
• Finally, click the link for the Summary Title and read the Issue report.

So, what's in the Issue Report?

Each Issue Report has a nice collection of helpful information. The original bug report is there. All the details of Bug Squad activity are carefully documented, including verification of the bug, procedures needed to reproduce the error, patches used to fix the bug, and the results of individual testing. These details are saved and sometimes helpful, later, if questions arise as to why certain changes were made.

If you want to see the actual fix, or patch, just scroll to the bottom of the Issue report and click the name of the file on the File tab. You can use a simple text editor to view the patch.

Patches are special files that specify the name of the file(s) in the Joomla! distribution that are the target for change, the line numbers to be removed (identified with - in the first character), and the line numbers to be added (identified with + in the first character.) The Bug Squad uses Tortoise or Eclipse as tools that apply patches for testing.

It's a bit complicated, but not impossible, to track changes down to the very last detail. If you want to explore the fixes in a release, feel free to trace through some of these issues and see what we do on the Bug Squad.

If that sounds interesting to you...

If you find this all very interesting, then you might be "that special breed." If you want to help test patches, find and fix bugs, and clarify issue reports on the Joomla! 1.5 Bug Tracker, consider joining the Joomla Bug Squad by contacting Ian MacLennan or Mark Dexter (or by posting in the JBS Google Group).