Launchpad Entry: karmic-qa-increase-apport-adoption
Created: UDS Karmic
Contributors: HenrikOmma, BrianMurray
Summary
Adjust documentation and Launchpad functionality to steer more people towards using apport. Push back on various groups in turn to file bugs correctly.
Rationale
A good quantity of bugs reports on Ubuntu are filed through the "Report bug" button on the Launchpad main page and only 25% through apport. Which creates a lot of extra work, since most people are not choosing a package in the process, this results in a ping/pong between the triager and reporter. Having more users and applications using apport will increase the quality of the bugs reports that the distribution is getting.
User stories
User Jordi is having a problem with an application, he starts to look where to report the issue, he opens the web browser goes to google and search for "Ubuntu Bug" the first result if the Bugs Page. He clicks the red "Report a bug" button which jumps out at him. He doesn't know which package to choose, since he's using "Ubuntu" he choose that and briefly describes the issue. The report ends up in the huge list of bugs without a package that too few people triage. With this spec we will guide Jordi towards finding the right package and filing his bug with
Assumptions
Design
Different options are going to be tested and applied to edge and regular Launchpad every week to ensure that the right one is applied as permanent. Experiments to try:
Changes to the Report a bug button
Have the 'Report a bug' button redirect to the reporting documentation at http://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
- Remove the "Report a bug" button from the general Ubuntu bugs Launchpad page, leaving it only on the package-specific pages
- Display the button based on team or karma
- Only display the button to Devel or Ubuntu bug control team members
- Set a karma value cut-off
- Link the button to an apt-url link for apport
- either points to a filing GUI, or simply harvest info pre-submit.
Alter the bug filing form
- Do Not allow users to file a bug at all without specifying a package
- Inject a bug-filing template into the description textbox
- Remove the bug filing form or change the URL
- Redirect to Ubuntu Answers
- When clicking on the Report a bug button the user is redirected to the answer tracker. Bug and Answer triagers can in turn file the issue as a bug.
The first few options should have little adverse impact on bug filers. If these prove to be effective we may stop before trying the more invasive changes further down the list.
Documentation review and advertising
Forums post regarding using ubuntu-bug. Has Help -> Report a Problem already been well advertised there?
- Blogging about more about using apport.
- Having apport discussed in popular podcasts
- Having it mentioned in Ubuntu Release Notes?
- It already appears in the Distribution Upgrade message
- Updating key wiki pages
Search the whole wiki for '+filebug' - Currently 159 hits
What does it say at http://www.ubuntu.com?
- Updating all Standard Responses to mention using apport
- How do support people at answers.launchpad.net to tell people to file bugs?
Metrics
We need to measure how these changes affect people's bug-filing habits. We can look at:
- The total number of bugs filed before and after
- Using Apport vs. +filebug
Referrers for +filebug and ReportingBugs
Google search rankings of +filebug and ReportingBugs
Other specs
- Create a question based apport interface to narrow package list for users who do not know (part of roadmap for Karmic apport /w syptom-based reporting)
- Flag on ubuntu-bug for offline reporting (also required for the apport-on-server spec)
Future work
- URL handler for apport so launchpad could present a url that would launch apport on the desktop
- - plugin for firefox and konqueror?
- For e-mail filers, maybe there should be an auto-responder that would ask the user to use apport-collect
- Review coverage of report a problem menu item