Introduction

Software development is almost useless without testing, and that's true for Scribus as well, of course. Testing means using the software, especially development versions. Bugs, when discovered, need to be reported to let the developers know that something's wrong or at least seems to be wrong, so the problem can be fixed, if necessary. Sometimes the fix may simply be an update to the online documentation, the wiki or the next edition of the Official Manual. Moreover, the developers need to know what kind of features users need. In such a case case, someone who is missing a feature or has a great idea, should also let the team know about it.

In both cases, the procedure is the same. There is a software called bug tracking system, in Scribus' case this is Mantis. A bug tracking system allows developers to keep track of, discuss and review bug reports and RFEs (requests for enhancement). If you want to help to improve Scribus or absolutely need a feature, you are advised to use it.

How to Create an Account

First, visit the signup page. You will see a page that looks like this:



Enter a login name, your email address and the digits displayed. Then click Signup and wait until your account has been confirmed and you received a password. You can change your personal preferences any time in the tab "My account," provided you are logged in. Please take the time to check the different options. They may or may not be useful to you.

Before filing a bug

If something doesn't work as expected or you think you have the idea of the century, please don't start firing up bug reports galore. Chances are that someone has already had the same problem, perhaps even the same great idea. Five steps are recommended to ensure your report won't be closed as "duplicate" or "no change required".

  1. Read the Scribus documentation, rummage the Scribus wiki or even consider buying the Official Scribus Manual. There are lots of informations in different languages available, and perhaps someone has already turned his own experiences into a wiki article, or the documentation team may have documented a feature/issue thoroughly by then.
  2. Try to really use Scribus and learn about its concepts. Compared to other DTP programs, Scribus is not hard to learn, but it is still quite different from, say, a word processor.
  3. Tell one of the mailing lists about your problem or your idea. Things normally get sorted out quickly. Often enough, a supposed bug is just lack of experience.
  4. Ask questions on IRC. This is especially useful for "real time" support.
  5. If your questions still haven't been answered, you should browse the bug database. You can search for keywords. As you can see on the screenshot below, you can enter a keyword in the "Search" field. Then click Apply, and Mantis will search for all reports containing the text string. If you don't know the correct English word to search for, you can skim the multilingual Glossary on the Wiki for a translation. If you use a non-English version of Scribus and want to look up the English names of menu items, just switch the Scribus interface to English: File > Preferences > General > Language


You will notice that the reports are coloured differently. The meaning of the different colours is:

newfeedbackacknowledgedconfirmedassignedresolvedclosed


How to file a bug report


To file a bug report, you have to click on the Report Issue link in your browser. You will be presented a page with lots of fields for entries:

If you have finished the preparations, you can finally start writing:




You're almost done now, but you may want to upload a file, a screenshot for instance, or a Scribus sample file. Click Searchor enter the path to the file on your hard drive or a URL.



If you don't want a report to be seen by other reporters, but only the team, you can switch the status to "Private." This may be the case if you discover issues with a file that is protected by copyrights. Check "Private," and only a handful of people will see the file.

Once everything is to your satisfaction, click Submit Report, and you're done.

Personalised View

Provided you are logged in, you can choose a more clearly laid out view of the bugtracker. Click on the link My view, and Mantis will present a structured view of recently changed issues: