General Guidance for Bug Diagnosis
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:33 pmIntroduction
Broadly there are 2 types of bugs:
When we can reproduce a bug it is roughly 100x easier to diagnose and fix. We typically don't need further help in doing this and will prioritize as a function of the sitewide impact of the issue.
Unfortunately, more and more often, bugs fall in the latter category. These bugs are becoming more common because CC becomes evermore complex but also because content on the internet is increasingly controlled by code executed in the user's browser. You may have heard of AJAX, responsive design, jquery, css, javascript and other such techo-gibberish. This is a multi-platform, multi-device, multi-browser world, very different to 5 years ago, where everyone's experience of the web is different... hence a lot of issues turn out to be user-dependent.
General guidance for testing issues
It is usually worth clearing your browser cache. If this solves the issue let us know because you typically should not have to clear your cache unless you have a local caching issue.
The following steps can be taken to help diagnose the issue and potentially find a short-term solution while the problem is being corrected.
Directions for providing Web Console diagnostic information (Works for Firefox, Chrome and IE on PC):
Beyond the above steps, for diagnosing user-dependent issues our best tool is the 'Web Console', available on all common browsers. Following are directions for provide a web console log related to your issue:
Broadly there are 2 types of bugs:
- Those we can reproduce
- Those we cannot reproduce
When we can reproduce a bug it is roughly 100x easier to diagnose and fix. We typically don't need further help in doing this and will prioritize as a function of the sitewide impact of the issue.
Unfortunately, more and more often, bugs fall in the latter category. These bugs are becoming more common because CC becomes evermore complex but also because content on the internet is increasingly controlled by code executed in the user's browser. You may have heard of AJAX, responsive design, jquery, css, javascript and other such techo-gibberish. This is a multi-platform, multi-device, multi-browser world, very different to 5 years ago, where everyone's experience of the web is different... hence a lot of issues turn out to be user-dependent.
General guidance for testing issues
It is usually worth clearing your browser cache. If this solves the issue let us know because you typically should not have to clear your cache unless you have a local caching issue.
The following steps can be taken to help diagnose the issue and potentially find a short-term solution while the problem is being corrected.
- Turn all add-ons off. If your problem goes away, then one of the add-ons is instigating the issue. Turn them on 1 by 1 to work out which add-on:
- If you are using Panel mode, try non-panel mode, and vice-versa.
- Try another browser.
- Try another device.
- Try another internet connection.
Directions for providing Web Console diagnostic information (Works for Firefox, Chrome and IE on PC):
Beyond the above steps, for diagnosing user-dependent issues our best tool is the 'Web Console', available on all common browsers. Following are directions for provide a web console log related to your issue:
- Go to page where issue is occurring, but just before the issue occurs (or you cab produce it by refreshing the page)
- Right Click and Choose 'Inspect Element'
- Choose the 'Console' tab
- Make sure that the console is set to display All logs (There should either be an 'All' option or click on each type of log individually)
- Clear the console (A 'Clear' button should exist that is slightly different on each browser)
- Take the action on the page that produces the problem
- Copy logs from console..
FF: Right Click > Select All, followed by Right Click > Copy
IE: Right Click > Copy All
Chrome: Use your mouse to drag and select all, then Right Click > Copy - Paste logs (CTRL-V) into a CC forum message or post