Compatibility/Guide/Triage

Triage Process

Once a new bug report has been created, it must go through Triage to determine if it should get further investigation or be closed.

Profile

When performing Web Compatibility testing it is best to keep a separate profile in your browsers. This ensures your personal settings do not interfere with the test results.

Attempt to Reproduce Issue

Read the description provided by the reporter. Using the browser the reporter found the issue in, navigate to the URL provided and follow the steps to reproduce the issue. If steps to reproduce are not available, try to identify what the reporter may have been referring to.

It isn't critical at this point to use the exact same version of browser as reported. Ideally you should be using a release version of the browser or higher.

After testing the results in the reported browser, test the same site in another browser. For example if the reported browser was Firefox, try testing in Edge, Chrome or another popular browser.

For it to be a valid Web Compatibility the issue would exist in one browser but not in another. There are some common reasons why a bug would be invalid.

Able to Reproduce

Screenshot

If the reporter hasn't provided a screenshot of the issue and it's visible, take a screenshot to upload to the bug report. It helps to provide a screenshot in the working browser as well.

Document

In the bug report, explain how you reproduced the issue. Make note of:

• Any additional information is required like accounts, zip/postal code etc.
• Regional differences on the site - example: google.com vs. google.co.uk
• Contextual information that may be useful
• Error console logs if they seem relevant and you are comfortable

Bug Status

After you've made your comment on the bug report, you should set the status to needsdiagnosis.

If additional information is required, you can set the needsinfo status.

Unable to Reproduce

Keep Testing

If you weren't able to reproduce the issue initially try:

• Try exact browser version listed
  • Start with the exact browser version first, only occasionally will you find issues that are Operating System specific
• Test with tracking protection enabled
• Test with an ad-blocker

Explain the Results

If you are still unable to reproduce, comment on the bug report with your findings. Sometimes a screenshot can help the original reporter understand why you aren't able to reproduce the issue.

Close Bug

Close the bug report if you are confident it is either not a compatibility bug, or that this issue can't be reproduced. If you aren't sure, ping someone from the Webcompat team to take a look.

Close Status

Set the status of the bug:

• Invalid
  • It isn't a valid Web Compatibility issue
• Worksforme
  • The issue cannot be reproduced
• Duplicate
  • The issue has been reported previously, it helps to provide the other bug report number
• Incomplete
  • Not enough information has been provided by the reporter. Sometimes there is no way to contact the reporter, or they haven't responded with the detail required to reproduce.

Needsinfo

If you require more information from the reporter, or another person on the report, make sure you @ mention them to trigger the Github notification system. You should also set the Needsinfo label to the report.

Some cases where you could request more information:

• The reporter doesn’t provide enough information about the issue and is not anonymous, which shows as webcompat-bot
• You are unable to reproduce the issue reported and the reporter is not anonymous
• There is an account required to test this site that you do not have, or you are in the wrong region for (Netflix, Amazon, etc).

Needsinfo is an additive label, meaning if the report is currently set to NeedsTriage and you are asking someone for information, you should add Needsinfo and keep NeedsTriage.

For bug reports that you cannot reproduce the issue and you’ve asked the reporter for more information, we leave open for 30 days to get a response from the reporter. After that, the issue is closed.

Move to Bugzilla

In some bugs on webcompat.com it may be clear that a report is a valid web compatibility issue, but should be fixed in Firefox rather than by asking the website to change their code.

In this case the report should be moved to Bugzilla and closed as a duplicate on webcompat.com. You should reference the webcompat.com URL (example: https://webcompat.com/issues/1) in the see also field on Bugzilla.

Some examples of this can be:

• Implementation differences between browser engines
• Performance issues where Firefox is much slower than another browser on a website