I've been working with Drupal for more than two years, but regetfully, I'm not a coder. My strengths are primarily in theming. I know just enough survival PHP to get by.
So here's my dilemma: A module I need for a site I'm building has a bug that prevents it from working. I posted information about it in the project issue queue a few days ago, but there has been no response. I attempted to contact the module's maintainer, but so far I have not yet received a reply.
I can find the approximate location of the problem, but I don't know how to really debug it.
What's a non-coder to do? Any suggestions?
jns
Quoting Jim Smith jsmith@wate.com:
I've been working with Drupal for more than two years, but regetfully, I'm not a coder. My strengths are primarily in theming. I know just enough survival PHP to get by.
So here's my dilemma: A module I need for a site I'm building has a bug that prevents it from working. I posted information about it in the project issue queue a few days ago, but there has been no response. I attempted to contact the module's maintainer, but so far I have not yet received a reply.
I can find the approximate location of the problem, but I don't know how to really debug it.
What's a non-coder to do? Any suggestions?
Be a little more informative. We are willing to help if we know what we're helping with.
Earnie -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/
I know I was being vague. I was trying to ask the question in general terms so that I would know how to handle all bugs, rather than the specific one I'm dealing with now. Though I'd love to have help on the specific bug I'm dealing with, I know that only a few people might have knowledge about the module that has the bug. However, many people deal with debugging scripts everyday, and that's why I was looking for some strategies to best track down and fix bugs.
But to be specific about the particular bug I'm dealing with, it's in Yahoo Terms module.
I posted a bug report on it at http://drupal.org/node/166932. As I first described the problem, Yahoo Terms were being applied to other content, like a forum post, though the Yahoo Terms module was not associated with that content. That was fixed with the patch supplied by douggreen at http://drupal.org/node/171620.
Since then I have upgraded the site to Drupal 5.2 and all of the modules. Now I'm seeing the same error on all feed nodes. The error happens only when the terms are applied when the node is created. It does not happen if the terms are re-applied to an existing node.
It appears that an array is not presented where the function array_merge() expects to see one in the argument.
-----Original Message----- From: support-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:support-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Earnie Boyd Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 2:38 PM To: support@drupal.org Subject: Re: [support] Best way to fix a bug?
Quoting Jim Smith jsmith@wate.com:
I've been working with Drupal for more than two years, but regetfully,
I'm not a coder. My strengths are primarily in theming. I know just enough survival PHP to get by.
So here's my dilemma: A module I need for a site I'm building has a bug that prevents it from working. I posted information about it in the project issue queue a few days ago, but there has been no response. I attempted to contact the module's maintainer, but so far I
have not yet received a reply.
I can find the approximate location of the problem, but I don't know how to really debug it.
What's a non-coder to do? Any suggestions?
Be a little more informative. We are willing to help if we know what we're helping with.
Earnie -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/
-- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
On 9/12/07, Jim Smith jsmith@wate.com wrote:
I know I was being vague. I was trying to ask the question in general terms so that I would know how to handle all bugs, rather than the specific one I'm dealing with now. Though I'd love to have help on the specific bug I'm dealing with, I know that only a few people might have knowledge about the module that has the bug. However, many people deal with debugging scripts everyday, and that's why I was looking for some strategies to best track down and fix bugs.
I think that's a great question and respect you for asking it.
I wrote this handbook page over a year ago: http://drupal.org/node/73179 HOWTO: Make A GOOD issue report
I'd say that your issue report lacks a good title, and (more importantly) simple steps to repeat the issue.
Reading your issue I imagine it would take me a few hours to repeat the bug. Then once I repeated it fixing it might take 10 minutes. This seems like a bad ratio
I suggest that you create a test Drupal installation on a development server (or your local desktop) and then take as few steps as possible until the problem happens again. Then do it again with slightly different settings until you can isolate the exact conditions that cause it. Record those steps in the issue starting with "Install Drupal" and ending with "Condition X happens and I'd like it to be condition Y".
Once you've done that it will be easy (or easier) to fix the problem and the module maintainer will be more likely to fix the problem.
Another potentially useful document (after you've improved the issue itself) is the page on "Getting a Bug Fixed Sooner" http://drupal.org/node/73178
Regards, Greg
PS Did you reapply the patch after upgrading to drupal5?
These are good tips! Thank you.
The one thing that these tips don't solve, though, is what to do when the maintainer doesn't respond quickly enough for my needs. Let's face it, some maintainers are more diligent than others for tackling bugs in the queue. I don't mean that as a slight in the least against the particular maintainer of the module I'm dealing with now. But generally speaking, I'd rather not be dependent on the maintainer if I'm in an urgent situation. And if I can find a solution, then I can contribute the patch, which is better still.
To answer your question, yes, I did apply the patch. However, It appears that some of it failed, probably because the module had been modified.
-----Original Message----- From: support-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:support-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Greg Knaddison - GVS Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 3:24 PM To: support@drupal.org Subject: Re: [support] Best way to fix a bug?
I think that's a great question and respect you for asking it.
I wrote this handbook page over a year ago: http://drupal.org/node/73179 HOWTO: Make A GOOD issue report
I'd say that your issue report lacks a good title, and (more importantly) simple steps to repeat the issue.
Reading your issue I imagine it would take me a few hours to repeat the bug. Then once I repeated it fixing it might take 10 minutes. This seems like a bad ratio
I suggest that you create a test Drupal installation on a development server (or your local desktop) and then take as few steps as possible until the problem happens again. Then do it again with slightly different settings until you can isolate the exact conditions that cause it. Record those steps in the issue starting with "Install Drupal" and ending with "Condition X happens and I'd like it to be condition Y".
Once you've done that it will be easy (or easier) to fix the problem and the module maintainer will be more likely to fix the problem.
Another potentially useful document (after you've improved the issue itself) is the page on "Getting a Bug Fixed Sooner" http://drupal.org/node/73178
Regards, Greg
PS Did you reapply the patch after upgrading to drupal5?
-- Greg Knaddison Denver, CO | http://knaddison.com World Spanish Tour | http://wanderlusting.org/user/greg -- [ Drupal support list | http://lists.drupal.org/ ]
On 9/12/07, Jim Smith jsmith@wate.com wrote:
The one thing that these tips don't solve, though, is what to do when the maintainer doesn't respond quickly enough for my needs. Let's face it, some maintainers are more diligent than others for tackling bugs in the queue. I don't mean that as a slight in the least against the particular maintainer of the module I'm dealing with now. But generally speaking, I'd rather not be dependent on the maintainer if I'm in an urgent situation. And if I can find a solution, then I can contribute the patch, which is better still.
Whenever I visit an issue queue to submit a bug I try my best to take 5 minutes and read over the other issues in the queue. If I see duplicates I'll close one and link to the other. If I see something that's unclear or lacking information I'll make a comment and point that out. If I can find a fix (uncommon, but it happens) then I'll suggest the idea. Somehow maintainers are more likely to help me out after I've done that ;) That's one way of "building karma" specifically with the module maintainer. Karma is another potential key to getting a response from maintainers.
Let's face it, maintainers work on their modules for a lot of different reasons but "solving your problem" is rarely enough to motivate them UNLESS they owe you because of your karma OR you are paying them. And you don't have to pay the maintainer - douggreen obviously knows how to fix that bug. You could put out a bounty for him or someone else to fix it for 5.x. After putting out a relatively small bounty a few months ago I had fixes within 24 hours - http://drupal.org/node/97888
I've added that bit about karma to the "getting bugs fixed faster" page.
In case your question is really "how can I start learning to program" well then I suggest you join the Dojo - http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-dojo and stop by #drupal-dojo
To answer your question, yes, I did apply the patch. However, It appears that some of it failed, probably because the module had been modified.
So, the solution likely lies in figuring out what has changed and manually applying the changes in the patch to the module. Once you've done that you could contribute it back. And you should mark your issue as "duplicate" status since it seems to be the same as the other one.
Regards, Greg
On Wednesday 12 September 2007 13:05:05 Greg Knaddison - GVS wrote:
Whenever I visit an issue queue to submit a bug I try my best to take 5 minutes and read over the other issues in the queue. If I see duplicates I'll close one and link to the other. If I see something that's unclear or lacking information I'll make a comment and point that out. If I can find a fix (uncommon, but it happens) then I'll suggest the idea. Somehow maintainers are more likely to help me out after I've done that ;) That's one way of "building karma" specifically with the module maintainer. Karma is another potential key to getting a response from maintainers.
Be careful suggesting that as a cornucopia of getting things done, because it doesn't always work. I've done that with two different modules with little or no success in getting anywhere. One maintainer gave me the attitude of 'we don't need your help here'. They have yet to fix the issues I submitted patches for. And, I wasn't looking for anything more than to help get the module compatible with Drupal 5.
On Wednesday 12 September 2007 12:37:54 Jim Smith wrote:
These are good tips! Thank you.
The one thing that these tips don't solve, though, is what to do when the maintainer doesn't respond quickly enough for my needs. Let's face it, some maintainers are more diligent than others for tackling bugs in the queue. I don't mean that as a slight in the least against the particular maintainer of the module I'm dealing with now. But generally speaking, I'd rather not be dependent on the maintainer if I'm in an urgent situation. And if I can find a solution, then I can contribute the patch, which is better still.
I understand your frustration (I've been there myself), but not everyone is using Drupal for the same reasons, and diligence isn't the only issue. Some of us use Drupal on a daily basis for their normal jobs, whether for a single site or as a consultant. Some of us only have one website we maintain, and may have created a module, theme, etc. for a particular need and then contributed it back to the community. Some of us have jobs in other industries and just like playing with Drupal and helping out when we have free time. There are both good and bad maintainers in all areas, both in what they have contributed and in the time they have for continuing the maintenance of something. Not everyone has the time or ability to respond as quick as you want them to, even those whose job it is to build Drupal websites all day long.
It has been proposed, in the not to distant past, that modules, themes, etc. should have seconds for maintainership. That is a great idea, and might help alleviate some problems, but it hasn't really happened and there are a lot of projects out there. It's hard enough, as you've found out, to get one person to maintain one module, much less find a second to help.
Another option is to go to IRC for help (http://drupal.org/support). It's not always any better than the issue queue, the forms or the e-mail list, but you can get help for urgent situations.
Quoting Jim Smith jsmith@wate.com:
I know I was being vague. I was trying to ask the question in general terms so that I would know how to handle all bugs, rather than the specific one I'm dealing with now. Though I'd love to have help on the specific bug I'm dealing with, I know that only a few people might have knowledge about the module that has the bug. However, many people deal with debugging scripts everyday, and that's why I was looking for some strategies to best track down and fix bugs.
Well, you were too vague for me to even conclude this. You stated that you were "not a coder" and coders are the ones that "track down and fix bugs".
But to be specific about the particular bug I'm dealing with, it's in Yahoo Terms module.
I posted a bug report on it at http://drupal.org/node/166932. As I first described the problem, Yahoo Terms were being applied to other content, like a forum post, though the Yahoo Terms module was not associated with that content. That was fixed with the patch supplied by douggreen at http://drupal.org/node/171620.
You used the patch; you should have provided feedback to 171620. Doug Green cannot do any more than he has done until feedback is given. If feedback had been given perhaps the patch could have moved forward and been applied.
Since then I have upgraded the site to Drupal 5.2 and all of the modules. Now I'm seeing the same error on all feed nodes. The error happens only when the terms are applied when the node is created. It does not happen if the terms are re-applied to an existing node.
What were you using before 5.2? I don't see a released module for yahoo_terms; there are only development snapshots. A development snapshot is updated with every CVS update which may or may not work as expected. Development snapshots are for coders to apply the test then recode cycle with.
It appears that an array is not presented where the function array_merge() expects to see one in the argument.
Maybe Doug Green will jump at the chance to refresh the patch, maybe not. Maybe someone else will. I'm not interested at the moment because it isn't something I'm using or plan to use.
Earnie -- http://for-my-kids.com/ -- http://give-me-an-offer.com/
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Earnie Boyd -
Greg Knaddison - GVS -
Jason Flatt -
Jim Smith