Welcome to the Bug Squad

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This article is for new Joomla Bug Squad (JBS) members and also for people just thinking about joining JBS.

JBS In a Nutshell[edit]

Who is in JBS?
The JBS is a team of incredibly capable and friendly volunteers. JBS members have varying amounts of experience with Joomla and with programming. You don't have to be a Joomla or PHP expert to contribute to the JBS.
What do we do?
We fix bugs in the current Joomla release. A detailed description is available in the Bug Squad article.
Where do we hang out?
JBS members meet for informal communications in the Joomla! Bug Squad Skype chat. When you become a JBS member, you will be admitted to this chat session. This is a place where you can "check in", see what is going on, ask and answer questions, and get to know your fellow JBS members. We also have a Google group for more formal questions and discussions. JBS members also monitor the
When do we fix bugs?
Any time is a great time to fix a bug! Reporting and fixing bugs is a continuous, on-going process.
How do we do it?
The central focus of our work is the Joomla Tracker. This is the tool that lists all reported bugs and tracks their progress from the initial report to final resolution. For more information about how the Tracker works, see the Tracker article. Many of us who do programming use Eclipse, which is a free IDE (integrated development environment) for working with PHP programs like Joomla. Detailed instructions for setting up your workstation for Joomla programming with Eclipse are available here.
Why JBS?
Because we want Joomla to be as high quality and bug-free as is humanly possible.

Overview of JBS Process[edit]

Most of the JBS work is fixing bugs in the current production release. These fixes are made available in the next minor release. For example, a bug might be reported in version 1.5.2 and get fixed in version 1.5.3 or 1.5.4.

Bugs normally are first reported either in a Joomla forum (for example, the Joomla! 1.5.x_Q&T forum) or directly in the tracker. From there the overall steps are as follows:

  • Confirm that it is a bug.
  • Program a fix.
  • Test the fix.

Once these steps are done, one of the JBS Maintainers commits the code changes, which puts the fix in the next Joomla maintenance release. A more detailed description of the JBS process is available the Joomla! Maintenance Procedures article.

More Information[edit]

There is a lot of great information for JBS members on the Joomla wiki site under the heading Category:Bug Squad. Also, and very importantly, we we treat everyone with respect and consideration and take the Joomla code of conduct very seriously.