Testing Checklists

This article is designed to help Joomla! Bug Squad members as they test New issues and Pending issues.

Testing New Issues

The New status indicates that no member of the Joomla! Bug Squad has evaluated this issue. The goal is to learn enough about the issue to be able to change the status to one of the following: Unconfirmed Report, Known Issue, Duplicate Report, Confirmed or Information Required. See Bug Tracking Process for details about these status codes.

Here is a checklist for testing New issues:

• Did you carefully read the entire description and any other comments?
• Is there enough information provided? If not, add a comment and change to Information Required.
• Did you search the tracker to see if this issue has already been reported? If so, add a comment and change to Duplicate Report.
• Is the issue a known issue or limitation? If so, add a comment and change to Known Issue.
• Is the issue an enhancement request? If so, change status to Discussion.
• Before testing, did you update your local GIT repository to get the latest GIT Joomla! version? (See Git for Testers and Trackers)
• If you couldn't duplicate the problem with the latest GIT version, did you test using the latest production version?
• If the issue is still unconfirmed, try to to reproduce the issue with different cache settings.
• Try to localize the problem by changing your cache settings.
• If you changed the issue to Confirmed, did you make sure there is a detailed test plan in the comments to allow someone who is not familiar with the issue to understand and test the issue?

Testing Pending Issues

A Pending issue is one that (a) has been confirmed, (b) has a detailed test plan, and (c) has a proposed patch to be tested. (Learn more about creating your first pull request). Here is a checklist for testing Pending issues:

• Is there a test plan for the issue shown in the Test Instructions field? If not, post a comment and change status to Information Required.
• Before testing, did you update your local GIT repository to get the latest GIT Joomla! version?
• Did you test the issue before applying the patch to make sure you can confirm the problem?
• Did you test the issue after applying the patch to make sure the problem is fixed?
• Are there any other test cases that should be considered? Examples might include:
  • template override files (especially Beez template)
  • testing with SEF or mod_rewrite enabled and disabled
  • language file issues (Test with Debug Language set to Yes.)
  • PHP warnings (Test with Error Reporting set to Maximum).
• If your test is successful and you are the first tester, indicate in your comment that a second test is needed. If you are the second tester, change the status to Ready to Commit.
• Remember to revert the changes made by the patch after you are done testing.

Testing Code Snippets

Sometimes to test a patch you will need to test PHP code snippets. One simple way to do this is:

1. Create a new folder called com_test under the components folder.
2. Create a new file called test.php under this folder.
3. Put your PHP code snippet in this file.
4. To run the file, just enter the URL <your domain>/index.php?option=com_test. For example, http://localhost/joomla_development/index.php?option=com_test.

This will run the code snippet inside the Joomla! framework. This way, when you are done, you can just remove the com_test folder and no other files have been changed. (Sam, thanks for this tip!)

General Tips & Tricks

• If you have the cache enabled (Global Configuration → System → Cache Settings), you will need to clean the cache each time you make a change to the code or parameters. Otherwise, you might be seeing the older cached version of the page. Unless you are specifically testing the cache feature, test with the Cache set to No.

• Set Error Reporting to Maximum and enable all debugging options in Global Configuration.