Issues are tasks and activities associated with development projects. These are tracked with IssueZilla, a variant of the BugZilla bug tracking system with several important differences. The most important distinction is that IssueZilla is more generalized to handle all kinds of issues -- not just code-based bugs -- in collaborative development projects. Issues are classified into several types:

• defects (a.k.a. "bugs")
• enhancements
• features
• tasks
• patches

(See issue definitions for more information.)

Another important difference is that you do not have to log in separately to IssueZilla. Each hosted project has its own unique issue database that project members have access to.

IssueZilla enables any project member to query, create, assign, and modify issues for specific project components. As a project member, you are also notified automatically by email whenever issues are assigned to you and whenever there is activity on issues affecting your work. Entering the tasks you're planning to work on as issues helps you track your work plan. Because everyone is clued in to each project member's area of work, you can avoid duplicating efforts and even help out or offer feedback to each other.

Using issue tracking effectively requires an understanding of the IssueZilla tool and a working knowledge of what constitutes a well-written issue report.

Getting started with IssueZilla

Entering and modifying issues

Querying and tracking issues

Issue metrics and reports

Additional links for information about writing useful issue reports:

• The issue life cycle
• Issue writing guidelines
• IssueZilla tips and tricks
• Contributing patches
• BugZilla FAQ**
• Step-by-step help for bug entry**
• BugZilla guide to writing good bug reports**

** The BugZilla help documentation listed above offers useful bug-writing guidelines that are applicable to IssueZilla, however be aware that there are differences between the two tools. Parts of BugZilla documentation may not apply or may not address certain features in IssueZilla, and vice versa. Because IssueZilla is an open source derivative of BugZilla (version 2.11), it is still a work in progress. For those who are interested in more information about this, visit Mozilla.org.

A note about cookies: Cookies are a prerequisite for creating an account and logging in to IssueZilla. If cookies are disabled on your system, you will at least need to enable the following cookies: "Issuezilla_login" or "Issuezilla_logincookie." Other than logging in, IssueZilla uses cookies to cache an issue's current version and for ordering the most recent query.cgi search during a session.