Issues -whether they’re actual bug reports or feature requests- are the basics of any software improvement. Developers must be able to clearly identify the problems that are brought to them before they can attempt to improve things.
Why report an issue?
Well, it looks like something is not working properly on your app. You can try and fix it by yourself, turning the app on and off again (or uninstalling and re-installing) is a first step that has worked countless times. Writing an email to the team will not help if the only info you share is “this don’t work”.
Since you are best positioned to describe what went wrong, let’s do the right thing, and let’s do it in one shot.
How does one report an issue?
The issue you are going to write will be handled by an IT expert who might not know much about your personal context. For this reason, it is really important to be accurate in the way you describe your problem. The more information you can provide, the better. To be understandable by every one in the coding community, issues must be written in English. And since Kiwix’s code is hosted on github, you will also need to create a github account (a one-step thing).
Different coders work on different parts of the Kiwix project. If you ask the wrong person, it is unlikely they will be able to help. Each platform has its own ticket list:
Before reporting an issue: a few checks
- How many different problems do you concretely face? You should open only one issue per problem. If you have N different problems, then open N different tickets;
- Has this problem already been reported? Use Github’s search bar to find out;
- Did you test your problem against the latest version of the software? If not, and if possible, run your test again with the most recent version available. Maybe your problem has already been fixed and is awaiting a public release.
Once you are ready to proceed, click on the big green “New issue” button near the top right of the page.
What to say:
Your report must answer the following questions:
- What is your browser, version of the software you use, which product, etc.? Unless we are sitting next to you we will never know whether you were checking Wikipedia in Russian or watching videos;
- What is the detailed step-by-step procedure to reproduce the problem? Literally “I downloaded this file; opened the app (version x.yz); started typing 666 and then my phone caught fire!“
- What do you see? A copy of the error message or a screenshot is always useful.
- What should be the behaviour from your point of view? How do you expect the service to work?
Your job here is to simply report what you experienced and how someone could see the same thing with their own eyes.
Optional
To make your ticket more thorough, check if you can deliver more information:
- What is the context of this ticket? If not obvious, explain why you need to do this.
- If you have an idea about the technical background of the ticket, please share it also at the end.
Example
I am using a Samsung S9 (with Android 10 on it) and I have a problem with Kiwix android version 3.3.4 (build 123141, as indicated on the settings page)
I downloaded the German Wikipedia (September update, the one without images, ie wikipedia_de_all_nopic_2023-09.zim), opened it and started typing “dog” in the search bar. And then the app closed automatically. Only when I type “cat” (or any other feline word) does it work fine.
I would expect the app to be work no matter what I am searching for.
What happens next?
A developer will handle your ticket and might have additional questions or feedback to share with you. You will also probably be interested to know when the ticket is fixed. You can configure email notifications for your github account so as to be informed when something new happens.
