Software update: Bugzilla 2.23.2

The Mozilla Organization has released a new version of Bugzilla with 2.23.2 as the version number. Bugzilla is a well-known bug tracking program in a Perl and MySQL environment. This allows developers to clearly prioritize reported bug reports and feature requests from users and then deal with them. The users can view the progress and add new information. The announcement of this new version looks like this:

Today we released a development snapshot only. We’ve done a lot of coding on the trunk, and we wanted to get out a new version to be tested. Most of the branches (2.18, 2.20, and 2.22) are pretty stable, so they don’t urgently need a release at this time. We may be coming out with some bug fix releases for those in the coming months, though.

Version 2.23.2:

In my totally biased opinion, this is a really exciting release. We’ve made some major changes to certain parts of the Bugzilla code, and we’re getting close to some major overall improvements.

However, it is totally untested, so use it at your own risk! We don’t recommend using it in a production environment.

Here’s a listing of some of the major improvements and changes since 2.23.1:

• A new user preference to automatically put you on the CC list of any bug that you change.
• The Summary field is now limited to 255 characters. Summaries longer than that will be truncated, with the original preserved in a comment, when you upgrade.
• The “whinemail” parameter is now instead contained in a template.
• Automatic Update Notification: Bugzilla can notify you (the administrator) automatically, on the front page, when there is a new release of Bugzilla. See the upgrade_notification parameter.
• There is now navigation at the top of each page in addition to the bottom.
• The UI at the top of each page has been generally improved.
• You can now add an attachment to a bug when you are filing it!
• checksetup.pl now displays the version of Bugzilla and the version of perl you are using.

In addition, there are a lot of changes that developers, customizers, or packagers of Bugzilla would be interested in:

• The data formerly stored as the :locations section of Bugzilla::Config is now inside of Bugzilla::Constants. This is particularly important for packagers of Bugzilla.
• CheckCanChangeField() has been moved from process_bug.cgi into Bugzilla/Bug.pm, and is now called check_can_change_field.
• The entire Bugzilla::Auth structure has been entirely re-written. It should be easier to write authentication plugins for Bugzilla now. If you’re interested in writing one, just read the documentation on it by typing perldoc Bugzilla::Auth from inside your Bugzilla directory.
• SendSQL() and all of its companion functions (including SqlQuote()) have been entirely eliminated from Bugzilla. The correct way to access the database now is to use DBI.
• globals.pl is gone. All functions have been moved into modules in the Bugzilla/ directory.
• Bugzilla no longer uses the data/version cache file. If you notice any performance problems because of this, please let us know.
• The Param() function now only exists in templates. Normal CGIs and scripts now use Bugzilla->params to access Bugzilla’s parameters. This also means most scripts don’t need to use Bugzilla::Config anymore.
• There is a new Bugzilla::Object class that makes writing new objects even easier. See Bugzilla/Keyword.pm for an example.
• The code for actually sending an email (MessageToMTA()) has moved into Bugzilla::Mailer.
• There is now a Bugzilla->request_cache for storing variables that should live throughout an entire request. (For example, what used to be $Bugzilla::_cgi is now Bugzilla->request_cache->{cgi}.)