4.5. Flags

If you have the editcomponents permission, you can edit Flag Types from the main administration page. Clicking the Flags link will bring you to the Administer Flag Types page. Here, you can select whether you want to create (or edit) a Bug flag or an Attachment flag.

The two flag types have the same administration interface, and the interface for creating a flag and editing a flag have the same set of fields.

4.5.1. Flag Properties

Name

This is the name of the flag. This will be displayed to Bugzilla users who are looking at or setting the flag. The name may contain any valid Unicode characters except commas and spaces.

Description

The description describes the flag in more detail. It is visible in a tooltip when hovering over a flag either in the Show Bug or Edit Attachment pages. This field can be as long as you like and can contain any character you want.

Category

You can set a flag to be visible or not visible on any combination of products and components.

Default behaviour for a newly created flag is to appear on all products and all components, which is why __Any__:__Any__ is already entered in the Inclusions box. If this is not your desired behaviour, you must either set some exclusions (for products on which you don’t want the flag to appear), or you must remove __Any__:__Any__ from the Inclusions box and define products/components specifically for this flag.

To create an Inclusion, select a Product from the top drop-down box. You may also select a specific component from the bottom drop-down box. (Setting __Any__ for Product translates to “all the products in this Bugzilla”. Selecting __Any__ in the Component field means “all components in the selected product.”) Selections made, press Include, and your Product/Component pairing will show up in the Inclusions box on the right.

To create an Exclusion, the process is the same: select a Product from the top drop-down box, select a specific component if you want one, and press Exclude. The Product/Component pairing will show up in the Exclusions box on the right.

This flag will appear and can be set for any products/components appearing in the Inclusions box (or which fall under the appropriate __Any__). This flag will not appear (and therefore cannot be set) on any products appearing in the Exclusions box. IMPORTANT: Exclusions override inclusions.

You may select a Product without selecting a specific Component, but you cannot select a Component without a Product. If you do so, Bugzilla will display an error message, even if all your products have a component by that name. You will also see an error if you select a Component that does not belong to the selected Product.

Example: Let’s say you have a product called Jet Plane that has thousands of components. You want to be able to ask if a problem should be fixed in the next model of plane you release. We’ll call the flag fixInNext. However, one component in Jet Plane is called Pilot, and it doesn’t make sense to release a new pilot, so you don’t want to have the flag show up in that component. So, you include Jet Plane:__Any__ and you exclude Jet Plane:Pilot.

Sort Key

Flags normally show up in alphabetical order. If you want them to show up in a different order, you can use this key set the order on each flag. Flags with a lower sort key will appear before flags with a higher sort key. Flags that have the same sort key will be sorted alphabetically.

Active

Sometimes you might want to keep old flag information in the Bugzilla database but stop users from setting any new flags of this type. To do this, uncheck active. Deactivated flags will still show up in the UI if they are ?, +, or -, but they may only be cleared (unset) and cannot be changed to a new value. Once a deactivated flag is cleared, it will completely disappear from a bug/attachment and cannot be set again.

Requestable

New flags are, by default, “requestable”, meaning that they offer users the ? option, as well as + and -. To remove the ? option, uncheck “requestable”.

Specifically Requestable

By default this box is checked for new flags, meaning that users may make flag requests of specific individuals. Unchecking this box will remove the text box next to a flag; if it is still requestable, then requests cannot target specific users and are open to anyone (called a request “to the wind” in Bugzilla). Removing this after specific requests have been made will not remove those requests; that data will stay in the database (though it will no longer appear to the user).

Multiplicable

Any flag with Multiplicable:guilabel: set (default for new flags is ‘on’) may be set more than once. After being set once, an unset flag of the same type will appear below it with “addl.” (short for “additional”) before the name. There is no limit to the number of times a Multiplicable flags may be set on the same bug/attachment.

CC List

If you want certain users to be notified every time this flag is set to ?, -, or +, or is unset, add them here. This is a comma-separated list of email addresses that need not be restricted to Bugzilla usernames.

Grant Group

When this field is set to some given group, only users in the group can set the flag to + and -. This field does not affect who can request or cancel the flag. For that, see the Request Group field below. If this field is left blank, all users can set or delete this flag. This field is useful for restricting which users can approve or reject requests.

Request Group

When this field is set to some given group, only users in the group can request or cancel this flag. Note that this field has no effect if the Grant Group field is empty. You can set the value of this field to a different group, but both fields have to be set to a group for this field to have an effect.

4.5.2. Deleting a Flag

When you are at the Administer Flag Types screen, you will be presented with a list of Bug flags and a list of Attachment Flags.

To delete a flag, click on the Delete link next to the flag description.

Warning

Once you delete a flag, it is gone from your Bugzilla. All the data for that flag will be deleted. Everywhere that flag was set, it will disappear, and you cannot get that data back. If you want to keep flag data, but don’t want anybody to set any new flags or change current flags, unset active in the flag Edit form.

This documentation undoubtedly has bugs; if you find some, please file them here.