JavaFX JIRA issues moving to JBS

[Ryan Jaeb]

Do you guys have an estimate for the percentage of current JIRA
contributors that will no longer be able to participate, in a meaningful
way, in bug reporting due to this change?  I can't speak for anyone else,
but I can tell you what a switch to JBS means to me.

I consider myself an OpenJFX user, not an OpenJFX developer.  I contribute
bug reports, but not patches.  I haven't contributed a ton of bug reports
(22), but every time I run into a bug I take extra time to isolate the
issue, create a reproducible example, and file a bug.  I'm careful to be
polite, honest if I make any mistakes, and I make an effort to follow up
whenever there's activity on a bug I've reported.

The current bug tracker is a good value proposition for me.  My effort has
a direct impact on having bugs that I discover fixed, it's easy for me to
comment on bugs when I feel like I have useful input, I get to vote on all
the bugs that affect me, and, most importantly, the discussion on many bug
reports often leads to an acceptable workaround until the bug can be fixed.

Conversely, contributing via JBS is not a good value proposition for me.  I
won't have an author role, I won't get to comment on bugs, and I won't get
to vote on bugs.  The process for me to participate is more cumbersome and
bureaucratic and is going to be far less meaningful than the participation
that I've become accustomed to with the existing bug tracking system.

Why should I participate in a system where my contributions don't even
warrant a vote on existing bugs?  Once the switch to JBS happens I'll stop
reporting minor bugs.  The hassle of using JBS means I'm only going to make
an effort when I run into a major, showstopping bug.  I don't intend to
sound like I'm throwing a tantrum.  I'm simply being honest.

For a normal user like me, JBS doesn't make contributing easier, it makes
it harder.  It doesn't communicate appreciation to small contributors, it
alienates us.  It's not inviting to new contributors, it's intimidating.
These things may be ok for a large project like the OpenJDK and it may even
help stack the bug tracker with veteran developers.  However, I don't think
JavaFX is in a position to discourage anyone from participating.

Please reconsider the decision to merge with JBS as it's going to have a
significant, negative impact on normal users like me.

Ryan Jaeb


On Tue, Apr 14, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Kevin Rushforth <kevin.rushforth at oracle.com
> wrote:

> As most of you are aware, JavaFX uses its own JIRA bug tracker [1]. The
> JDK Bug System [2] (JBS) is the JIRA bug tracker used by the OpenJDK
> Community. With the OpenJFX Project being a part of this Community, it is
> time for us to move away from our separate bug tracker and make use of JBS.
> This will allow us to leverage the greater infrastructure investments being
> made and lessen the burden of having to maintain our own infrastructure,
> and consolidates all JDK bugs in one place. The target date for this
> transition is the second half of May.
>
> The issues currently in the RT project in JavaFX JIRA will be folded into
> the JDK project in JBS. Details will follow on the mapping, but here are
> the highlights:
>
> - A new "javafx" component will be created in the JDK project
> - Most existing JavaFX JIRA components will be sub-components of the
> "javafx" component
> - The mapping from existing "RT-nnnnn" bug ID to new "JDK-mmmmmmm" bug ID
> will be maintained by JBS such that searching for RT-nnnnn will take you to
> the right JDK-mmmmmmm bug.
>
> A JBS account will be needed to directly report new bugs or comment on
> existing bugs. Most application developers will file new JavaFX bugs at
> bugs.java.com [3] just like other JDK bugs. The requirement to get a JBS
> account [4] is to have a role of Author or higher in an OpenJDK Project
> (e.g., jdk9 or openjfx).
>
> Our advice to those of you actively involved and participating in the
> OpenJFX Project is to consider joining the OpenJDK as a Contributor [5] by
> signing the Oracle Contributor Agreement (OCA) [6]. This is a necessary
> first step in contributing to any OpenJDK Project, including OpenJFX. It
> allows you to provide patches that we might accept for OpenJFX, and is also
> a step along the path to becoming an Author. The general guideline [7] is
> that the Author role may be requested by a Project Contributor who has
> contributed two non-trivial patches that have been accepted and pushed.
>
> As part of this transition, we will enable anonymous viewing of bugs (no
> need to login just to look at a bug) and they will be easily searchable
> online.
>
> We apologize for the inconvenience caused to OpenJFX Participants by this
> upcoming change to the bug database write access policy. We really
> appreciate your commitment to improving and growing the JavaFX technology.
>
> -- Kevin
>
>
> [1] https://javafx-jira.kenai.com/
> [2] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/
> [4] https://wiki.openjdk.java.net/display/general/JBS+Overview
> [3] http://bugs.java.com/
> [5] http://openjdk.java.net/contribute/
> [6] http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oca-405177.pdf
> [7] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/#project-author
>
>