Introduction

The following document was written to create a central location for tips and tricks that MozQA uses quite often.  It is our belief that these will make your life easier when you are testing.

Table of Contents

1. Bugzilla

2. Crash Firefox On Demand

3. Forcing Extension Compatibility

4. Email SSL Certificates

5. Printing Images

6. Installing Older Versions of Flash

Bugzilla

Export to Excel

Add the following to the end of a query URL to generate a comma separated file. This file can be used to import the results in Excel.

&ctype=csv

Flags

Flags can be used in query strings to alter the results and how results are displayed. Flags are identified in query strings with these field/type/value tuples:

&field0-0-0=flagtypes.name&type0-0-0=equals&value0-0-0=blocking-aviary1.0.8%2B

You can order the search results with these values:

&order=Bug
&order=Number
&order=bugs.delta_ts (based on time stamp of last change)
&order=Bug+Number

Preset List of Bugs

Using the following query you can create a predetermined list of bugs. Simply indicate the bug numbers, separated by commas at the end of the query, and those bugs will appear in the list.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?bugidtype=include&order=bugs.bug_id&bug_id=143866,183729,271669

Other Ways of Searching Bugs

Specific Bug Search: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/query.cgi?format=specific

Advanced Search Form: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/query.cgi?format=advanced
Quicksearch Form: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=quicksearchhack.html

 

Crash Firefox on Demand

At times, it is actually useful to crash Firefox. For instance, when testing Session Store or testing the crash reporter. There is an extension which allows you to crash Firefox which can be downloaded from here. Simply download the file and drag it into Firefox. This will allow you install the crashme extension.

To cause a crash using this extension, simply select Crash Me Now from the Tools menu and select the type of crash you wish to trigger.

Forcing Extension Compatibility

** Warning: You should use this for testing purposes only. Using incompatible add-ons has the potential to create serious problems in Firefox **

You can also force compatibility of an add-on. Essentially this prevents Firefox from blocking installation of incompatible add-ons. Simply do the following:

1. Type about:config in the location bar and press enter.

2. You'll be warned about editing preferences but you can bypass this warning by selecting I'll be careful, I promise!

3. Right click anywhere in the list of preferences and create a new Boolean preference called extensions.checkCompatibility. Give this preference a value of false.

When you install an add-on after adding this preference, you will still be warned about installing incompatible add-ons but Firefox will still allow you to install the add-on.

Email SSL Certificates

You may find that you need to get a secure email SSL certificate. Should this need arise, you can get one by going to www.thawte.com and selecting Products > Free Personal Email Certificates.

Printing Images

Certain images will not print by default. For example, the image at the top of mozillazine.org does not normally print. To enable printing of these images, check Print Background Colors and Print Background Images under the Appearance section of the Print dialog.

Installing Older Versions of Flash

There may be times when you want to install an older version of Flash. Perhaps for testing or for personal use. You can find installers for older versions of flash here.