{"id":7218,"date":"2016-08-09T18:05:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T18:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/?p=7218"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T21:21:08","slug":"mantis-reopen-or-no-reopen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/testing-tools\/mantis-reopen-or-no-reopen\/","title":{"rendered":"To Reopen, or Not to Reopen, That is the Question"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Reopening a bug in Mantis Bug Tracker<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><!-- Go to www.addthis.com\/dashboard to customize your tools --><script src=\"\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-58d80a50fc4f926d\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Recently, we published a <a href=\"http:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/software-testing\/common-mistake-bug-life-cycle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blog post<\/a><\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">about a possible bug life cycle for which we received a lot of questions and comments that were very interesting to consider. Among the comments was this recurring question:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #333333;\">Why didn\u2019t you show a bug going into the \u201creopen\u201d status?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">So, we decided to write this post in response, to analyze the option of \u201creopening\u201d a bug especially when working with the tool, <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mantisbt.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mantis Bug Tracker<\/a><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Here is a diagram of the incident workflow used by Mantis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7318\" src=\"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Asset-1-min-146x300.png\" alt=\"mantis bug flow\" width=\"300\" height=\"615\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"In_Mantis_Reopen_is_Not_an_Incident_Status\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #00b674;\">In Mantis, Reopen is Not an Incident Status<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Notice that\u00a0Mantis&#8217; workflow does not include the option to mark a bug as \u201creopened\u201d like other bug management tools such as <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bugzilla.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bugzilla<\/a><\/span> or <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlassian.com\/software\/jira?_mid=bc0d28ceab85893d48f04d075bf72f53&amp;aceid=&amp;adposition=1t1&amp;adgroup=9124289302&amp;campaign=189412582&amp;creative=102960772102&amp;device=c&amp;keyword=jira&amp;matchtype=e&amp;network=g&amp;placement=&amp;gclid=CMrKjuL4tM4CFUdZhgod8H8Phw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">JIRA<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Thus, as testers, when we see that a bug hasn\u2019t been fixed, the next step would be to change the status to \u201cassigned\u201d (and add an additional note) so that the developer can revisit the bug.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_Happens_if_We_Utilize_the_%E2%80%9CReopen%E2%80%9D_Action\"><\/span><strong><span style=\"color: #00b674;\">What Happens if We Utilize the \u201cReopen\u201d Action?<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7316\" src=\"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/image-1-min.png\" alt=\"image (1)-min\" width=\"1069\" height=\"424\" \/><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">When installing Mantis, the default settings of the tool make it so that clicking \u201creopen\u201d puts a bug in \u201cfeedback\u201d status, which brings some inconveniences to users. If we use this option we can\u2019t easily distinguish the bugs that the developer is asking for more information about from those other bugs whose resolution is still pending. It can also generate communication problems within the team, complicating the project management as a whole since the Mantis reports and graphics would group the bugs in the \u201cfeedback\u201d status without discriminating which ones have been assigned. This transition, on default, could be customized for all projects or for an individual project by a user with an administrator role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7326\" src=\"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mantis-configurations.jpg\" alt=\"mantis configurations\" width=\"1176\" height=\"528\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">The administrator would have to go to Manage\u00a0-&gt; Manage\u00a0Configuration -&gt; Workflow\u00a0Transitions and then click\u00a0\u201creopen\u201d which would change the status of the reported bug to \u201cassigned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Even if the option is configurable, we recommend that you take precautions when making this change. Before customizing the option \u201creopen,\u201d it&#8217;s a good idea\u00a0to evaluate when you would use this option. Also by analyzing how a \u201creopen\u201d will affect a bug in the reports, the team can decide which bug lifecycle to use.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">It is important to take into account that Mantis will not recognize if we reopen bugs in the \u201cresolved\u201d status or if we are opening \u201cclosed\u201d bugs from some time ago, meaning, the tool will not know when the system version has changed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">We recommend accompanying the bugs with clear tags (or custom fields) that reflect the version of the system under test in order to not affect the management of the project.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Happy bug hunting!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Recommended_for_You\"><\/span><strong>Recommended for You<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/software-testing\/common-mistake-bug-life-cycle\/\">The Most Common Mistake in the Bug Life Cycle<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/test-automation\/optimize-test-coverage-long-term\/\">How to Optimize Test Coverage in the Long-Term<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reopening a bug in Mantis Bug Tracker Recently, we published a blog post about a possible bug life cycle for which we received a lot of questions and comments that were very interesting to consider. Among the comments was this recurring question: Why didn\u2019t you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v14.0.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>To Reopen, or Not to Reopen, That is the Question | Abstracta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the incident management tool, Mantis, reopen is not an incident status... but what if we want to be able to update an incident&#039;s status to reopen?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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