Crash Report Improvement?

[Lodici]

When an exception occurs Magarena generates a very useful crash report. But from a user's point of view it just bombs out with no warning. I would like to suggest that a slightly more helpful message is shown when this happens -

In the example screenshot above, the prompt contains the necessary information to guide the user to submitting a crash report. In this case the mechanism I have used is to create a HELP.txt file in the game directory which can contain comprehensive step by step instructions. To make things as convenient as possible to the user Magarena will attempt to automatically open the directory containing HELP.txt and the useful log files before exiting.

Alternatively it could open an URL to, say, a forum/wiki article explaining the procedure.

This is a very simple update so if you think this is a good idea please can you suggest the content for the HELP.txt file or a link to online instructions for submitting a crash report.

- Lodici

[ember hauler]

This is a good idea.
However, I suggest to avoid opening any new windows or applications on every crash. It is user who should decide whether he/she needs another File Manager window or web page.

So I think it's better to add three buttons to this window:
-OK, close
-Open Magarena web issue tracker
-Open logs folder

[Lodici]

So I think it's better to add three buttons to this window:
-OK, close
-Open Magarena web issue tracker
-Open logs folder

Thanks for the feedback. I have pushed the update to https://bitbucket.org/lodici/magarena. The dialog now looks like -

If you select the "Open logs folder" or "Issue Tracker" the dialog will remain open since you might want to use both options (eg. post crash.log to Issue Tracker). Close, ESC key or clicking the X will close dialog. Close is selected by default.

- Lodici

[melvin]

@Lodici: Thanks for this improvement. Hopefully it will encourage more users to post crash reports.

Ideally I hope users will copy and paste the crash.log into the issue tracker.

One suggestion to encourage this is to replace the open logs folder button with the actual crash log in the dialog (say in a read only text box) and have the "issue tracker" button also perform the copy for the user. Perhaps we can rename the "issue tracker" button to something along the lines of "Copy report to clipboard and open issue tracker"?

[Lodici]

Pushed to https://bitbucket.org/lodici/magarena.

Crash report now automatically generates a screen shot of Magarena at the time the error occurred and saves it to "crash.png" in the same folder as "crash.log".

- Lodici

[Huggybaby]

Sweet. BTW, this crash log thingie is directly responsible for my posting a crash log elsewhere, and the bug has been found and fixed already, so thank you.

However, posting the crash log as an attachment here on this forum is probably the best I will ever do, I don't think I'll ever make it to the issue tracker, unless it's made automatic.

Does the issue tracker require an account? If so, that's an insurmountable impediment for some. Pls support anonymous reports somehow, and make it as easy as possible if you want to gather information, which you obviously do.

[melvin]

Does the issue tracker require an account? If so, that's an insurmountable impediment for some. Pls support anonymous reports somehow, and make it as easy as possible if you want to gather information, which you obviously do.

Yes, it does require an account to submit issues. I'll take note of this when we re-evaluate our project hosting options.

[Lodici]

In a perfect world...

As a developer I prefer an issue tracker. It is a To-Do list. A measure of progress. A way to categorize, prioritize and assign issues. A place to discuss each issue separate from another.

As a Magarena player the most I would probably be prepared to do would be to explain what I was doing prior to the error before hitting the send crash report button. If I am really interested I might be prepared to provide an email address so that I can receive a link to the issue's URL so that I can keep track of progress.

I think an issue tracker with an API that would let Magarena send details directly would be the way to go since it would bypass the need for anonymous postings and would keep the casual player away from what are usually far too complex and technically orientated interfaces anyway. For a list of trackers with APIs check out http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Mylyn/Extensions. I currently use a local Redmine (http://www.turnkeylinux.org/redmine) which has an API and a relatively simple clean UI.

A kind of compromise to lumping everything into a single "Bug Reports" topic would be to create a separate sub-forum with a separate topic per issue. The ManaLink project uses this approach (viewforum.php?f=86). This lets you keep discussions on particular issues separate and the nature of the forum means that common issues will keep getting bounced to the top.

- Lodici

[Huggybaby]

Good thoughts indeed.

Well, if Melvin decides to go the subforum route just let me know.

[melvin]

Wouldn't the poster need to register on the forum to post? Another option is to use a online survey service, most of these allow anonymous submissions. I agree with Lodici that have the app post the error report automatically via an API would be the best solution.

[Huggybaby]

Yes, they'd have to be registered here. But I thought everyone already was.
I don't know how many users and testers you have that aren't here though.

[Lodici]

Finally bit the bullet and sold my soul to the devil and created a Google account so I could use the issue tracker.

Pros

• It is easy to add a new issue and it does not swamp you with a multitude of fields to fill in. It really is the absolute bare minimum feature set.
• The new issue template is a useful guide.

Cons

• Captcha. Why? I have already logged in!
• Unable to upload crash log.
• WikiSyntax does not seem to be fully covered. Links Ok. Code delimiter - {{{ - does not work.

[melvin]

I've added your google account as committer to the project. Thanks for reviewing the outstanding issues, you can directly update the status from the project page now.

[melvin]

[*] Unable to upload crash log.

The project has hit an quota limit on issue attachments. We can just inline the log in the text of the issue.