components/omnibox/bug-triage.md

# Omnibox Bug Triage Process

*last update: 2017/06/05*

*The current triage process owner is `mpearson@`.*

Instructions for Chrome omnibox engineers serving an assigned bug triage
rotation.

[TOC]

## Goal of the process

Every omnibox bug is triaged, preferably within a week of being filed.  This
means making the issue clear, marking it as a dup if necessary, revising the
status, setting a priority, labeling/categorizing as appropriate (or handing off
to another component), and (possibly) assigning an owner.  The only reason bugs
should remain untriaged (i.e., *status=Unconfirmed* or *status=Untriaged*) is
because of they need additional information from someone.  These bugs should be
labeled as such (*Needs=Feedback* or *Needs=TestConfirmation*).

### Non-goals

* Ensure high priority bugs or regressions are making progress / ping bug owners
  for progress updates on other important bugs.  (Trust your teammates to work
  on assigned bugs.)
* Monitor for changes outside of the bugs database (e.g., UMA regressions, crash
  database).  (The Speed team monitors UMA for performance regressions and the
  Stability team monitors the crash database.  Both file bugs as appropriate.)

## Process

* Every other day (weekend excluded), the triage engineer looks over [all
  *Unconfirmed* and *Untriaged* omnibox bugs](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=2&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)
  and triages them.
* Every week on Tuesday, the triage engineer looks over [all *Unconfirmed* and
  *Untriaged* bugs filed that aren’t categorized as omnibox yet have relevant
  terms](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=2&q=omnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+%E2%80%9Comni+box%E2%80%9D+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+omnibar+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+%E2%80%9Comni+bar%E2%80%9D+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+locationbar+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+%E2%80%9Clocation+bar%E2%80%9D+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+addressbar+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner+OR+%E2%80%9Caddress+bar%E2%80%9D+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+status%3AUnconfirmed%2CUntriaged+-has%3Aowner&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)
  to see if any should be moved to the omnibox component and triaged.  (This
  scan can be limited to those filed in the last week, i.e., since the last
  check.)
* Every month (the first Thursday of the month), the triage engineer should
  look over [all bugs with *Needs=Feedback*](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=2&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+Needs%3DFeedback+&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)
  and should take action on those that have been sitting for too long (ping the
  reporter, close if unactionable, etc.).

Other team members are welcome to triage a bug if they see it before the the
triage engineer.  The triager owner will cycle among team members by
arrangement.

## How to triage

### Purpose

The purpose of labels, components, and priority are to make it easy for omnibox
team members to identify bugs at a glance that affect a particular area.  In
other words, this bug management process is intended to make the team more
efficient and provide better visibility for team members to identify what’s
important to work on in particular areas.

### Identifying the issue

If the bug isn’t clear, or the desired outcome is unclear, please apply the
label *Needs-Feedback* and courteously ask for clarification.  This is
appropriate both for external bug filers, Chromium developers on other teams,
or Googlers.  The label is merely an indication that this bug needs information
from someone outside the team in order to make progress.  It’s also an
indication that someone on the team needs to follow-up if feedback is not
forthcoming.

Often the appropriate request includes a request for chrome://omnibox data;
[an example such request](#Example-request-for-chrome_omnibox-data) is below.

Also, if the bug is clear, try to reproduce.  If it cannot be reproduced or you
lack the necessary setup, either ask the reporter for clarification or add the
label *Needs-TestConfirmation* as appropriate.

Some bugs are feature requests.  Marks these as Feature, not Bug.  It’s likely a
feature may have been requested before.  Search the bugs database and dup
appropriately.

Some [commonly requested features and
commonly reported bugs](#Commonly-referenced-bugs) are listed below.

### Status

Set the Status field to the following value depending on the triage action
taken:

* *Available*: The typical state for bugs exiting the triage process, assuming
  none of the other states below apply.
* *Assigned*: *Available* bugs with Owners; see
  [section on assigning owners](#Owners).
* *ExternalDependency*: Bugs that turn out to be in another project's code and
  you've contacted that other project.  Typically this is problems with
  Google-sourced suggestions, an IME, or a Chrome extension.  In all cases,
  file a bug or contact the appropriate team and post information about this
  outreach (e.g., a bug number) in a comment on the Chromium bug.
* *Duplicate*: This issue has been reported in another bug or shares the same
  root cause as another bug and will certainly be fixed simultaneously.
* *WontFix*: Anything working by design.  Also applies to old non-reproducible
  bugs or bugs lacking feedback per
  [standard Chromium policies](http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/bug-triage#TOC-Cleaning-up-old-bugs).
* *Unconfirmed* or *Untriaged*:  These labels are generally only appropriate
  if you labeled the bug with *Needs-Feedback* or *Needs-TestConfirmation*,
  otherwise in effect you're kicking the can down the road to the next triage
  engineer.

### Priority

Follow [standard Chromium 
policies](https://www.chromium.org/for-testers/bug-reporting-guidelines/triage-best-practices).
*Priority-2* represents wanted for this release but can be punted for a release.
*Priority-3* are bugs not time sensitive.  There is an even-lower-priority
state; see the *NextAction=01/09/2018* below.

### Owners

Generally only assign someone else to own a bug if the bug is *Priority-2* or
better.  *Priority-3* bugs are not likely to be completed soon; for these bugs,
don’t assign an owner to merely sit on the bug.  To draw someone’s attention to
a bug, explicitly CC them.

### Categorization

Omnibox bugs use a combination of labels (including hotlists) and subcomponents
to indicate their topic.

Most omnibox bugs should be in the main omnibox component.  A few will fall
directly into a subcomponent instead; the available subcomponents are listed
below.

Add all the labels, components, and next actions dates that seem appropriate to
the issue.  The main ones encountered by omnibox issues are listed below; feel
free to use additional suitable ones as well.

The main labels that apply to bugs include:

| Label | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Performance-Browser | Bugs that affect performance. |
| Hotlist-CodeHealth | Bugs about the making the code base easy to work with such as quality of comments.  Refactoring efforts can also be included when for that purpose. |
| Hotlist-Polish | Bugs about how a feature looks and feels: not whether the feature works or not; instead, more of whether it appears the feature was created with attention to detail.  Often user-visible edge cases fit in this category. |
| Hotlist-Refactoring | Bugs related to restructuring existing code without changing its behavior. |

The components that additionally apply to bugs include:

| Component | Description |
| --- | --- |
| Enterprise | Bugs that mainly affect enterprise environments: enterprise policies, intranet handling, etc. |
| Tests>{Disabled,Failed,Missing,Flaky} | Bugs related to failing tests or lack of test coverage. |
| UI>Browser>Search | Bugs related to web search in general whose effects aren’t limited to the omnibox. |

The subcomponents of omnibox bugs include:

| Subcomponent | Description |
| --- | --- |
| UI>Browser>Omnibox>AiS | Answers in Suggest. |
| UI>Browser>Omnibox>SecurityIndicators | Secure/insecure icons; triaged by another team. |
| UI>Browser>Omnibox>TabToSearch | Custom search engines, omnibox extensions, etc. (including adding, triggering, ranking, etc. for them). |
| UI>Browser>Omnibox>ZeroSuggest | Suggestions displayed on omnibox focus (both contextual and non-contextual). |

If the bug is extremely low priority, set the **NextAction field** to
**01/09/2018** and mention that we will "reassess" the bug next year.  This
NextAction field is for Priority-3 bugs that are somehow less important than
other *priority-3* bugs.  These are bugs we’re sure no one on the team intends
to fix this year (e.g., really unimportant, or mostly unimportant and hard to
fix).  This label should be applied only when confident the whole team will
agree with you.  When searching the bugs database for things to do, I suggest
excluding bugs on this hotlist.)

# Appendix

## Example request for chrome://omnibox data

> Please submit chrome://omnibox output for “\_\_\_”.  Check both the "show
> all details" and "show results per provider" boxes.  This will help us
> figure out what's going on.
>
> Feel free to paste the results in here unformatted; we’ll be able to
> decipher them.

## Commonly referenced bugs

* “I want the option to turn off inline autocomplete.” Dup against
  [crbug/91378](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=91378).

  * Try to understand the motivation of the user making the request.  Please
  ask the user for examples, with chrome://omnibox detail, of times where the
  omnibox doesn’t do what they want.  Ideally we should be able make to make the
  omnibox smart enough that such a feature isn’t necessary.

* “I typed in something like go/foo and got redirected to a search results page
  instead.” See
  [this internal page](https://docs.google.com/document/d/140jmrHfC9BiNUbHEmUF4ajJ8Zpbc7qd5fjTBulH3I5g/edit#).
  Follow the guidelines there; generally ask about a message about profile
  corruption.  If so, the bug can be dupped against
  [crbug/665253](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=665253)

  * … and no “Did you mean?” infobar appears.  This is likely prerendering; see
  [crbug/247848](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=247848)

* “I want to disable suggestions from appearing entirely”.  Try to find out
  why.  Quote freely from
  [pkasting’s comment on this bug](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=702850#c16).

# References

[General Chromium bug triage guidelines](http://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/bug-triage)

[Omnibox bugs that we intend/hope to tackle this year](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=1&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+NextAction%3C2018%2F1%2F1+OR+component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+-has%3ANextAction+&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids),
broken down:

* [User-facing](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=1&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+-Hotlist%3DCodeHealth+-Hotlist%3DRefactoring+-component%3ATest+NextAction%3C2018%2F1%2F1+OR+component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+-Hotlist%3DCodeHealth+-Hotlist%3DRefactoring+-component%3ATest+-has%3ANextAction&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)
  (everything not tagged as one of the non-user-facing categories below).  Some
  of these can be further categorized: Performance, Polish, Enterprise, Answers
  in Suggest, Tab To Search, Zero Suggest.

* Non user-facing, divided into these categories:

  * [Code health](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=1&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+NextAction%3C2018%2F1%2F1+OR+component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+-has%3ANextAction+&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)

  * [Refactoring](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=1&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+Hotlist%3DRefactoring+NextAction%3C2018%2F1%2F1+OR+component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+Hotlist%3DRefactoring+-has%3ANextAction&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)

  * [Testing](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?can=1&q=component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+component%3ATests+NextAction%3C2018%2F1%2F1+OR+component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox+-component%3AUI%3EBrowser%3EOmnibox%3ESecurityIndicators+status%3AAvailable%2CAssigned%2CStarted+component%3ATests+-has%3ANextAction&colspec=ID+Pri+M+Stars+ReleaseBlock+Component+Status+Owner+Summary+OS+Modified&x=m&y=releaseblock&cells=ids)