Reporting bugs and requesting features

Before reporting a bug or requesting a new feature, please consider these general points:

  • Check that someone hasn’t already filed the bug or feature request by searching in the ticket tracker.

  • Don’t use the ticket system to ask support questions. Use the django-oscar mailing list for that.

  • Don’t use the ticket tracker for lengthy discussions, because they’re likely to get lost. If a particular ticket is controversial, please move the discussion to django-oscar.

All bugs are reported on our GitHub issue tracker.

Reporting security issues

Security is paramount for e-commerce software like Oscar. Hence, we have adopted a policy which allows for responsible reporting and disclosure of security related issues.

If you believe you have found something in Oscar (or one of its extensions) which has security implications, please report is via email to oscar.security@tangentlabs.co.uk. Someone from the core team will acknowledge your report and take appropriate action.

Reporting bugs

Well-written bug reports are incredibly helpful. However, there’s a certain amount of overhead involved in working with any bug tracking system so your help in keeping our ticket tracker as useful as possible is appreciated. In particular:

  • Do ask on django-oscar first if you’re not sure if what you’re seeing is a bug.

  • Do write complete, reproducible, specific bug reports. You must include a clear, concise description of the problem, and a set of instructions for replicating it. Add as much debug information as you can: code snippets, test cases, exception stack traces, screenshots, etc. A nice small test case is the best way to report a bug, as it gives us an easy way to confirm the bug quickly.

Reporting user interface bugs and features

If your bug or feature request touches on anything visual in nature, there are a few additional guidelines to follow:

  • Include screenshots in your ticket which are the visual equivalent of a minimal test case. Show off the issue, not the crazy customisations you’ve made to your browser.

  • If you’re offering a pull request which changes the look or behaviour of Oscar’s UI, please attach before and after screenshots.

  • Screenshots don’t absolve you of other good reporting practices. Make sure to include URLs, code snippets, and step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce the behaviour visible in the screenshots.

Requesting features

We’re always trying to make Oscar better, and your feature requests are a key part of that. Here are some tips on how to make a request most effectively:

  • First request the feature on the django-oscar list, not in the ticket tracker. It’ll get read more closely if it’s on the mailing list. This is even more important for large-scale feature requests. We like to discuss any big changes to Oscar’s core on the mailing list before actually working on them.

  • Describe clearly and concisely what the missing feature is and how you’d like to see it implemented. Include example code (non-functional is OK) if possible.

  • Explain why you’d like the feature, because sometimes it isn’t obvious why the feature would be useful.

As with most open-source projects, code talks. If you are willing to write the code for the feature yourself or, even better, if you’ve already written it, it’s much more likely to be accepted. Just fork Oscar on GitHub, create a feature branch, and show us your work!