MuDoc UAT

Greetings to MuDoc UAT (User Acceptance Testing) participants!

Many thanks for your participation in the MuDoc UAT process.

Anyone can create a MuDoc account, log in, and test its features. However you cannot report bugs to developers without a Bugzilla account. If you have already written me to become a tester, you should have received Bugzilla account information by email. If not please send me an email, and I'll have an account created for you. Some people have used a link on the Bugzilla site to create their own Bugzilla accounts, but this won't work: Please note that you can't create your own Bugzilla account and use it to report MuDoc bugs. The sysadmin needs to create the account for you, or you won't be able to submit bugs for this project.

In short, you can begin playing with MuDoc immediately, but please write down information regarding bugs for submission once your Bugzilla account has been created.

Time is, as usual, of the essence. Though we may obtain a short extension from the developers, testing is currently scheduled to end March 15th. So though subsequent testing is always useful, anything you can do now is greatly appreciated. Your bug reports will result in real improvements to the system.

Finally, the system is still undergoing changes. Not only are bugs being fixed as I type, but new features are also being added. There may occasionally be periods of system instability. Please report them to me, and bear with us!

Procedure

1. Review the MuDoc system; I've created some online references: MuDoc Help and MuDoc FAQ.
2. Register to create a MuDoc username, password, and profile.
3. Login and try it out. Refer to MuDoc help for guidance. I've also prepared a list of suggested MuDoc tests to run.
4. Report bugs using Bugzilla (ignore the warnings about expired certificate]. For a succinct guide to logging bugs, see Bugzilla user notes.

Suggestions

• You'll want to create several different users, probably at least three (one to submit, another to review, a third to edit), in order to test all of MuDoc's features, since peer review is a multi-role protocol. Otherwise your submissions will depend on someone else for approvals. It's best to take on all roles at once in order to test autonomously.
• I suggest that you keep track of these users by naming them appropriately.
• You may also want to log exactly what has been submitted and reviewed. Keeping these logs online (so you can review them while testing) is a good idea.
• Try not to use your browser's "back" button; behavior is unpredictable. Navigate the system using the buttons provided.
• If your work is being held up by lack of approval from a superior editor, please email me out of band.
• Please note that the system is currently under development, and hence is still undergoing changes. Not only are bugs being fixed, but new features are also being added (I will try to document them promptly). There may occasionally be periods of system instability. Please report them to me, and bear with us!

Crash and lockup conditions

Please note that the system will occasionally lock up, refusing to respond or crashing repeatedly with complex-looking error messages. Your browser's "back" button is not generally useful in this (or any) case and should be avoided; navigate the system using the buttons provided. If you encounter such problems, try logging out and then back in again. Or close your browser entirely to wipe out all session information, and then start it up again. These procedures will usually "undo" whatever was wrong (though you should probably report the bug anyway. We've all noticed that clicking the same button multiple times can trigger an error; this may be a problem in the underlying Sun java stack.

Reference

• The formal testing process is described in the UAT plan.
• An overview of MuDoc functionality is available in the MuDoc system description.
• MuDoc Help provides detailed explanations of the user interface.
• MuDoc FAQ may also be useful (and feel free to add questions of your own, for others to answer)
• Please refer to the MuDoc Functional Spec as a standard reference for what the system is supposed to do. However note that this document is quite technical; unless you are a programmer you are much better off referring to MuDoc Help.

You can also email me with other questions.