Facebook Cookbook

Facebook Bug Squashing

Problem

I’ve found an honest-to-goodness bug in Facebook Platform. Now what?

Solution

Platform bugs are actually very rare, so first off you should pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Then you should hit up the Facebook bug tracking system at http://bugs.developers.facebook.com/.

Discussion

The Facebook bug tracking system is really Bugzilla with a prettier face. For those of you not familiar with Bugzilla, it’s an open source bug tracker developed by the Mozilla Foundation and used by them to track defects in all of their products. It’s not the most intuitive application but it is incredibly powerful, and Facebook has done a good job of cleaning up the user interface while still maintaining the irreverent humor Bugzilla is known for (try doing a search that returns no bugs).

One of the most powerful tools within the system is the ability to save searches, and you’ll find that your shiny new Bug Tracker account comes with a predefined “My Bugs” search, which is accessible in the footer of every page. Once you’ve done a search, you’ll find a “Remember search as” option at the bottom of the page, which will save your search under a new name.