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How to open an issue

We use issues to track individual units of work. We use the University's GitLab instance at https://gitlab.developers.cam.ac.uk/ to manage them. If you've not yet signed in to GitLab, see the signing in to GitLab how-to.

This how-to covers creating issues and their structure.

Finding the correct project

The first step is finding the correct project in GitLab in which to open an issue. These should be linked from the appropriate service page. If not, the top-level view of DevOps GitLab groups can be used to find an appropriate project.

Warning

Some projects are visible to DevOps members only. If you can't find a project which you think should exist and you're not a member of DevOps please follow the instructions on the contact us page.

Search for existing issues

It's good practice to search for issues first if you are reporting a bug or requesting a feature as an issue may already have been opened. The Search GitLab box at the top-left of all GitLab pages can be used for this.

Create a new issue

To create a new issue:

  1. Click on Issues in the project sidebar.
  2. Click on the New Issue button at the top-right of the issue list.
  3. Use the Title box to give the issue a useful title. This should summarise the work which needs to be completed or the bug which needs to be addressed. Try to make it concise and search friendly.
  4. Choose an appropriate template from the Description drop-down.
  5. Fill in the template in the Description text box. Please try to be as complete as possible.
  6. Click Create issue.
  7. Add a team::... label to an issue if you know which DevOps team should pick it up.
  8. Add an issueType::... label if the template did not do so already.
  9. Consider adding special-use labels such as chore or good first issue. See the labels reference for possible labels.

Summary

In this how-to, you learned how to locate a project in GitLab and create an issue within it.

Next steps