Admin Guide Reference For Administrators Mantis BT 2.0 En US

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MantisBT 2.0
Admin Guide
Reference for Administrators
MantisBT Development Team
Admin Guide
MantisBT 2.0 Admin Guide
Reference for Administrators
Author MantisBT Development Team mantisbt-dev@lists.sourceforge.net
Copyright © 2016 MantisBT team. This material may only be distributed subject to the terms and con-
ditions set forth in the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL), V1.2 or later (the latest version is
presently available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt).
This book is targeted at MantisBT administrators, and documents the installation, upgrade, configura-
tion, customization and administration tasks required to operate the software.
iii
1. About MantisBT 1
1.1. What is MantisBT? ....................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Who should read this manual? ...................................................................................... 1
1.3. License ......................................................................................................................... 1
1.4. How to get it? ............................................................................................................... 1
1.5. About the Name ........................................................................................................... 1
1.6. History .......................................................................................................................... 2
1.7. Support ........................................................................................................................ 2
1.8. MantisBT News ............................................................................................................ 3
1.9. Versioning .................................................................................................................... 3
2. Installation 5
2.1. Overview ...................................................................................................................... 5
2.2. System Requirements ................................................................................................... 5
2.2.1. Server Hardware Requirements .......................................................................... 5
2.2.2. Server Software Requirements ........................................................................... 5
2.2.3. Client Requirements ........................................................................................... 8
2.3. Pre-installation / upgrade tasks ...................................................................................... 8
2.4. New Installation ............................................................................................................ 9
2.5. Upgrading ................................................................................................................... 10
2.6. Configure your installation ........................................................................................... 11
2.7. Post-installation and upgrade tasks .............................................................................. 11
2.8. Post-installation tasks .................................................................................................. 12
2.9. Post-upgrade tasks ..................................................................................................... 12
2.10. Backups .................................................................................................................... 13
2.10.1. MySQL Backups ............................................................................................. 13
2.11. Uninstall .................................................................................................................... 13
3. User Management 15
3.1. Creating User Accounts .............................................................................................. 15
3.2. Enabling/Disabling User Accounts ................................................................................ 15
3.3. Deleting User Accounts ............................................................................................... 16
3.4. User Signup ................................................................................................................ 16
3.5. Forgot Password and Reset Password ......................................................................... 16
3.6. Impersonating a user .................................................................................................. 17
3.7. Changing Password .................................................................................................... 17
3.8. Pruning User Accounts ................................................................................................ 17
3.9. Authorization and Access Levels ................................................................................. 17
3.10. Auto Creation of Accounts on Login ........................................................................... 18
3.11. User Preferences ...................................................................................................... 18
3.12. User Profiles ............................................................................................................. 19
4. Issue Lifecycle and Workflow 21
4.1. Issue Creation ............................................................................................................ 21
4.2. Issue Statuses ............................................................................................................ 21
4.3. Workflow ..................................................................................................................... 22
4.3.1. Workflow Transitions ........................................................................................ 22
4.3.2. Workflow Thresholds ........................................................................................ 23
5. Configuration 27
5.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 27
5.2. Database .................................................................................................................... 27
5.3. Path ........................................................................................................................... 28
5.4. Webserver .................................................................................................................. 29
5.5. Configuration Settings ................................................................................................. 30
5.6. Security and Cryptography .......................................................................................... 31
Admin Guide
iv
5.7. Signup and Lost Password .......................................................................................... 32
5.8. Email .......................................................................................................................... 32
5.9. Version ....................................................................................................................... 38
5.10. Language .................................................................................................................. 38
5.11. Display ..................................................................................................................... 38
5.12. Time ......................................................................................................................... 41
5.13. Date ......................................................................................................................... 41
5.14. Time Zone ................................................................................................................ 42
5.15. News ........................................................................................................................ 42
5.16. Default Preferences ................................................................................................... 43
5.17. Summary .................................................................................................................. 45
5.18. Bugnote .................................................................................................................... 46
5.19. File Upload ............................................................................................................... 46
5.20. HTML ....................................................................................................................... 48
5.21. Authentication ........................................................................................................... 49
5.21.1. Global authentication parameters .................................................................... 49
5.21.2. LDAP authentication method parameters ......................................................... 50
5.22. Status Settings .......................................................................................................... 52
5.23. Filters ....................................................................................................................... 54
5.24. Misc .......................................................................................................................... 54
5.25. Cookies .................................................................................................................... 56
5.26. Speed Optimisation ................................................................................................... 57
5.27. Reminders ................................................................................................................ 57
5.28. Bug History ............................................................................................................... 58
5.29. Sponsorship .............................................................................................................. 58
5.30. Custom Fields ........................................................................................................... 59
5.31. My View Settings ...................................................................................................... 59
5.32. Relationship Graphs .................................................................................................. 59
5.33. Wiki Integration ......................................................................................................... 60
5.34. Sub-Projects ............................................................................................................. 61
5.35. Field Visibility ............................................................................................................ 61
5.36. System Logging and Debugging ................................................................................ 62
5.37. Time Tracking ........................................................................................................... 67
5.38. API ........................................................................................................................... 67
5.38.1. Disabling the webservice API .......................................................................... 68
5.39. Anti-Spam Configuration ............................................................................................ 68
5.40. Due Date .................................................................................................................. 68
5.41. User Management ..................................................................................................... 69
5.42. View Page Settings ................................................................................................... 69
6. Page descriptions 71
6.1. Login page ................................................................................................................. 71
6.2. Main page .................................................................................................................. 71
6.3. View Issues page ....................................................................................................... 71
6.4. Issue View page ......................................................................................................... 72
6.5. Issue Change Status page .......................................................................................... 72
6.6. Issue Edit page ........................................................................................................... 73
6.7. My Account Page ....................................................................................................... 73
6.7.1. Preferences ...................................................................................................... 73
6.7.2. Profiles ............................................................................................................ 73
6.7.3. Manage Columns ............................................................................................. 73
6.7.4. API Tokens ...................................................................................................... 73
6.8. System Management Pages ........................................................................................ 74
6.8.1. Manage Users ................................................................................................. 74
v
6.8.2. Manage Projects Page ..................................................................................... 74
6.8.3. Manage Custom Fields ..................................................................................... 74
6.8.4. Manage Global Profiles .................................................................................... 76
6.8.5. Manage Configuration ...................................................................................... 76
6.9. Monitor Issue .............................................................................................................. 79
6.10. Reopen Issue ........................................................................................................... 80
6.11. Delete Issue .............................................................................................................. 80
6.12. Close Issue ............................................................................................................... 80
6.13. Assign to Me ............................................................................................................ 80
6.14. Resolve Issue ........................................................................................................... 80
6.15. News Syndication ...................................................................................................... 80
7. Customizing MantisBT 81
7.1. Strings / Translations ................................................................................................... 81
7.2. Custom Fields ............................................................................................................. 82
7.2.1. Overview .......................................................................................................... 82
7.2.2. Custom Field Definition .................................................................................... 82
7.2.3. Adding/Editing Custom Fields ........................................................................... 84
7.2.4. Linking/Unlinking/Ordering Existing Custom Fields in Projects ............................. 84
7.2.5. Localizing Custom Field Names ........................................................................ 85
7.2.6. Dynamic default values .................................................................................... 86
7.2.7. Dynamic values for Enumeration Custom Fields ................................................ 86
7.3. Enumerations .............................................................................................................. 88
7.4. Email Notifications ....................................................................................................... 89
7.5. Customizing Status Values .......................................................................................... 91
7.6. Custom Functions ....................................................................................................... 93
7.6.1. Default Custom Functions ................................................................................. 93
7.6.2. Example Custom Function Override .................................................................. 94
8. Authentication 97
8.1. Standard Authentication .............................................................................................. 97
8.2. LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory ........................................................................... 97
8.3. Basic Authentication .................................................................................................... 97
8.4. HTTP Authentication ................................................................................................... 98
8.5. Deprecated authentication methods ............................................................................. 98
9. Troubleshooting 99
9.1. Application Errors ........................................................................................................ 99
9.1.1. Error 2800 - Invalid form security token ............................................................. 99
10. Project Management 101
10.1. Change Log ............................................................................................................ 101
10.2. Roadmap ................................................................................................................ 103
10.3. Time Tracking ......................................................................................................... 105
10.4. Graphs .................................................................................................................... 105
10.5. Summary Page ....................................................................................................... 105
11. Contributing to MantisBT 107
11.1. Talent and Time ...................................................................................................... 107
11.2. Recommend MantisBT to Others ............................................................................. 107
11.3. Blog about MantisBT ............................................................................................... 107
11.4. Integrate with MantisBT ........................................................................................... 107
A. Revision History 109
vi
Chapter 1.
1
About MantisBT
1.1. What is MantisBT?
MantisBT is a web based bug tracking system that was first made available to the public in November
2000. Over time it has matured and gained a lot of popularity, and now it has become one of the most
popular open source bug/issue tracking systems. MantisBT is developed in PHP, with support to multi-
ple database backends including MySQL, MS SQL and PostgreSQL.
MantisBT, as a PHP script, can run on any operating system that is supported by PHP and has sup-
port for one of the DBMSes that are supported. MantisBT is known to run fine on Windows, Linux,
OS/2, Mac OS X, System i and a variety of Unix operating systems.
1.2. Who should read this manual?
This manual is targeted for the person responsible for evaluating, installing and maintaining MantisBT
in a company. Typically we refer to this person as the MantisBT administrator.
1.3. License
MantisBT is released under the terms of GNU General Public License (GPL)1. MantisBT is free to use
and modify. It is free to redistribute as long as you abide by the distribution terms of the GPL2.
1.4. How to get it?
MantisBT is available in several Linux distributions including: Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Frugal-
ware and others. Hence, if you are running Linux, start by checking if your distribution has a package
for MantisBT. If not, or if the package is not up-to-date with the latest MantisBT version, then you may
want to download it directly from here3.
For Windows, Mac OS X and other operating systems, use the link provided above to download Man-
tisBT. The download is compressed in tar.gz or zip format. Both formats can be unpacked using tools
like 7-Zip4 (in case of Windows).
Note that at any point in time there are typically two "latest" MantisBT releases that are available for
download. The latest production release (stable), and the latest development release which can be
an alpha or a release candidate. It is not recommended to use development releases in production
specially if it is still in the alpha stage unless the administrator is familiar with PHP and is able to trou-
bleshoot and fix any issues that may arise.
1.5. About the Name
When initially seeking to name this project Ken ran into a problem every programmer encounters.
What is a good name? It has to be descriptive, unique, and not too verbose. Additionally having multi-
ple meanings would be a nice touch. Quickly ruled out were php*Something* names which, incidental-
ly, although popular, do not seem to be condoned by the PHP Group developers. Drawing inspiration
1 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
3 http://www.mantisbt.org/download.php
4 http://www.7-zip.org/
Chapter 1. About MantisBT
2
from Open Source projects like Apache, Mozilla, Gnome, and so forth resulted in two eventual choic-
es: Dragonfly and Mantis. Dragonfly was already the name of a webmail package. So the name be-
came Mantis.
Praying Mantis are insects that feed primarily on other insects and bugs. They are extremely desir-
able in agriculture as they devour insects that feed on crops. They are also extremely elegant looking
creatures. So, we have a name that is fairly distinctive and descriptive in multiple ways. The BT suffix
stands for "Bug Tracker" and distinguishes this project from general usage of the word Mantis. Howev-
er, over time the project was typically referred to as Mantis.
1.6. History
Kenzaburo Ito and a friend originally created a bug tracker as an internal tool for their pet project. A
search for good, free packages came up with nothing suitable so they wrote their own. After a rewrite
and cleanup it was made available to the public via the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL
was chosen partly because of his belief that development tools should be cheap or free. In 2002, Ken
was joined by Jeroen Latour, Victor Boctor and Julian Fitzell to be the administrators and the core
development team of MantisBT. This marks a new era in MantisBT lifetime where it is now a team
project.
1.7. Support
There are plenty of resources to help answer support queries. Following are the main ones:
•Forums5 - The forums are one of the most popular destinations for getting MantisBT support. Start
off by searching the forums for your questions, if not found, then go ahead and submit a question.
•Mailing lists6 - Several lists are available, each of them with its own, specific purpose. Note that
posting messages is restricted to subscribers so you will have to register before you can send mes-
sages; however, there are public archives available if you're only interested in reading.
•Gitter7 is a browser-based, on-line chat that has mainly replaced the team's use of IRC. In the main
chat room, you can have a live discussion with the developers and other MantisBT users. Gitter sup-
ports all modern browsers and also offers Android and iOS-based clients, as well as an IRC bridge8.
•IRC9 - The IRC channel not very active anymore, as the developers have moved on to using Gitter
for live discussions; nevertheless, the channel is still open. There are many free IRC clients: XChat
(for Linux), HexChat10, IceChat11 amongst others. You can also use Web Chat12 to connect to IRC
via your web browser, which may also be useful when you're behind a firewall that blocks the IRC
port. The IRC channel logs are archived and made available on the MantisBT web site13.
•Wiki14 - The MantisBT Wiki has information related to "How To (recipes)", FAQ, feature require-
ments, plugins etc.
5 http://www.mantisbt.org/forums/
6 http://www.mantisbt.org/mailinglists.php
7 https://gitter.im/mantisbt/mantisbt
8 https://irc.gitter.im/
9 http://www.mantisbt.org/irc.php
10 http://hexchat.github.io/
11 http://www.icechat.net/
12 http://webchat.freenode.net/
13 http://www.mantisbt.org/irclogs.php
14 http://www.mantisbt.org
MantisBT News
3
• Search - A good way for locating an answer to your question or finding more information about a
topic is to search across all MantisBT website and the Internet via your favorite search engine, e.g.
Google15 or Bing16.
Note
Support questions should not be sent directly to MantisBT developers or through the MantisBT
website's contact pages.
Also, our bug tracker17 is reserved for reporting issues with the software, and must not be used
for support requests.
1.8. MantisBT News
There are several ways to keep up to date with MantisBT news. These include:
• We send release announcements and important updates to users registered on our official bugtrack-
er18. To get onto our mailing list, users will have to signup there and verify their email address. This
same account can also be used to report, monitor, and comment on issues relating to MantisBT.
•MantisBT Blog19 is used to communicate announcements about new releases, topics relating to
MantisBT, etc. Users are encouraged to subscribe to the RSS feed to know when new posts are
posted there.
•Twitter20 is used to notify users about up-to-date details about what is happening with MantisBT de-
velopment. Twitter users are encouraged to follow "@mantisbt".
1.9. Versioning
Our release numbering convention follows the guidelines of Semantic Versioning21. Given a version
number Major.Minor.Patch and an optional Suffix (eg. 1.3.0-rc.1):
• Major - Indicates a very large change in the core package. Rewrites or major milestones. API
changes which are not backwards-compatible.
• Minor - Introduction of new features or significant changes in functionality, in a backwards-compati-
ble manner.
• Patch - Bug fixes, maintenance and security releases.
• Suffix - Optional, indicates a development release.
• aN or alpha.N for alpha releases,
• bN or beta.N for beta releases, or
15 http://www.google.com
16 http://www.bing.com
17 http://mantisbt.org/bugs/
18 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs
19 http://www.mantisbt.org/blog/
20 http://twitter.com/mantisbt
21 http://semver.org/
Chapter 1. About MantisBT
4
• rcN or rc.N for release candidates.
Absence of suffix indicates a stable release.
Chapter 2.
5
Installation
This chapter explains how to install or upgrade MantisBT.
2.1. Overview
The table below contains a high-level overview of the processes. Refer to the corresponding sections
for details.
New Installation Upgrade
1. Section 2.2, “System Requirements”
2. Section 2.3, “Pre-installation / upgrade tasks”
3. Section 2.4, “New Installation”
4. Section 2.6, “Configure your installation”
5. Section 2.7, “Post-installation and upgrade
tasks”
6. Section 2.8, “Post-installation tasks”
1. Section 2.3, “Pre-installation / upgrade tasks”
2. Section 2.10, “Backups”
3. Put the site down for maintenance
4. Section 2.5, “Upgrading”
5. Section 2.7, “Post-installation and upgrade
tasks”
6. Section 2.9, “Post-upgrade tasks”
2.2. System Requirements
2.2.1. Server Hardware Requirements
MantisBT has modest hardware requirements. It requires a computer that is able to run the server
software (see Section 2.2.2, “Server Software Requirements”).
• Server type
The server can be a shared public web server or a dedicated co-located box.
• CPU and Memory
As for any web application, you should size your server based on the traffic on the site.
• Disk
The application code is less than 30 MB.
The amount of disk space required for the database will vary depending on the RDBMS and the vol-
ume of data, the main driving factor being the expected number and size of attachments.
2.2.2. Server Software Requirements
All of the required software is free for commercial and non-commercial use (open source). Please refer
to the table in Section 2.2.2.1, “Versions compatibility table” for minimum and recommended versions.
• Operating System
MantisBT runs on Windows, MacOS, OS/2, Linux, Solaris, the BSDs, and just about anything that
supports the required server software.
• Web Server
Chapter 2. Installation
6
MantisBT is mainly tested with Microsoft IIS1 and Apache2. However, it is expected to work with any
recent web server software.
File Extensions: MantisBT uses only .php files. If your webserver is configured for other extensions
(e.g. .PHP3, .PHTML) then you will have to request the administrator to add support for .PHP files.
This should be a trivial modification. Further details can be found in the PHP documentation3
•PHP4
The web server must support PHP. It can be installed as CGI or any other integration technology.
• PHP extensions
MantisBT is designed to work in as many environments as possible. Hence the required extensions
are minimal and many of them are optional affecting only one feature.
Mandatory extensions
• The extension for the RDBMS being used ( mysqli, pgsql, oci8, sqlsrv )
•mbstring - Required for Unicode (UTF-8) support.
Optional extensions
•Curl - required for the Twitter integration feature
•GD - required for the captcha feature
•Fileinfo - Guesses the MIME type of attachments
Without this extension, file attachment previews and downloads may not work correctly as
MantisBT won't be able to send the Content-Type header to a browser requesting an attach-
ment.
This extension is included by default from PHP version 5.3.x and above.
• Database
MantisBT requires a database to store its data. The supported RDBMS are:
• MySQL (or one of its forks, e.g. MariaDB)
• PostgreSQL
Experimental support is also available for
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Oracle
Experimental support means that manual intervention by a skilled Database Administrator may be
required to complete the installation, and/or that there may be known issues or limitations when us-
1 http://www.microsoft.com/iis
2 http://www.apache.org/
3 http://www.php.net/manual/en/installation.php
4 http://www.php.net/
Server Software Requirements
7
ing the software. Please refer to our Issue tracker5, filtering on categories db mssql and db oracle to
find out more about those.
Note
Please note that the MantisBT development team mainly works with MySQL, so testing for oth-
er drivers is not as extensive as we mainly rely on community contributions to improve support
and fix issues with other RDBMS.
We therefore recommend MySQL to store your database.
2.2.2.1. Versions compatibility table
Category Package Minimum Ver-
sion
Recommended Comments
MySQL 5.5.35 5.6 or above PHP extension:
mysqli
MariaDB 5.5.35 10.x or above PHP extension:
mysqli
PostgreSQL 9.2 9.2 or later PHP extension:
pgsql
MS SQL Server 2012 2012 or later PHP extension:
sqlsrv
RDBMS
Oracle 11gR2 11gR2 or later PHP extension:
oci8
PHP PHP 5.5.x 7.0 or later See above for
PHP extensions
Apache 2.2.x 2.4.x
lighttpd 1.4.x 1.4.x
nginx 1.10.x 1.10.x
Web Server
IIS 7.5 8.0 Windows Server
2008 R2 SP1 or
later
Our minimum requirements are generally based on availability of support for the underlying software
by their respective vendors. In some cases, we do require a specific version because we rely on a fea-
ture that is not available in older releases.
5 https://mantisbt.org/bugs/
Chapter 2. Installation
8
Warning
Running MantisBT with versions of the software components lower than the minimum require-
ments listed above is not supported.
2.2.3. Client Requirements
MantisBT should run on all recent browsers in the market, including but not limited to:
• Firefox 45 and above
• Internet Explorer 10 and above
• Chrome
• Safari
• Opera
2.3. Pre-installation / upgrade tasks
These tasks cover the download and deployment of MantisBT, and should be performed prior to any
new installation or upgrade.
1. Download MantisBT (see Section 1.4, “How to get it?”)
2. Transfer the downloaded file to your webserver
This can be done using whatever method you like best (ftp, scp, etc). You will need to telnet/ssh
into the server machine for the next steps.
3. Extract the release
It is highly recommended to maintain a separate directory for each release. This not only avoids
mismatch between versions, (files may have been added or removed) but also provides an easy
path to downgrade your installation, should you need to.
The usual command is (1 step):
tar -xzf filename.tar.gz
OR (2 steps):
gunzip filename.tar.gz
tar -xf filename.tar
Other file archiving tools such as 7-Zip6 should also be able to handle decompression of the
archive.
6 http://www.7-zip.org/
New Installation
9
The extraction process should create a new directory like mantisbt-1.3.x
4. Rename the directory
For new installations, you may want to rename the directory just created to something simpler,
e.g. mantisbt
mv mantisbt-1.3.x mantisbt
2.4. New Installation
This chapter explains how to perform a new installation of MantisBT.
Start by checking Section 2.2, “System Requirements” and installing the appropriate version of re-
quired software.
Once that is done, execute the installation script. From your web browser, access
http://yoursite/mantisbt/admin/install.php
The installation procedure will go through the following steps:
1. The script checks basic parameters for the web server
2. Provide required information for the installation
• database type
• database server hostname
• user and password
Required privileges: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
• high-privileged database account
Additional privileges required: INDEX, CREATE, ALTER, and DROP
If this account is not specified, the database user will be used.
3. Click the Install/Upgrade Database button
4. The script creates the database and tables.
The default Administrator user account is created at this stage, to allow the initial login and setup
of MantisBT.
5. The script attempts to write a basic config_inc.php file to define the database connection parame-
ters.
This operation may fail if the web server's user account does not have write permissions to the di-
rectory (which is recommended for obvious security reasons). In this case, you will have to manu-
ally create the file and copy/paste the contents from the page.
6. The script perform post installation checks on the system.
Review and correct any errors.
Chapter 2. Installation
10
2.5. Upgrading
This chapter explains how to upgrade an existing MantisBT installation.
Start by Performing the steps described in Section 2.3, “Pre-installation / upgrade tasks” above.
1. Put the site down for maintenance
cp mantis_offline.php.sample mantis_offline.php
This will prevent users from using the system while the upgrade is in progress.
2. Always Backup your code, data and config files before upgrading !
This includes your Mantis directory, your attachments, and your database. Refer to Section 2.10,
“Backups” for details.
3. Copy the configuration files
To preserve your system settings, you should copy the files listed below to subdirectory config of
the new directory. You might have to copy as well other custom files such as logo, favicon, css,
etc.
config_inc.php, the Custom Strings File (custom_strings_inc.php by de-
fault, see Section 7.1, “Strings / Translations”), custom_constants_inc.php and
custom_functions_inc.php
4. Execute the upgrade script. From your web browser, access
http://yoursite/mantisbt-NEW/admin/install.php
where mantisbt-NEW is the name of the directory where the new release was extracted
5. Provide required information for the upgrade
• high-privileged database account
Additional privileges required: INDEX, CREATE, ALTER, and DROP
If this account is not specified, the database user will be used.
6. Click the Install/Upgrade Database button
7. At the end of the upgrade, review and correct any warnings or errors.
7 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=12735
Configure your installation
11
Upgrading large databases
When processing large databases from versions older than 1.2, the upgrade script may fail during
the conversion of date fields, leaving the system in an inconsistent (i.e. partially updated) state.
In this case, you should simply restart the upgrade process, which will resume where it left off.
Note that you may have to repeat this several times, until normal completion.
Reference: MantisBT issue 127357.
2.6. Configure your installation
There are many settings that you can adjust to configure and customize MantisBT. Refer to Chapter 5,
Configuration, as well as the config_defaults_inc.php file for in depth explanations of the available op-
tions. Check out also Chapter 7, Customizing MantisBT for further options to personalize your installa-
tion.
This step is normally only required for new installations, but when upgrading you may want to review
and possibly customize any new configuration options.
Open or create the file config_inc.php in subfolder config in an editor and add or modify any values as
required. These will override the default values.
You may want to use the provided config_inc.php.sample file as a starting point.
Warning
you should never edit the config_defaults_inc.php file directly, as it could cause issues with future
upgrades. Always store your custom configuration in your own config_inc.php file.
2.7. Post-installation and upgrade tasks
Instructions in this section are common to both new installations and upgrades, and should be applied
after completing either process.
1. Test your configuration
Load up admin/check/index.php to validate whether everything is setup correctly, and take correc-
tive action as needed.
2. Delete the admin folder
Once you have confirmed that the install or upgrade process was successful, you should delete
this directory
rm -r admin
For security reasons, the scripts within this directory should not be freely accessible on a live Man-
tisBT site, particularly one which is accessible via the Internet, as they can allow unauthorized
Chapter 2. Installation
12
people (e.g. hackers) to gain technical knowledge about the system, as well as perform adminis-
trative tasks.
Warning
Omitting this important step will leave your MantisBT instance exposed to several potentially
severe attacks, e.g. issue #231738 (if mysqli.allow_local_infile9 is enabled in php.ini).
2.8. Post-installation tasks
Instructions in this section should only be applied after a new installation
1. Login to your bugtracker
Use the default Administrator account. The id and password are administrator / root.
2. Create a new Administrator account
Go to Manage > Manage Users and create a new account with 'administrator' access level.
3. Disable or delete the default Administrator account
4. Create a new Project
Go to Manage > Manage Projects and create a new project
2.9. Post-upgrade tasks
Instructions in this section should only be applied after upgrading an existing installation.
1. Test the new release
Perform any additional testing as appropriate to ensure the new version does not introduce any re-
gressions.
2. Switch the site to the new version
The commands below should be executed from the web root (or wherever the mantisbt scripts are
installed) and assume that the "live" directory (old version) is named mantisbt and the new release
directory is mantisbt-1.3.x.
mv mantisbt mantisbt-old
mv mantisbt-1.3.x mantisbt
3. Put the site back on line
rm mantis_offline.php
8 http://mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=23173
9 http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.configuration.php#ini.mysqli.allow-local-infile
Backups
13
This should be the final step in the upgrade process, as it will let users login again.
2.10. Backups
It is strongly recommended to backup your MantisBT database on a regular basis. The method to per-
form this operation depends on which RDBMS you use.
Backups are a complex subject, and the specificities of implementing and handling them for each
RDBMS are beyond the scope of this document. For your convenience, the section below provides a
simple method to backup MySQL databases.
You should also consider implementing backups of your MantisBT code (which includes your configs
and possibly customization), as well as issue attachments (if stored on disk) and project documents.
Warning
You should always backup your system (code and database) before upgrading !
2.10.1. MySQL Backups
MySQL databases are easy to backup using the mysqldump command:
mysqldump -u<username> -p<password> <database name> > <output file>
To restore a backup you will need to have a clean database. Then run:
mysql -u<username> -p<password> <database name> < <input file>
You can also perform both of these tasks using phpMyAdmin10
A good idea is to make a backup script and run it regularly through cron or a task scheduler (for Win-
dows see WinCron11 ). Using the current date in the filename can prevent overwriting and make cata-
loguing easier.
References and useful links:
•mysqlhotcopy documentation 12
•automysqlbackup script 13
2.11. Uninstall
It is recommended that you make a backup in case you wish to use your data in the future. See Sec-
tion 2.10, “Backups” for details.
10 http://www.phpmyadmin.net/
11 http://www.wincron.com/
12 http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/mysqlhotcopy.html
13 http://sourceforge.net/projects/automysqlbackup/
Chapter 2. Installation
14
To uninstall MantisBT:
• Delete the MantisBT directory and all files and subdirectories.
• Drop all MantisBT tables from the database, these can be identified by the configured prefix for the
installation. The default prefix is 'mantis'.
• Remove any customizations or additions that you may have made.
If you have the permissions to create/drop databases and you have a specific database for MantisBT
that does not contain any other data, you can drop the whole database.
Chapter 3.
15
User Management
3.1. Creating User Accounts
In MantisBT, there is no limit on the number of user accounts that can be created. Typically, installa-
tions with thousands of users tend to have a limited number of users that have access level above RE-
PORTER.
By default users with ADMINISTRATOR access level have access to create new user accounts. The
steps to do that are:
• Click "Manage" on Main Menu.
• Click "Manage Users" (if not selected by default).
• Click "Create New Account" button just below the alphabet key.
• Enter user name, email address, global access level (more details about access levels later). Other
fields are optional.
• Click "Create Users".
Creating a user triggers the following actions:
• Creating a user in the database.
• If email notifications ($g_enable_email_notification) is set to ON, then the user will receive an email
allowing them to activate their account and set their password. Otherwise, the account will be creat-
ed with a blank password.
• If email notifications ($g_enable_email_notification) is set to ON, users with access level about
$g_notify_new_user_created_threshold_min will get a notification that a user account has been cre-
ated. Information about the user like user name and email address are provided. The IP of the user
that created the account is also included.
When the 'Protected' flag is set on a user account, it indicates that the account is a shared account
(e.g. demo account) and hence users logged using such account will not be allowed to change ac-
count preferences and profile information.
The anonymous user account specified with the $g_anonymous_account option will always be treated
as a protected user account. When you are creating the anonymous user account, the 'Protected' flag
is essentially ignored because the anonymous user is always treated as a protected user.
3.2. Enabling/Disabling User Accounts
The recommended way of retiring user accounts is to disable them. Scenarios where this is useful is
when a person leaves the team and it is necessary to retire their account.
Once an account is disabled the following will be enforced:
• All currently active sessions for the account will be invalidated (i.e. automatically logged out).
• It will no longer be possible login using this account.
• No further email notifications will be sent to the account once it is disabled.
• The user account will not show anymore in lists like "assign to", "send reminder to", etc.
Chapter 3. User Management
16
The disabling process is totally reversible. Hence, the account can be re-enabled and all the account
history will remain intact. For example, the user will still have issues reported by them, assigned to
them, monitored by them, etc.
3.3. Deleting User Accounts
Another way to retire user accounts is by deleting them. This approach is only recommended for ac-
counts that have not been active (i.e. haven't reported issues). Once the account is deleted, any is-
sues or actions associated with such account, will be associated with user123 (where 123 is the code
of the account that was deleted). Note that associated issues or actions are not deleted.
As far as the underlying database, after the deletion of a user, records with the user id as a foreign key
will have a value that no longer exists in the users table. Hence, any tools that operate directly on the
database must take this into consideration.
By default administrators are the only users who can delete user accounts. They can delete accounts
by clicking Manage, Manage Users, locating the user to be deleted and opening it details page, then
clicking on the "Delete User" button which deletes the user.
Note that "Deleting Users" is not a reversible process. Hence, if it is required to re-add the user ac-
count, it is not possible to recreate the user account so that it gets the same ID and hence retains its
history. However, manually creating a record in the users table with the same id, can possibly do that.
However, this approach is not recommended or supported.
3.4. User Signup
For open source and freeware projects, it is very common to setup MantisBT so that users
can signup for an account and get a REPORTER access by default (configurable by the
$g_default_new_account_access_level configuration option). The signup process can be enabled /
disabled using the $g_allow_signup configuration option, which is enabled by default.
If user signup is enabled, then it is required that $g_send_reset_password is ON as well, and the e-
mail settings properly configured (see Section 5.8, “Email”).
If email notifications ($g_enable_email_notification) is set to ON, users with access level about
$g_notify_new_user_created_threshold_min will get a notification that a user account has been creat-
ed. Information about the user like user name, email address, IP address are included in the email no-
tification.
3.5. Forgot Password and Reset Password
It is pretty common for users to forget their password. MantisBT provides two ways to handle such
scenario: "Forgot Password" and "Reset Password".
"Forgot Password" is a self service scenario where users go to the login page, figure out they don't re-
member their password, and then click the "Lost your password?" link. Users are then asked for their
user name and email address. If correct, then they are sent an email with a link which allows them to
login to MantisBT and change their password.
"Reset Password" scenario is where a user reports to the administrator that they are not able to login
into MantisBT anymore. This can be due to forgetting their password and possibly user name or email
address that they used when signing up. The administrator then goes to Manage, Manage Users, lo-
cates the user account and opens its details. Under the user account details, there is a "Reset Pass-
word" button which the administrator can click to reset the password and trigger an email to the user to
Impersonating a user
17
allow them to get into MantisBT and set their password. In the case where email notifications are dis-
abled, resetting password will set the password to an empty string.
3.6. Impersonating a user
Administrators are able to impersonate users in order to reproduce an issue reported by a user, test
their access making sure they can access the expected projects/issues/fields, or to create API tokens
for service accounts that are used to grant other systems limited access to MantisBT.
3.7. Changing Password
Users are able to change their own passwords (unless their account is "protected"). This can be done
by clicking on "My Account", and then typing the new password in the "Password" and "Confirm Pass-
word" fields, then clicking "Update User". Changing the password automatically invalidates all logged
in sessions and hence the user will be required to re-login. Invalidating existing sessions is very useful
in the case where a user going onto a computer, logs into MantisBT and leaves the computer without
logging out. By changing the password from another computer, the session on the original computer
automatically becomes invalidated.
3.8. Pruning User Accounts
The pruning function allows deleting of user accounts for accounts that have been created more than
a week ago, and they never logged in. This is particularly useful for users who signed up with an in-
valid email or with a typo in their email address address.
The account pruning can be done by administrators by going to "Manage", "Manage Users", and click-
ing the "Prune Accounts" button inside the "Never Logged In" box.
3.9. Authorization and Access Levels
MantisBT uses access levels to define what a user can do. Each user account has a global or default
access level that is associated with it. This access level is used as the access level for such users for
all actions associated with public projects as well as actions that are not related to a specific project.
Users with global access level less than $g_private_project_threshold will not have access to private
projects by default.
The default access levels shipped with MantisBT out of the box are VIEWER, REPORTER, UP-
DATER, DEVELOPER, MANAGER and ADMINISTRATOR. Each features has several configuration
options associated with it and identifies the required access level to do certain actions. For example,
viewing an issue, reporting an issue, updating an issue, adding a note, etc.
For example, in the case of reporting issues, the required access level is configurable using the
$g_report_bug_threshold configuration option (which is defaulted to REPORTER). So for a user to
be able to report an issue against a public project, the user must have a project-specific or a global
access level that is greater than or equal to REPORTER. However, in the case of reporting an issue
against a private project, the user must have project specific access level (that is explicitly granted
against the project) that is higher than REPORTER or have a global access level that is higher than
both $g_private_project_threshold and $g_report_bug_threshold.
Note that project specific access levels override the global access levels. For example, a user may
have REPORTER as the global access level, but have a MANAGER access level to a specific project.
Or a user may have MANAGER as the global access level by VIEWER access to a specific project.
Access levels can be overridden for both public and private projects. However, overriding access level
is not allowed for users with global access ADMINISTRATOR.
Chapter 3. User Management
18
Each feature typically has multiple access control configuration options to define what access level
can perform the operation. For example, adding a note may require REPORTER access level, updat-
ing it note may require DEVELOPER access level, unless the note was added by the same user.
Such threshold configuration options can be set to a single access level, which means users with such
threshold and above are authorized to perform the action. The other option is to specify an array of ac-
cess levels which indicates that users with the explicitly specific thresholds are allowed to execute the
actions.
It is also worth mentioning that the access levels are defined by the $g_access_levels_enum_string
configuration option, and it is possible to customize such list. The default value for the available ac-
cess levels is '10:viewer, 25:reporter, 40:updater, 55:developer, 70:manager, 90:administrator'. The in-
structions about how to customize the list of access levels will be covered in the customization section.
3.10. Auto Creation of Accounts on Login
If you are using a global user directory (LDAP, Active Directory), you may want to configure MantisBT
so users who already exists in the directory will be automatically authenticated and added to Mantis-
BT.
For example, a company may setup their MantisBT installation in a way, where its staff members that
are already registered in their LDAP directory, should be allowed to login into MantisBT with the same
user name and password. Another option could be if MantisBT is integrated into some content man-
agement system, where it is desired to have a single registration and single sign-on experience.
In such scenarios, once a user logs in for the first time, a user account is automatically created for
them, although the password verification is still done against LDAP or the main users repository.
3.11. User Preferences
Users can fine tune the way MantisBT interacts with them by modifying their user preferences to over-
ride the defaults set by the administrator; If the administrator changes a default setting, it will not auto-
matically cascade in the users' preferences once they have been set, so it is the users' responsibility
to manage their own preferences.
The user preferences include the following:
•Default Project: A user can choose the default project that is selected when the user first logs in.
This can be a specific project or "All Projects". For users that only work on one project, it would
make sense to set such project as the default project (rather than "All Projects"). The active project
is part of the filter applied on the issues listed in the "View Issues" page. Also any newly reported is-
sues will be associated with the active project.
•Refresh Delay: The refresh delay is used to specify the number of seconds between auto-refreshes
of the View Issues page.
•Redirect Delay: The redirect delay is the number of seconds to wait after displaying flash messages
like "Issue created successfully", and before the user gets redirected to the next page.
•Notes Sort Order: The preference relating to how notes should be ordered when issue is viewed or
in email notifications. Ascending order means that older notes are displayed first
•Email on XXX: If unticked, then the notifications related to the corresponding event would be dis-
abled. User can also specify the minimum issue severity of for the email to be sent.
Note that the preference is only used to disable notifications that as per the administrator's configu-
ration, this user would have qualified to receive.
User Profiles
19
•Email Notes Limit: This preference can be used to limit the number of issue notes to be included in a
email notifications. Specifying N here will cause only the latest N to be included. The value 0 means
that all notes will be included.
•Language: The preferred language of the user. This language is used by the GUI and in email no-
tifications. Note that MantisBT uses UTF8 for encoding the data, hence the user could for example
use MantisBT with a Chinese interface, while logging issue data in German.
3.12. User Profiles
A user profile describes an environment that used to run the software for which issues are being
tracked.
When reporting issues, users can elect to enter information like platform, operating system and ver-
sion manually, or they can choose from a list of available profiles.
Each user has access to all the personal profiles they create, in addition to global ones; Profile data in-
cludes "Platform", "Operating System", "OS Version", and "Additional Description".
Global profiles are typically used by the administrator to define a set of standard system settings used
in their environment, which saves users the trouble of having to define them individually. The access
level required to manage global profiles is configured by the $g_manage_global_profile_threshold
configuration option and defaults to MANAGER.
20
Chapter 4.
21
Issue Lifecycle and Workflow
4.1. Issue Creation
The life cycle of an issue starts with its creation. An issue can be created via one of the following chan-
nels:
• MantisBT Web Interface - This is where a user logs into MantisBT and reports a new issue.
• SOAP API - Where an application automatically reports an issue into MantisBT using the SOAP API
web services interfaces. For example, the nightly build script can automatically report an issue if the
build fails.
• Email - This is not supported out of the box, but there are existing MantisBT patches that would lis-
ten to emails on pre-configured email addresses and adds them to the MantisBT database.
• Others - There can be several other ways to report issues. For example, applications / scripts that
directly injects issues into MantisBT database (not recommended, except for one-off migration
scripts), or PHP scripts that use the core MantisBT API to create new issues.
4.2. Issue Statuses
An important part of issue tracking is to classify issues as per their status. Each team may decide
to have a different set of categorization for the status of the issues, and hence, MantisBT provides
the ability to customize the list of statuses. MantisBT assumes that an issue can be in one of three
stages: opened, resolved and closed. Hence, the customized statuses list will be mapped to these
three stages. For example, MantisBT comes out of the box with the following statuses: new, feedback,
acknowledged, confirmed, assigned, resolved and closed. In this case "new" -> "assigned" map to
opened, "resolved" means resolved and "closed" means closed.
Following is the explanation of what the standard statuses that are shipped with MantisBT means.
• New - This is the landing status for new issues. Issues stay in this status until they are assigned,
acknowledged, confirmed or resolved. The next status can be "acknowledged", "confirmed", "as-
signed" or "resolved".
• Acknowledged - This status is used by the development team to reflect their agreement to the sug-
gested feature request. Or to agree with what the reporter is suggesting in an issue report, although
they didn't yet attempt to reproduce what the reporter is referring to. The next status is typically "as-
signed" or "confirmed".
• Confirmed - This status is typically used by the development team to mention that they agree with
what the reporter is suggesting in the issue and that they have confirmed and reproduced the issue.
The next status is typically "assigned".
• Assigned - This status is used to reflect that the issue has been assigned to one of the team mem-
bers and that such team member is actively working on the issue. The next status is typically "re-
solved".
• Resolved - This status is used to reflect that the issue has been resolved. An issue can be resolved
with one of many resolutions (customizable). For example, an issue can be resolved as "fixed", "du-
plicate", "won't fix", "no change required", etc. The next statuses are typically "closed" or in case of
the issue being re-opened, then it would be "feedback".
• Closed - This status reflects that the issue is completely closed and no further actions are required
on it. It also typically hides the issue from the View Issues page. Some teams use "closed" to re-
Chapter 4. Issue Lifecycle and Workflow
22
flect sign-off by the reporter and others use it to reflect the fact that the fix has been released to cus-
tomers.
4.3. Workflow
Now that we have covered how an issue gets created, and what are the different statuses during the
life cycle of such issues, the next step is to define the workflow. The workflow dictates the valid transi-
tions between statuses and the user access level required of the user who triggers such transitions; in
other words, how issues move from one status to another and who is authorized to trigger such transi-
tions.
MantisBT provides the ability for teams to define their own custom workflow which works on top of
their custom status (see Section 7.5, “Customizing Status Values”).
4.3.1. Workflow Transitions
By default, there is no workflow defined, which means that all states are accessible from any other, by
anyone.
The "Manage > Manage Configuration > Workflow Transitions" page allows users with ADMINISTRA-
TOR access level to do the following tasks:
• Define the valid next statuses for each status.
• Define the default next status for each status.
• Define the minimum access level required for a user to transition to each status.
• Define the default status for newly created issues.
• Define the status at which the issue is considered resolved. Any issues a status code greater than
or equal to the specified status will be considered resolved.
• Define the status which is assigned to issues that are re-opened.
• Define the required access level to change the workflow.
Note that the scope of the applied change is dependent on the selected project. If "All Projects" is se-
lected, then the configuration is to be used as the default for all projects, unless overidden by a specif-
ic project. To configure for a specific project, switch to it via the combobox at the top right corner of the
screen.
The Global ("All Projects") workflow can also be defined in the config_inc.php file, as per the following
example.
$g_status_enum_workflow[NEW_]
='30:acknowledged,20:feedback,40:confirmed,50:assigned,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[FEEDBACK]
='30:acknowledged,40:confirmed,50:assigned,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[ACKNOWLEDGED] ='40:confirmed,20:feedback,50:assigned,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[CONFIRMED]
='50:assigned,20:feedback,30:acknowledged,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[ASSIGNED]
='80:resolved,20:feedback,30:acknowledged,40:confirmed';
$g_status_enum_workflow[RESOLVED] ='90:closed,20:feedback,50:assigned';
$g_status_enum_workflow[CLOSED] ='20:feedback,50:assigned';
Workflow Thresholds
23
Note
The workflow needs to have a path from the statuses greater than or equal to the 're-
solved' state back to the 'feedback' state (see $g_bug_resolved_status_threshold and
$g_bug_feedback_status under Section 5.22, “Status Settings”), otherwise, the re-open operation
won't work.
Note
The first item in each list denotes the default value for this status, which will be pre-selected in the
Change Status combobox in the View Issues page.
4.3.2. Workflow Thresholds
The "Manage > Manage Configuration > Workflow Thresholds" page allows users with ADMINISTRA-
TOR access level to define the thresholds required to do certain actions. Following is a list of such ac-
tions and what they mean:
• Report an issue - The access levels that are allowed to report an issue.
• Update an issue - The access levels that are allowed to update the header information of an issue.
• Allow issue to be closed on resolved - The access levels that are allow to resolve and close an issue
in one step.
• Allow reporter to close issue - Indicates if reporters should be allowed to close issues reported by
them.
• Monitor an issue - The access levels required for a user to be able to monitor an issue. Once a user
monitors an issue, the user will be included in all future email notifications relating to changes in the
issue.
• Handle an issue - The access levels required for a user to be shown in the list of users that can han-
dle an issue.
• Assign an issue - The access levels required for a user to be able to change the handler (i.e. as-
sign / unassign) an issue.
• Move an issue - The access levels required for a user to be able to move an issue from one project
to another. (TODO: are these access levels evaluated against source or destination project?).
• Delete an issue - The access levels required for a user to be able to delete an issue.
• Reopen an issue - The access levels required for a user to be able to re-open a resolved or closed
issue.
• Allow Reporter to re-open Issue - Whether the reporter of an issue can re-open a resolved or closed
issue, independent of their access level.
Chapter 4. Issue Lifecycle and Workflow
24
• Status to which a reopened issue is set - This is the status to which an issue is set after it is re-
opened.
• Resolution to which a reopen issue is set - The resolution to set on issues that are reopened.
• Status where an issue is considered resolved - The status at which an issue is considered resolved.
• Status where an issue becomes readonly - Issues with such status and above are considered read-
only. Read-only issues can only be modified by users with a configured access level. Read-only ap-
plies to the issue header information as well as other issue related information like relationships, at-
tachments, notes, etc.
• Update readonly issues - The access levels required for a user to be able to modify a readonly is-
sue.
• Update issue status - The access levels required for a user to be able to modify the status of an is-
sue.
• View private issues - The access levels for a user to be able to view a private issue.
• Set view status (public vs. private) - The access level for a user to be able to set whether an issue is
private or public, when reporting the issue. If the user reporting the issues doesn't have the required
access, then the issue will be created with the default view state.
• Update view status (public vs private) - The access level required for a user to be able to update the
view status (i.e. public vs. private).
• Show list of users monitoring issue - The access level required for a user to be able to view the list
of users monitoring an issue.
• Set status on assignment of handler - The access levels required for a user to be able to re-assign
an issue when changing its status.
• Status to set auto-assigned issues to - The status - This is the status that is set on issues that are
auto assigned to users that are associated with the category that the issuer is reported under.
• Limit reporter's access to their own issues - When set, reporters are only allow to view issues that
they have reported.
• Add notes - The access levels required for users to be able to add notes.
• Update notes - The access levels required for users to be able to update issue notes.
• Allow user to edit their own issue notes - A flag that indicates the ability for users to edit issue notes
report by them.
• Delete note - The access levels required for a user to delete a note that they may or may not have
reported themselves.
• View private notes - The access levels required for a user to be able to view private notes associat-
ed with an issue that they have access to view.
• View Change Log - The access levels required for a user to be able to view the change log.
• View Assigned To - The access levels required for a user to be able to know the handler of an issue
that they have access to.
Workflow Thresholds
25
• View Issue History - The access levels required for a user to be able to view the history of changes
of an issue.
• Send reminders - The access levels required for a user to be able to send reminders to other users
relating to an issue that they have access to.
26
Chapter 5.
27
Configuration
5.1. Introduction
MantisBT is highly customizable through the web interface and configuration files. Configuration op-
tions can be set globally as well as customized for a specific project or user (except for options listed
in $g_global_settings, see Section 5.5, “Configuration Settings”).
Configuration options can be set in config_inc.php and in the database (using the various manage
pages). Values stored in the database take precedence over values defined in config_inc.php. The for-
mer can also be viewed and updated on the Configuration Report page (Manage > Manage Configura-
tion > Configuration Report).
To determine which value to use, MantisBT follows the list below, sequentially searching for the speci-
fied configuration option until a match is found.
1. database: current user, current project
2. database: current user, all projects
3. database: all users, current project
4. database: all users, all projects
5. config_inc.php
6. config_defaults_inc.php
5.2. Database
The database settings must be set in order for the package to work properly. These settings should be
provided to you by your system administrator or your hosting company.
$g_hostname
Host name or connection string for Database server. The default value is localhost. For MySql,
this should be hostname or hostname:port (e.g. localhost:3306).
$g_db_username
User name to use for connecting to the database. The user needs to have read/write access to the
MantisBT database. The default user name is "root".
$g_db_password
Password for the specified user name. The default password is empty.
$g_database_name
Name of database that contains MantisBT tables. The default name is 'bugtracker'.
$g_db_type
The supported database types are listed in the table below.
The PHP extension corresponding to the selected type must be enabled (see also Section 2.2.2.1,
“Versions compatibility table”).
RDBMS db_type (ADOdb) PHP extension Comments
MySQL mysqli mysqli default
Chapter 5. Configuration
28
RDBMS db_type (ADOdb) PHP extension Comments
PostgreSQL pgsql pgsql
MS SQL Server mssqlnative sqlsrv
Oracle oci8 oci8
MantisBT allows administrators to configure a prefix and a suffix for its tables. This is enables multiple
MantisBT installation in the same database or schema.
Warning
Use of long strings for these configuration options may cause issues on RDBMS restricting the
size of its identifiers, such as Oracle (which imposed a maximum size of 30 characters until ver-
sion 12.1; starting with 12cR2 this limit has been increased to 1281).
$g_db_table_prefix
Specifies the prefix to be used for all table names. The default value is 'mantis'.
The prefix can be used to help make sure table names are unique. This is useful for users who are
limited to a single database or schema.
$g_db_table_suffix
Specifies the prefix to be appended to all table names. The default value is 'table'.
The suffix can be used to help make sure table names are unique. This is useful for users who are
limited to one database.
$g_db_table_plugin_prefix
Specifies the prefix to be used to differentiate tables belonging to a plugin's schema from
MantisBT's base tables. The default value is 'plugin'.
Plugin table names are built using the plugin's basename, e.g. for a table named 'foo' in the
'Example' plugin (with default values for prefixes and suffix), the physical table name would be
mantis_plugin_Example_foo_table.
5.3. Path
These path settings are important for proper linking within MantisBT. In most scenarios the default val-
ues should work fine, and you should not need to override them.
$g_path
URL to your installation as seen from the web browser; this is what you type into the URL field.
Requires trailing '/' character. eg. 'http://www.example.com/mantisbt/'. In the following example
https protocol is used: eg. 'https://www.example.com/mantisbt/'. MantisBT will default this to the
correct value. However, in some cases it might be necessary to override the default. This is typi-
cally needed when an installation can be accessed by multiple URLs (internal vs external).
1 http://docs.oracle.com/database/122/SQLRF/Database-Object-Names-and-Qualifiers.htm#SQLRF51129
Webserver
29
$g_short_path
Short web path without the domain name. This requires the trailing '/'.
$g_absolute_path
This is the absolute file system path to the MantisBT installation, it is defaulted to the directo-
ry where config_defaults_inc.php resides. Requires trailing '/' character (eg. '/usr/apache/ht-
docs/mantisbt/').
$g_core_path
This is the path to the core directory of your installation. The default value is usually OK but
it is recommended that you move the 'core' directory out of your webroot. Requires trailing
DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR character.
$g_class_path
This is the path to the classes directory which is a sub-directory of core by default. The default val-
ue is typically OK. Requires trailing DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR. character.
$g_library_path
This is the path to the library directory of your installation. The default value is usually OK but
it is recommended that you move the 'library' directory out of your webroot. Requires trailing
DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR character.
$g_language_path
This is the path to the language directory of your installation. The default value is usually OK but
it is recommended that you move the 'language' directory out of your webroot. Requires trailing
DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR character.
$g_manual_url
This is the url to the MantisBT online manual. Requires trailing '/' character.
5.4. Webserver
$g_session_handler
Session handler. Possible values are as per the list below; the default is php.
•php: PHP filesystem sessions
•adodb: Database storage sessions
•memcached: Memcached storage sessions
$g_session_save_path
Location where session files are stored. The default is false, meaning the session handler's default
location will be used.
$g_session_validation
Use Session validation (defaults to ON)
Warning
Disabling this could be a potential security risk !
Chapter 5. Configuration
30
$g_form_security_validation
Form security validation, defaults to ON. This protects against Cross-Site Request Forgery2.
Some proxy servers may not correctly work with this option enabled because they cache pages in-
correctly.
Warning
Disabling this option is a security risk, it is strongly recommended to leave it ON
$g_custom_headers
An array of custom headers to be sent with each page.
For example, to allow your MantisBT installation to be viewed in a frame in IE6 when the frameset
is not at the same hostname as the MantisBT install, you need to add a P3P header. You could try
something like
$g_custom_headers = array( 'P3P: CP="CUR ADM"' );
in your config file, but make sure to check that your policy actually matches with what you are
promising. See MSDN3 for more information.
Even though it is not recommended, you could also use this setting to disable previously sent
headers. For example, assuming you didn't want to benefit from Content Security Policy (CSP),
you could set:
$g_custom_headers = array( 'Content-Security-Policy:' );
Warning
Disabling CSP is a security risk, it is strongly recommended that you leave it as Mantis de-
fines it.
5.5. Configuration Settings
$g_global_settings
This option contains the list of configuration options that are used to determine if it is allowed
for a specific configuration option to be saved to or loaded from the database. Configuration
options that are in the list are considered global only and hence are only configurable via the
config_inc.php file and defaulted by config_defaults_inc.php file.
$g_public_config_names
This option contains a list of configuration options that can be queried via SOAP API.
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_request_forgery
3 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms537343.aspx
Security and Cryptography
31
5.6. Security and Cryptography
Content Security Policy
Amongst other things, MantisBT relies on Content Security Policy4 (CSP), which is a W3C can-
didate recommendation5 improving the system's security against cross-site scripting (XSS)6 and
other, similar types of attacks. It is currently supported in recent versions of many browsers7.
Note
CSP may cause issues in certain situations (e.g. during development), or when using plugins
relying on externally hosted resources such as images or scripts.
MantisBT currently does not provide any mechanism for plugins to notify the Core of 'safe' ex-
ternal domains. Because of that, even though it is not recommended for obvious security rea-
sons, you may wish to disable CSP. You can do so by specifying a Custom Header in your
config_inc.php file (see Section 5.4, “Webserver”).
Warning
Disabling Content Security Policy is a security risk !
$g_crypto_master_salt
Master salt value used for cryptographic hashing throughout MantisBT. This value must be kept
secret at all costs. You must generate a unique and random salt value for each installation of Man-
tisBT you control. The minimum length of this string must be at least 16 characters.
The value you select for this salt should be a long string generated using a secure random number
generator. An example for Linux systems is:
cat /dev/urandom | head -c 64 | base64
Note that the number of bits of entropy per byte of output from /dev/urandom is not 8. If you're par-
ticularly paranoid and don't mind waiting a long time, you could use /dev/random to get much clos-
er to 8 bits of entropy per byte. Moving the mouse (if possible) while generating entropy via /dev/
random will greatly improve the speed at which /dev/random produces entropy.
This setting is blank by default. MantisBT will not operate in this state. Hence you are forced to
change the value of this configuration option.
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Security_Policy
5 http://www.w3.org/TR/CSP/
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-site_scripting
7 http://caniuse.com/#feat=contentsecuritypolicy
Chapter 5. Configuration
32
Warning
This configuration option has a profound impact on the security of your MantisBT installation.
Failure to set this configuration option correctly could lead to your MantisBT installation be-
ing compromised. Ensure that this value remains secret. Treat it with the same security that
you'd treat the password to your MantisDB database.
5.7. Signup and Lost Password
$g_allow_signup
Allow users to signup for their own accounts.
If ON (default), then $g_send_reset_password must be ON as well, and mail settings must be cor-
rectly configured (see Section 5.8, “Email”).
$g_max_failed_login_count
Maximum failing login attempts before the account is locked. Once locked, it's required to reset the
password (lost password). Value resets to zero at each successfully login. Default is OFF.
$g_notify_new_user_created_threshold_min
The minimum global access level required to be notified when a new user registers via the "signup
form". To pick specific access levels that are not necessarily at the higher end of access levels,
use an array of access levels. Default is ADMINISTRATOR.
$g_send_reset_password
If ON (default), users will be sent their password when their account is created or password reset
(this requires mail settings to be correctly configured).
If OFF, then the Administrator will have to provide a password when creating new accounts, and
the password will be set to blank when reset.
$g_signup_use_captcha
TODO
$g_system_font_folder
TODO
$g_lost_password_feature
TODO
$g_max_lost_password_in_progress_count
TODO
5.8. Email
$g_webmaster_email
The webmaster's e-mail address. This address is displayed in the bottom of all MantisBT pages.
webmaster@example.com
Email
33
$g_from_email
The email address to be used as the source of all emails sent by MantisBT.
noreply@example.com
$g_return_path_email
Email address to receive bounced emails.
$g_enable_email_notification
Set to ON to enable email notifications, OFF to disable them. Default is ON. Note that disabling
email notifications has no effect on emails generated as part of the user signup process. When set
to OFF, the password reset feature is disabled. Additionally, notifications of administrators updat-
ing accounts are not sent to users.
$g_email_notifications_verbose
When enabled, the email notifications will include the full issue with a hint about the change
type at the top, rather than using dedicated notifications that are focused on what changed. This
change can be overridden in the database per user. Default is OFF.
$g_default_notify_flags
Associates a default notification flag with each action, to control who should be notified. The de-
fault will be used if the action is not defined in $g_notify_flags or if the flag is not included in the
specific action definition.
The list of actions include: new, assigned, resolved, bugnote, reopened, closed, deleted, feed-
back.
The default is:
$g_default_notify_flags = array(
'reporter' => ON,
'handler' => ON,
'monitor' => ON,
'bugnotes' => ON,
'category' => ON,
'explicit' => ON,
'threshold_min' => NOBODY,
'threshold_max' => NOBODY
);
threshold_min and threshold_max are used to send messages to all members of the project
whose status is
• greater than or equal to threshold_min, and
• less than or equal to threshold_max.
Sending messages to everyone would set threshold_min to ANYBODY and threshold_max to NO-
BODY. To send to all DEVELOPERS and above, use DEVELOPER and NOBODY respectively.
$g_notify_flags
Defines the specific notification flags when they are different from the defaults defined in
$g_default_notify_flags.
For example, the following code overrides the default by disabling notifications to bugnote authors
and users monitoring the bug when submitting a new bug:
$g_notify_flags['new'] = array(
Chapter 5. Configuration
34
'bugnotes' => OFF,
'monitor' => OFF,
);
See Section 7.4, “Email Notifications” for further examples of customizing the notification flags.
Available actions include:
•new: a new bug has been added
•reopened: the bug has been reopened
•deleted: a bug has been deleted
•owner: the bug has been assigned a new owner
•bugnote: a bugnote has been added to a bug
•sponsor: the sponsorship for the bug has changed (added, deleted or updated)
•relation: a relationship for the bug has changed (added, deleted or updated)
•monitor: a user is added to the monitor list.
In addition, an action can match the bug status in $g_status_enum_string. Note that spaces in the
string are replaced with underscores ('_') when creating the action. Thus, using the defaults, 'feed-
back' would be a valid action.
$g_email_receive_own
This defines whether users should receive emails for their own actions. This option is defaulted to
OFF, hence, users do not receive email notification for their own actions. This can be a source for
confusions for users upgrading from MantisBT 0.17.x versions, since in these versions users used
to get notified of their own actions.
$g_validate_email
Determines whether email addresses are validated.
When ON (default), validation is performed using the pattern given by the HTML5 specification for
email type form input elements8. When OFF, validation is disabled.
Note
Regardless of how this option is set, validation is never performed when using LDAP email
(i.e. when $g_use_ldap_email = ON, see Section 5.21.2, “LDAP authentication method para-
meters”), as we assume that it is handled by the directory.
$g_check_mx_record
Set to OFF to disable email checking. Default is OFF.
8 http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/forms.html#valid-e-mail-address
Email
35
$g_allow_blank_email
If ON, allows the user to omit an email address field. If you allow users to create their own ac-
counts, they must specify an email at that point, no matter what the value of this option is. Other-
wise they wouldn't get their passwords.
Administrators are able to bypass this check to enable them to create special accounts like anony-
mous access and other service accounts that don't need notifications.
$g_email_login_enabled
Enable support for logging in by email and password, in addition to username and password. This
will only work as long as there is a single user with the specified email address and the email ad-
dress is not blank. The default value is OFF.
$g_email_ensure_unique
When enabled, the uniqueness of email addresses will be inforced for new users as well as up-
dates to existing ones. Note that there can be duplicate emails before this option was turned ON.
Default is ON.
$g_limit_email_domains
Only allow and send email to addresses in the given domain(s). This is useful as a security fea-
ture and it is also useful in cases like Sourceforge where its servers are only limited to send
emails to SourceForge email addresses in order to avoid spam. $g_limit_email_domains =
array( 'users.sourceforge.net', 'sourceforge.net' );
$g_show_user_email_threshold
This specifies the access level that is needed to have user names hyperlinked with mailto: links.
The default value is NOBODY, hence, even administrators won't have this feature enabled.
$g_phpMailer_method
Select the method to send mail:
•PHPMAILER_METHOD_MAIL for use of mail() function,
•PHPMAILER_METHOD_SENDMAIL for sendmail (or postfix),
•PHPMAILER_METHOD_SMTP for SMTP,
Default is PHPMAILER_METHOD_MAIL.
$g_smtp_host
This option specifies the SMTP server to submit messages to. The SMTP server (MTA) then takes
on the responsibility of delivering messages to their final destinations.
To use the local SMTP (if available) set this to 'localhost', otherwise use the fully qualified domain
name of the remote SMTP server.
It can be either a single hostname, or multiple semicolon-delimited hostnames. You can
specify for each host a port other than the default, using format: hostname:port (e.g.
"smtp1.example.com:25;smtp2.example.com").
Hosts will be tried in the given order.
Chapter 5. Configuration
36
Note
This is only used with PHPMAILER_METHOD_SMTP (see $g_phpmailer_method).
The default is 'localhost'.
$g_smtp_port
The default SMTP port to use. This can be overridden individually for specific hosts. (see
$g_smtp_host).
Typical SMTP ports are 25 and 587.
The default is 25.
$g_smtp_connection_mode
Allow secure connection to the SMTP server. Valid values are:
•'' (empty string): No encryption. This is the default.
•ssl
•tls
$g_smtp_username
SMTP Server Authentication user
Allows the use of SMTP Authentication when using a remote SMTP host.
Note
must be set to '' (empty string) if the SMTP host does not require authentication.
Default is ''.
$g_smtp_password
This is the password that is used in SMTP Authentication. Not used when $g_smtp_username = ''
Default is ''.
$g_email_dkim_enable
Enables DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures (rfc6376). To successfully sign mails
you need to enable DKIM and provide at least: DKIM domain (see $g_email_dkim_domain),
DKIM private key or key file path (see $g_email_dkim_private_key_file_path and
$g_email_dkim_private_key_string), DKIM selector (see $g_email_dkim_selector), DKIM identity
(see $g_email_dkim_identity).
The default is OFF.
$g_email_dkim_domain
Defines domain for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures.
Email
37
Typically same as the host part of the $g_from_email. For example example.com.
$g_email_dkim_private_key_file_path
Path to the private domain key to be used for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures.
If the key is specified in $g_email_dkim_private_key_string this setting will not be used.
$g_email_dkim_private_key_string
Private domain key to be used for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures.
This string should contain private key for signing. Leave empty string if you wish to load the key
from the file defined with $g_email_dkim_private_key_file_path.
$g_email_dkim_selector
Selector to be used for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures.
If your domain is example.com, typically DNS TXT field should have: host:
mail.example._domainkey, value: v=DKIM1; t=s; n=core; k=rsa; p=[public key]. In this case selec-
tor should be mail.example
$g_email_dkim_passphrase
Private DKIM domain key password.
Leave empty string if your private key does not have password
$g_email_dkim_identity
Identity to be used for DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) Signatures.
This is usually the same as your g_from_email. For example noreply@example.com
$g_email_send_using_cronjob
Disables sending of emails as soon as an action is performed. Emails are instead queued and
must be sent by running scripts/send_emails.php periodically. This script can only be executed
from the CLI, not from the web interface, for security reasons.
Enabling this option can help with performance problems if large numbers of emails are generated
or mail delivery is slow by not delaying page execution when sending emails.
$g_email_separator1
Default is str_pad('', 70, '='); This means 70 equal signs.
$g_email_separator2
Default is str_pad('', 70, '-'); This means 70 minus signs.
$g_email_padding_length
Default is 28.
MantisBT uses flags and a threshold system to generate emails on events. For each new event, email
is sent to:
• the reporter, qualified by the notify flag 'reporter' below
• the handler (or Assigned to), qualified by the notify flag 'handler' below
• anyone monitoring the bug, qualified by the notify flag 'monitor' below
• anyone who has ever added a bugnote the bug, qualified by the notify flag 'bugnotes' below
Chapter 5. Configuration
38
• anyone assigned to the project whose access level is greater than or equal to the notify flag
'threshold_min' and less than or equal to the notify flag 'threshold_max' below
From this list, those recipients who meet the following criteria are eliminated:
• the originator of the change, if $g_email_receive_own is OFF
• the recipient either no longer exists, or is disabled
• the recipient has turned their email_on_<new status> preference OFF
• the recipient has no email address entered
5.9. Version
$g_show_version
Whether to show the MantisBT version at the bottom of each page or not. Default is OFF.
5.10. Language
$g_default_language
This is the language used by default in MantisBT. This may be set to 'auto' where MantisBT will try
to determine the language from the browser.
$g_language_choices_arr
This is to be set to an array of languages that are available for users to choose from. The de-
fault value includes all languages supported by MantisBT. The administrator can limit the lan-
guages available for users to choose from by overriding this value. For example, to support Eng-
lish, French and German include the following code:
$g_language_choices_arr = array( 'english', 'french', 'german' );
Of course, administrators can also add their own languages by translating the strings and creat-
ing their own language files. You are encouraged to share any translation work that you do with
the MantisBT team. This will ensure that the newly created language file is maintained with future
MantisBT releases.All language files reside in the lang/ folder. They are all named according to
the following pattern: strings_<language>.txt.
$g_fallback_language
This is the language used if MantisBT cannot determine the language from the browser. It de-
faults to 'english'.As of 0.19.0, this may be set to 'auto' where MantisBT will try to determine the
language from the browser.
Note
If a string does not exist in the active language, the English string is used instead.
5.11. Display
$g_window_title
This is the browser window title (<TITLE> tag).
Display
39
$g_search_title
This is used as prefix to describe Browser Search entries, and must be short enough so that when
inserted into the 'opensearch_XXX_short' language string, the resulting text is 16 characters or
less, to be compliant with the limit for the ShortName element as defined in the OpenSearch
specification 9.
Defaults to the value of $g_window_title.
$g_favicon_image
Path to the favorites icon relative to MantisBT root folder This icon should be of image/x-icon
MIME type, and its size 16x16 pixels. It is also used to decorate OpenSearch Browser search en-
tries. (default 'images/favicon.ico').
$g_logo_image
Path to the logo image relative to MantisBT root folder (default 'images/mantis_logo.gif').
$g_logo_url
The default URL to be associated with the logo. By default this is set to $g_default_home_page
(which defaults to My View page). Clicking on the logo from any page in the bug tracker will navi-
gate to the URL specified in this configuration option.
$g_show_project_menu_bar
This option specifies whether to add menu at the top of the page which includes links to all the
projects. The default value is OFF.
$g_show_assigned_names
When a bug is assigned then replace the word "assigned" with the name of the developer in
parenthesis. Default is ON.
$g_show_priority_text
Specifies whether to show priority as text (ON) or icon (OFF) in the view all bugs page. Default is
OFF (icon).
$g_priority_significant_threshold
Define the priority level at which a bug becomes significant. Significant bugs are displayed with
emphasis. Set this value to -1 to disable the feature. The default value is HIGH.
$g_severity_significant_threshold
Define the severity level at which a bug becomes significant. Significant bugs are displayed with
emphasis. Set this value to -1 to disable the feature. The default value is MAJOR.
$g_view_issues_page_columns
This configuration option is used to select the columns to be included in the View Issues page and
in which order. If one of the column is not accessible to the logged in user, or corresponds to a
disabled feature, then it will be automatically removed from the list at runtime. Hence, the same
column list may show a different set of columns based on the logged in user, the currently select-
ed project and enabled features (e.g. sponsorship_total is only shown if the sponsorship feature is
enabled).
The supported columns are: selection, edit, id, project_id, reporter_id, handler_id, priority, repro-
ducibility, projection, eta, resolution, fixed_in_version, view_state, os, os_build, build (for product
build), platform, version, date_submitted, attachment_count, category, sponsorship_total, severity,
9 http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSearch/1.1
Chapter 5. Configuration
40
status, last_updated, summary, bugnotes_count, description, steps_to_reproduce, additional_info.
As for custom fields they can be referenced by adding a 'custom_' to their name (e.g. xyz would
be custom_xyz).
By default the following columns are selected: selection, edit, priority, id, sponsorship_total,
bugnotes_count, attachment_count, category_id, severity, status, last_updated, summary.
$g_print_issues_page_columns
This configuration option is used to select the columns to be included in the Print Issues page and
in which order. See $g_view_issues_page_columns for more details about the supported fields.
By default the following columns are selected: selection, priority, id, sponsorship_total,
bugnotes_count, attachment_count, category_id, severity, status, last_updated, summary
$g_csv_columns
This configuration option is used to select the columns to be included in the CSV export and in
which order. See $g_view_issues_page_columns for more details about the supported fields.
By default the following columns are selected: id, project_id, reporter_id, handler_id, priority,
severity, reproducibility, version, build, projection, category_id, date_submitted, eta, os, os_build,
platform, view_state, last_updated, summary, status, resolution, fixed_in_version, duplicate_id.
$g_excel_columns
This configuration option is used to select the columns to be included in the CSV export and in
which order. See $g_view_issues_page_columns for more details about the supported fields.
By default the following columns are selected: id, project_id, reporter_id, handler_id, priority,
severity, reproducibility, version, build, projection, category_id, date_submitted, eta, os, os_build,
platform, view_state, last_updated, summary, status, resolution, fixed_in_version, duplicate_id.
$g_show_bug_project_links
Show project links when in All Projects mode. Default is ON.
$g_show_product_version
This controls display of the product version in the report, view, update and print issue pages. This
flag also applies to other product version related fields like product build, fixed in version, and tar-
get version. Valid values are ON, OFF, and AUTO. ON for always displayed, AUTO for displayed
when project has versions defined, and OFF for always OFF. The default value is AUTO.
$g_show_version_dates_threshold
The access level threshold at which users will see the date of release for product versions. Dates
will be shown next to the product version, target version and fixed in version fields. Set this thresh-
old to NOBODY to disable the feature. Default value is NOBODY.
$g_show_realname
This control will replace the user's userid with their realname. If it is set to ON, and the real name
field has been populated, the replacement will occur. It defaults to OFF.
$g_show_avatar
Show the users' avatar
In addition to enabling this configuration option it is necessary to install an avatar plugin like the
Gravatar10 plugin which is bundled out of the box.
10 http://www.gravatar.com
Time
41
$g_show_avatar_threshold
The threshold of users for which MantisBT should show the avatar (default DEVELOPER). Note
that the threshold is related to the user for whom the avatar is being shown, rather than the user
who is currently logged in.
5.12. Time
$g_cookie_time_length
Time for long lived cookie to live in seconds. It is also used as the default for permanent logins if
$g_allow_permanent_cookie is enabled and selected. Default is 1 year.
$g_allow_permanent_cookie
Allow users to opt for a 'permanent' cookie when logging in. Controls the display of the 'Remember
my login in this browser' checkbox on the login page. See $g_cookie_time_length.
$g_wait_time
Time to delay between page redirects (in seconds). Users can override this setting in their user
preferences. Default is 2 seconds.
$g_long_process_timeout
This timeout is used by pages which does time consuming operations like upgrading the data-
base. The default value of 0 disables timeout. Note that this timeout is specified in seconds.
5.13. Date
These variables control how the date is displayed. The default is ISO 860111 formatting.
Please refer to the PHP manual 12 for details on available formatting options.
$g_short_date_format
This format is used in the bug listing pages (eg: View Bugs). Default is Y-m-d.
$g_normal_date_format
This format is used in the view/update bug pages, bug notes, manage section, and news section.
Default is Y-m-d H:i.
$g_complete_date_format
This format is used on the top of each page (current time) and the emails that are sent out. Default
is Y-m-d H:i T.
$g_datetime_picker_format
This format is used with the datetime picker widget. Default is Y-MM-DD H:m.
11 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601
12 http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php#refsect1-function.date-parameters
Chapter 5. Configuration
42
Note
The formatting convention for the DateTime picker is different from the one used for the other
date settings described above; see Moment.js documention 13 for details.
Warning
This format needs to match the one defined in $g_normal_date_format. Inconsistencies be-
tween these two settings, e.g. using different date ordering (DMY, MDY or YMD) or display-
ing the month as a number vs a word or abbreviation, may result in unexpected behavior
such as an invalid interpretation of the date by the DateTime picker widget, or errors trying to
save a modified date.
5.14. Time Zone
$g_default_timezone
Default timezone to use in MantisBT. This configuration is normally initialized when installing Man-
tis. It should be set to one of the values specified in the List of Supported Timezones14.
If this config is left blank, the timezone will be initialized by calling function
date_default_timezone_get()15, which will fall back to UTC if unable to determine the timezone.
Correct configuration of this variable can be confirmed by running the administration checks.
Users can override the default timezone under user their preferences.
Note
Note that this function's behavior was modified in PHP 5.4.0.
5.15. News
These options are used to control the query that selects the news entries to be displayed.
$g_news_enabled
Indicates whether the news feature should be enabled or disabled. The default is OFF. The news
feature is deprecated in favor of being moved to a plugin.
$g_news_limit_method
Limit the news entry that are displayed by number of entries (BY_LIMIT) or by date (BY_DATE).
The default is BY_LIMIT.
13 http://momentjs.com/docs/#/displaying/format/
14 http://php.net/timezones
15 http://php.net/date-default-timezone-get
Default Preferences
43
$g_news_view_limit
The limit for the number of news entries to be displayed. This option is only used if
$g_news_limit_method is set to BY_LIMIT.
$g_news_view_limit_days
Specifies the number of dates after which the news are not displayed. This option is only used if
$g_news_limit_method is set to BY_DATE.
$g_private_news_threshold
Specifies the access level required to view private news. The default is DEVELOPER.
5.16. Default Preferences
$g_default_new_account_access_level
This is the default access level users are given when their account is created by email. The default
access level is REPORTER. Look in constant_inc.php for other values.
$g_default_project_view_status
The default viewing status for new projects (VS_PUBLIC or VS_PRIVATE). The default is
VS_PUBLIC.
$g_default_bug_view_status
The default viewing status for the new bug (VS_PUBLIC or VS_PRIVATE). The default is
VS_PUBLIC.
$g_default_bugnote_view_status
The default viewing status for the new bugnote (VS_PUBLIC or VS_PRIVATE). The default is
VS_PUBLIC.
$g_timeline_view_threshold
Threshold for viewing timeline information. Use NOBODY to turn it off. If the timeline is turned off,
the other widgets are displayed in a two column view. The default is VIEWER.
$g_default_reminder_view_status
The default viewing status for the new reminders (VS_PUBLIC or VS_PRIVATE). The default is
VS_PUBLIC.
$g_reminder_receive_threshold
The minimum access level for a user to show up in the reminder user picker. Note that this is the
access level for the project for which the issue belongs. The default is DEVELOPER.
$g_default_bug_resolution
The resolution for a newly created issue. The default is OPEN. Look in constant_inc.php for other
values.
$g_default_bug_severity
The severity for a newly created issue. The default is MINOR. Look in constant_inc.php for other
values.
$g_default_bug_priority
The priority for a newly created issue. The default is NORMAL. Look in constant_inc.php for other
values.
Chapter 5. Configuration
44
$g_default_bug_reproducibility
The reproducibility for a newly created issue. The default is
REPRODUCIBILITY_HAVENOTTRIED. Look in constant_inc.php for other values.
$g_default_bug_projection
The projection for a newly created issue. The default is PROJECTION_NONE. Look in
constant_inc.php for other values.
$g_default_bug_eta
The ETA for a newly created issue. The default is ETA_NONE. Look in constant_inc.php for other
values.
$g_default_category_for_moves
Default global category to be used when an issue is moved from a project to another that doesn't
have a category with a matching name. The default is 1 which is the "General" category that is
created in the default database.
$g_default_limit_view
Number of bugs to show in the View Bugs page. The default value is 50.
$g_default_show_changed
Highlight bugs that have changed during the last N hours. The default value is 6.
$g_hide_status_default
Controls which issues will be displayed in the View Issues page. Default value is CLOSED, imply-
ing that all issues at "closed" or higher state will not be shown.
$g_min_refresh_delay
This is the delay between automatic refreshes of the View Issues page in minutes. Make sure re-
fresh delay in user preferences isn't too short. If a users set their preferences to be lower then it is
bumped back up to this minimum value. The default value is 10 minutes.
These settings are used as the default values for preferences for new users. Each user can override
these settings through the user preferences form. Default language is set to default site language
($g_default_language).
$g_default_refresh_delay
Default page refresh delay (in minutes). This is for the bug listing pages. Default value is 30 min-
utes.
$g_default_redirect_delay
Default delay before a user is redirected to a page after being prompted by a message (eg: opera-
tional successful). Default value is 2 seconds.
$g_default_bugnote_order
This controls the time order in which bug notes are displayed. It can be either ASC (oldest first, the
default) or DESC (newest first).
$g_default_email_on_new$g_default_email_on_assigned$g_default_email_on_feedback
$g_default_email_on_resolved$g_default_email_on_closed
Default user preferences to enable receiving emails when a bug is set to the corresponding status.
This option only has an effect if users have the required access level to receive such emails. De-
fault value is ON.
Summary
45
$g_default_email_on_reopened
Default user preferences to enable receiving emails when bugs are re-opened. Default value is
ON.
$g_default_email_on_bugnote
Default user preferences to enable receiving emails when bugnotes are added to bugs. Default
value is ON.
$g_default_email_on_status$g_default_email_on_priority
Default user preferences to enable receiving emails when status or priority is changed. Default is
ON. Note that this option is not implemented.
$g_default_email_on_new_minimum_severity$g_default_email_on_assigned_minimum_severity
$g_default_email_on_feedback_minimum_severity$g_default_email_on_resolved_minimum_severity
$g_default_email_on_closed_minimum_severity$g_default_email_on_reopened_minimum_severity
$g_default_email_on_bugnote_minimum_severity
Default user preferences to enable filtering based on issue severity. These correspond to the
email_on_<status> settings. Default is 'any'.
$g_default_email_on_bugnote_minimum_severity
Default user preference to enable filtering based on issue severity. These corresponds to the
email_on_bugnote setting. Default is 'any'.
$g_default_email_on_status_minimum_severity$g_default_email_on_priority_minimum_severity
Default user preferences to enable filtering based on issue severity. These correspond to the
email_on_status and email_on_priority settings. Default is 'any'. Note that this option is not yet im-
plemented.
See also: Section 7.4, “Email Notifications”
5.17. Summary
These are the settings that are used to configuration options related to the Summary page. This page
contains statistics about the bugs in MantisBT.
$g_reporter_summary_limit
Limit how many reporters to show in the summary page. This is useful when there are dozens or
hundreds of reporters. The default value is 10.
$g_date_partitions
An array of date lengths to count bugs by (in days) for the summary by date. The default is to
count for 1, 2, 3, 7, 30, 60, 90, 180, and 365.
$g_summary_category_include_project
Specifies whether category names should be preceded by project names (eg: [Project] Catego-
ry) when the summary page is viewed for all projects. This is useful in the case where category
names are common across projects. The default is OFF.
$g_view_summary_threshold
Specifies the access level required to view the summary page. Default is MANAGER.
$g_severity_multipliers
An array of multipliers which are used to determine the effectiveness of reporters based on the
severity of bugs. Higher multipliers will result in an increase in reporter effectiveness. The default
multipliers are:
Chapter 5. Configuration
46
$g_severity_multipliers = array ( FEATURE => 1,
TRIVIAL => 2,
TEXT => 3,
TWEAK => 2,
MINOR => 5,
MAJOR => 8,
CRASH => 8,
BLOCK => 10 );
The keys of the array are severity constants from constant_inc.php or from
custom_constants_inc.php if you have custom severities defined. The values are integers, typical-
ly in the range of 0 to 10. If you would like for a severity to not count towards effectiveness, set the
value to 0 for that severity.
$g_resolution_multipliers
An array of multipliers which are used to determine the effectiveness of reporters based
on the resolution of bugs. Higher multipliers will result in a decrease in reporter effective-
ness. The only resolutions that need to be defined here are those which match or exceed
$g_bug_resolution_not_fixed_threshold. The default multipliers are:
$g_resolution_multipliers = array( UNABLE_TO_REPRODUCE => 2,
NOT_FIXABLE => 1,
DUPLICATE => 3,
NOT_A_BUG => 5,
SUSPENDED => 1,
WONT_FIX => 1 );
The keys of the array are resolution constants from constant_inc.php or from
custom_constants_inc.php if you have custom resolutions defined. Resolutions not included here
will be assumed to have a multiplier value of 0. The values are integers, typically in the range of
0 to 10. If you would like for a resolution to not count towards effectiveness, set the value to 0 for
that resolution or remove it from the array completely. Note that these resolution multipliers are
stacked on top of the severity multipliers. Therefore by default, a user reporting many duplicate
bugs at severity level BLOCK will be far worse off than a user reporting many duplicate bugs at
severity level FEATURE.
5.18. Bugnote
$g_bugnote_order
Order to use for sorting bugnotes by submit date. Possible values include ASC for ascending and
DESC for descending order. The default value is ASC.
5.19. File Upload
MantisBT allows users to upload file attachments and associate them with bugs as well as projects.
Bug attachments / project documents can be uploaded to the webserver or database. When bugs are
uploaded to the webserver they are uploaded to the path that is configured in the project properties. In
case of problems getting the file upload feature to work, check the following resources: PHP Manual 16
.
16 http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.file-upload.php
File Upload
47
$g_allow_file_upload
Whether to allow/disallow uploading of attachments. Default value is ON.
$g_file_upload_method
Specify the location for uploading attachments. In case of DISK methods you need to provide the
webserver with write access rights to the configured upload path (configured in the project) and
temporary upload path (used by PHP).
Values: DISK or DATABASE
Default: DATABASE
$g_dropzone_enabled
Whether to enable/disable drag and drop zone for uploading of attachments. Default value is ON.
$g_file_upload_max_num
Maximum number of files that can be uploaded simultaneously. Default value is 10.
$g_max_file_size
Maximum file size that can be uploaded. Default value is about 5MB. The maximum size is also
affected by the PHP options post_max_size (default 8MB), upload_max_filesize (default 2MB) and
memory_limit (default 128MB) specified in php.ini.
$g_allowed_files
Files that are allowed. Separate items by commas. eg. "zip,bmp,gif,jpg,txt" If $g_allowed_files is
filled in NO other file types will be allowed. If empty it will assume any files are accepted that pass
the $g_disallowed_files list.
$g_disallowed_files
Files that are not allowed. Separate items by commas. eg. "php,php3,phtml,html,class,java,exe,pl"
$g_disallowed_files takes precedence over $g_allowed_files. It is recommended to disable all ex-
tensions that can be executed by your server.
$g_preview_attachments_inline_max_size
This limit applies to previewing of image / text attachments. If the attachment size is smaller than
the specified value, the attachment is previewed with the issue details. The previewing can be dis-
abled by setting this configuration to 0. The default value is 256 * 1024 (256KB).
$g_fileinfo_magic_db_file
Specify the filename of the magic database file. This is used by PHP 5.3.0 (or earlier versions with
the fileinfo PECL extension) to guess what the MIME type of a file is. Usually it is safe to leave this
setting as the default (blank) as PHP is usually able to find this file by itself.
$g_file_download_xsendfile_enabled
Enable support for sending files to users via a more efficient X-Sendfile method. HTTP server soft-
ware supporting this technique includes Lighttpd, Cherokee, Apache with mod_xsendfile and ng-
inx. You may need to set the proceeding file_download_xsendfile_header_name option to suit the
server you are using.
$g_file_download_xsendfile_header_name
The name of the X-Sendfile header to use. Each server tends to implement this functionality in a
slightly different way and thus the naming conventions for the header differ between each server.
Lighttpd from v1.5, Apache with mod_xsendfile and Cherokee web servers use X-Sendfile. nginx
uses X-Accel-Redirect and Lighttpd v1.4 uses X-LIGHTTPD-send-file.
Chapter 5. Configuration
48
5.20. HTML
$g_html_make_links
This flag controls whether www URLs and email addresses are automatically converted into click-
able links as well as where the www links open when clicked. The options are:
•OFF - do not convert URLs or emails
•LINKS_SAME_WINDOW - convert to links that open in current tab/window. NOTE: for back-
wards-compatibility, this is equivalent to ON.
•LINKS_NEW_WINDOW - convert to links that open in a new tab/window
Default is LINKS_SAME_WINDOW.
$g_html_valid_tags
This is the list of HTML tags that are allowed.Do NOT include href or img tags here.Do NOT in-
clude tags that have parameters (eg. )The HTML code is allowed to enter the database as is. The
$g_allow_href_tags does not have to be enabled to make URL links. The package will automati-
cally hyperlink properly formatted URLs eg. http://blah.blah/ or mailto://me@more.com/
$g_bottom_include_page
Specifies a file to be included at the bottom of each page. It can be used e.g. for company brand-
ing, to include Google Analytics script, etc.
$g_top_include_page
Specifies a file to be included at the top of each page. It can be used e.g. for company branding.
If a file is supplied, the logo specified by $g_logo_image (see Section 5.11, “Display”) will not
be shown, and the include file will have to handle display of the logo. To do so you can use the
html_print_logo() API function, which will display the logo with an URL link if one has been
specified in $g_logo_url
Example top include PHP file with logo and centered page title:
<div id="banner" style="display: flex; align-items: center;">
<div style="width: 10%;">
<?php html_print_logo(); ?>
</div>
<div class="center">
<span class="pagetitle">
<?php global $g_window_title; echo $g_window_title; ?>
</span>
</div>
<div style="width: 10%;">
</div>
</div>
$g_css_include_file
Set this to point to the CSS file of your choice.
$g_css_rtl_include_file
Set this to point to the RTL CSS file of your choice.
Authentication
49
$g_cdn_enabled
A flag that indicates whether to use CDN (content delivery networks) for loading javascript libraries
and their associated CSS. This improves performance for loading MantisBT pages. This can be
disabled if it is desired that MantisBT doesn't reach out outside corporate network. Default OFF.
$g_main_menu_custom_options
This option will add custom options to the main menu. It is an array of arrays listing the caption,
access level required, and the link to be executed. For example:
$g_main_menu_custom_options = array(
array(
'title' => 'My Link',
'access_level' => MANAGER,
'url' => 'my_link.php',
'icon' => 'fa-plug'
),
array(
'title' => 'My Link2',
'access_level' => ADMINISTRATOR,
'url' => 'my_link2.php',
'icon' => 'fa-plug'
)
);
Note that if the caption is found in the Custom Strings File (see Section 7.1, “Strings / Transla-
tions”) it will be replaced by the corresponding translated string. Options will only be added to the
menu if the current logged in user has the appropriate access level.
Use icons from Font Awesome17. Add "fa-" prefix to icon name.
Access level is an optional field, and no check will be done if it is not set. Icon is an optional field,
and 'fa-plug' will be used if it is not set.
5.21. Authentication
5.21.1. Global authentication parameters
$g_login_method
Specifies which method will be used to authenticate. It should be one of the following values (de-
faults to MD5):
• MD5 - user's password is stored as a hash in the database
• LDAP - authenticates against an LDAP (or Active Directory) server
• BASIC_AUTH
• HTTP_AUTH
In addition, the following deprecated values are supported for backwards-compatibility, and should
no longer be used:
• PLAIN - password is stored in plain, unencrypted text in the database
• CRYPT
17 http://fontawesome.io/icons/
Chapter 5. Configuration
50
• CRYPT_FULL_SALT
Note: you may not be able to easily switch encryption methods, so this should be carefully chosen
at install time. However, MantisBT will attempt to "fall back" to older methods if possible.
$g_reauthentication
Determines whether MantisBT will require the user to re-authenticate before granting access to
the Admin areas after timeout expiration. Defaults to ON
$g_reauthentication_expiry
Duration of the reauthentication timeout, in seconds. Defaults to 5 minutes.
5.21.2. LDAP authentication method parameters
The parameters below are only used if $g_login_method (see above) is set to LDAP.
$g_ldap_server
Specifies the LDAP or Active Directory server to connect to, and must be provided as an URI
The protocol is optional, can be one of ldap or ldaps, and defaults to ldap.
The port number is optional, and defaults to 389. If this doesn't work, try using one of the following
standard port numbers: 636 (ldaps); for Active Directory Global Catalog forest-wide search, use
3268 (ldap) or 3269 (ldaps)
Examples of valid URI:
ldap.example.com
ldap.example.com:3268
ldap://ldap.example.com/
ldaps://ldap.example.com:3269/
$g_ldap_root_dn
The root distinguished name for LDAP searches. For example, "dc=example, dc=com".
$g_ldap_organization
LDAP search filter for the organization, for example, "(organizationname=*Traffic)". Defaults to ''.
$g_ldap_protocol_version
The LDAP Protocol Version. If 0, then the protocol version is not set. Defaults to 0.
For Active Directory use protocol version 3.
$g_ldap_network_timeout
Duration of the timeout for TCP connection to the LDAP server (in seconds). Defaults to 0 (infi-
nite).
Set this to a low value when the hostname defined in $g_ldap_server resolves to multiple IP ad-
dresses, allowing rapid failover to the next available LDAP server.
$g_ldap_follow_referrals
Determines whether the LDAP library automatically follows referrals returned by LDAP servers or
not. This maps to LDAP_OPT_REFERRALS ldap library option. Defaults to ON.
For Active Directory, this should be set to OFF.
LDAP authentication method parameters
51
$g_ldap_bind_dn
The distinguished name of the service account to use for binding to the LDAP server. For exam-
ple, 'CN=ldap,OU=Administrators,DC=example,DC=com'.
$g_ldap_bind_passwd
The password for the service account used to establish the connection to the LDAP server.
$g_ldap_uid_field
The LDAP field for username. Defaults to uid.
For Active Directory, set to sAMAccountName.
$g_ldap_realname_field
The LDAP field for the user's real name (i.e. common name). Defaults to cn.
$g_use_ldap_realname
Use the realname specified in LDAP (ON) rather than the one stored in the database (OFF). De-
faults to OFF.
Note that MantisBT will update the database with the data retrieved from LDAP when ON.
$g_use_ldap_email
Use the email address specified in LDAP (ON) rather than the one stored in the database (OFF).
Defaults to OFF.
Note that MantisBT will update the database with the data retrieved from LDAP when ON.
$g_ldap_simulation_file_path
This configuration option allows replacing the ldap server with a comma-delimited text file for de-
velopment or testing purposes.
The LDAP simulation file format is as follows:
• One line per user
• Each line has 4 comma-delimited fields
• username
• realname
• e-mail
• password
• Any extra fields are ignored
Warning
On production systems, this option should be set to '' (This is the default).
$g_ldap_port
Deprecated since MantisBT release 1.2.0a1.
Chapter 5. Configuration
52
The LDAP server port number should be defined as part of the URI in $g_ldap_server instead
(see above).
5.22. Status Settings
$g_bug_submit_status
Status to assign to the bug when submitted. Default value is NEW_.
$g_bug_assigned_status
Status to assign to the bug when assigned. Default value is ASSIGNED.
$g_bug_reopen_status
Status to assign to the bug when reopened. Default value is FEEDBACK.
$g_bug_feedback_status
Status to assign to the bug when feedback is required from the issue reporter. Once the re-
porter adds a note the status moves back from feedback to $g_bug_assigned_status or
$g_bug_submit_status based on whether the bug assigned or not.
$g_reassign_on_feedback
When a note is added to a bug currently in $g_bug_feedback_status, and the note author is
the bug's reporter, this option will automatically set the bug status to $g_bug_submit_status or
$g_bug_assigned_status if the bug is assigned to a developer. Default value is ON.
$g_bug_duplicate_resolution
Default resolution to assign to a bug when it is resolved as being a duplicate of another issue. De-
fault value is DUPLICATE.
$g_bug_reopen_resolution
Resolution to assign to the bug when reopened. Default value is REOPENED.
$g_auto_set_status_to_assigned
Automatically set status to $g_bug_assigned_status whenever a bug is assigned to a person. In-
stallations where assigned status is to be used when the defect is in progress, rather than just
put in a person's queue should set it to OFF. Default is ON. For the status change to be effective,
these conditions must be met:
• Bug has no handler, and a new handler is selected
• The assignment is not part of a explicit status change
• Current bug status is lower than defined "assigned" status
• "Assigned" status is reachable by workflow configuration
If the conditions are not met, the assignment is still made, but status will not be modified.
$g_bug_resolved_status_threshold
Bug is resolved, ready to be closed or reopened. In some custom installations a bug maybe con-
sidered as resolved when it is moved to a custom (FIXED OR TESTED) status.
$g_bug_resolution_fixed_threshold
Threshold resolution which denotes that a bug has been resolved and successful-
ly fixed by developers. Resolutions above and including this threshold and below
$g_bug_resolution_not_fixed_threshold are considered to be resolved successfully. Default value
is FIXED.
Status Settings
53
$g_bug_resolution_not_fixed_threshold
Threshold resolution which denotes that a bug has been resolved without being successfully fixed
by developers. Resolutions above this threshold are considered to be resolved in an unsuccessful
way. Default value is UNABLE_TO_REPRODUCE.
$g_bug_readonly_status_threshold $g_update_readonly_bug_threshold
Bug becomes readonly if its status is >= $g_bug_readonly_status_threshold. The bug becomes
read/write again if re-opened and its status becomes less than this threshold. The default is
RESOLVED. Once the bug becomes readonly, a user with an access level greater than or equal
to $g_update_readonly_bug_threshold can still edit the bug.
$g_status_enum_workflow
'status_enum_workflow' defines the workflow, and reflects a simple 2-dimensional matrix. For
each existing status, you define which statuses you can go to from that status, e.g. from NEW_
you might list statuses '10:new,20:feedback,30:acknowledged' but not higher ones.The default is
no workflow, where all states are accessible from any others.
$g_report_bug_threshold
This is the access level required to open a bug. The default is REPORTER.
$g_update_bug_threshold
This is the access level generally required to update the content of a bug. The default is UP-
DATER.
$g_handle_bug_threshold
This is the access level generally required to be access level needed to be listed in the as-
sign to field. The default is DEVELOPER. If a more restrictive setting can be determined from
$g_set_status_threshold, it will be used.
$g_update_bug_status_threshold $g_set_status_threshold
These settings control the access level required to promote a bug to a new status once the bug
is opened.$g_set_status_threshold is an array indexed by the status value that allows a dis-
tinct setting for each status. It defaults to blank.If the appropriate status is not defined above,
$g_update_bug_status_threshold is used instead. The default is DEVELOPER.
$g_bugnote_user_edit_threshold
Threshold at which a user can edit his/her own bugnotes. The default value is equal to the config-
uration setting $g_update_bugnote_threshold.
$g_bugnote_user_delete_threshold
Threshold at which a user can delete his/her own bugnotes. The default value is equal to the con-
figuration setting $g_delete_bugnote_threshold.
$g_bugnote_user_change_view_state_threshold
Threshold at which a user can change the view status of his/her own bugnotes. The default value
is equal to the configuration setting $g_change_view_status_threshold.
$g_allow_reporter_close
If set, the bug reporter is allowed to close their own bugs, regardless of their access level. The de-
fault is OFF.
$g_allow_reporter_reopen
If set, the bug reporter is allowed to reopen their own bugs once resolved, regardless of their ac-
cess level. This allows the reporter to disagree with the resolution. The default is ON.
Chapter 5. Configuration
54
$g_allow_parent_of_unresolved_to_close
If set, no check is performed on the status of a bug's children, which allows the parent to be closed
whether or not the children have been resolved. The default is OFF.
See also: Section 7.5, “Customizing Status Values”
5.23. Filters
$g_filter_by_custom_fields
Show custom fields in the filter dialog and use these in filtering. Defaults to ON.
$g_filter_custom_fields_per_row
The number of filter fields to display per row. The default is 8.
$g_view_filters = SIMPLE_DEFAULT;
Controls the display of the filter pages. Possible values are:
• SIMPLE_ONLY - only allow use of simple view
• ADVANCED_ONLY - only allow use of advanced view (allows multiple value selections)
• SIMPLE_DEFAULT - defaults to simple view, but shows a link for advanced
• ADVANCED_DEFAULT - defaults to advanced view, but shows a link for simple
$g_use_dynamic_filters = ON;
This switch enables the use of AJAX to dynamically load and create filter form controls upon re-
quest. This method will reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred upon each page
load dealing with filters and thus will result in speed improvements and bandwidth reduction.
$g_create_permalink_threshold
The threshold required for users to be able to create permalinks (default DEVELOPER). To turn
this feature off use NOBODY.
$g_create_short_url
The service to use to create a short URL. The %s will be replaced by the long URL. By default
http://www.tinyurl service is used to shorten URLs.
5.24. Misc
$g_user_login_valid_regex
The regular expression to use when validating new user login names. The default regular expres-
sion allows a-z, A-Z, 0-9, +, -, dot, space and underscore. If you change this, you may want to up-
date the ERROR_USER_NAME_INVALID string in the language files to explain the rules you are
using on your site.
See Wikipedia18 for more details about regular expressions. For testing regular expressions, use
Rubular19.
$g_monitor_bug_threshold
Access level needed to monitor bugs. The default value is REPORTER.
18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_Expression
19 http://rubular.com/
Misc
55
$g_monitor_add_others_bug_threshold
Access level needed to add other users to the list of users monitoring a bug. The default value is
DEVELOPER.
$g_monitor_delete_others_bug_threshold
Access level needed to delete other users from the list of users monitoring a bug. The default val-
ue is DEVELOPER.
$g_limit_reporters
Limit reporters to only viewing bugs that they report.
$g_allow_reporter_close
Allow reporters to close the bugs they reported.
$g_delete_bug_threshold
Allow the specified access level and above to delete bugs.
$g_bug_move_access_level
Allow the specified access level and above to move bugs between projects.
$g_allow_account_delete
Allow users to delete their own accounts.
$g_allow_anonymous_login
Enable anonymous access to Mantis. You must also specify $g_anonymous_account as the ac-
count which anonymous users will browse Mantis with. The default setting is OFF.
$g_anonymous_account
Define the account which anonymous users will assume when using Mantis. This account is con-
sidered by Mantis to be protected from modification. In other words, this account can only be mod-
ified by users with an access level equal to or higher than $g_manage_user_threshold. Anony-
mous users will not be able to adjust preferences or change account settings like normal users
can.
You will need to create a new account to use for this $g_anonymous_account setting. When creat-
ing the account you should specify a password, email address and so forth in the same way you'd
create any other account. It is suggested that the access level for this account be set to VIEWER
or some other read only level.
The anonymous user account will not receive standard notifications and can not monitor issues.
The default setting is blank/undefined. You only need to define this setting when
$g_allow_anonymous_login is set to ON.
$g_bug_link_tag
If a number follows this tag it will create a link to a bug. Default is '#'.
• '#': a link would be #45
• 'bug:' a link would be bug:98
$g_bugnote_link_tag
If a number follows this tag it will create a link to a bug note. Default is '~'.
• '~': a link would be ~45
• 'bugnote:' a link would be bugnote:98
Chapter 5. Configuration
56
$g_enable_project_documentation
Specifies whether to enable support for project documents or not. Default is OFF. This feature is
deprecated and is expected to be moved to a plugin in the future.
$g_admin_site_threshold
Threshold at which a user is considered to be a site administrator. These users have the highest
level of access to your Mantis installation. This access level is required to change key Mantis set-
tings (such as server paths) and perform other administrative duties. You may need to change this
value from the default of ADMINISTRATOR if you have defined a new access level to replace the
default ADMINISTRATOR level in constant_inc.php.
Warning
This is a potentially dangerous configuration option. Users at or above this threshold value
will have permission to all aspects of Mantis including the admin/ directory. With this access
level, users can damage your installation of Mantis, destroy your database or have elevated
access to your server.
DO NOT CHANGE THIS VALUE UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE
DOING. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH CHANGING THIS CONFIGURATION VALUE FROM
THE DEFAULT SETTING.
$g_manage_configuration_threshold
The threshold required for users to be able to manage configuration of a project. This includes
workflow, email notifications, columns to view, and others. Default is MANAGER.
$g_view_configuration_threshold
Threshold for users to view the raw system configurations as stored in the database. The default
value is ADMINISTRATOR.
$g_set_configuration_threshold
Threshold for users to set the system configurations generically via MantisBT web interface. The
default value is ADMINISTRATOR.
Warning
Users who have access to set configuration via the interface MUST be trusted. This is due to
the fact that these users can leverage the interface to inject PHP code into the system, which
is a potential security risk.
5.25. Cookies
$g_cookie_path
Specifies the path under which a cookie is visible.
All scripts in this directory and its sub-directories will be able to access MantisBT cookies.
Default value is '/'. It is recommended to set this to the actual MantisBT path.
Speed Optimisation
57
$g_cookie_domain
The domain that the MantisBT cookies are available to.
$g_cookie_prefix
Prefix for all MantisBT cookies
This should be an identifier which does not include spaces or periods, and should be unique per
MantisBT installation, especially if $g_cookie_path is not restricting the cookies' scope to the actu-
al MantisBT directory.
It applies to the cookies listed below. Their actual names are calculated by prepending the prefix,
and it is not expected for the user to need to change these.
• $g_string_cookie
• $g_project_cookie
• $g_view_all_cookie
• $g_manage_users_cookie
Stores the filter criteria for the Manage Users page
• $g_manage_config_cookie
Stores the filter criteria for the Manage Config Report page
• $g_logout_cookie
• $g_bug_list_cookie
5.26. Speed Optimisation
$g_compress_html
This option is used to enable buffering/compression of HTML output if the user's browser supports
it. Default value is ON. This option will be ignored in the following scenarios:
• If php.ini has zlib.output_compression enabled.
• If php.ini has output_handler set to a handler.
• If PHP does not include the zlib extension (PHP 4.3.0 and later include zlib extension by de-
fault).
You can check the loaded modules in your PHP by running "php -m" on the command line, or by
using php_info() command in a php script.
$g_use_persistent_connections
Use persistent database connections, setting this to ON will open the database once per connec-
tion, rather than once per page. There might be some scalability issues here and that is why it is
defaulted to OFF.
5.27. Reminders
Sending reminders is a feature where a user can notify / remind other users about a bug. In the past,
only selected users like the managers, or developers would get notified about bugs. However, these
people can not invite other people (through MantisBT) to look at or monitor these bugs.
Chapter 5. Configuration
58
This feature is useful if the Manager needs to get feedback from testers / requirements team about a
certain bug. It avoid needing this person to do this manual outside MantisBT. It also records the histo-
ry of such reminders.
$g_store_reminders
Specifies if reminders should be stored as bugnotes. The bugnote will still reflect that it is a re-
minder and list the names of users that got it. Default is ON.
$g_reminder_recipients_monitor_bug
Specifies if users who receive reminders about a bug, should be automatically added to the moni-
tor list of that bug. Default is ON.
$g_mentions_enabled
Enables or disables the @ mentions feature. Default is ON. When a user is @ mentioned in an is-
sue or a note, they receive an email notification to get their attention. Users can be @ mentioned
using their username and not realname.
This feature works with fields like summary, description, additional info, steps to reproduce and
notes.
$g_mentions_tag
The tag to use for prefixing mentions. Default is '@'.
5.28. Bug History
Bug history is a feature where MantisBT tracks all modifications that are made to bugs. These include
everything starting from its creation, till it is closed. For each change, the bug history will record the
time stamp, user who made the change, field that changed, old value, and new value.
Independent of the these settings, MantisBT will always track the changes to a bug and add them to
its history.
$g_history_default_visible
Make the bug history visible by default. If this option is not enabled, then the user will have to click
on the Bug History link to see the bug history. Default is ON.
$g_history_order
Show bug history entries in ascending or descending order. Default value is 'ASC'.
5.29. Sponsorship
$g_enable_sponsorship
enable/disable the whole issue sponsorship feature. The default os OFF.
$g_sponsorship_currency
The currency string used for all sponsorships. The default is 'US$'.
$g_minimum_sponsorship_amount
The minimum sponsorship amount that can be entered. If the user enters a value less than this,
an error will be flagged. The default is 5.
$g_view_sponsorship_total_threshold
The access level threshold needed to view the total sponsorship for an issue by all users. The de-
fault is VIEWER.
Custom Fields
59
$g_view_sponsorship_details_threshold
The access level threshold needed to view the details of the sponsorship (i.e., who will donate
what) for an issue by all users. The default is VIEWER.
$g_sponsor_threshold
The access level threshold needed to allow user to sponsor issues. The default is REPORTER.
Note that sponsoring user must have their email set in their profile.
$g_handle_sponsored_bugs_threshold
The access level required to be able to handle sponsored issues. The default is DEVELOPER.
$g_assign_sponsored_bugs_threshold
The access level required to be able to assign a sponsored issue to a user with access level
greater or equal to 'handle_sponsored_bugs_threshold'. The default is MANAGER.
5.30. Custom Fields
$g_manage_custom_fields_threshold
Access level needed to manage custom fields. The default is ADMINISTRATOR.
$g_custom_field_link_threshold
Access level needed to link a custom field to a project. The default is MANAGER.
$$g_custom_field_edit_after_create
This flag determines whether to start editing a custom field immediately after creating it, or return
to the definition list. The default is ON (edit the custom field after creating).
5.31. My View Settings
$g_my_view_boxes
This is an array of values defining the order that the boxes to be shown. A box that is not to be
shown can have its value set to 0. The default is:
$g_my_view_boxes = array( 'assigned' => '1',
'unassigned' => '2',
'reported' => '3',
'resolved' => '4',
'recent_mod' => '5',
'monitored' => '6'
);
If you want to change the definition, copy the default value and apply the changes.
$g_my_view_bug_count
Number of bugs shown in each box. The default is 10.
$g_default_home_page
Default page to transfer to after Login or Set Project. The default is 'my_view_page.php'. An alter-
native would be 'view_all_bugs_page.php' or 'main_page.php'.
5.32. Relationship Graphs
$g_relationship_graph_enable
This enables the relationship graphs feature where issues are represented by nodes and relation-
ships as links between such nodes. Possible values are ON or OFF. Default is OFF.
Chapter 5. Configuration
60
This feature requires installing GraphViz20 (all OSes except Windows) or WinGraphviz21
(only Windows). Refer to the notes near the top of core/graphviz_api.php and core/
relationship_graph_api.php for more information.
$g_relationship_graph_fontname
Font name and size, as required by Graphviz. If Graphviz fails to run for you, you are probably us-
ing a font name that gd PHP extension can't find. On Linux, try the name of the font file without the
extension. The default value is 'Arial'.
$g_relationship_graph_fontsize
Font size, default is 8.
$g_relationship_graph_orientation
Default dependency orientation. If you have issues with lots of children or parents, leave as 'hori-
zontal', otherwise, if you have lots of "chained" issue dependencies, change to 'vertical'. Default is
'horizontal'.
$g_relationship_graph_max_depth
Max depth for relation graphs. This only affects relationship graphs, dependency graphs are
drawn to the full depth. The default value is 2.
$g_relationship_graph_view_on_click
If set to ON, clicking on an issue on the relationship graph will open the bug view page for that is-
sue, otherwise, will navigate to the relationship graph for that issue.
$g_dot_tool
The full path for the dot tool. The webserver must have execute permission to this program in or-
der to generate relationship graphs. This configuration option is not relevant for Windows. The de-
fault value is '/usr/bin/dot'.
$g_neato_tool
The full path for the neato tool. The webserver must have execute permission to this program in
order to generate relationship graphs. This configuration option is not relevant for Windows. The
default value is '/usr/bin/neato'.
5.33. Wiki Integration
$g_wiki_enable
Set to ON to enable Wiki integration. Defaults to OFF.
$g_wiki_engine
The following Wiki Engine values are supported:
•dokuwiki: DokuWiki22
•mediawiki: MediaWiki23
•twiki: TWiki24
20 http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/
21 http://home.so-net.net.tw/oodtsen/wingraphviz/
22 https://www.dokuwiki.org/
23 https://www.mediawiki.org/
24 http://twiki.org/
Sub-Projects
61
•wikka: WikkaWiki25
•xwiki: XWiki26
$g_wiki_root_namespace
Wiki namespace to be used as root for all pages relating to this MantisBT installation.
$g_wiki_engine_url
URL under which the wiki engine is hosted.
Must be on the same server as MantisBT, requires a trailing '/'.
If left empty (default), the URL is derived from the global MantisBT path ($g_path, see Section 5.3,
“Path”), replacing the URL's path component by the wiki engine string (i.e. if $g_path = 'http://
example.com/mantis/' and $g_wiki_engine = 'dokuwiki', the wiki URL will be 'http://example.com/
dokuwiki/').
5.34. Sub-Projects
$g_subprojects_enabled
Whether sub-projects feature should be enabled. Before turning this flag OFF, make sure all sub-
projects are moved to top level projects, otherwise they won't be accessible. The default value is
ON.
$g_subprojects_inherit_versions
Whether sub-projects should inherit versions from parent projects. For project X which is a sub-
project of A and B, it will have versions from X, A and B. The default value is ON.
$g_subprojects_inherit_categories
Whether sub-projects should inherit categories from parent projects. For project X which is a sub-
project of A and B, it will have categories from X, A and B. The default value is ON.
5.35. Field Visibility
$g_enable_eta
Enable or disable usage of 'ETA' field. Default value is OFF.
$g_enable_projection
Enable or disable usage of 'Projection' field. Default value is OFF.
$g_enable_product_build
Enable or disable usage of 'Product Build' field. Default is OFF.
$g_bug_report_page_fields
An array of optional fields to show on the bug report page.
The following optional fields are allowed: additional_info, attachments, category_id, due_date,
handler, os, os_version, platform, priority, product_build, product_version, reproducibility, resolu-
tion, severity, status, steps_to_reproduce, tags, target_version, view_state.
25 http://wikkawiki.org/
26 http://www.xwiki.org/
Chapter 5. Configuration
62
The summary and description fields are always shown and do not need to be listed in this option.
Fields not listed above cannot be shown on the bug report page. Visibility of custom fields is han-
dled via the Manage => Manage Custom Fields administrator page.
This setting can be set on a per-project basis by using the Manage => Manage Configuration ad-
ministrator page.
$g_bug_view_page_fields
An array of optional fields to show on the bug view page.
The following optional fields are allowed: additional_info, attachments, category_id,
date_submitted, description, due_date, eta, fixed_in_version, handler, id, last_updated, os,
os_version, platform, priority, product_build, product_version, project, projection, reporter, re-
producibility, resolution, severity, status, steps_to_reproduce, summary, tags, target_version,
view_state.
Fields not listed above cannot be shown on the bug view page. Visibility of custom fields is han-
dled via the Manage => Manage Custom Fields administrator page.
This setting can be set on a per-project basis by using the Manage => Manage Configuration ad-
ministrator page.
$g_bug_update_page_fields
An array of optional fields to show on the bug update page.
The following optional fields are allowed: additional_info, category_id, date_submitted, descrip-
tion, due_date, eta, fixed_in_version, handler, id, last_updated, os, os_version, platform, priority,
product_build, product_version, project, projection, reporter, reproducibility, resolution, severity,
status, steps_to_reproduce, summary, target_version, view_state.
Fields not listed above cannot be shown on the bug update page. Visibility of custom fields is han-
dled via the Manage => Manage Custom Fields administrator page.
This setting can be set on a per-project basis by using the Manage => Manage Configuration ad-
ministrator page.
$g_bug_change_status_page_fields
An array of optional fields to show on the bug change status page. This only changes the visibility
of fields shown below the form used for updating the status of an issue.
The following optional fields are allowed: additional_info, attachments, category_id,
date_submitted, description, due_date, eta, fixed_in_version, handler, id, last_updated, os,
os_version, platform, priority, product_build, product_version, project, projection, reporter, re-
producibility, resolution, severity, status, steps_to_reproduce, summary, tags, target_version,
view_state.
Fields not listed above cannot be shown on the bug change status page. Visibility of custom fields
is handled via the Manage => Manage Custom Fields administrator page (use the same settings
as the bug view page).
This setting can be set on a per-project basis by using the Manage => Manage Configuration ad-
ministrator page.
5.36. System Logging and Debugging
This section describes settings which can be used to troubleshoot MantisBT operations as well as as-
sist during development.
System Logging and Debugging
63
$g_show_timer
Time page loads. The page execution timer shows at the bottom of each page.
Default is OFF.
$g_show_memory_usage
Show memory usage for each page load in the footer.
Default is OFF.
$g_debug_email
Used for debugging e-mail notifications. When it is '', the emails are sent normally. If set to an e-
mail address, all messages are sent to it, with the original recipients (To, Cc, Bcc) included in the
message body.
Default is ''.
$g_show_queries_count
Shows the total number/unique number of queries executed to serve the page.
Default is OFF.
$g_display_errors
Errors Display Method. Defines what errors27 are displayed and how. Available options are:
DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT
Stop and display the error message (including variables and backtrace if
$g_show_detailed_errors is ON).
DISPLAY_ERROR_INLINE
Display a one line error and continue execution.
DISPLAY_ERROR_NONE
Suppress the error (no display). This is the default behavior for unspecified errors con-
stants28.
The default settings, recommended for use in Production, will only display MantisBT fatal errors
and suppress output of all other error types:
$g_display_errors = array(
E_USER_ERROR => DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT,
);
Recommended config_inc.php settings for developers:
$g_display_errors = array(
E_USER_ERROR => DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT,
E_WARNING => DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT,
E_ALL => DISPLAY_ERROR_INLINE,
);
27 http://php.net/errorfunc.constants
28 http://php.net/errorfunc.constants
Chapter 5. Configuration
64
Note
The system automatically sets $g_display_errors to the above recommended development
values when the server's name is localhost.
Less intrusive settings, recommended for testing purposes:
$g_display_errors = array(
E_USER_ERROR => DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT,
E_USER_WARNING => DISPLAY_ERROR_INLINE,
E_WARNING => DISPLAY_ERROR_INLINE,
);
Warning
E_USER_ERROR should always be set to DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT. Using any other value will
cause program execution to continue despite the error, which may lead to data integrity is-
sues and/or cause MantisBT to function incorrectly.
$g_show_detailed_errors
Shows a list of variables and their values whenever an error is triggered. Only applies to error
types configured to DISPLAY_ERROR_HALT in $g_display_errors.
Default is OFF.
Warning
Setting this to ON is a potential security hazard, as it can expose sensitive information. Only
enable this setting for debugging purposes when you really need it.
$g_stop_on_errors
Debug messages. If this option is turned OFF, page redirects will function if a non-fatal error oc-
curs. For debugging purposes, you can set this to ON so that any non-fatal error will prevent page
redirection, allowing you to see the errors.
Default is OFF.
System Logging and Debugging
65
Note
This should only be turned on when debugging.
$g_log_level
The system logging interface is used to extract detailed debugging information for the MantisBT
system. It can also serve as an audit trail for users' actions.
This controls the type of logging information recorded. Refer to $g_log_destination for details on
where to save the logs.
The available log channels are:
LOG_NONE
Disable logging
LOG_AJAX
logs AJAX events
LOG_DATABASE
logs database events and executed SQL queries
LOG_EMAIL
logs issue id, message type and recipients for all emails sent
LOG_EMAIL_VERBOSE
Enables extra logging for troubleshooting internals of email queuing and sending.
LOG_EMAIL_RECIPIENT
logs the details of email recipient determination. Each user id is listed as well as why they are
added, or deleted from the recipient list
LOG_FILTERING
logs filter operations
LOG_LDAP
logs the details of LDAP operations
LOG_WEBSERVICE
logs the details of Web Services operations (e.g. SOAP API)
LOG_PLUGIN
Enables logging from plugins.
LOG_ALL
combines all of the above log levels
Default is LOG_NONE.
Chapter 5. Configuration
66
Note
Multiple log channels can be combined using PHP bitwise operators 29, e.g.
$g_log_level = LOG_EMAIL | LOG_EMAIL_RECIPIENT;
or
$g_log_level = LOG_ALL & ~LOG_DATABASE;
$g_log_destination
Specifies where the log data goes. The following five options are available:
''
The empty string means default PHP error log settings 30
'none'
Don't output the logs, but would still trigger EVENT_LOG plugin event.
'file'
Log to a specific file, specified as an absolute path, e.g. 'file:/var/log/mantis.log'
(Unix) or 'file:c:/temp/mantisbt.log' (Windows)
Note
This file must be writable by the web server running MantisBT.
'firebug'
make use of Firefox Firebug Add-on31. If user is not running firefox, this options falls back to
the default php error log settings.
'page'
Display log output at bottom of the page. See also $g_show_log_threshold to restrict who can
see log data.
Default is '' (empty string).
$g_show_log_threshold
Indicates the access level required for a user to see the log output (if $g_log_destination is 'page').
Default is ADMINISTRATOR.
29 http://php.net/language.operators.bitwise
30 http://php.net/error_log
31 http://getfirebug.com/
Time Tracking
67
Note
This threshold is compared against the user's global access level rather than the one from
the currently active project.
5.37. Time Tracking
$g_time_tracking_enabled
Turns Time Tracking features ON or OFF - Default is OFF
$g_time_tracking_without_note
Allow time tracking to be recorded without writing some text in the associated bugnote - Default is
ON
$g_time_tracking_with_billing
Adds calculation links to workout how much time has been spent between a particular time frame.
Currently it will allow you to enter a cost/hour and will work out some billing information. This will
become more extensive in the future. Currently it is more of a proof of concept.
$g_time_tracking_billing_rate
Default billing rate per hour - Default is 0
$g_time_tracking_stopwatch
Instead of a text field turning this option on places a stopwatch on the page with Start/Stop and
Reset buttons next to it. A bit gimmicky, but who cares.
$g_time_tracking_view_threshold
Access level required to view time tracking information - Default DEVELOPER.
$g_time_tracking_edit_threshold
Access level required to add/edit time tracking information (If you give a user
$g_time_tracking_edit_threshold you must give them $g_time_tracking_view_threshold as well) -
Default DEVELOPER.
$g_time_tracking_reporting_threshold
Access level required to run reports (not completed yet) - Default MANAGER.
5.38. API
MantisBT exposes a webservice API which allows remote clients to interact with MantisBT and per-
form many of the usual tasks, such as reporting issues, running filtered searches and retrieving attach-
ments.
The SOAP API is enabled by default and available at /api/soap/mantisconnect.php be-
low the MantisBT root. A WSDL file which describes the web service is available at /api/soap/
mantisconnect.php?wsdl below the MantisBT root.
The REST API is experimental and is disabled by default. A Swagger sandbox and documentation for
REST API is available at /api/rest/swagger/ below the MantisBT root.
The following options are used to control the behaviour of the MantisBT SOAP API:
Chapter 5. Configuration
68
$g_webservice_readonly_access_level_threshold
Minimum global access level required to access webservice for readonly operations.
$g_webservice_readwrite_access_level_threshold
Minimum global access level required to access webservice for read/write operations.
$g_webservice_admin_access_level_threshold
Minimum global access level required to access the administrator webservices.
$g_webservice_specify_reporter_on_add_access_level_threshold
Minimum project access level required for caller to be able to specify reporter when adding issues
or issue notes. Defaults to DEVELOPER.
$g_webservice_rest_enabled
Whether the REST API is enabled or not. Note that this flag only impacts API Token based auth.
Hence, even if the API is disabled, it can still be used from the Web UI using cookie based authen-
tication. Default ON.
5.38.1. Disabling the webservice API
If you wish to temporarily disable the webservice API it is sufficient to set the specific access thresh-
olds to NOBODY:
$g_webservice_readonly_access_level_threshold =
$g_webservice_readwrite_access_level_threshold =
$g_webservice_admin_access_level_threshold = NOBODY;
While the SOAP API will still be accessible, it will not allow users to retrieve or modify data.
5.39. Anti-Spam Configuration
$g_antispam_max_event_count
Max number of events to allow for users with default access level (see
$g_default_new_account_access_level) when signup is enabled. Use 0 for no limit. Default is 10.
$g_antispam_time_window_in_seconds
Time window to enforce max events within. Default is 3600 seconds (1 hour).
5.40. Due Date
$g_due_date_update_threshold
Threshold to update due date submitted. Default is NOBODY.
$g_due_date_view_threshold
Threshold to see due date. Default is NOBODY.
$g_due_date_default
Default due date value for newly submitted issues: Empty string for no due date set. Related date
that is accepted by strtotime()32, e.g. 'today' or '+2 days'. Default is ''.
32 http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php
User Management
69
5.41. User Management
$g_impersonate_user_threshold
The threshold for a user to be able to impersonate another user, or NOBODY to disable imperson-
ation. Default ADMINISTRATOR.
$g_manage_user_threshold
The threshold for a user to manage user accounts. Default ADMINISTRATOR.
5.42. View Page Settings
$g_issue_activity_note_attachments_seconds_threshold
If a user submits a note with an attachments (with the specified # of seconds) the attachment is
linked to the note. Or 0 for disabling this feature.
70
Chapter 6.
71
Page descriptions
6.1. Login page
Just enter your username and password and hit the login button. There is also a Save Login check-
box to have the package remember that you are logged in between browser sessions. You will have
to have cookies enabled to login.If the account doesn't exist, the account is disabled, or the password
is incorrect then you will remain at the login page. An error message will be displayed.The adminis-
trator may allow users to sign up for their own accounts. If so, a link to Signup for your own account
will be available.The administrator may also have anonymous login allowed. Anonymous users will
be logged in under a common account.You will be allowed to select a project to work in after logging
in. You can make a project your default selection from the Select Project screen or from your Account
Options.SignupHere you can signup for a new account. You must supply a valid email address and
select a unique username. Your randomly generated password will be emailed to your email account.
If MantisBT is setup so that the email password is not to be emailed, newly generated accounts will
have an empty password.
6.2. Main page
This is the first page you see upon logging in. It shows you the latest news updates for the bugtrack-
er. This is a simple news module (based off of work by Scott Roberts) and is to keep users abreast of
changes in the bugtracker or project. Some news postings are specific to projects and others are glob-
al across the entire bugtracker. This is set at the time of posting in the Edit News section.The num-
ber of news posts is controlled by a global variable. When the number of posts is more than the lim-
it, a link to show "older news" is displayed at the bottom. Similarly a "newer news" is displayed when
you have clicked on "older news".There is an Archives option at the bottom of the page to view all
listings.ArchivesA title/date/poster listing of ALL past news articles will be listed here. Clicking on the
link will bring up the specified article. This listing will also only display items that are either global or
specific to the selected project.
6.3. View Issues page
Here we can view the issue listings. The page has a set of viewing filters at the top and the issues
are listed below.FiltersThe filters control the behavior of the issues list. The filters are saved between
browsing sessions but do not currently save sort order or direction.If the number of issues exceeds
the "Show" count in the filter a set of navigation to go to "First", "Last", "Previous", "Next" and specific
page numbers are added.The Search field will look for simple keyword matches in the summary, de-
scription, steps to reproduce, additional information, issue id, or issue text id fields. It does not search
through issue notes. Issue List - The issues are listed in a table and the attributes are listed in the fol-
lowing order: priority, id, number of issue notes, category, severity, status, last updated, and summary.
Each (except for number of issue notes) can be clicked on to sort by that column. Clicking again will
reverse the direction of the sort. The default is to sort by last modification time, where the last modi-
fied issue appears at the top. The issue id is a link that leads to a more detailed report about the issue.
You can also add issue notes here. The number in the issue note count column will be bold if an is-
sue note has been added in the specified time frame. The addition of an issue note will make the issue
note link of the issue appear in the unvisited state. The text in the "Severity" column will be bold if the
severity is major, crash, or block and the issue not resolved. The text in the "Updated" column will be
bold if the issue has changed in the last "Changed(hrs)" field which is specified in the viewing filters.
Each table row is color coded according to the issue status. The colors can be customised through
MantisBT configuration pages (see Chapter 5, Configuration for details). Severities block - prevents
further work/progress from being made crash - crashes the application or blocking, major - major is-
sue, minor - minor issue, tweak - needs tweaking, text - error in the text, trivial - being nit picky, feature
Chapter 6. Page descriptions
72
- requesting new feature - Status new - new issue, feedback - issue requires more information from re-
porter, acknowledged - issue has been looked at but not confirmed or assigned, confirmed - confirmed
and reproducible (typically set by an Updater or other Developer), assigned - assigned to a Develop-
er, resolved - issue should be fixed, waiting on confirmation of fix, closed - issue is closed, Moving the
mouse over the status text will show the resolution as a title. This is rendered by some browsers as a
bubble and in others as a status line text.
6.4. Issue View page
Here is the simple listing of the issue report. Most of the fields are self-explanatory. "Assigned To" will
contain the developer assigned to handle the issue. Priority is fully functional but currently does noth-
ing of importance. Duplicate ID is used when an issue is a duplicate of another. It links to the duplicate
issue which allows users to read up on the original issue report. Below the issue report is a set of but-
tons that a user can select to work on the issue.
• Update Issue - brings up a page to edit all aspects of the issue
• Assign to - in conjunction with the dropdown list next top the button, this is a shortcut to change the
assignment of an issue
• Change Status to - in conjunction with the dropdown list next top the button, this is a shortcut to
change the status of an issue. Another page (Change Status) will be presented to allow the user to
add notes or change relevant information
• Monitor / Unmonitor Issue - allows the user to monitor any additions to the issue by email
• Create Clone - create a copy of the current issue. This presents the user with a new issue reporting
form with all of the information in the current issue filled in. Upon submission, a new issue, related to
the current issue, will be created.
• Reopen Issue - Allows the user to re-open a resolved issue
• Move Issue - allows the user to move the issue to another project
• Delete Issue - Allows the user to delete the issue permanently. It is recommended against deleting
issues unless the entry is frivolous. Instead issues should be set to resolved and an appropriate res-
olution category chosen.
A panel is provided to view and update the sponsorship of an issue.Another panel is provided to view,
delete and add relationships for an issue. Issues can have a parent/child relationship, where the user
is warned about resolving a parent issue before all of the children are resolved. A peer relationship is
also possible.Below this, there may be a form for uploading file attachments. The Administrator needs
to configure the bugtracker to handle file uploads. If uploading to disk is selected, each project needs
to set its own upload path. Issue notes are shown at the bottom of the issue report. A panel to add is-
sue notes is also shown.
6.5. Issue Change Status page
This page is used to change the status of an issue. A user can add an issue note to describe the rea-
son for change.In addition, the following fields may be displayed for update:
• Resolution and Duplicate ID - for issues being resolved or closed
• Issue Handler (Assigned to)
• any Custom Fields that are to be visible on update or resolution
Issue Edit page
73
• Fixed in Version - for issues being resolved
• Close Immediately - to immediately close a resolved issue
6.6. Issue Edit page
The layout of this page resembles the Simple Issue View page, but here you can update various issue
fields. The Reporter, Category, Severity, and Reproducibility fields are editable but shouldn't be unless
there is a gross mis-categorization.Also modifiable are the Assigned To, Priority, Projection, ETA, Res-
olution, and Duplicate ID fields.As per version 0.18.0, the user can also add an issue note as part of
an issue update.
6.7. My Account Page
This page changes user alterable parameters for the system. These selections are user specific. This
allows the user to change their password, username, real name and email address. It also reports the
user's access levels on the current project and default access level used for public projects.
6.7.1. Preferences
This sets the following information:
• Default project
• whether the pages used for reporting, viewing, and updating are the simple or advanced views
• the delay in minutes between refreshes of the view all issues page
• the delay in seconds when redirecting from a confirmation page to the display page
• the time order in which notes will be sorted
• whether to filter email messages based on type of message and severity
• the number of notes to append to notification emails
• the default language for the system. The additional setting of "auto" will use the browser's default
language for the system.
6.7.2. Profiles
Profiles are shortcuts to define the values for Platform, OS, and version. This page allows you to de-
fine and edit personal shortcuts.
6.7.3. Manage Columns
Provides the ability to select the fields to be displayed in View Issues, Print Issues, CSV and Excel ex-
ports. The changes apply to the currently selected projects or All Projects for setting the defaults. It is
also possible to copy such settings from/to other projects.
6.7.4. API Tokens
Provides the ability to generate and revoke tokens that can be used by applications and services to
access MantisBT via its APIs. This page also provides information about the creation and last used
timestamps for such tokens.
Chapter 6. Page descriptions
74
6.8. System Management Pages
A number of pages exist under the "Manage" link. These will only be visible to those who have an ap-
propriate access level.
6.8.1. Manage Users
This page allow an administrator to manage the users in the system.It essentially supplies a list of
users defined in the system. The user names are linked to a page where you can change the user's
name, access level, and projects to which they are assigned. You can also reset their passwords
through this page.At the top, there is also a list of new users (who have created an account in the last
week), and accounts where the user has yet to log in.New users are created using the "Create User"
link above the list of existing users. Note that the username must be unique in the system. Further,
note that the user's real name (as displayed on the screen) cannot match another user's user name.
6.8.2. Manage Projects Page
This page allows the user to manage the projects listed in the system.Each project is listed along with
a link to manage that specific project. The specific project pages allow the user to change:
• the project name
• the project description
• its status
• whether the project is public or private. Private projects are only visible to users who are assigned to
it or users who have the access level to automatically have access to private projects (eg: adminis-
trators).
• file directory used to store attachments for issues and documents associated with the project. This
folder is located on the webserver, it can be absolute path or path relative to the main MantisBT
folder. Note that this is only used if the files are stored on disk.
• common subprojects. These are other projects who can be considered a sub-project of this one.
They can be shared amongst multiple projects. For example, a "documentation" project may be
shared amongst several development projects.
• project categories. These are used to sub-divide the issues stored in the system.
• project versions. These are used to create ChangeLog reports and can be used to filter issues.
They are used for both the Found In and Fixed In versions.
• Custom Fields linked to this project
• Users linked to this project. Here is the place where a user's access level may be upgraded or
downgraded depending on their particular role in the project.
6.8.3. Manage Custom Fields
This page is the base point for managing custom fields. It lists the custom fields defined in the sys-
tem. There is also a place to enter a new field name to create a new field.The "Edit" links take you to a
page where you can define the details of a custom field. These include it's name, type, value, and dis-
play information. On the edit page, the following information is defined to control the custom field:
• name
• type. Possible values are listed below.
Manage Custom Fields
75
• Value constraints (Possible values, default value, regular expression, minimum length, maximum
length).
• Access (who can read and write the field based on their access level).
• Display control (where the field will show up and must be filled in
All fields are compared in length to be greater than or equal to the minimum length, and less than or
equal to the minimum length, unless these values are 0. If the values are 0, the check is skipped. All
fields are also compared against the regular expression. If the value matches the expression, then the
value is stored. For example, the expression "^-?([0-9])*$" can be used to constrain an integer.The ta-
ble below describes the field types and the value constraints.
Type Field Contents Value Constraints
String text string up to 255 characters
Numeric an integer
Float a floating point number
Enumeration one of a list of text strings Enter the list of text strings sep-
arated by "|" (pipe character) in
the Possible Values field. The
Default value should match one
of these strings as well. This
will be displayed as a drop-
down menu.
Email an email address string up to
255 characters
When displayed, the value will
also be encapsulated in a mail-
to: reference.
Checkbox zero or more of a list of text
strings
Enter the list of text strings sep-
arated by "|" (pipe character) in
the Possible Values field. The
Default value should match one
of these strings as well. This
will be displayed as a list of text
strings with a checkbox beside
them.
List one of a list of text strings Enter the list of text strings sep-
arated by "|" (pipe character) in
the Possible Values field. The
Default value should match one
of these strings as well. This
will be displayed as a multi-line
dropdown menu.
Multiselection List zero or more of a list of text
strings
Enter the list of text strings sep-
arated by "|" (pipe character) in
the Possible Values field. The
Default value should match one
of these strings as well. This
will be displayed as a multi-line
dropdown menu.
Date text string defining a date This is displayed as a set of
dropdown menus for day,
Chapter 6. Page descriptions
76
Type Field Contents Value Constraints
month, and year. Defaults
should be defined in yyyy-mm-
dd format.
The display entries are used as follows:
Entry Meaning
Display Only On Advanced Page If checked, the field will NOT be shown on the
simple issue displays
Display When Reporting Issues If checked, the field will be shown on the report
issues displays
Display When Updating Issues If checked, the field will NOT be shown on the
update issue and change status displays
Display When Resolving Issues If checked, the field will NOT be shown on the
update issue displays and change status dis-
plays, if the new status is resolved.
Display When Closing Issues If checked, the field will NOT be shown on the
update issue displays and change status dis-
plays, if the new status is closed.
Required On Report If checked, the field must be filled in on the issue
reports.
Required On Update If checked, the field must be filled in on the up-
date issue and change status displays.
Required On Resolve If checked, the field must be filled in on the up-
date issue and change status displays, if the new
status is resolved.
Required On Close If checked, the field must be filled in on the up-
date issue and change status displays, if the new
status is closed.
Notes on Display
• Be careful not to set both a required attribute and show only on advanced display. It may be possi-
ble to trigger a validation error that the user cannot recover from (i.e., field is not filled in).
6.8.4. Manage Global Profiles
This page allows the definition of global profiles accessible to all users of the system. It is similar to the
user definition of a profile consisting of Platform, OS and Version.
6.8.5. Manage Configuration
This set of pages control the configuration of the MantisBT system. Note that the configuration items
displayed may be on a project by project basis.These pages serve two purposes. First, they will dis-
play the settings for the particular aspects of the system. If authorized, they will allow a user to change
the parameters. They also have settings for what access level is required to change these settings ON
A PROJECT basis. In general, this should be left alone, but administrators may want to delegate some
of these settings to managers.
Manage Configuration
77
6.8.5.1. Workflow Thresholds
This page covers the adjustment of the settings for many of the workflow related parameters. For most
of these, the fields are self explanatory and relate to a similarly named setting in the configuration file.
At the right of each row is a selector that allows the administrator to lower the access level required to
change the particular parameter.The values changeable on this page are:
Issues
Title Variable Description
Report an Issue $g_report_bug_threshold threshold to report an issue
Status to which a new issue is
set
$g_bug_submit_status status issue is set to when sub-
mitted
Update an Issue $g_update_bug_threshold threshold to update an issue
Allow Reporter to close an is-
sue
$g_allow_reporter_close allow reporter to close issues
they reported
Monitor an issue $g_monitor_bug_threshold threshold to monitor an issue
Handle Issue $g_handle_bug_threshold threshold to handle (be as-
signed) an issue
Assign Issue $g_update_bug_assign_thresholdthreshold to be in the assign to
list
Move Issue $g_move_bug_threshold threshold to move an issue to
another project. This setting is
for all projects.
Delete Issue $g_delete_bug_threshold threshold to delete an issue
Reopen Issue $g_reopen_bug_threshold threshold to reopen an issue
Allow reporter to reopen Issue $g_allow_reporter_reopen allow reporter to reopen issues
they reported
Status to which a reopened Is-
sue is set
$g_bug_reopen_status status issue is set to when re-
opened
Resolution to which a reopened
Issue is set
$g_bug_reopen_resolution resolution issue is set to when
reopened
Status where an issue is con-
sidered resolved
$g_bug_resolved_status_thresholdstatus where bug is resolved
Status where an issue be-
comes read-only
$g_bug_readonly_status_thresholdstatus where bug
is read-only (see
update_readonly_bug_threshold)
Update readonly issue $g_update_readonly_bug_thresholdthreshold to update an issue
marked as read-only
Update Issue Status $g_update_bug_status_thresholdthreshold to update an issue's
status
View Private Issues $g_private_bug_threshold threshold to view a private is-
sue
Set View Status $g_set_view_status_threshold threshold to set an issue to Pri-
vate/Public
Chapter 6. Page descriptions
78
Title Variable Description
Update View Status $g_change_view_status_thresholdthreshold needed to update the
view status while updating an
issue or an issue note
Show list of users monitoring
issue
$g_show_monitor_list_threshold threshold to see who is moni-
toring an issue
Set status on assignment of
handler
$g_auto_set_status_to_assigned change status when an issue is
assigned
Status to set auto-assigned is-
sues to
$g_bug_assigned_status status to use when an issue is
auto-assigned
Limit reporter's access to their
own issues
$g_limit_reporters reporters can see only issues
they reported. This setting is for
all projects.
Notes
Title Variable Description
Add Notes $g_add_bugnote_threshold threshold to add an issue note
Update Others' Notes $g_update_bugnote_threshold threshold at which a user can
edit issue notes created by oth-
er users
Update Own Notes $g_bugnote_user_edit_threshold threshold at which a user can
edit issue notes created by
themselves
Delete Others' Notes $g_delete_bugnote_threshold threshold at which a user can
delete issue notes created by
other users
Delete Own Notes $g_bugnote_user_delete_thresholdthreshold at which a user can
delete issue notes created by
themselves
View private notes $g_private_bugnote_threshold threshold to view a private is-
sue note
Change view state of own
notes
$g_bugnote_user_change_view_state_thresholdthreshold at which a user can
change the view state of issue
notes created by themselves
Others
Title Variable Description
View Change Log $g_view_changelog_threshold threshold to view the changelog
View Assigned To $g_view_handler_threshold threshold to see who is han-
dling an issue
View Issue History $g_view_history_threshold threshold to view the issue his-
tory
Send Reminders $g_bug_reminder_threshold threshold to send a reminder
Monitor Issue
79
6.8.5.2. Workflow Transitions
This page covers the status workflow. For most of these, the fields are self explanatory and relate to a
similarly named setting in the configuration file. At the right of each row is a selector that allows the ad-
ministrator to lower the access level required to change the particular parameter.The values change-
able on this page are:
Table 6.1. Issues
Title Variable Description
Status to which a new issue is
set
$g_bug_submit_status status issue is set to when sub-
mitted
Status where an issue is con-
sidered resolved
$g_bug_resolved_status_thresholdstatus where issue is resolved
Status to which a reopened Is-
sue is set
$g_bug_reopen_status status issue is set to when re-
opened
The matrix that follows has checkmarks where the transitions are allowed from the status on the left
edge to the status listed across the top. This corresponds to the $g_enum_workflow array.At the bot-
tom, there is a list of access levels that are required to change the status to the value listed across the
top. This can be used, for instance, to restrict those who can close an issue to a specific level, say a
manager. This corresponds to the $g_set_status_threshold array and the $g_report_bug_threshold
setting.
6.8.5.3. Email Notifications
This page sets the system defaults for sending emails on issue related events. MantisBT uses flags
and a threshold system to generate emails on events. For each new event, email is sent to:
• the reporter
• the handler (or Assigned to)
• anyone monitoring the issue
• anyone who has ever added a issue note the issue
• anyone assigned to the project whose access level matches a range
From this list, those recipients who meet the following criteria are eliminated:
• the originator of the change, if $g_email_receive_own is OFF
• the recipient either no longer exists, or is disabled
• the recipient has turned their email_on_<new status> preference OFF
• the recipient has no email address entered
The matrix on this page selects who will receive messages for each of the events listed down the left
hand side. The first four columns correspond to the first four points listed above. The next columns
correspond to the access levels defined. Note that because a minimum and maximum threshold are
used, a discontinuous selection is not allowed.
6.9. Monitor Issue
The monitor issues feature allows users to subscribe to certain issues and hence get copied on all no-
tification emails that are sent for these issues.Depending on the configuration, sending a reminder to
Chapter 6. Page descriptions
80
a user about an issue can add this issue to the user's list of monitored issues. Users who reported the
issue or are assigned the issue typically don't need to monitor the issue to get the notifications. This is
because by default they get notified on changes related to the issue anyway. However, administrators
can change the configuration to disable notifications to reporters or handlers in specific scenarios.
6.10. Reopen Issue
Re-open issue button is visible in the issue view pages if the user has the appropriate access level
and the issue is resolved/closed. Re-opening a issue will allow users to enter issue notes for the re-
opening reason. The issue will automatically be put into the Feedback status.
6.11. Delete Issue
The delete issues button appears on the issue view pages for the users who have the appropriate ac-
cess level. This allows you to delete an existing issue. This should only be used on frivolous or test is-
sues. A confirmation screen will prompt you if you really want to delete the issue. Updaters, Develop-
ers, Managers, and Administrators can remove issues (you can also configure this).
6.12. Close Issue
This is a button that appears on the issue view pages for users that are authorized to close issues.
Depending on the configuration, users may be able to close issues without having to resolve them
first, or may be able to only close resolved issues. After the button is clicked, the user is redirected to a
page where an issue note maybe added.
6.13. Assign to Me
This button appears in the issue view pages in case of users with access level that is equal to
handle_bug_threshold or higher. When this button is clicked the issue is assigned to the user.
6.14. Resolve Issue
This option on the View Issues page allows you to resolve the issue. It will lead you to a page where
you can set the resolution state and a duplicate id (if applicable). After choosing that the user can
choose to enter an issue note detailing the reason for the closure. The issue is then set to the Re-
solved state. The reporter should check off on the issue by using the Close Issue button.
6.15. News Syndication
MantisBT supports news syndication using RSS v2.0 protocol. MantisBT also supports authenticated
news feeds for private projects or installations where anonymous access is not enabled. Authenticat-
ed feeds takes a user name and a key token that are used to authenticate the user and generate the
feed results in the context of the user's access rights (i.e. the same as what the user would see if they
were to logged into MantisBT).To get access to the News RSS as anonymous user, visit the following
page: http://www.example.com/mantisbt/news_rss.php While a user is logged in, the RSS links pro-
vided in the UI will always provide links to the authenticated feeds, if no user is logged in (i.e. anony-
mous), then anonymous links will be provided.
Chapter 7.
81
Customizing MantisBT
7.1. Strings / Translations
All strings used in MantisBT, including those defined in plugins, can be customized or trans-
lated differently. This is achieved by overriding them in the Custom Strings File (in con-
fig/custom_strings_inc.php), which is automatically detected and included by MantisBT code.
Defining custom strings here provides a simple upgrade path, and avoids having to re-do the changes
when upgrading to the next release.
Note
The standard MantisBT language strings are sometimes reused in different contexts. If you are
planning to override some strings to meet your specific requirements, make sure to analyze
where they are used to avoids unexpected issues.
Two formats are supported within this file:
New Format
Define a $s_custom_messages array as follows:
$s_custom_messages = array( LANG => array( CODE => STRING, ... ) );
Legacy Format
One variable per string
$s_CODE = STRING;
Where
• LANG = language code, as defined in $g_language_choices_arr (see Section 5.10, “Language”)
• CODE = string code, as called by lang_get() function.
• STRING = string value / translation
Note
Mixing old and new formats within the file is not supported.
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
82
Warning
NEVER call lang_get_current() from the Custom Strings File, as doing so will reset the
active_language, causing the code to return incorrect translations if the default language is differ-
ent from English. Always use the $g_active_language global variable instead.
7.2. Custom Fields
7.2.1. Overview
Different teams typically like to capture different information as users report issues, in some cases, the
data required is even different from one project to another. Hence, MantisBT provides the ability for
managers and administrators to define custom fields as way to extend MantisBT to deal with informa-
tion that is specific to their teams or their projects. The aim is for this to keep MantisBT native fields to
a minimum. Following are some facts about the implementation of custom fields in MantisBT:
• Custom fields are defined system wide.
• Custom fields can be linked to multiple projects.
• The sequence of displaying custom fields can be different per project.
• Custom fields must be defined by users with access level ADMINISTRATOR.
• Custom fields can be linked to projects by users with access level MANAGER or above (by default,
this can be configurable).
• Number of custom fields is not restricted.
• Users can define filters that include custom fields.
• Custom fields can be included in View Issues, Print Issues, and CSV exports.
• Enumeration custom fields can have a set of static values or values that are calculated dynamically
based on a custom function.
7.2.2. Custom Field Definition
The definition of a custom field includes the following logical attributes:
• Caption variable name. This value is supplied to the lang_get() API; it is therefore mandatory to set
this to a valid PHP identifier1 (i.e. only letters, numbers and underscores; no spaces) if you intend to
translate the field label (see Section 7.2.5, “Localizing Custom Field Names”).
1 http://php.net/language.variables.basics.php
Custom Field Definition
83
Note
If the specified variable is not found in the language files or in the Custom Strings File (see
Section 7.1, “Strings / Translations”), then it will be displayed as-is.
• Custom field type (string, numeric, float, enumeration, email, checkbox, radio, list, multi-selection
list, date).
Type 'string' is used for strings of up to 255 characters.
Type 'numeric' is used for numerical integer values.
Type 'float' is used for real (float / double) numbers.
Type 'enumeration' is used when a user selects one entry from a list. The user interface for such
type is a combo-box.
Type 'email' is used for storing email addresses.
Type 'checkbox' is like enumeration but the list is shown as checkboxes and the user is allowed to
tick more than one selection. The default value and the possible value can contain multiple values
like 'RED|YELLOW|BLUE' (without the single quote).
Type 'radio' is like enumeration but the list is shown as radio buttons and the user is allowed to tick
on of the options. The possible values can be 'RED|YELLOW|BLUE', where the default value can be
'YELLOW'. Note that the default value can't contain multiple values.
Type 'list' is like enumeration but the list is shown as a list box where the user is only allowed to se-
lect one option. The possible values can be 'RED|YELLOW|BLUE', where the default value can be
'YELLOW'. Note that the default value can't contain multiple values.
Type 'multi-selection list' is like enumeration but the list is shown as a list box where the user is al-
lowed to select multiple options. The possible values can be 'RED|YELLOW|BLUE', where the de-
fault value can be 'RED|BLUE'. Note that in this case the default value contains multiple values.
Type 'date' is for date values. The default value can be empty, or {tomorrow}, {yesterday}, {next
week}, {last week}, {+3 days}, {-2 days}.
• Enumeration possible values (eg: RED|YELLOW|BLUE). Use the pipe ('|') character to separate
possible values for an enumeration. One of the possible values can be an empty string. The set of
possible values can also be calculated at runtime. For example, "=versions" would automatically re-
solve into all the versions defined for the current project.
• Default value - see details above for a sample default value for each type.
• Minimum/maximum length for the custom field value (use 0 to disable). Note that these metrics are
not really relevant to custom fields that are based on an enumeration of possible values.
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
84
• Regular expression to use for validating user input (use PCRE syntax2).
• Read Access level: Minimum access level for users to be able to see the value of the custom field.
• Write Access level: Minimum access level for users to be able to edit the value of the custom field.
• Display when reporting issues? - If this custom field should be shown on the Report Issue page.
• Display when updating issues? - If this custom field should be shown on the Update Issue page.
• Display when resolving issues? - If this custom field should be shown when resolving an issue. For
example, a "root cause" custom field would make sense to set when resolving the issue.
• Display when closing issues? - If this custom field should be shown when closing an issue.
• Required on Report - If this custom field is a mandatory field on the Report Issue page.
• Required on Update - If this custom field is a mandatory field on the Update Issue page.
• Required on Resolve - If this custom field is a mandatory field when resolving an issue.
• Required on Close - If this custom field is a mandatory field when closing an issue.
All custom fields are currently saved to a field of type VARCHAR(255) in the database. However, in fu-
ture releases, it is possible to support custom fields of different types (eg: memo, file).
If the value of a custom field for a certain defect is not found, the default value is assumed.
7.2.3. Adding/Editing Custom Fields
• The logged in user needs $g_manage_custom_fields_threshold access level.
• Select "Manage" from the main menu.
• Select "Manage Custom Fields" from the management menu.
• In case of edit, click on the name of an existing custom field to edit its information.
• In case of adding a new one, enter the name of the new custom field then click "New Custom Field".
Note
Added custom fields will not show up in any of the issues until the added custom field is linked to
the appropriate projects.
7.2.4. Linking/Unlinking/Ordering Existing Custom Fields in
Projects
• The logged in user needs to have access level that is greater than or equal to
$g_custom_field_link_threshold and $g_manage_project_threshold.
• Select "Manage" from the main menu.
2 http://www.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax.php
Localizing Custom Field Names
85
• Select "Manage Projects".
• Select the name of the project to manage.
• Scroll down to the "Custom Fields" box.
• Select the field to add from the list, then click "Add This Existing Custom Field".
• To change the order of the custom fields, edit the "Sequence" value and click update. Custom fields
with smaller values are displayed first.
• To unlink a custom field, click on "Remove" link next to the field. Unlinking a custom field will not
delete the values that are associated with the issues for this field. These values are only deleted if
the custom field definition is removed (not unlinked!) from the database. This is useful if you decide
to re-link the custom field. These values may also re-appear if issues are moved to another project
which has this field linked.
Moving Issues
When an issue is moved from one project to another, custom fields that are not defined for the new
project are not deleted. These fields will re-appear with their correct values if the issue is moved back
to the original project, or if these custom fields are linked to the new project.
7.2.5. Localizing Custom Field Names
It is possible to localize the custom fields' labels. This can be done as follows:
1. Define the custom field (see Section 7.2.2, “Custom Field Definition”), keeping in mind that its
name must be a valid PHP identifier3.
As an example, we will use my_start_date for a custom field of type "Date", storing the date when
work on an issue was initiated.
2. Set the localization strings
• In the main MantisBT directory, locate and edit the Custom Strings File (see Section 7.1,
“Strings / Translations”), create it if it does not exist.
• Localize the custom field's label my_start_date by adding the following code
<?php
switch( $g_active_language ) {
case 'french':
$s_my_start_date = 'Date de début';
break;
default:
# Default language, as defined in config/config_inc.php
# ($g_default_language, English in this case)
$s_my_start_date = 'Start Date';
break;
}
3 http://php.net/language.variables.basics.php
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
86
Note
Had we decided to use start_date as the custom field's name, then it would not have been neces-
sary to modify the Custom Strings File (see Section 7.1, “Strings / Translations”), since MantisBT
would have used the existing, already localized string from the standard language files. To check
for standard strings, inspect lang/strings_english.txt.
7.2.6. Dynamic default values
7.2.6.1. Dynamic defaults for Date fields
Custom fields of type date can be defaulted to either specific or relative dates. Typically, relative dates
is the scenario that makes sense in most of the cases.
The format for specific dates is an integer which indicates the number of seconds since the Unix
Epoch4 (January 1 1970 00:00:00 UTC), which is the format consumed by the PHP date()5 method.
The relative scenario expects default values like {tomorrow}, {yesterday}, {+2 days}, {-3 days}, {next
week}, etc. The curly brackets indicate that this is a logical value which is then evaluated using the
PHP strtotime()6 function.
7.2.7. Dynamic values for Enumeration Custom Fields
As discussed earlier, one of the possible types of a custom field is "enumeration". This type of custom
field allows the user to select one value from a provided list of possible values. The standard way of
defining such custom fields is to provide a '|' separated list of possible values. However, this approach
has two limitations: the list is static, and the maximum length of the list must be no longer than 255
characters. Hence, the need for the ability to construct the list of possible values dynamically.
7.2.7.1. Dynamic possible values included by default
MantisBT ships with some dynamic possible values, these include the following:
• =categories - a list of categories defined in the current project (or the project to which the issue be-
longs).
• =versions - a list of all versions defined in the current project (or the project to which the issue be-
longs).
• =future_versions - a list of all versions that belong to the current project with released flag set to
false.
• =released_versions - a list of all versions that belong to the current project with released flag set to
true.
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time
5 http://www.php.net/date
6 http://www.php.net/strtotime
Dynamic values for Enumeration Custom Fields
87
Note
The '=' before the name of the dynamic list of options is used to tell MantisBT that this is a dy-
namic list, rather than a static list with just one option.
7.2.7.2. Defining Custom Dynamic Possible Values
If the user selects =versions, the actual custom function that is executed is
custom_function_*_enum_versions(). The reason why the "enum_" is not included is to have a
fixed prefix for all custom functions used for this purpose and protect against users using cus-
tom functions that were not intended for this purpose. For example, you don't want the user to use
custom_function_*_issue_delete_notify() which may be overridden by the web master to delete asso-
ciated data in other databases.
Following is a sample custom function that is used to populate a field with the categories belonging to
the currently selected project:
# --------------------
# Construct an enumeration for all categories for the current project.
# The enumeration will be empty if current project is ALL PROJECTS.
# Enumerations format is: "abc|lmn|xyz"
# To use this in a custom field type "=categories" in the possible values field.
function custom_function_override_enum_categories() {
$t_categories = category_get_all_rows( helper_get_current_project() );
$t_enum = array();
foreach( $t_categories as $t_category ) {
$t_enum[] = $t_category['category'];
}
$t_possible_values = implode( '|', $t_enum );
return $t_possible_values;
}
Notice the following:
• The custom function doesn't take any parameters.
• The custom function returns the possible values in the format (A|B|C).
• The custom function uses the current project.
• The custom function builds on top of the already existing APIs.
To define your own function \u201c=mine\u201d, you will have to define it with the following signature:
# --------------------
# To use this in a custom field type "=mine" in the possible values field.
function custom_function_override_enum_mine() {
$t_enum = array();
:
$t_possible_values = implode( '|', $t_enum );
return $t_possible_values;
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
88
}
Notice "override" in the function name. This is because this method is defined by the MantisBT admin-
istrator/webmaster and not part of the MantisBT source. It is OK to override a method that doesn't ex-
ist.
As usual, when MantisBT is upgraded to future releases, the custom functions will not be overwritten.
The difference between the "default" implementation and the "override" implementation is explained in
more details in the custom functions section.
7.3. Enumerations
Enumerations are used in MantisBT to represent a set of possible values for an attribute. Enumera-
tions are used for access levels, severities, priorities, project statuses, project view state, reproducibil-
ity, resolution, ETA, and projection. MantisBT provides the administrator with the flexibility of altering
the values in these enumerations. The rest of this topic explains how enumerations work, and then
how they can be customised.
How do enumerations work?
core/constant_inc.php defines the constants that correspond to those in the enumeration. These
are useful to refer to these enumerations in the configs and the code.
define( 'VIEWER', 10 );
define( 'REPORTER', 25 );
define( 'UPDATER', 40 );
define( 'DEVELOPER', 55 );
define( 'MANAGER', 70 );
define( 'ADMINISTRATOR', 90 );
config_defaults_inc.php includes the defaults for the enumerations. The configuration options
that are defaulted here are used in specifying which enumerations are active and should be used in
MantisBT.
$g_access_levels_enum_string =
'10:viewer,25:reporter,40:updater,55:developer,70:manager,90:administrator';
Note
The strings included in the enumerations here are just for documentation purposes, they are not
actually shown to the user (due to the need for localisation). Hence, if an entry in this enumera-
tion is not found in the corresponding localised string (i.e. 70:manager), then it will be printed to
the user as @70@.
The Language Files (e.g. lang/strings_german.txt) provide the localised strings (German in
this case) for enumerations. But again, the master list is the enumeration in the configs themselves,
the ones in the language files are just used for finding the localised equivalent for an entry. Hence, if
a user changes the config to have only two types of users developers and administrators, then only
those will be prompted to the users even if the enumerations in the language files still includes the full
list.
Email Notifications
89
$s_access_levels_enum_string =
'10:Betrachter,25:Reporter,40:Updater,55:Entwickler,70:Manager,90:Administrator';
How can they be customised?
Let say we want to remove access level "Updater" and add access level "Senior Developer".
The file config/custom_constants_inc.php is supported for the exclusive purpose of allowing
administrators to define their own constants while maintaining a simple upgrade path for future releas-
es of MantisBT. Note that this file is not distributed with MantisBT and you will need to create it if you
need such customisation. In our example, we need to define a constant for the new access level.
define( 'SENIOR_DEVELOPER', 60 );
In config/config_inc.php
// Remove Updater and add Senior Developer
$g_access_levels_enum_string =
'10:viewer,25:reporter,55:developer,60:senior_developer,70:manager,90:administrator';
// Give access to Senior developers to create/delete custom field.
$g_manage_custom_fields_threshold = SENIOR_DEVELOPER;
Update the Custom Strings File (see Section 7.1, “Strings / Translations”)
$s_access_levels_enum_string =
'10:Betrachter,25:Reporter,40:Updater,55:Entwickler,60:Senior
Developer,70:Manager,90:Administrator';
Note
We don't need to remove the Updater entry from the localisation file if the current language is
'English'.
Conclusion
We have covered how enumerations work in general, and how to customise one of them. If you are in-
terested in customising other enumerations, a good starting point would be to go to MantisBT Enum
Strings section in config_defaults_inc.php. This section defines all enumerations that are used
by MantisBT.
7.4. Email Notifications
See Section 5.8, “Email” in the Configuration section.
Examples:
• Notify only managers of new issues.
$g_notify_flags['new'] = array(
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
90
'threshold_min' => MANAGER,
'threshold_max' => MANAGER,
);
• Notify Developers and managers of all project events, except, exclude developers from the 'closed'
events.
$g_default_notify_flags = array(
'threshold_min' => DEVELOPER,
'threshold_max' => MANAGER,
);
$g_notify_flags['closed'] = array(
'threshold_min' => MANAGER,
'threshold_max' => MANAGER,
);
• Exclude those who contributed issue notes from getting messages about other changes in the is-
sue.
$g_default_notify_flags['bugnotes'] = OFF;
• Exclude those monitoring issues from seeing the 'closed' message
$g_notify_flags['closed']['monitor'] = OFF;
• Only notify developers when issue notes are added.
$g_notify_flags['bugnote'] = array(
'threshold_min' => DEVELOPER,
'threshold_max' => DEVELOPER,
);
• Notify managers of changes in sponsorship.
$g_notify_flags['sponsor'] = array(
'threshold_min' => MANAGER,
'threshold_max' => MANAGER,
);
• Notify originator and managers of changes in ownership ("Assigned To:").
$g_notify_flags['owner'] = array(
'threshold_min' => MANAGER,
'threshold_max' => MANAGER,
'reporter' => ON,
);
• I'm paranoid about mail. Only send information on issues to those involved in them. Don't send
mail people already know about. Also send new issue notifications to managers so they can screen
them.
Customizing Status Values
91
$g_email_receive_own = OFF;
$g_default_notify_flags = array(
'reporter' => ON,
'handler' => ON,
'monitor' => ON,
'bugnotes' => ON,
'category' => ON,
'threshold_min' => NOBODY,
'threshold_max' => NOBODY
);
$g_notify_flags['new'] = array(
'threshold_min' => MANAGER,
'threshold_max' => MANAGER,
);
• How do I replace the $g_to_email configuration variable to log all messages to an email logger.
You will need to create a dummy user with the appropriate access level for the notices you want to
log. Once this user is added to projects, they will receive mail using the appropriate rules.
7.5. Customizing Status Values
This section describes how to add a custom status.
1. Define a constant to map the new status to.
In subfolder config, locate and edit file custom_constants_inc.php; (create it if it does not exist)
<?php
# Custom status code
define( 'TESTING', 60 );
2. Define the new status in the enumeration, as well as the corresponding color code.
In subfolder config, edit your config_inc.php
# Revised enum string with new 'testing' status
$g_status_enum_string =
'10:new,20:feedback,30:acknowledged,40:confirmed,50:assigned,60:testing,80:resolved,90:closed';
# Status color additions
$g_status_colors['testing'] = '#ACE7AE';
Note that the key in the $g_status_colors array must be equal to the value defined for the new sta-
tus code in $g_status_enum_string.
3. Define the required translation strings for the new status, for each language used in the installa-
tion.
•s_status_enum_string: status codes translation (refer to the original language strings for stan-
dard values)
•s_XXXX_bug_title: title displayed in the change status page
•s_XXXX_bug_button: label for the submit button in the change status page
•s_email_notification_title_for_status_bug_XXXX: title for notification e-mails
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
92
where XXXX is the name of the new status as it was defined in g_status_enum_string above. If
XXXX contains spaces, they should be replaced by underscores in the language strings names
(e.g. for '35:pending user', use '$s_pending_user_bug_button')
In subfolder config, locate and edit the Custom Strings File (see Section 7.1, “Strings / Transla-
tions”), create it if it does not exist
<?php
# Translation for Custom Status Code: testing
switch( $g_active_language ) {
case 'french':
$s_status_enum_string =
'10:nouveau,20:commentaire,30:accepté,40:confirmé,50:affecté,60:à
tester,80:résolu,90:fermé';
$s_testing_bug_title = 'Mettre le bogue en test';
$s_testing_bug_button = 'A tester';
$s_email_notification_title_for_status_bug_testing = 'Le bogue suivant est prêt à être
TESTE.';
break;
default: # english
$s_status_enum_string =
'10:new,20:feedback,30:acknowledged,40:confirmed,50:assigned,60:testing,80:resolved,90:closed';
$s_testing_bug_title = 'Mark issue Ready for Testing';
$s_testing_bug_button = 'Ready for Testing';
$s_email_notification_title_for_status_bug_testing = 'The following issue is ready for
TESTING.';
break;
}
4. Add the new status to the workflow as required.
This can either be done from the Manage Workflow Transitions page (see Section 4.3.1, “Work-
flow Transitions”) or by manually editing config_inc.php as per the example below:
$g_status_enum_workflow[NEW_]
='30:acknowledged,20:feedback,40:confirmed,50:assigned,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[FEEDBACK]
='30:acknowledged,40:confirmed,50:assigned,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[ACKNOWLEDGED]
='40:confirmed,20:feedback,50:assigned,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[CONFIRMED]
='50:assigned,20:feedback,30:acknowledged,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[ASSIGNED]
='60:testing,20:feedback,30:acknowledged,40:confirmed,80:resolved';
$g_status_enum_workflow[TESTING] ='80:resolved,20:feedback,50:assigned';
$g_status_enum_workflow[RESOLVED] ='90:closed,20:feedback,50:assigned';
$g_status_enum_workflow[CLOSED] ='20:feedback,50:assigned';
5. Check and update existing workflow configurations
If you do not perform this step and have existing workflow definitions, it will not be possible to tran-
sition to and from your new status.
Custom Functions
93
Go to the Workflow Transitions page (manage_config_workflow_page.php), and update the work-
flow as appropriate. Make sure that you have picked the correct Project in the selection list).
Hint: to identify whether you have any workflows that should be updated, open the Manage Con-
figuration Report page (adm_config_report.php) and filter on 'All Users', [any] project and config
option = 'status_enum_workflow'. All of the listed projects should be reviewed to eventually include
transitions to and from the newly added states.
7.6. Custom Functions
Custom functions are used to extend the functionality of MantisBT by integrating user-written functions
into the issue processing at strategic places. This allows the system administrator to change the func-
tionality without touching MantisBT's core.
Default Custom Functions are defined in the API file core/custom_function_api.php , and are
named custom_function_default_descriptive_name, where descriptive_name describes the particular
function. See Section 7.6.1, “Default Custom Functions” for a description of the specific functions.
User versions of these functions (overrides) are named like
custom_function_override_descriptive_name, and placed in a file called
custom_functions_inc.php that must be saved in MantisBT's config directory. In normal process-
ing, the system will look for override functions and execute them instead of the provided default func-
tions.
The simplest way to create a custom function is to copy the default one from the api to your override
file (custom_functions_inc.php), and rename it (i.e. replacing 'default' by 'override'). The specific
functionality you need can then be coded into the override function.
7.6.1. Default Custom Functions
Refer to core/custom_functions_api.php for further details.
Custom Function Name Description Return value
custom_function_default_auth_can_change_password()Determines whether MantisBT
can update the password
True if yes, False if not
custom_function_default_changelog_include_issue( $p_issue_id )Determines whether the speci-
fied issue should be included in
the Changelog or not.
True to include, False to ex-
clude
custom_function_default_changelog_print_issue( $p_issue_id,
$p_issue_level = 0 )
Prints one entry in the Changel-
og
None
custom_function_default_enum_categories()Build a list of all categories for
the current project
Enumeration, delimited by "|"
custom_function_default_enum_future_versions()Build a list of all future versions
for the current project
Enumeration, delimited by "|"
custom_function_default_enum_released_versions()Build a list of all released ver-
sions for the current project
Enumeration, delimited by "|"
custom_function_default_enum_versions()Build a list of all versions for the
current project
Enumeration, delimited by "|"
custom_function_default_format_issue_summary( $p_issue_id,
$p_context = 0 )
Format the bug summary Formatted string
Chapter 7. Customizing MantisBT
94
Custom Function Name Description Return value
custom_function_default_get_columns_to_view( $p_columns_target
=
COLUMNS_TARGET_VIEW_PAGE,
$p_user_id = null )
Defines which columns should
be displayed
Array of the column names
custom_function_default_issue_create_notify( $p_issue_id )Notify after an issue has been
created
In case of invalid data,
this function should call
trigger_error()
custom_function_default_issue_create_validate( $p_new_issue_data )Validate field settings before
creating an issue
In case of invalid data,
this function should call
trigger_error()
custom_function_default_issue_delete_notify( $p_issue_data )Notify after an issue has been
deleted
In case of invalid data,
this function should call
trigger_error()
custom_function_default_issue_delete_validate( $p_issue_id )Validate field settings before
deleting an issue
In case of invalid data,
this function should call
trigger_error()
custom_function_default_issue_update_notify( $p_issue_id )Notify after an issue has been
updated
In case of invalid data,
this function should call
trigger_error()
custom_function_default_issue_update_validate( $p_issue_id,
$p_new_issue_data,
$p_bugnote_text )
Validate field issue data before
updating
In case of invalid data,
this function should call
trigger_error()
custom_function_default_print_bug_view_page_custom_buttons( $p_bug_id )Prints the custom buttons on
the current view page
None
custom_function_default_print_column_title( $p_column,
$p_columns_target =
COLUMNS_TARGET_VIEW_PAGE,
array $p_sort_properties =
null )
Print a column's title based on
its name
None
custom_function_default_print_column_value( $p_column,
$p_bug, $p_columns_target =
COLUMNS_TARGET_VIEW_PAGE )
Print a column's value based
on its name
None
custom_function_default_roadmap_include_issue( $p_issue_id )Determines whether the speci-
fied issue should be included in
the Roadmap or not.
True to include, False to ex-
clude
custom_function_default_roadmap_print_issue( $p_issue_id,
$p_issue_level = 0 )
Prints one entry in the
Roadmap
None
7.6.2. Example Custom Function Override
The following function is used to validate an issue before it is resolved.
<?php
/**
* Hook to validate Validate field settings before resolving
* verify that the resolution is not set to OPEN
* verify that the fixed in version is set (if versions of the product exist)
*/
function custom_function_override_issue_update_validate( $p_issue_id, $p_bug_data, $p_bugnote_text ) {
Example Custom Function Override
95
if( $p_bug_data->status == RESOLVED ) {
if( $p_bug_data->resolution == OPEN ) {
error_parameters( 'the resolution cannot be open to resolve the issue' );
trigger_error( ERROR_VALIDATE_FAILURE, ERROR );
}
$t_version_count = count( version_get_all_rows( $p_bug_data->project_id ) );
if( ( $t_version_count > 0 ) && ( $p_bug_data->fixed_in_version == '' ) ) {
error_parameters( 'fixed in version must be set to resolve the issue' );
trigger_error( ERROR_VALIDATE_FAILURE, ERROR );
}
}
}
?>
The errors will also need to be defined, by modifying the following files
•custom_constants_inc.php
define( 'ERROR_VALIDATE_FAILURE', 2000 );
•Custom Strings File (see Section 7.1, “Strings / Translations”)
$MANTIS_ERROR['ERROR_VALIDATE_FAILURE'] = 'This change cannot be made because %s';
96
Chapter 8.
97
Authentication
MantisBT supports several authentication methods out of the box. In addition, there is work in
progress relating to supporting authentication plug-ins. Once these are implemented, authentication
against any protocol or repository of user names and passwords will be possible without having to
touch MantisBT core code.
It is important to note that MantisBT does not yet support hybrid authentication scenarios. For exam-
ple, internal staff authenticating against LDAP while customers authenticate against the MantisBT
database with MD5 hash.
See $g_login_method in Section 5.21.1, “Global authentication parameters” for more details about
how to configure MantisBT to use one of these authentication techniques.
8.1. Standard Authentication
With Standard login method, MantisBT users are authenticated against records in the MantisBT data-
base, where the passwords are stored as a hash.
Note: while technically unlimited, the password's length is arbitrarily restricted to 1024 characters
(PASSWORD_MAX_SIZE_BEFORE_HASH constant).
Values for $g_login_method:
•MD51 is the default - and recommended - method
• Support for additional methods (e.g. SHA-12) could be added in the future
8.2. LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory
Value for $g_login_method: LDAP
Authentication is made against an LDAP3 or Active Directory4 server.
The LDAP parameters should be setup as explained in Section 5.21.2, “LDAP authentication method
parameters”.
An MD5 hash of the user's password will be stored in the database upon successful login, allowing
fall-back to Standard Authentication when the LDAP server is not available.
The user's ID and password is checked against the Directory; if the credentials are valid, then the user
is allowed to login and their user account in MantisBT is created automatically.
8.3. Basic Authentication
Value for $g_login_method: BASIC_AUTH
When MantisBT is configured to use basic auth, it automatically detects the logged in user and checks
if they are already registered in MantisBT, if not, then a new account is automatically created for the
username.
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LDAP
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory
Chapter 8. Authentication
98
The password length is limited to the size of the underlying database field
(DB_FIELD_SIZE_PASSWORD constant), currently 32 characters.
8.4. HTTP Authentication
Value for $g_login_method: HTTP_AUTH
TODO
The password length is limited to the size of the underlying database field
(DB_FIELD_SIZE_PASSWORD constant), currently 32 characters.
8.5. Deprecated authentication methods
The following methods of authentication are deprecated, and supported for backwards-compatibility
reasons only. It is strongly recommended to update MantisBT installations relying on these to use Sec-
tion 8.1, “Standard Authentication” instead.
Deprecated values for $g_login_method:
• CRYPT
• CRYPT_FULL_SALT
• PLAIN
With CRYPT-based methods, the password's length is limited as per Standard Authentication. With
PLAIN, its size is restricted as for Basic Authentication.
Chapter 9.
99
Troubleshooting
This chapter provides the Administrator with additional information related to Application Errors and
common problems in MantisBT.
Useful additional reference information and support may also be found on the MantisBT website1,
more specifically the Forums2 and the Bugtracker3.
9.1. Application Errors
Additional information about MantisBT common errors.
9.1.1. Error 2800 - Invalid form security token
This error may only occur when Form Validation is enabled with $g_form_security_validation = ON
(see Section 5.4, “Webserver”). There are several known cases that could trigger it:
• Multiple submissions of a form by clicking on the submit button several times (user error)
• Invalid or unauthorized submission of a form, e.g. by hand-crafting the URL (CSRF attack)
• Expired PHP session
In the first two instances, MantisBT's behavior is by design, and the response as expected. For ex-
pired sessions however, the user is impacted by system behavior, which could not only cause confu-
sion, but also potential loss of submitted form data. What happens is driven by several php.ini configu-
ration settings:
• The ratio session.gc_probability4 divided by session.gc_divisor5, which determines the probability
that the garbage collection process will start when a session is initialized.
•session.gc_maxlifetime6 which specifies (as the name does not indicate) the minimum validity of
session data.
With PHP default values, sessions created more than 1440 seconds (24 minutes) ago have a 1%
chance to be invalidated each time a new session is initialized. This explains the seemingly random
occurrence of this error.
Unfortunately, this problem cannot be fixed without a major rework of the way sessions and form secu-
rity are handled in MantisBT.
As a workaround, the Administrator can
• Increase the value of session.gc_maxlifetime7
• Set $g_form_security_validation = OFF. Note that for security reasons, it is strongly recommended
not to do this.
Users may also install local tools to avoid loss of form data, e.g. Lazarus Form Recovery8 add-on for
Firefox.
1 http://www.mantisbt.org/
2 http://www.mantisbt.org/forums/
3 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/
4 http://php.net/session.gc-probability
5 http://php.net/session.gc-divisor
6 http://php.net/session.gc-maxlifetime
7 http://php.net/session.gc-maxlifetime
8 http://lazarus.interclue.com/
Chapter 9. Troubleshooting
100
Further references and reading:
• MantisBT issues 123819, 1249210, 1310611, 1324612
9 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=12381
10 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=12492
11 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=13106
12 http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=13246
Chapter 10.
101
Project Management
This section covers the project management features of MantisBT. This includes features like change
log, roadmap, time tracking, reporting and others.
10.1. Change Log
MantisBT doesn't just track the status of issues, it also relates issues to versions. Each project can
have several versions, which are marked with attributes like released and obsolete. Users typically re-
port issues against released issues and developers typically fix issues in not released versions. With
every new release comes question like: what's new? what has been fixed? Customers wonder if the
new release is of interest to them and whether they should take an upgrade. Well, the change log is
specifically tailored to answer these kind of questions.
In order for an issue to show up in the change log, it has to satisfy certain criteria. The criteria is that
the issue has to be resolved with a 'fixed' resolution and has to have the 'fixed_in_version' field set.
Users sometimes wonder why resolved or closed issues don't show up in the change log, and the an-
swer is that the 'fixed_in_version' field is not set. Without the 'fixed_in_version', it is not possible for
MantisBT to include the issues in the appropriate section of the changelog. Note that it is possible to
set the 'fixed_in_version' for multiple issues using the 'Update Fixed in Version' group action on the
View Issues page (just below the issues list). This option is only available when the selected project is
not 'All Projects'. Once a version is marked as obsolete, it is now longer included in the change log.
MantisBT also provides the ability to customize the criteria used for an issue to be included in the
change log. For example, for installations that use a custom set of resolutions, it is possible to select
multiple resolutions as valid candidates for the change log. This can be done using custom functions
(see custom functions documentation for more details). The custom function below overrides the Man-
tisBT default behavior to include issues with both FIXED and IMPLEMENTED (a custom resolution)
resolutions in the change log.
<?php
# --------------------
# Checks the provided bug and determines whether it should be included in the changelog
# or not.
# returns true: to include, false: to exclude.
function custom_function_override_changelog_include_issue( $p_issue_id ) {
$t_issue = bug_get( $p_issue_id );
return ( ( $t_issue->resolution == FIXED || $t_issue->resolution == IMPLEMENTED ) &&
( $t_issue->status >= config_get( 'bug_resolved_status_threshold' ) ) );
}
MantisBT also provides the ability to customize the details to include from the issue and in what for-
mat. This can be done using the following custom function.
<?php
# --------------------
# Prints one entry in the changelog.
function custom_function_override_changelog_print_issue( $p_issue_id, $p_issue_level = 0 ) {
$t_bug = bug_get( $p_issue_id );
if( $t_bug->category_id ) {
$t_category_name = category_get_name( $t_bug->category_id );
} else {
$t_category_name = '';
Chapter 10. Project Management
102
}
$t_category = is_blank( $t_category_name ) ? '' : '&lt;b&gt;[' . $t_category_name
. ']&lt;/b&gt; ';
echo str_pad( '', $p_issue_level * 6, '&#160;' ), '- ',
string_get_bug_view_link( $p_issue_id ), ': ', $t_category,
string_display_line_links( $t_bug->summary );
if( $t_bug->handler_id != 0 ) {
echo ' (', prepare_user_name( $t_bug->handler_id ), ')';
}
echo ' - ', get_enum_element( 'status', $t_bug->status ), '.&lt;br /&gt;';
}
By combining both customization features, it is also possible to do more advanced customization sce-
narios. For example, users can add a 'ChangelogSummary' custom field and include all issues that
have such field in the change log. Through customizing what information being included for a qualify-
ing issue, users can also include the 'ChangelogSummary' text rather than the native summary field.
In some cases, users know that they fixed an issue and that the fix will be included in the next release,
however, they don't know yet the name of the release. In such case, the recommended approach is
to always have a version defined that corresponds to the next release, which is typically called 'Next
Release'. Once the release is cut and has a concrete name, then 'Next Release' can be renamed to
the appropriate name and a new 'Next Release' can then be created. For teams that manage releases
from multiple branches for the same project, then more than one next release can be possible. For ex-
ample, 'Next Dev Release' and 'Next Stable Release'.
Another common requirement is to be able to link to the change log of a specific project from the
project's main website. There is a variety of ways to do that:
• To link to the changelog of version "ver1" of project "myproject":
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/changelog_page.php?project=myproject&version=ver1
• To link to the changelog of all non-obsolete versions of project 'myproject':
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/changelog_page.php?project=myproject
• To link to the changelog of project with id 1. The project id can be figured out by going to the man-
agement page for the project and getting the value of project_id field form the URL.
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/changelog_page.php?project_id=1
• To link to the changelog of version with id 1. The version id is unique across all projects and hence
in this case it is not necessary to include the project id/name. The version id can be figured out by
going to the manage project page and editing the required version. The version_id will be included
in the URL.
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/changelog_page.php?version_id=1
Another approach is to go to the project page and from there users can get to multiple other locations
relating to the project include the change log. This can be done by a URL like the following:
Roadmap
103
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/project_page.php?project_id=1
It is possible to customize the access level required for viewing the change log page. This can be
done using the $g_view_changelog_threshold configuration option.
10.2. Roadmap
One of the very important scenarios in project management is where the project managers (or team
leads) triage the issues to set their priorities, target version, and possibly assign the issues to spe-
cific developers or take other actions on the issue. By setting the target version of an issue to a ver-
sion that is not yet released, the issue shows up on the project roadmap, providing user with informa-
tion about when to expect the issues to be resolved. The roadmap page has a section for each re-
lease showing information like planned issues, issues done and percentage of issues completed. Is-
sues that are fixed in a specific version, but didn't have the target_version field set, will not show up
in the roadmap. This allows the ability to control the issues that are significant enough to show in the
roadmap, while all resolved fields can be found in the change log. Note that it is possible to set the
'target_version' for multiple issues using the 'Update Target Version' group action that is available
through the View Issues page (below the issues list). This option is only available when the current
project is not 'All Projects'. Although it is not a typical scenario, it is worth mentioning that once a ver-
sion is marked as obsolete, it is not included in the roadmap.
Note that the roadmap only includes future versions, once a version is marked as released, it no
longer is included in the roadmap. For information about such releases, the change log feature should
be used. For an issue to be shown on the roadmap, it has to have the target version set. It does not
matter whether the feature is resolved or not. Resolved features will be decorated with a strikethrough
and will be counted as done.
MantisBT provides the ability to customize the criteria for issues to show up on the roadmap. The de-
fault criteria is that the issue has to belong to a version that is not yet released and that the issues is
not a duplicate. However, such criteria can be customized by using custom functions as below.
<?php
# --------------------
# Checks the provided bug and determines whether it should be included in the roadmap or not.
# returns true: to include, false: to exclude.
function custom_function_override_roadmap_include_issue( $p_issue_id ) {
return ( true );
}
It is also possible to customize the details included about an issues and the presentation of such de-
tails. This can be done through the following custom function:
<?php
# --------------------
# Prints one entry in the roadmap.
function custom_function_override_roadmap_print_issue( $p_issue_id, $p_issue_level = 0 ) {
$t_bug = bug_get( $p_issue_id );
if( bug_is_resolved( $p_issue_id ) ) {
$t_strike_start = '&lt;strike&gt;';
$t_strike_end = '&lt;/strike&gt;';
} else {
$t_strike_start = $t_strike_end = '';
Chapter 10. Project Management
104
}
if( $t_bug->category_id ) {
$t_category_name = category_get_name( $t_bug->category_id );
} else {
$t_category_name = '';
}
$t_category = is_blank( $t_category_name ) ? '' : '&lt;b&gt;[' . $t_category_name
. ']&lt;/b&gt; ';
echo str_pad( '', $p_issue_level * 6, '&#160;' ), '- ', $t_strike_start,
string_get_bug_view_link( $p_issue_id ), ': ', $t_category,
string_display_line_links( $t_bug->summary );
if( $t_bug->handler_id != 0 ) {
echo ' (', prepare_user_name( $t_bug->handler_id ), ')';
}
echo ' - ', get_enum_element( 'status', $t_bug->status ), $t_strike_end, '.&lt;br /&gt;';
}
Some teams manage different branches for each of their projects (e.g. development and maintenance
branches). As part of triaging the issue, they may decide that an issue should be targeted to multi-
ple branches. Hence, frequently the request comes up to be able to target a single issue to multiple
releases. The current MantisBT approach is that an issues represents an implementation or a fix for
an issue on a specific branch. Since sometimes applying and verifying a fix to the two branches does
not happen at the same time and in some cases the approach for fixing an issue is different based on
the branch. Hence, the way to manage such scenario is to have the main issue for the initial fix and
have related issues which capture the work relating to applying the fix to other branches. The issues
for porting the fix can contain any discussions relating to progress, reflect the appropriate status and
can go through the standard workflow process independent of the original issues.
Another common requirement is to be able to link to the roadmap of a specific project from the
project's main website. There is a variety of ways to do that:
• To link to the roadmap of version "ver1" of project "myproject":
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/roadmap_page.php?project=myproject&version=ver1
• To link to the roadmap of all non-obsolete versions of project 'myproject':
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/roadmap_page.php?project=myproject
• To link to the roadmap of project with id 1. The project id can be figured out by going to the manage-
ment page for the project and getting the value of project_id field form the URL.
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/roadmap_page.php?project_id=1
• To link to the roadmap of version with id 1. The version id is unique across all projects and hence in
this case it is not necessary to include the project id/name. The version id can be figured out by go-
ing to the manage project page and editing the required version. The version_id will be included in
the URL.
Time Tracking
105
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/roadmap_page.php?version_id=1
Another approach is to go to the project page and from there users can get to multiple other locations
relating to the project include the roadmap. This can be done by a URL like the following:
http://www.example.com/mantisbt/project_page.php?project_id=1
The access level required to view and modify the roadmap can be configured through
$g_roadmap_view_threshold and $g_roadmap_update_threshold respectively. Modifying the roadmap
is the ability to set the target versions for issues. Users who have such access can set the target ver-
sions while reporting new issues or by updating existing issues.
10.3. Time Tracking
To activate the Time Tracking feature you have to set the configuration option "time_tracking_enabled"
to ON. To activating the Time Tracking you can :
• Static solution : change the variable '$g_time_tracking_enabled' in the configuration file
'config_defaults_inc.php', this will change the configuration for all the MantisBT instance ;
• Dynamic and "project by project" solution : Use the administration page "Manage Configuration" and
set the variable 'time_tracking_enabled' to '1' for which user and which project of you choice.
All Time Tracking configuration options are described in the configuration section off this guide.
10.4. Graphs
Assigned to me: TODO
Release Delta: TODO
Category: TODO
Severity: TODO
Severity / Status: TODO
Daily Delta: TODO
Reported by Me: TODO
10.5. Summary Page
By Status: TODO
By Severity: TODO
By Category: TODO
Time Stats for Resolved Issues (days): TODO
Developer Status: TODO
Reporter by Resolution: TODO
Developer by Resolution: TODO
Chapter 10. Project Management
106
By Date: TODO
Most Active: TODO
Longest Open: TODO
By Resolution: TODO
By Priority: TODO
Reporter Status: TODO
Reporter Effectiveness: TODO
Chapter 11.
107
Contributing to MantisBT
11.1. Talent and Time
One of the greatest ways to contribute to MantisBT is to contribute your talent and time. For MantisBT
to keep growing we need such support in all areas related to the software development cycle. This in-
cludes: business analysts, developers, web designers, graphics designers, technical writers, globaliza-
tion developers, translators, testers, super users, packagers and active users. If you would like to con-
tribute in any of these capacities please contact us through the "Contact Us" page.
11.2. Recommend MantisBT to Others
It feels great when we get feedback from the user community about how MantisBT boosted their pro-
ductivity, and benefited their organization. A lot of the feedback I get is via email, some on mailing
lists, and some on forums. I would encourage such users to blog about it, tell their friends about Man-
tisBT, and recommend MantisBT to other organizations. MantisBT is driven by it's community, the
greater the community, the greater the ideas, the greater of a product it becomes.
11.3. Blog about MantisBT
If you have a blog, then talk about MantisBT, review it's features and help us spread the word. A lot of
users also like to blog about how they customized MantisBT to fit their needs or to integrate with other
tools that they use in their work environment.
11.4. Integrate with MantisBT
If you have a product that can be integrated with MantisBT to provide value for MantisBT users, that
would be a great place to contribute and benefit both your project's and the MantisBT community.
A great example in this area are integrations with content management systems (e.g. *Nuke, Xoops),
project management (PHPProjekt), and TestLink for Test Management. MantisBT can easily be in-
tegrated with projects in any programming language whether it is hosted on the same webserver or
anywhere else in the world. This can be achieved through its SOAP API and MantisConnect client li-
braries. MantisConnect comes with client libraries and samples in languages like PHP, .NET, Java
and Cocoa.
108
109
Appendix A. Revision History
Revision
2.10-0
Sat Dec 30 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.10.0
Revision 2.9-0 Sun Dec 3 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.9.0
Revision 2.8-0 Sat Oct 28 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.8.0
Revision 2.7-0 Sun Oct 8 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.7.0
Revision 2.6-0 Sun Sep 3 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.6.0
Revision 2.5-1 Sat Jun 17 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.5.1
Revision 2.5-0 Sun Jun 4 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.5.0
Revision 2.4-1 Sat May 20 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.4.1
Revision 2.4-0 Sun Apr 30 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.4.0
Revision 2.3-3 Sun Apr 30 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.3.2
Revision 2.3-2 Sun Apr 17 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.3.1
Revision 2.3-1 Fri Mar 31 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Appendix A. Revision History
110
Release 2.3.0
Revision 2.2-3 Wed Mar 22 2017 Damien Regad dregad@mantisbt.org
Release 2.2.2
Revision 2.2-2 Sun Mar 12 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.2.1
Revision 2.2-1 Sun Feb 26 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.2.0
Revision 2.1-2 Sun Feb 26 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.1.1
Revision 2.1-1 Tue Jan 31 2017 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.1.0
Revision 2.0-2 Fri Dec 30 2016 Victor Boctor vboctor@mantisbt.org
Release 2.0.0
Revision 2.0-1 Sat Nov 26 2016 Damien Regad dregad@mantisbt.org
Release 2.0.0-rc.2

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