Published: Aug 1, 2019 Updated: Aug 2, 2019 and May 21, 2020

You may know that you can file bug reports or feature requests for ColdFusion and CFBuilder (and search for past ones or track their status) at https://tracker.adobe.com. But did you know you can file those against related things (not “inside CF”) such as the CF docs, the Adobe ColdFusion Docker images, the CF2018 PMT (Performance Monitoring Toolset), the CF API Manager, the cffiddle (online code execution/demo) site, and more–even the Tracker site itself!

It may not be quite so obvious how to report against those things. The key is using the right “component” (or sometimes “product”) name in the select lists offered on the Tracker site. So in this post I help you see how to create entries for several key kinds of things that perhaps you never realized you could file in Tracker.

And Adobe really does pay attention to those bug reports: you may have noticed that each CF and CFBuilder update generally includes many, many listed bug fixes, including ones drawn from this reporting mechanism.

Updates: I updated the post in Aug 2019 with a bit of news, and then in May 2020 to add a couple more items (the code analyzers) that I think folks may not readily consider could have bugs/feature requests filed for them. I’ve also added the URL where the list of “component” values for CF are pulled from, which may help some in finding the “right” value for their issue.

The challenge that prompted this post is that many might never know or notice that they could file bug reports and feature requests against things that are not really “inside of” ColdFusion or CFBuilder, or are inside CF but not about the language or the CF Admin. Part of the challenge is that the choices in Tracker are not as obvious as they could be (and there over 300 choices!)

Here are several particular features you may want to file bugs or feature requests that I think ought to be called out:

• For the CF docs:
  • You need to first choose “ColdFusion” as the product, and then in “component” (once CF and its version are selected, and in the very long list that appears) choose “Documentation”, or one of the few prefixed with that. (More about that long list, and my hope it may be improved, later here.)
• For the PMT:
  • Again choose “ColdFusion” as the product (it’s not technically one of its own), and then in the component list  choose one of the “components” that are prefixed with “PMT” (there are nearly two dozen). (This is an update from when I originally posted this. These component values were until yesterday mis-labelled as “APS”, the old name for the PMT.)
• For the CF Enterprise API Manager:
  • Again choose “ColdFusion” (it’s also NOT its own product name) and then in “component” choose “API Manager”, or again any of the dozens prefixed with that. Like the tracker and docs points above, I agree that the names are pretty self-subscribing. I am simply pointing them out as some might presume that only “CF” issues could be raised, not these related things
• For the CF Docker Images:
  • Choose “ColdFusion” and then in “component” choose one of the items prefixed with “Containers”. Not quite so obvious, but ok. (Perhaps they’re preparing for a day when they offer containers  in other than the Docker format.) For more on the CF Docker images, if that’s new to you, see this post when they were announced
• For the cffiddle site:
  • Choose “ColdFusion”, and then in “component” choose the not-so-obvious value, “CFApps : CFFiddle”. Again, the implication seems to be that there will be other “CFApps” in the future, which is encouraging. Note you can do that for either CF2016 or 2018, the two versions currently supported in CFFiddle
• For the CF Security Analyzer:
  • Choose “ColdFusion”, and then in “component” choose “Security Analyzer”. If you find something about the results you don’t like, file a bug report (or feature request). I call this out because it’s not where some may look, in the group of components (above it) that are prefixed with “Security” and then naming the component. Instead, curiously it’s on it own.
• For the CF Code Compatibility Analyzer:
  • Choose “ColdFusion”, and then in “component” choose “Administrator : Code Analyzer”. I call this out because some may not readily connect the dots that the tool is technically “in” the CF Admin, and so it’s tracked as a “component” of that
• For tracker itself:
  • Finally, for this note that it is indeed listed as a separate “product”, labelled “Adobe Tracker”, because there are in fact other products not related to CF whose issues are to be filed in Tracker (and we all benefit from improvements made to it)
• For the CF portal site (coldfusion.adobe.com):
  • There is currently no option in the tracker site for filing bug reports or feature requests for the CF Portal. I will file a feature request for that (so meta). In the meantime, you can report portal concerns by clicking the “contact us” link at the bottom of the portal. Rather than going to some generic Adobe bitbucket, that currently triggers an email href link: <a href=”mailto:cfcommunityportal@adobe.com?subject=ColdFusion Community Portal &amp;body=Hi, This is regarding the ColdFusion Community Portal.”>Contact Us</a>

Improving Tracker itself

And speaking of filing issues against Tracker itself, I DID happen to file two yesterday (July 31, 2019) related to the above.

First, I filed a bug report complaining about that confusing nomenclature of using APS for the PMT. See (and add your vote if you agree) https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/TKR-231.

Update: Great news: I can report that as of today (Aug 2, 2019) that has been addressed. Thanks, Adobe: and it’s another testament that it really is worth filing bug reports. (Don’t anyone presume that I might somehow get special treatment: trust me, there are plenty of issues I’ve raised that remain unresolved. I appreciate that they get hundreds, if not thousands per year to be considered.)

Second, I also had filed a feature request pointing out how challenging it is to choose from that “components” list for CF, as again there are over 300 items!  I’m sure many pick the wrong one, as it’s not easy to find the right one. I’ve asked if they might add some sort of ajax search feature, to help us filter the list down. Again, please see/vote at https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/TKR-232. I do hope to come back and modify this post if Adobe may address that.

Update: FWIW, while you can’t just do a “view source” in your browser to see all the values, I have determined since creating this post that the list of values is pulled from within the browser from a URL at https://tracker.adobe.com/api/jira/project/CF/components. It’s a json feed, that you could process using CFML or your favorite editor or online tools.

Finally, I filed another feature request to add the Portal as an option in Tracker, under “CF”, so that we can file bug reports or feature requests for that, at TKR-235. If you agree with the concerns I’ve raised here, please do go add your votes. Adobe does take votes into consideration when prioritizing items. (Update in May 2020: it’s still not been added. Again, I realize not every request we make will be addressed.)

But again my main goal in this post was just to let folks know that yes, you CAN file bug reports or feature requests not ONLY against CF and CFB, but also things related to CF, like the PMT, the docs, the CF Docker images, the API Mgr, the CFFiddle site, and even against Tracker itself. (Trust me, I know how painful Tracker can be as a UI. have in fact filed several other items about it.)

Hope that helps some folks.

For more blog content from Charlie Arehart, see his posts here as well as his posts at carehart.org. And follow him on Twitter and other social media as carehart.