Corresponding to Client-Reported Bugs

Sometimes clients report bugs in the sites we build. Unfortunately, “it doesn’t work” or “I get an error” isn’t usually enough information to find and resolve a problem.

We don’t send code to staging or live sites without having tested it in development (nm) already. Yes, sometimes things may not be finished (styled or functional) perfectly (and that’s the nature of development), but nothing should be broken.

In these cases, there are two things we can convey to the clients:

1. Do a browser hard refresh, which is done differently depending on their browser:

• Windows and Linux browsers: CTRL + F5
• Apple Safari: SHIFT + Reload toolbar button
• Chrome and Firefox for Mac: CMD + SHIFT + R

2. Give us two pieces of vital information:

1. The full URL of the page where the problem is taking place.
   ex: http://www-staging.bu.edu/cas/about
   or: http://www.bu.edu/cas/wp-admin/post.php?post=14024&action=edit
2. Their system & browser information. Sometimes bugs can crop that only happen in certain browsers. Tell the client to visit http://whatsmybrowser.org/  and then send us the URL in the box. This will tell us what their system and browser is so we can test the bug properly