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Search for bugs as a way of life: review No. 2

Long work in IT makes it difficult to see imperfections in user software. Sometimes these are explicit bugs that would be good to fix. But reporting this is difficult due to unprofessional support work. The publication of such bug reviews really helps to attract the attention of developers. In this review, problems on the Online Trade and Rostelecom sites, in the mobile application of Rocketbank Bank and even Habr! About Rostelecom in general, the detective turned out.


Introduction


In the previous review, bugs were reviewed on the websites of 2x2 TV channel, MaMaMia restaurant, Rostelecom provider, Russian Railways, VTB and Sberbank mobile applications.

The Habra effect of the article was very positive. Within two weeks, the VTB application fixed the download of screenshots in the support chat, and removed the NULL value from the user name of the personal account on the Rostelecom website. These problems were 6 months or more than a year. And then corrected for two weeks. Excellent result! I’m even considering starting to collect bugs from users to write reviews. Obviously, there are many more problematic programs than I can use, so I can help someone draw attention to the problems.

Bugs on sites


Shop OnlineTrade




On the OnlineTrade site, a window for a quick search for goods occupies half of the top site. This is the standard interface for these types of sites. This is done to quickly immerse a potential user in the range of available products. But there is a strange search bug on this site.

When you enter text, the results of a quick search are displayed in the form of a "drop-down" list. Up to this point, everything is happening to me as standard, but when you select an item, the search sentences are minimized.

It looks like this:


The problem is very old (for me at least). Sometimes the transition is still performed, but in general I can’t use the site normally. A year ago, support did not answer anything sensible. Now I tried to report the problem again.

The first clarifying question led to certain thoughts:
Tell me, how is a click on a product carried out? Mouse, trackball, trackpad? Or a keyboard?
And really. The positioning from the touchpad of the laptop and computer mouse is different. Most likely, from my device, a click occurs past the search results, and they always collapse. Random clicks on the links apparently worked when they accidentally hit them.

By the way, a year ago the problem was repeated from another laptop. But both are ASUS. I have never seen such behavior anywhere else. Support is also surprised:
No, it’s just you who addressed this problem, analyzing what could be the reason.
Well, everything is simple. I can cite 3 factors that led to this situation:
  1. there is a very low probability that consumers of a consumer goods store will begin to show interest in a bug. Rather, they simply make an order from another site. He did it himself in a hurry. This is the beauty of competition;
  2. many users use computer mice on which the problem does not reproduce;
  3. poor quality support. The main message of my reviews is either that there is no normal opportunity to report a problem, or the information does not reach the necessary departments.

LK Rostelecom



In a previous review, I cited such a problem in the personal account of Rostelecom:


Where n is NULL , a special value that is used for blank fields in the database. Now this value is not displayed. Those. within 2 weeks after publication, we fixed a defect that existed for several years. Responsible people have definitely noticed the problem. But it was a warm-up. It's time to fix a really serious bug that causes a headache.

Now many people are glancing at the electronic services of their parents. For example, in Rostelecom, you can combine personal accounts in one personal account. I periodically adjust this to myself. Periodically, because it works unstable. What is this story about?

About 2 years ago, I started another Rostelecom personal account at a new address and decided to combine personal accounts in one place. For this, there is a special button on the site with a beautiful description:
To manage your services or the services of your loved ones living in any region of Russia, attach the necessary personal accounts to Rostelecom.
This functionality already existed and did not work normally then. Somehow, with the help of support, I got a second personal account and for several years I did not know any problems.

But recently, I had the recklessness of logging into my account with the data from the attached personal account, mixed up ... and he pulled himself loose!

And this bug (or feature), with the inability to configure through your personal account, still exists. Click on the button “Bind personal account” in your personal account and start our quest.


We are met by such a simple form. We see that there are only 4 steps (spoiler: it won’t reach the result). The input data is understandable, with the exception of the checkbox "promotional code from a friend." Even there is no idea what it is and why here. If there is at least some benefit from this, then the wording is clearly unsuccessful. Enter your personal account number and move on.


On this page no one should have any difficulties. We continue the quest.


Ta Dam! Your password for the attached account is not suitable. Although you have authorization data from two personal accounts, you can log in with them at any time, no one will go beyond this form. All that you saw earlier is nothing more than a couple of design pages. Functionality - zero. The following meme fully reflects the emotions at this moment:


Stosh ... we write in a support chat and we note time (it is important). Support correspondence will be given below. Not without flashbacks. I am me. P- support. Any service text, such as the numerous “Expect”, will be deleted to reduce the text.
:… ...

: ! , , , .

: [].

: , , .

: []

: . , , . , .

: . {: ? - ?}

: . , , , .

: [] {: , , , .}

P: Thanks for waiting. Please tell me the personal account and the full name of the owner of the contract, namely the personal account that you can’t link in your account.

Me: [Repeated data] {thoughts: Somewhere I already saw this question ...}

P: Thanks for waiting. Please specify the owner’s passport data (series and number) so that I try to attach this personal account in my account.

Me: [Passport details]
Then he throws me off the site, and I can no longer log into my account for a while:


I imagine how the operator can’t do anything, he breaks into the server room, rips out the hard disk for manual data editing. Then it returns the disk back.

In the meantime, access appears on the site, and I return to the chat.
P: I apologize for the inconvenience. Please write the date of the last payment on this personal account.

Me: [data from SMS]

P: Thanks for waiting. Personal account N 1234567890 successfully connected.
We completed the quest in 45 minutes. Although they could do it on the site in one click. This function on the site must either be deleted or modified. In general, a personal account has long been useless. There you can’t attach an account, you can’t change the tariff, you can’t change the payment mode and, of course, much more. Everything is done only by call or chat (thanks at least for this). What a shame to prioritize such support. Even banks go away from this.

Mobile applications


Rocketbank



Rocketbank is a good bank. Good support, which is typical for most online banks. But for some reason, some bugs constantly haunt me.

Bug # 1

When paying for utility bills by details (using a QR code), you will not immediately find the operation confirmation button. But she simply is not. For it to appear, you need to make several special movements:


The money transfer button will appear in the upper right corner. For the button to appear, you can still erase and re-enter the amount. The bank knows about the problem. Not yet fixed.

Bug # 2

Another problem is also related to payment by details. In the image below, I combined 2 screenshots. On the left payment of the receipt of the details. On the right is the creation of an auto payment for the same receipt.


And the problem is that there is no “comma” button in the auto payment settings. You cannot schedule an auto payment for a real number. In my opinion, this is a strange difference. Looks like a bug. The bank is already aware of my wishes (or bug), but has not done anything in 2 months.

Bug # 3

For the 2nd month in a row, I go into auto payments (somewhere at the end of the month) and find that one of them has reached the desired date and is frozen. It was in December, repeated in January. They assured us the other day that they had definitely fixed it, so I am not doing a full review. But I will definitely be back if it does not work again.

Habr



Habr is a news site about information technology, which for many years has deliberately ignored the trend towards the popularization of mobile devices for web surfing. In the mobile application for iOS, the functionality of the site is minimized. Offers are not implemented. Bugs are not fixed. Here are some of them:

Bug # 1

Periodically, a proposal pops up in the mobile application to leave a review in the App Store. Fans of leaving reviews on something are usually very few of the total mass of users. Especially positive reviews. As with goods, people tend to report more problems. So the refusal to write a review in the Habr application is implemented very interestingly. The application is cut down. This crash or troll is unknown. But many users did not appreciate the joke, and after a dozen terminations of the application they still write reviews, and only negative ones. Interesting marketing. In the spirit of the expression "Bad glory is also glory."

Here are some recent reviews of this bug:
Ilyas Momynon: « , , :D»

Neifmetus: « 5- iPad „ “. 5- , – . , , . – . — »

Daemon100: «, „ ?“ „“, App Store „“.»
And this is only for the last month and only about this bug.

Bug # 2

After reading reviews on the App Store, I met many familiar bugs and Wishlist that I support. But here I did not meet one search bug and decided to repeat it. Looks like that:


Really. When searching for phrases in Cyrillic, Habr gives out all kinds of game.

Well so, Habr!


Connection with the search for errors in the code


The appearance of the described problems and errors has certain reasons. These are flaws in the process of developing programs, as well as in organizing the work of employees as a whole. From writing code to delivering the application to the user, there are several steps.

Identified problems are, first and foremost, the approval of the testing departments. In large companies, these are usually large testing teams. But their effectiveness can suffer from various factors.

One of the important factors that worsens the work of testers is errors that could be corrected even at the stage of writing the code. Processing found bugs takes a few people time. But some of them might not reach the testers, which, in turn, saved the time of the testers. They would spend it on a more productive and high-level testing.

So, our PVS-Studio code analyzer development team is promoting a static analysis methodology. This is the software development phase that faces the transfer of the application to the testing department. In our experience, most errors are flaws in the development phase. And they can be fixed at an early stage, saving time and money.

Unfortunately, unlike open source programs, here I have no way to independently check the code for errors. But if the code is written in C, C ++, C # or Java, then these commands would be useful to go to the site , download the analyzer and run it on your code. Using this tool makes a major contribution to open source software.

Conclusion


Working with user reviews is one of the growth points for the software product. The product is growing - the business is growing. I think many companies should reconsider the work of the testing and support departments.

As I said at the beginning, I use very few applications and sites from the total number of products in this industry. In principle, this is all that has accumulated over the past year. If you are concerned about any bugs, then you can write to me. Let's try to reproduce them and attract the attention of developers.

UPD 1: Habr for iOS is no longer supported if someone did not know ...
UPD 2: The problem on the Online Trade website was fixed after publication.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/undefined/

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