Steema Bug Fixing Policy

Introduction

Procedure

1. Identifying the problem

While working on a project you may feel TeeChart isn't doing what you'd expect, or maybe you are not sure how something should be done. The first step then is to simplify the problem to the minimum expression so you can explain the problem in few words.

2. Search

TeeChart has many years on its back and many issues have been discussed already so there are big chances for you to find the same or a similar problem and its resolution.
Please, use the search function at the Steema support forum, the search at StackOverflow, and the search at our bug tracking system. These are the three public communication channels we use with our customers, as you can read in the support options page.

3. Raising an issue

• Clearing doubts

  If you have a query of a syntactical or procedural nature, ie. to ask advice from our technical team, please use the Steema technical forums or StackOverflow.
  Your product license number and password for an active subscription form the login for the forum.



• Raising a Bug Report

  If you didn't do it when identifying the problem at the point #1 above, please arrange a simple example project we can run as-is to reproduce the problem here.
  Doing this helps both you and us to better understand the origin of the problem. Also, it helps us to debug the project and try to find a solution for the same. Take a look at the explanation here.
  You can attach your files at our upload page if your project contains private info or it exceeds the size limit.

  Go to the bug tracking website. If you don't already have a user account you can create a new user for yourself to log the issue you have found here.

  Please use the product categories to best position your bug in the system and equip the report with as much help as you can in the form of description and examples to help us reproduce the problem.

  Please tell us as much information as possible, including:

  • What TeeChart version are you using? We need to know what exact build are you using, as well as whether you are using a version shipped with the IDE, a commercial Standard a Pro or a SourceCode version.
  • What IDE are you using?
  • What language are you programming with?
  • What exact OS are you running? Sometimes a problem is only reproducible in a 64bit system (or the contrary), sometimes only in a specific Windows version, etc
  
  If you have several issues, please try to isolate each them in different projects, and if you need help with all them, please open a new thread for each different issue.

4. Problem resolution

Issues fall into the critical or non-critical categories. We decide on how to classify the issue according to severity, scope, possibilities of a workaround and lifetime of the issue in the context of general improvements over time to the product.

We generally include critical bug resolutions in the next maintenance release if it is deemed technically possible to do so.

We will evaluate the impact and scope of non-critical bugs, along with any other pertinent considerations to best schedule a solution/answer for them. Some of these issues may receive a workaround proposal as a solution rather than a code-fix.

5. Maintenance releases

Steema programs maintenance releases according to demand, critical issue resolutions and other operational factors. The frequency of maintenance releases varies according to product line.