Getting an issue addressed sooner

After creating an issue, you may find that your issue is not being addressed by the project maintainers. Here are a few things you can do to help your issue get addressed sooner, and a few things not to do.

Help the maintainers

Helping to reduce project maintainers' workloads can better enable (as well as motivate) them to help you. The following actions can make an unexpectedly significant difference.

Improve the issue description

Many issue reports don't get attention because the quality of the report is low. Well written reports can be addressed more efficiently by developers. You can edit an issue to improve it. Complete reports contain items such as:

• Easy-to-read issue summaries (use the template), especially at the top of long issue discussions.
• Clear steps for reproducing the issue
• Description of what you thought would happen vs. what actually happened
• Correct and comprehensive settings of status, version, priority, and other values (if necessary, ask the original reporter for more information)

Try to repeat the problem yourself and note any differences or similarities in the results and the system configurations. Reports that multiple users have been able to reproduce the issue are helpful.

Provide a patch

Sometimes the issue already contains a description of the solution or the code for fixing the bug. You can use this information to create a patch. Even if the patch seems trivial, having a patch file makes the maintainer's job easier.

Review, test, and improve an existing patch

Sometimes the issue already contains a patch. Reviewing, testing and improving it can remove hurdles to having the patch committed.

• Review the patch for compliance with Drupal's coding standards.
• Test it. Apply the patch and check that it successfully resolves the issue without introducing new issues. Two things to remember when testing: before applying the patch, verify and take notes on the issue so you can reliably identify the changes; if the patch applies successfully and resolves the issue, remember to mark it as "reviewed and tested by the community (RTBC)."
• Reroll patches that have sat around too long and no longer apply.

Although these items can be challenging if you are not already proficient with Drupal, attempting them can help you better understand how Drupal works. If you're not confident in your results, don't hesitate to post them and invite others to provide feedback.

Write tests

Many Drupal projects use tests to automate checking for problems. In projects that already have automated tests, patches may not be accepted if they do not include automated tests that demonstrate the problem and that it has been solved. If a project does not yet have automated tests, adding them can help the maintainers understand the problem and know that it has been solved. Learn more about automated testing.

Review swap

If you are a developer you can also make an arrangement with another contributor to review their patch/MR and, in return, they review your patch/MR. Each reviewer should have the knowledge necessary to review the patch/MR. These arrangements are made in the appropriate Drupal Slack channel.

Hire someone or provide a bounty

Sometimes it helps to offer money to get the error fixed. Putting out some money on a bug (or getting others to join together to create a big bounty) can result in the quick resolution.

The Marketplace of Professional Services lists Drupal service providers available for hire. You can also read the HowTo: Hire a Drupal site developer to help you in finding the right person.

Tempting things that don't help (and might hurt) the process

• Do not assign a higher priority than your issue objectively deserves.
• Do not "bump" your issue. The default way of looking at issue lists shows more recently updated issues at the top. However, some maintainers look at the list of "RTBC" (Reviewed and Tested by the Community) issues in reverse chronological order, so that the issues that were recently updated are at the bottom of the list and the ones that have been RTBC without comment for longer are at the top. So it may be that comments that don't add anything new actually keep dropping the issue to the bottom of that sort, meaning it doesn't get attention.