I’ve been a user of the Microsoft Connect site for several years now. A regular user who now and then casts an Up vote or clicks the “I can reproduce it!” link. Not as a content poster. Well, I did post some comments in the past, but I never filed an issue or suggestion.
So, a couple of weeks ago I decided to post my first bug to Microsoft Connect, an issue which I had discovered in SQL Server 2012 RC0. Because this process took me more time than I’d expected, I‘m now blogging about my experience.
The hardest part about the whole experience was finding the actual page that needs to be used to enter and submit the content.
Submitting Content To Microsoft Connect
Are you in for a ride on the Connect site? Here we go!
Step 1: Search For Your Product on The Connect Home Page
On the Home page, enter a search term with which you can locate your favorite product. If you’re not signed in yet, do that first.
Step 2: Click To Participate
Once the search engine has produced the output, locate your favorite product and click the Participate action next to it.
Step 3: Submit Product Feedback
After clicking Participate, the following overwhelming screen appears. The link that you’re looking for is called Submit Product Feedback.
Step 4: The Feedback Center
After clicking Submit Product Feedback, you end up at the Feedback Center.
Looking at the screen above, you’d think that the yellow Submit Feedback button can be used to open the page where you’d need to enter the bug details. Well, it doesn’t…
You need to search for your issue first, to ensure it doesn’t exist already.
Step 5: The Submit Feedback Button Has Been Found, Eureka!
After you’ve performed the search for your issue, you get to the following page above. Finally, on that page you can click a real Submit Feedback button that will bring you to the Select Feedback Form page.
Step 6: Select Your Feedback Form Of Choice
On the Select Feedback Form page, select SQL Server Bug Form to file a SQL Server issue, or select SQL Server Suggestion Form to enter a suggestion.
Step 7: Fill Out The Textboxes
Finally, the page we’ve been trying to locate when we started the adventure, quest accomplished! With this new knowledge, we can now skip directly to step 6 through the following link: Select Feedback Form
Disclaimer: please ensure that you’re not creating duplicate bugs or suggestions, but use whatever search engine your prefer to achieve that goal!
So, here’s my New Year’s present to all of you! And remember: have fun!
Valentino.
References
Microsoft Connect
Feedback Center
Select Feedback Form
