search

lynnetteeee / pe

0 stars 0 forks source link

Editing data file welcomed, but users not warned of risks. #3

Open lynnetteeee opened 2 months ago

lynnetteeee commented 2 months ago

Description Set the context.

The user guide encourages us to update data directly by editing the data file. image.png However, it does not mention of any warnings of total data loss, until the next section, which is not what a user would expect. It is likely that they will scroll till Editing... section, then proceed with the editing, without knowing of the risk that was only mentioned later.

image.png

Steps to reproduce

  1. Launch the application for the first time to load initial data.
  2. Run list
  3. Run exit
  4. Go to the data folder in the directory where the jar file is in
  5. Change Bernice Yu's NRIC to be the same as Alex Yeoh's
  6. Run the jar file again

Expected behaviour

At step 5, output should be this.

Actual behaviour

The whole address book data was wiped. image.png

Reason for severity

Unrecoverable data loss is quite a severe issue, and since editing the data file was welcomed and mentioned in the UG, it is something that the readers of the UG would try. However they are not informed of the risks, or tip to save a copy in the same section. But given it is mentioned soon after, I would think it is between a Low and Medium bug rather than a High bug.

Ideas

Proper warnings or tips on saving a copy when editing the json file could be added in the CORRECT section of the UG (under Editing the data file) to warn readers.

soc-pe-bot commented 2 months ago

Team's Response

As per the definition of the severity (low): A flaw that is unlikely to affect normal operations of the product. Appears only in very rare situations and causes a minor inconvenience only.

While there could be improvements in the documentation (more detailed description is always better), the documentation/product isn't flawed. In fact, the documentation mentioned that if there is invalid data, all of the information will be wiped. This is exactly what happened in your bug report, and is the intended behavior.

In addition, we only recommend advanced users to use this functionality. Advanced users are expected to back up their data when making potentially dangerous changes. This should further mitigate any data loss scenarios.

Items for the Tester to Verify

:question: Issue response

Team chose [response.Rejected]

Reason for disagreement: I think the team misunderstood my point, it wasn't about whether or not there is a warning in the documentation, but that the warning note itself was placed in the wrong section, resulting in a high possibility that readers are not aware of the data wipe when they stop scrolling at the Editing section to try out the edit, or when they go to the edit section and assume those are all the information they need.

I still think it is a documentation flaw, judging by the fact that the caution note is placed in the wrong section, and is likely unable to warn readers in time, regardless of whether they are advanced users or not. Furthermore, understanding that this occurs in rare situations as the team has mentioned, it is why I indicated this bug as Low severity, since it is more than a cosmetic flaw, but we can't rule out the possibility of a reader not being warned in time because of the flawed organisation of the documentation, and proceed to make the edits without knowing the risks.

Therefore, I'll have to disagree with this reject, as it is still a documentation bug.