This blog post explains how you, as a JASP user, can help improve the program — simply give us feedback whenever something is amiss. Specifically, whenever you notice that JASP malfunctions in some way (e.g., the font size in the results panel is too small) you can tell us by issuing a bug report. When you notice JASP cannot execute an important task (e.g., a type of analysis not implemented), you can tell us by issuing a feature request. Such reports and requests are invaluable to us as they identify concrete avenues for improvement that will benefit all JASP users.
On GitHub, every issue is assigned to a team member of JASP who makes sure the issue is dealt with. Moreover, everyone can view and respond to an issue. This allows you to check whether your issue has already been reported earlier by another user.
If your question is neither a bug nor a feature request, you should use the forum (https://forum.cogsci.nl/categories/jasp-bayesfactor) instead. There, you may ask questions about the content and interpretation of analyses in JASP.
How to Open an Issue on the JASP GitHub Repository
Like many other open-source software projects, JASP has an online repository on GitHub. Reporting a bug or requesting a feature, can be done by following these steps:
- Create an account at GitHub (click here for a guide on how to create an account on GitHub).
- Log in with your account and head over to the ‘issues’ section of the JASP repository.
- Search for any keywords associated with your issue to find out if it has been reported before. If so, you can add a comment to the issue to let us know that you second the report/request.
- If you can’t find your issue, you open an ‘issue’ by clicking on ‘New issue’ (a green button on the right hand side).
- Then you can choose whether you want to do a bug report or a feature request by clicking on the accompanying ‘get started’ button.
- Fill in the form in as much detail as possible. Importantly, the first line of the form is the title of your report and should be clear. This helps our team as well as other JASP users to understand immediately what the issue is about.
- Once you are done, click on ‘Submit new issue’. The issue is then publicly available and the JASP team will respond to it as soon as possible.
A Note on Bug Reports
Bug reports are especially helpful for us when the problem is described in detail. This is necessary because in order to fix a problem, we usually need to be able to reproduce it first. So the description “The Bayesian linear regression plot does not work” is too imprecise — What plot causes a problem? What is the problem? For what data set does it provide a problem?
To help us hunt down the bug, please include screenshots (to attach these to your GitHub issue, simply drag and drop them to the input field), and possibly the data file or (zipped) JASP file where the problem occured. You can read about compressing (zipping) your file by searching for “zip a file on [your operating system goes here]” in your favourite search engine. If you are not ready to share your data with the world, you can send your data to issues@jasp-stats.org, or you can send a shortened/shuffled/distorted/maimed version of your original data set — just as long as it has the same problem.
Whenever you get an email notification from GitHub and you wish to respond, it is best to click on the small “view it on GitHub” button at the end of the email and type your reply on the website. Replying via email and attaching a file is impossible. Files have to be uploaded through the GitHub website.
To conclude, we are grateful to all of our users who have contributed feature requests and bug reports — your involvement has substantially improved JASP. For users who have not yet provided requests or bug reports: we are pleased that you are happy with the program, but if you do encounter an issue in the future we hope that you will let us know. Creating a GitHub account is easy, and it greatly facilitates communication with the JASP team. We eagerly await your suggestions and comments!
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