Regression analysis 5.2.0 (fixed 5.2.1)

What happened? A patch to make Contribution Detail report compliant with FULL_GROUP_BY mysql mode causes the display of one field (soft_credits) to break. dev/core#170 (closed)

How & When was it addressed

Patch release 5.2.1 released within 48 hours.

How did the regression fit with our processes? The issue was handled in conjunction with our processes at the time and it’s not obvious that someone should have thought to test that field. However, shortly after that fix was made we stopped changing working queries to comply with full group by mode (due to a history of regressions) and started to by-pass full group by where it was known not to work. This & last month’s issue should be the tail end of the FULL_GROUP_BY issues.

This report has known testability problems and we started to address that last month & with the fix for this regression we have a path to ensure any further fixes on this (known to be problematic) report get tests.

Context Unit testing on reports is relatively new and coverage is relatively poor and for some reports issues with how they are constructed has been a blocker. This report is notable on that front and it would have to be described as fairly toxic. In this context I am aiming for a fix that is well tested and solves the unit testing issue going into master. https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/pull/12281

Recommendations going forwards Realistically the steps we have already taken - ie. getting this known-to-be-an-issue report under tests and be less aggressive on full group by fixes.