Question Life-cycle

Important

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The question Status attribute describes the current state of the question. This attribute is displayed on the question’s main page (well hidden in the question portlet) as well as in most questions listing.

Status definitions

The statuses defined for a questions are:

Open: The question needs an answer. This may be because the quesiton is new or because a previous answer didn’t solve completely the problem.

Needs information: More information is required from the reporter before an answer can be provided.

Answered: An answer was provided to the question. We don’t know if this answer solved the user’s problem or not.

Solved: The question received an answer and the owner confirmed that the problem is solved.

Expired: A question in the Open or Needs information states that doesn’t see any activity for more than two weeks is automatically set to this status.

Invalid: The quesiton’s content isn’t really a valid support or help question related to the project.

A question starts its life in the open state and will change its state automatically based on users’ actions.

Actions that affect the question status

The following actions are possible on a quesiton and will change its status in the described way.

  1. A person (other than the reporter) comes in requests more information. When the status of the question is Open, this will change it to Needs information.

  2. The reporter provides more information on the problem. When the status of the question is Needs information, this will change it back to Open.

  3. A user gives an answer to the question. When the status of the question is Open or Needs information, this will change it to Answered.

  4. The question owner indicates that he has found the solution to the problem himself. This will change the status of the question to Solved.

  5. The question owner confirms an answer given by another user. This will change the status of the question to Solved.

  6. After receiving an answer, the question owner replies that the problem still occurs. This will change the status of the question back to Open.

  7. After two weeks gone by with no new information added to a question in the statuses Open or Needs information, the question’s status is changed to Expired.

  8. An answer contact or administrator rejects a question which contains spam or is a duplicate. This changes the status to Invalid.

  9. An administrator can change the status to an arbitrary value using the Change status link.