Usage
Reporting a problem
- Start the report where the problem is, see Entry points.
- Check the detected object at the top of the dialog: its type, name, identifier and where it lives.
- Enter a short title and describe what you tried to do, what you expected and what happened instead.
- Optionally add a screenshot.
- Open Review the technical data that will be sent to see exactly what the report contains.
- Click Send report, or Save and download to save the report and download it as JSON.
After sending, the dialog confirms that the report was saved and shows its ID and the delivery result per destination, including a ticket reference if the webhook receiver returned one. It offers:
- Open report
- Opens the report in System > Context Reports (administrators only).
- Copy
- Copies a short text summary, the Markdown version, the JSON document without the screenshot data, or the link to the report.
- Download
- Downloads the Markdown version, the JSON document (including the screenshot) or the screenshot.
If the dialog is closed before the report is sent, the title and description are kept for 30 minutes, unless the backend is reloaded.
Entry points
| Where | Reported object |
|---|---|
| Report a problem in the backend toolbar | Detected from the current view: the record open in the editing form, the page selected in a page module, the folder open in the file list, or otherwise the backend module |
| Report action of a row in Web > List | The page or record of the row |
| Report action in the document header of Web > Page | The page shown in the Page module |
| Report action in the list view of File > Filelist | The file or folder of the row |
| Context menu of pages, records, content elements (the ⋮ button in the Page module), files and folders (right click in the file list, folder tree) | The clicked object |
| Report problem in the document header of the record editing form | The record being edited (or the form, when several or new records are open) |
The compact actions are icon-only buttons with the speech bubble icon; their tooltip and accessible label read, for example, Report problem with this record.
In a workspace, the dialog shows the record as it is in the current workspace, for example the title of a changed draft. The report refers to the live UID of the record. Records of other workspaces cannot be reported.
Screenshots
Screenshots are created and edited in the browser. Nothing is uploaded before the report is sent.
- Capture screen
- The browser asks which tab, window or screen to share. The dialog hides while the picture is taken. Only one frame is captured and the capture stops immediately.
- Upload image
- PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or BMP files.
- Paste or drop
- Paste an image with Ctrl+V / Cmd+V, or drop an image file onto the screenshot area.
The editor provides these tools:
| Tool | Key | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Select | V | Move, resize, recolor or delete annotations |
| Rectangle | R | Frame an area |
| Arrow | A | Point at something |
| Draw | D | Draw freehand, for example to circle or underline something |
| Text | T | Add a note |
| Redact | B | Cover confidential content with an opaque black box |
Annotations use one of five colors: red, orange, green, blue and black.
Existing annotations can be selected with every tool: click an annotation to select it, then drag it to move it, use the handles to resize it, pick a color to recolor it (redactions stay black), or press Delete / Backspace or the trash button to remove it. Esc clears the selection. With the select and text tools, notes can be dragged right away. To change a note, click it with the text tool, double-click it, or select it and press Enter; an emptied note is removed.
Undo and redo are available as buttons and with Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z and Ctrl+Y / Shift+Cmd+Z. When the report is sent, annotations and redactions are merged into the image, so redacted content cannot be recovered. Large screenshots are scaled down and compressed to stay below reporting.maxScreenshotSizeKb.
Report history
System > Context Reports lists the reports, newest first. Two filters can be combined:
- the review state: Open (the default), Resolved or All, each with the number of reports,
- the delivery state: Delivered, Partially delivered, Delivery failed or Stored locally.
Each row shows the report title and ID, the reported object with its
identifier and page or folder, the reporter, the creation time, the review
state and the delivery state. Long titles are shortened; content elements
with a long title are listed by their type, for example
Plain HTML with tt_content:142 · About us. A click anywhere on
a row opens the report; the title is a regular link.
A saved report with the reported object, the screenshot and the delivery history
The detail view shows, in this order:
- title, report ID, creation time and entry point, the review and delivery state, and Mark as resolved or Reopen,
- the reported object with its identifier, page, site, language, workspace and module, and the actions Open in TYPO3, Edit metadata (files) and Open frontend (pages and records),
- the screenshot,
- the description, the reporter and the delivery history with destination, time, attempt, result, HTTP status code, safe error message, external ticket reference and the user who triggered the delivery or download,
- Technical details, collapsed by default: all attached data as tables and as raw JSON,
- Delete report, separated from everything else. It asks for confirmation.
The document header offers:
- Copy
- Copies a short text summary, the Markdown version, the JSON document without the screenshot data, or the link to the report to the clipboard.
- Download
- Downloads the Markdown version, the complete JSON document including the screenshot (base64), or the screenshot itself.
Failed deliveries can be retried as long as the destination is enabled. Apart from the delivery history and the review state, reports cannot be changed.
Open and resolved reports
New reports are open. When a problem has been dealt with, an administrator marks the report as resolved; the report remembers who resolved it and when. Resolved reports can be reopened. The review state is independent of the delivery state and is not part of downloads, emails or webhook payloads. Context Reporter deliberately has no assignments, priorities, comments or due dates: use your ticket system for those.
Retention and cleanup
Reports stay in the database until they are deleted or removed by the cleanup. Deleting a report always deletes its screenshot and delivery history as well.
The retention is configured with reporting.retentionDays and defaults to keeping reports forever. Nothing is removed automatically: the cleanup runs only when an administrator starts it.
In System > Context Reports > Settings > Reports & storage, the cleanup panel shows how many reports (and how many of them are still open), screenshots with their size, and delivery attempts would be removed, and asks for confirmation before it removes them. The cleanup also removes screenshots and delivery attempts whose report no longer exists.
The same cleanup is available as console command:
# Show what the configured retention would remove
vendor/bin/typo3 context-reporter:cleanup --dry-run
# Apply the configured retention
vendor/bin/typo3 context-reporter:cleanup
# Remove reports older than 90 days, regardless of the configured retention
vendor/bin/typo3 context-reporter:cleanup --days=90
With the retention "keep forever", the command removes no reports unless
--days is given. The command can run from cron or as
Execute console commands task of the TYPO3 Scheduler.