Testing Plugin Addons Section

rbrahmson

I've seen several cases where developers solicit testers before publishing plugins in the forum. I think it is a very positive approach, one which benefits Vanilla at large as it improves the quality of supported plugins. I've participates in few of these and both the testing, the opportunity to help, and the learning that goes with it are great. But currently the testing is limited to the small number of people who are informally approached, and we all know that testing gets better with numbers. So in this light I propose that a special distinct "Testing" section for plugins will be sanctioned by Vanilla and all those who download plugins in that section both acknowledge that the plugins are not for production and honorably agree to test and provide feedback. A nice to have option would be to directly move plugins from that section to the current "production" plugin section once the plugins have "graduated".

I know developers can download from Github, but not all potential testers are developers, some are "just" admins;-)

Linc

The addon section allows for uploading alpha, beta, and release candidate version numbering, which puts them in a separate section. This works for new versions of existing addons, anyway. Maybe an addon with only non-release version numbers could be set apart somehow.

rbrahmson

Thanks Linc, I didn't realize that. But perhaps that indicates that this is not highlighted enough?

Your comment about only non-release version is on point -- that's how new plugins are born;-)

Linc

It's a relatively new distinction, too. I only added it a few months ago, and it's invisible if it's not used.

hgtonight

@rbrahmson said:
Thanks Linc, I didn't realize that. But perhaps that indicates that this is not highlighted enough?

Your comment about only non-release version is on point -- that's how new plugins are born;-)

I am happy to help you create a PR for the community repo. What specifically would you like to add to this page, for example?

rbrahmson

@hgtonight - Perhaps as a relative "newbie" I am unclear whether the "you" in "ready to help you" is addressed to me or to @linc... Also, what is "PR"?

I just finished a first version of a plugin we used in our intranet. The reason I call it first version is that our internal process requires me to remove any internal reference or dependency and on top of that I make few changes to make the plugin more suitable for general use. So it would be nice to release it as alpha or beta, but as @Linc mentioned, that facility only works for existing plugins, not new ones.

hgtonight

@rbrahmson I was referring to you when I said "you". I also am referring to the royal "you" as in anyone that needs help submitting PRs.

Speaking of PRs, a PR is a pull request. It is a term, as far as I know, originating from the version control software called "git". It has been appropriated elsewhere in open source software since it is basically a form you fill out asking some one else to use your code in their project. Git (and GitHub) make sharing code quite easy. If you are completely unfamiliar with git, I suggest reading A git/GitHub primer.

rbrahmson

I have a github id but never really used it. More to learn, I guess ;-)