We must be our own beta audience.

Using the beta tester plugin, I follow trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. through every phase of development via five devices (iPhone 5, iPhone 6+, Nexus 5, iPad Air, Macbook). With the plugin installed, select “Bleeding edgebleeding edge The latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk. nightlies”. Every day, your site will auto update to the latest nightly build. We committed long ago to ensuring that trunk is continuously dogfoodable and quickly fixed in the rare event that something nasty happens, like a fatal error. I have never once experienced loss of content while following trunk.  If you follow this blogblog (versus network, site), consider putting the betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. tester pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party on a real site that you use regularly. We must take this small extra risk with our own sites so that we truly see what we’re making before releasing it.

We desperately need mobile beta testers. WordPress will be a champion of the open mobile web. We will work around the iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. Safari bugs that hamper us. We will make the mobile web a better place. With the beta tester plugin installed on a public site, testing betas from any touch device is as straightforward as testing from the desktop. Despite this ease, 4.2 in its current state is a regressionregression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. from 4.1 on mobile, particularly on iOS. We’ll work through these problems before release, but we really need mobile beta testers as well as mobile patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. testers. Mobile patch testing (and patch testing in general) is not so easy to set up. We need better tools and documentation here.

Check out the Beta Testing section of the Core Development Handbook for help setting up the Beta Tester plugin. I’m always hanging out in the #core-flow Slack channel as @boren if you have questions. Let’s build a mobile beta audience.

#beta, #beta-testing-flow, #testing