SHC Wordpress Beta/RC Tester

Limit core updates to next Beta/RC release if currently running a Beta/RC release

Description

The WP Core Update API allows a site to update to nightlies from either trunk or the latest branch (i.e., minor version). The WordPress Beta Tester plugin allows a site admin to control which of those nightlies will be updated to.

However, that API does not allow updating to, what I call, "named" beta/RC releases (e.g., 5.3-beta2, 5.3-RC1, etc; as opposed to a nightly build, e.g., 5.3-beta2-[commit #]). Once I install a beta/RC release on a site, I would rather that site not be updated (either via auto-updates or manually) to nightlies. This plugin accomplishes that.

It would be great if the WP Core Update API had 'beta/RC' offers so that one could use an updated version of the WordPress Beta Tester plugin to acheive this, but until that happens (which isn't likely), this plugin is useful to me.

This plugin can be used in conjuction with WordPress Beta Tester. If both plugins are active and the site is running a "named" beta/RC version, WordPress Beta Tester will not automatically update it to the nightlies; if both are active and the site is running one of the nightlies, then WordPress Beta Tester will continue to update the site to the nightlies.

Developer Notes

Here are some initial thoughts about: 1) how the Core Update API could be modified to support this functionality natively; and 2) how this functionality could be incorporated in the WordPress Beta Tester plugin.

Core Update API

Ideally, the Core Update API should include beta/RC packages in its offers, in addition to the current development offer, or possibly to accept an argument to its queries to tell it to send the beta/RC package URL as the development offer. Since that API is not open sourced, it's impossible to say how easy that would be.

WordPress Beta Tester Plugin

My first thought is that WordPress Beta Tester could add a "Beta/RC" setting in addition to the existing Point release nightlies and Bleeding edge nightlies. When that setting were selected then functionality similar to that provided by this plugin would kick in and updates to core would only happen when the next beta/RC package becomes available. I'm not sure how many others have the same needs as I do and would want that.

Another idea is that WordPress Beta Tester could always include the relevant beta/RC packages (if they exist) as the development offer. This might help make it easier for more people to test these packages as they are built but before they are officially announced. For example, on the day that beta/RC packages are built, folks gather in the #core Slack channel and once the packages are built those present are asked to test the packages to make sure they were built correctly. The vast majority of that testing happens by those present using wp-cli and not everyone who potentially might want to help test the packages has easy access to wp-cli. If folks could just go to the "WordPress Updates" (/wp-admin/update-core.php) screen and click the "Update Now" and get the newly built beta/RC package that might increase the number of people who are able to test the packages before they are announced. Demonstrating that less technical people could help test the beta/RC builds might just be the kicker that is needed to get the folks who control the Core Update API to add beta/RC packages to its responses.

For that idea to be incorporated into WordPress Beta Tester a few changes to the logic of when the beta/RC packages are looked for would have to be made. I think the main thing would be that the regex used to determine what the "next" beta/RC number is would have to be changed to incorporate alpha versions as well. See the DocBlock for the SHC\WordPress_Beta_Tester\Plugin class for more info on this.

Installation

From your WordPress dashboard

1. Get the latest zip from the GitHub repo
2. Go to Plugins > Add New and click on Upload Plugin
3. Upload the zip file
4. Activate the plugin (if on multisite, must be network activated)

Changelog

0.1.0

• init commit