We need Automatic Code Compatibility checks!
Dec. 29, 2014
Last week I went through mini-hell, updating 28 of my plugins for the latest version WordPress compatibility.
managewp.org/articles/8538/how-the-new-plugin-discovery-tool-made-me-update-my-28-plugins
It took me two days of the time that I do not have (job and family, and just before holidays too).
At the same time I received this email from Mozilla with the subject "Add-on compatibility with Firefox 35.*"
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Dear add-on author,
Good news! Our automated tests did not detect any compatibility issues with your add-on and Firefox 35.*. We've updated your add-on's compatibility to work with Firefox 35.* so that our beta and release users can begin using your add-on.
We encourage you to view the results of the compatibility test, as some compatibility issues may have been detected but without enough certainty to declare the add-on incompatible:
• SEO Doctor:
▶ addons.mozilla.org/developers/addon/seo-doctor/validation-result/362642
This compatibility bump is server-side and we did not modify your add-on package in any way.
For more information about Firefox 35 compatibility, please refer to this blog post: blog.mozilla.org/addons/2014/12/18/compatibility-for-firefox-35/
Thank you,
Firefox Add-ons team
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Ive been receiving these for about two years since I made a Firefox add-on. It is such a huge relief that somebody wrote automated tests and takes care of the version compatibility for me.
We need this for WordPress, and we need it badly! It is not that hard to do, 80% of functionality can be achieved with 20% time, and even if you badge something with WordPress 4.1 compatible (auto test) the users can still report problems etc. For developers it is such a huge relief as honestly I do not see my self going through that manual process again.
Not only it would benefit the huge community of plugin (and theme) developers but it would also show a level of engineering excellence and care of the WordPress.org (repository) team.
In the most simple form an automated test could install the plugin on the latest WP version and see if it breaks.
Problems:
* Which PHP version should be used? Some plugins require PHP 5.3 or higher, but WP requires 5.2. These plugins would be marked as incompatible.
* There's so much more to test, like UI compatibility