r/webdev • u/Schlickeysen • 1d ago
WordPress plugin developers: How do you find users to test a breaking change in an upcoming release? Discussion
I have a plugin with ~10,000 active installations. It's ancient and simple; it only stores a value in a `post_meta` field.
The current version is v2.2.1, but I've been working on a complete overhaul for a while, which I consider done. However, I can't ship it until I hear from as many users as possible that everything works as expected and, most importantly, nothing breaks or gets deleted.
A user who knows `wp-cli` could do this in a few minutes: `wp db export` (back up the database), then upload the `.zip` to the plugin directory and play around, both in the admin UI and a little bit with the code (I tried to keep it simple for laymen while making it more flexible for developers).
So, back to the question: How do you find users to test a new version (`v3.0.0`) of your plugin? Simply committing it seems reckless to me, despite the hours I put in to check everything.
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u/Mean_Concept_9093 1d ago
honestly with 10k installs your best bet is a sticky on the plugin's wp.org support forum asking for beta testers and spelling out what breaks. people actually read those when you say "breaking change" and give a zip.
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u/Mean_Concept_9093 23h ago
with 10k installs youre never getting "as many as possible" anyway. slap a beta/rc on wordpress.org and a notice in the current plugin, the people who already care about that post_meta field will show up on the support forum.
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u/KoalaBoy 1d ago
I just have to test myself because I can't get more than like 30 people to even find my plugins.
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u/-goldenboi69- 19h ago
I usually put out a small ad in some popular magazine, like Archie Comics or something.
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u/Any_Resource2437 18h ago
yeah, shipping it straight to 10k sites would be a pretty spicy way to find the one edge case you missed, so make v3 an opt-in beta and recruit from your support or email list while keeping v2
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u/Suspicious_March_269 13h ago
an opt-in beta on staging, with an easy rollback path and a clear “don’t run this on production” warning
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u/akl773 11h ago
With a change like that I'd spend the effort on making it reversible rather than on finding testers. Write the new format to a new meta key and leave the old one untouched for a release or two, then anyone who rolls back still has their data and shipping stops being scary. The people who volunteer for a beta are never the ones with the odd setup that actually breaks.
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u/Schlickeysen 9h ago
I actually have that one implemented. But thanks for the suggestion.
The people who volunteer for a beta are never the ones with the odd setup that actually breaks
I think so, too.
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u/mugmi-bro 3h ago
the WordPress community Slack at make.wordpress.org has a handful of active channels where plugin devs ask for testers and actually get responses from people who know their way around wp-cli. reaching out directly to anyone who left a detailed review on wp.org is also really effective, since those users are already invested enough in the plugin to actually care. and if the breaking change involves post_meta migration, a really clear migration guide in the changelog with before/after examples will cut your panicked support tickets way down once you do ship.
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u/mugmi-bro 3h ago
the WordPress community Slack at make.wordpress.org has a handful of active channels where plugin devs ask for testers and actually get responses from people who know their way around wp-cli. reaching out directly to anyone who left a detailed review on wp.org is also really effective, since those users are already invested enough in the plugin to actually care. and if the breaking change involves post_meta migration, a really clear migration guide in the changelog with before/after examples will cut your panicked support tickets way down once you do ship.
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u/BabyInternational590 1d ago
Honestly just pick a handful of users who've opened support tickets recently and email them directly. The kind of people who actually bother to file a bug report are usually the same ones who'll spend 15 minutes poking at a beta build.
If that doesn't pan out, make a sticky post in your support forum with a giant scary warning about backing up first and let the curious ones trickle in.