Participating in beta testing

[Taitava]

What to take into account

• Do not use an important vault for beta testing. Create a new vault. Better yet, use Shell commands test suite.
• Beta version of SC can screw up things both inside your vault and outside it.
• If you want to do the testing using shell commands that you have already defined in a vault, copy .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-shellcommands/data.json from the source vault to your new beta testing vault (to a similar directory - you need to make .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-shellcommands folder).
• Note that beta testing will usually convert your data.json settings file's content to a newer settings version. It's not possible to convert it back in case you have created new commands or altered existing commands during your beta testing. If you decide to downgrade back to a stable, published version of SC, you cannot use the data.json file that a newer beta version has converted, in an older SC version. You will need to use an older version of your settings file if you downgrade SC - I hope you take frequent backups of your data.json file.

A beta version is not always available

Beta versions are only available temporarily. Not every new version release is preceded by a beta version. You can check from the Announcements discussion category, if a beta version is currently available.

1. Beta installation steps

You'll need to install a couple of things before you can actually start using a beta version of SC.

1. Recommended, but optional: Pull a git clone of Shell commands test suite and use it as your beta testing vault. (This vault's installation instructions will be provided later in that same repository).
2. Regardless of if you use Shell commands test suite as your testing vault or not, you should install a community plugin named Beta Reviewers Auto-update tester (BRAT). This will be used to retrieve a beta version of SC, so that you will not end up installing a public, stable version instead.

1.1. Installing BRAT and using it to install a beta version of SC

1. In Obsidian settings, go to Community plugins tab and click Browse.

2. Type brat in the search field.
   

3. Click Install. Remember to click Enable after the installation is complete!

4. Close the search/install modal to go back to the settings modal.

5. Click Obsidian42 - BRAT tab in the settings modal.

6. Click Add beta plugin button.
   

7. Type Taitava/obsidian-shellcommands in the GitHub repository field.
   

8. Click Add plugin and wait a few seconds for SC to download. There's no loading indicator, so just wait after clicking the button even though it looks like nothing happens. 🙂

1.2. Enable the just installed SC plugin

1. In Obsidian settings, go to Community plugins tab.
2. See a setting that has the name Shell commands. Check that the Version contains -beta1, -beta2 or something like that. If it does not contain the -beta suffix, it's a public version instead of a beta testing version.
   
3. Click the toggle button on the right side of the Shell commands row to enable SC.
4. The settings modal should now have a Shell commands tab. Click it.
5. Check that you see a correctly loaded settings view of SC, e.g. something like this:
   

2. Do testing

If you are using the test suite, follow its instructions to do testing. If you complete a whole test report, you can commit it and make a pull request to the test suite repository. Your name will be credited in README.md, if you wish.

Edit 2024-01-31: The test suite has grown so big over time that it would take a lot of time for beta testers to go through it all. (Takes at least an hour every time for me, too). So, I'm not expecting anybody actually going through it (except me), but you can try a few tests from there, if you want. 👍

Otherwise, you can do just freeform testing.

3. Reporting possible issues with beta versions

Please write all your issues related to a beta version in the beta version's announcing topic in Discussions. This way it's clearer to everybody that the issue happens only in a beta version, not in a public version of SC. If the issue requires extended discussion, I can create a new discussion for it later.

Thank you! :)

All testing and reporting is greatly appreciated! :)

[Taitava]

4. Later: Upgrading to a newer beta version (using BRAT)

You don't need to do this upgrade step if you have just installed a beta version of SC. This step is only needed if you know that a newer beta version has been released after you have done the installation.

When you already have BRAT and a beta version of SC installed, follow these instructions to get SC upgraded to a newer beta version:

1. Open up command palette and search for a command named Obsidian42 - BRAT: Choose a single plugin to update.
   
2. Select taitava/obsidian-shellcommands.
   
3. Note that if the new version has just been released (within around 15 minutes), it might be that BRAT cannot find a new version just yet. Wait a few minutes and try again.
4. If the upgrade goes ok, you should be able to see a message something like this: