[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #49620: Allow plugin/theme developers to utilize Beta, Alpha, Canary release channels for automatic updates

[WordPress Trac]

#49620: Allow plugin/theme developers to utilize Beta, Alpha, Canary release
channels for automatic updates
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 Reporter:  wfmatt           |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  feature request  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Plugins          |    Version:
 Severity:  normal           |   Keywords:
  Focuses:                   |
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 With the changes introduced with #48850, WordPress user can now configure
 plugins and themes to automatically update when a new version is released.
 In general, this is a great feature in terms of security, and reducing
 overall site maintenance.

 At Wordfence, we have offered automatic updates for our plugin as a
 feature via the WordPress auto-update API for a number of years. Since the
 automatic update rolls out over the course of 24 hours, issues with a new
 version can end up being widespread very quickly, especially as our user
 base has grown in size. We've being adding more and more testing on a
 variety of different hosting environments and configurations to catch
 potential issues before we push an update to the plugin.

 One feature that would be nice to have would be to configure release
 channels for different stages of stability in the plugin/theme.
 [https://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel Chrome/Chromium has
 used release channels] as a means to gradually rollout automatic updates
 to users.

 Plugin developers could define Beta, Alpha, and Canary tags which can be
 used for testing. They can be defined in the same way developers can use
 the `Stable Tag` header in the readme.txt. End-users of WordPress would be
 able to select a specific release channel when configuring automatic
 updates. Stable for production websites, and alpha/beta/canary for staging
 and development sites.

 There was a fair amount of feedback from WP Tavern's recent post regarding
 automatic updates for plugins and themes. Quite a few users mentioned
 issues with updates causing a WSOD on their site, and seemed hesitant to
 adopt this new feature:

 https://wptavern.com/automatic-theme-and-plugin-updates-slated-for-
 wordpress-5-5#comment-320040
 https://wptavern.com/automatic-theme-and-plugin-updates-slated-for-
 wordpress-5-5#comment-320044
 https://wptavern.com/automatic-theme-and-plugin-updates-slated-for-
 wordpress-5-5#comment-320049

 Being able to provide release channels can allow WordPress users utilizing
 staging sites to know ahead of time if an update could potentially break
 their site, before it occurs on their production site. They could disable
 automatic updates in production for that plugin/theme and (hopefully) post
 details of their issue in the support forums.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49620>
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