It takes a lot of time to test and debug code. A lot.

As a result:

• More expensive software is not only more expensive because it offers more features but also because more time has been invested testing it's codebase.
• Older software may lack some of the latest innovation but has the advantage of having been tested in a lot of different real-life situations over time.
• Besides being popular for a reason, popular software also has the advantage of having been tested in a lot of different real-life situations.

There are many different things to test for (security, functionality, performance, ...) and many different ways to test them.

How can you keep the investment in time acceptable?

Because the amount of revenue the October marketplace can potentially generate for your plugins is still very limited this time has to be invested for free or paid for by your own customers. How can you keep the investment in time acceptable?

Although it is perfectly possible for your plugin to screw up in terms of security or performance, most of the risks here are mitigated by the fact that you are building plugins, not October itself. So we will let this rest (for now).

There are 2 types of tests that you should consider setting up for your plugins:

1 - Unit testing (testing individual parts of the software)

October offers tools for unit testing.

2 - Interface testing

I am using automated tests in a Chrome extension by Katalon.

Release early, release often

Because the amount of revenue the October marketplace can potentially generate for your plugins is still very limited, I have also adopted the Release early, release often approach.

1. I improve the plugin whenever I have some free time or, if bugs are reported to me by users (or show up when I check error logs), I make them a priority and fix them as soon as I can.
2. I run the tests that I already have setup and occasionally create new ones (I am sometimes tempted to skip this step and almost always come to regret it).
3. I release a new version of the plugin.

Unfortunately I seldom get feedback. This is a shame because this prevents me from improving my plugins. Plugins that could save others (like you!) time and money.

Last updated 5 years ago

Interesting, Thanks for sharing your flow Briddle,