I now have 4.2 alpha 1 !!!!

I mean for the future. When 4.2 Beta comes out will I be able to update to it using the beta tester plugin or will I need to download the zip and FTP it? Same question for 4.2 RC. Will the Beta Tester plugin allow me to install 4.2 Betas and RCs or jump to 4.3 Alpha?

I already manually installed RC1 after the first time it jumped to 4.2 Alpha. Now that’s it’s jumped to 4.2 Alpha again I’m just going to wait for the real release of 4.1 because I only FTP if something has gone wrong.

When 4.2 Beta comes out will I be able to update to it using the beta tester plugin

Yes.

But (it’s a but) when the nightly switches to the next alpha before the next release is released (that’s an awkward sentence) then this will happen. Again.

So in the future when 4.2 beta is released you can test with the beta tester plugin. Before 4.2 get solidified or maybe the same time, the the beta tester plugin will pull the nightly. Which at that time maybe 4.3-alpha.

Or just test the betas manually with FTP’ing the releases onto your installation. ??

Before with the Beta Tester plugin I could go from Betas through RCs to the real release, all from the built in updater. If I’m following this conversation correctly, this is no longer possible. Now at some point I’ll need to FTP, which seems like a step backwards in ease of use. Any insight into why this change was made?

I think I will be avoiding the beta tester next time!
It has discouraged me – until maybe 1.0 comes our ??
Dave

I mean for the future. When 4.2 Beta comes out will I be able to update to it using the beta tester plugin or will I need to download the zip and FTP it? Same question for 4.2 RC. Will the Beta Tester plugin allow me to install 4.2 Betas and RCs or jump to 4.3 Alpha?

It is the first time that this problem exists, it clearly:
-or a problem of alpha, beta and RC files management system
-either a developer who has mixed inadvertently the files of the alpha with the RC versions

It would be good to see this plugin updated so that you could select what versions you wanted to test. You should have the choice to continue testing the existing beta/rc releases (eg. 4.1rc1) or whether you want to update to next new version (eg. 4.2Alpha).

It’s really quite annoying when you’re testing the latest beta/rc’s and then all of a sudden after updating, you’ve jumped to the Alpha for the next version.

@anthony Hortin
This is not an error of the beta plugin test.
It is a problem of the file management system itself or an error of a WordPress developer that has mixed by error files alpha and RC versions.
In fact, if you download the files manually and install this version via FTP, you will have the same problem.

It’s not an error from a developer, it’s the expected behavior, if you are on the RC build then updates are considered to be from the nightly builds (which is branched to 4.2-alpha at this point), this is how development processes work. The reason you’ve not noticed this before (it’s always been the case btw) is because we usually don’t branch this early but to keep the process going it makes sense to branch during RC so planning for the next release can begin.

At this point we are just going around in circles in this thread, it’s not productive at all so I will be closing it, if you have more questions about how the nightly builds work I welcome you to create a topic in a more appropriate sub-forum ??