Add "Testing with WordPress Playground" content

[ironprogrammer]

As WordPress Playground continues to mature, it has become a viable testing alternative to local test/staging sites. New testers benefit from free and instant access to a WordPress environment, and even experienced testers can appreciate transient instances for tasks ranging from smoke tests to Gutenberg PR testing.

The Test Handbook should include an informational "how to" page that guides testers in the use of Playgrounds for testing and triage, highlights its strengths and limitations, and offers known solutions/workarounds for certain test scenarios (e.g. setting wp-config.php values via the Blueprints API).

This new page would be Test Team-focused, and be cross linked with existing "getting started" environment setup and Contributor Day content.

[ankitguptaindia]

Progress Update: The Handbook Page has been added with detailed steps.

Link- https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/get-setup-for-testing/test-core-tickets-with-playground/

[ironprogrammer]

@ankitguptaindia, was there a corresponding PR that included this new page's content? One of the original intents behind this repo was to version/manage handbook content, and eventually have pages sync automatically when PRs (new pages) were merged to the main branch. However, this isn't a necessary step/process if the team has changed direction on it (many teams don't auto sync their pages).

Why consider drafting in PRs before adding to the handbook?
For new handbook pages, it's relatively easy to draft a new page and share a public preview link for input. But for changes to existing pages, this can't be accomplished the same way. It can also be hard to gather pubic feedback, since viewers can't edit or comment on the preview. Having pages in PRs was one idea to allow easier collaboration and planning. It offers a little more structure than sharing a Google Doc for drafts, but that can work well, too.

Either way, at a minimum it's great to be able to use GitHub issues to track needs/progress, even if the content isn't managed here in GitHub. I love seeing that new things are being added and addressed! ❤️ But I wanted to share the previous reasoning for clarity.

[ironprogrammer]

Are there plans yet for a corresponding "Test Gutenberg Tickets with Playground" page? E.g. you can add a PR number to this page and it will load the plugin built off that PR. The steps are really similar, though I don't think there is a handy gitbot message for GB PRs like we have in wordpress-develop.

[ankitguptaindia]

@ankitguptaindia, was there a corresponding PR that included this new page's content? One of the original intents behind this repo was to version/manage handbook content, and eventually have pages sync automatically when PRs (new pages) were merged to the main branch. However, this isn't a necessary step/process if the team has changed direction on it (many teams don't auto sync their pages).

Why consider drafting in PRs before adding to the handbook? For new handbook pages, it's relatively easy to draft a new page and share a public preview link for input. But for changes to existing pages, this can't be accomplished the same way. It can also be hard to gather pubic feedback, since viewers can't edit or comment on the preview. Having pages in PRs was one idea to allow easier collaboration and planning. It offers a little more structure than sharing a Google Doc for drafts, but that can work well, too.

Either way, at a minimum it's great to be able to use GitHub issues to track needs/progress, even if the content isn't managed here in GitHub. I love seeing that new things are being added and addressed! ❤️ But I wanted to share the previous reasoning for clarity.

Thanks for the details @ironprogrammer I was not aware that we do create PR for Handbook pages when I worked on this page so I directly added this page. 😄

[ankitguptaindia]

Are there plans yet for a corresponding "Test Gutenberg Tickets with Playground" page? E.g. you can add a PR number to this page and it will load the plugin built off that PR. The steps are really similar, though I don't think there is a handy gitbot message for GB PRs like we have in wordpress-develop.

This is a valid consideration. Therefore, what would be the optimal solution: should I create a new page for information related to Gutenberg, or should I add this information to the existing page?

[ironprogrammer]

If retitled "Test PRs with Playground" then I think both could go onto one page. When more than one H2 tag is introduced to the page, then a "Topics" widget should appear (like for Test Reports).

When I first created this issue, I didn't think about the various ways that Playground might be utilized, but here are some thoughts looking ahead to how the information might be structured/split up:

• Test with Playground (basic help on using the Query and Blueprints APIs, logs, and include testing the latest beta/RC builds)
• Test PRs with Playground (this page, specifically for WP/GB PRs)
• Test with wp-now (e.g. in wordpress-develop, Gutenberg, a plugin/theme repo, etc)
• Test Playground itself (just a thought...after all, it's part of the WP project!)

So in addition to the current page, I feel we've got several additional pages of content here to break up into approachable bits. What do you think?