[TYPO3-dam-devel] Q-2-All-Devs - Testing patches Procedure (without shell-usage)

[georg kuehnberger]

Sorry only, half sent before, so here's the complete version:

Ahoi all,

As we all know, testing patches (as provided via the bugtracker) takes 
quite some effort/time;
Basic requirements like understanding the Issue and being able to 
reproduce the issue/error and writing up some meaningful feedback so the 
developers might act upon, can hardly be improoved, other than by eduction.

However I feel, two other requirements could easily improoved for tha 
sake of all.

a) Do have a meaningful (=recent) TYPO3+DAM Setup, do have the most 
important DAM-FE-Extensions installed, do have "enough" data and 
configuration (pages, dam records & categories, be_groups & _users, 
languages, filemounts, webmounts, workspaces & all the right 
permission-settings - according to the documentation).
Basically think of the TYPO3-Testsite from Kasper (ages ago), however 
including all DAM related stuff.
I guess this one could best be solved by providing a tarball (or 
vmware-image or any other format you prefer);
I feel capable of creating such an instance and even mantaining it, so 
just let me know your thoughts on content & delivery-format.


b) Easing the Testing of Patches
Here is my (our) current procedure on Testing patches:
- having a shell open on the specific testing-host
- being in the right directory (extension dependent)
- downloading the patch to the right location
- applying the patch and verifying it applied fine
- then re-testing the behaviour, eventually checking debug-logs AND
- given the patch kinda is "bad" undoing the patch
This procedure IS hard, and swiching OSes, shells, path & download 
tools, in order to test on more than one OS, simply multiplies the effort.

Question-A is: Do you have scripts/methods/tools that could ease those 
tasks?

Question-B is: Could you imaging and would you verify the meaningfulness 
  (in terms of easing the process of testing patches) of a TYPO3 
Backend-Extension where you would eg. (just some thoughts):
- enter the extension-key
- enter the Download-URL of the patch (eg. from bugs.typo3.org)
The Extension would then:
- apply the patch & take care of a backups
- offern an Interface to un-do the patch;

I guess that we, thats me masi & wolfgang klinger [both core-devs}, cant 
be the only ones in the need of such a streamlined process of testing 
patches.

Thanks for your feedback upfront,
regards georg
PS: Aside the above (and as a prerequisite) I can highly recommend the 
usage of np_subversion, as it allows (1 or) 2-click updates from the SVN.