#221 - Support BETA Testing of JiraAssistant before pushing the extension to all users

shridhar-tl commented on Aug 12, 2022

Issue

Currently Chrome web store does not provide any option to publish a BETA copy of app before pushing it for all users. Due to this most of the users are getting affected if the build has bugs. It becomes next to impossible for me to test all the features of JiraAssistant after each changes. Additionally, even if the bugs are reported by users after publish, due to the review process of Web Store, it takes about a week to publish the fix.

Solution

To overcome the challenge, an option has to be provided for the users to opt and use beta version of JiraAssistant before pushing the build for all users. This option has to overcome the challenge of delay in review process. So as a solution, BETA version of Jira Assistant has to be deployed as a website and users who has installed the extension can access this site instead of using the extension directly.

Url to access Web Version of JA: https://app.jiraassistant.com

Techincal Details

Though this is deployed as a website, it is not backed by a server. Its just static html/JS files served through https. As it is a website, it would not have access to users Jira Server. Hence, for any operation in Jira, this website would still request the extension to perform the Job.

The existing data storage mechanism would remain the same. None of the data would be stored in the website's cache. All the data cache would still remain with extension itself.

Privacy Concerns

Their are no changes in the way data is handled. Storage and handling of data, integration and API call with Jira all remains with the extension. Only rendering of screen and user interaction happens through this website. All the sourcecode remains the same for both WebSite and Extension while WebSite will have most recent code which would eventually be published to Web Store once developer is confident that all the bugs reported by users are fixed. As a end note, all your data still continues to stay in your browsers extension cache and is not sent anywhere else.

Security Concerns

Their are no changes in the way where data is stored or handled. No changes in the way how interaction happens with your Jira. Infact, websites has lesser permissions than browser extension and hence technically their is nothing more the website would be able to do which is not achievable by a browser extension. So their is nothing users will have to worry about using this site when you are ready to use the extension. Except that a new service worker functionality is added to extension, everything else remains the same.

shridhar-tl commented on Jul 23, 2022

I am happy to anounce this information here.

Users who have Jira Assistant v2.38 or higher can use "https://app.jiraassistant.com" to test or use the latest build of Jira Assistant. Going forware if their are any updates, it would first be available in this url where users can test for some time. If their are no issues, only then it would be published as an extension. Similarly any fixes done would be immediately available in this url.

Hopefully this would solve the issue of JA being broken and no option for me to publish quick fix.

shridhar-tl commented on Jul 28, 2022

Anyone wanting to use / test the latest features please update to latest version of Jira Assistant and can start using web version by accessing https://app.jiraassistant.com