feat: add a guide about testing in QA

astro.config.mjs

@@ -64,26 +64,30 @@ export default defineConfig({
         {
           label: 'Guides',
           items: [
+            {
+              label: 'Development Workflow',
+              link: '/guides/development-workflow',
+            },
             {
               label: 'Staging Patches',
               link: '/guides/staging-patches',
             },
             {
-              label: 'Development Workflow',
-              link: '/guides/development-workflow',
+              label: 'Testing Patches',
+              link: '/guides/testing-patches',
             },
             {
-              label: 'Patch Signing (beta)',
+              label: 'Signing Patches',
               link: '/guides/patch-signing',
             },
-            {
-              label: 'Crash Reporting',
-              link: '/guides/crash-reporting',
-            },
             {
               label: 'Percentage-Based Rollouts',
               link: '/guides/percentage-based-rollouts',
             },
+            {
+              label: 'Crash Reporting',
+              link: '/guides/crash-reporting',
+            },
             {
               label: 'Flavors',
               autogenerate: {

src/content/docs/guides/testing-patches.mdx

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+---
+title: Testing Patches
+description: Distribute patches to groups of users via Tracks
+sidebar:
+  order: 3
+---
+
+We recommend that you test your patches with a subset of users before
+distributing to all users.
+
+Shorebird’s mechanism to release to a subset of users is “tracks”. By
+convention the “stable” track is distributed to all users of your app by
+default. When you make a patch “live” it goes to “stable” and all users will
+update to that patch.
+
+Today Shorebird supports “staging”, “beta” and “stable” tracks:
+https://pub.dev/documentation/shorebird_code_push/latest/shorebird_code_push/UpdateTrack.html
+We have plans to [allow additional track names in the future](https://github.com/shorebirdtech/updater/issues/255).
+
+Typically we se customers use "staging" for internal testing (on developers'
+machines) and "beta" for wider group testing (e.g. QA teams where `shorebird`
+commands are not available).
+
+As part of our privacy stance, we _never_ know anything about your users, so
+we have no way to tell users apart or to specify which users should receive
+a patch from within our product. However, we do provide you mechanisms for
+controlling updates via Shorebird with user information you have access to
+from within your company and your application. See the
+[Percentage Based Rollouts guide](/guides/percentage-based-rollouts) for examples.
+
+We recommend using one of the following three approaches to distribute patches to a subset of
+users (e.g. your QA team) for testing without affecting your public users in
+production.
+
+All of these options require disabling `auto_update` support, and using
+[package:shorebird_code_push](https://pub.dev/packages/shorebird_code_push) for
+more advanced control over the update process.
+
+### Option 1: Control Shorebird track based on the current user’s account.
+
+If your app has a login mechanism, this is your best option. If it does not, we
+recommend option 2.
+
+Once your user has logged in, you determine whether the user is a tester
+and then change your Shorebird update code to use that information
+when updating, e.g.
+
+```dart
+final track = user.isTester ? UpdateTrack.beta : UpdateTrack.stable;
+shorebirdUpdater.update(track: track);
+```
+
+### Option 2: Control Shorebird track with a hidden UI.
+
+If your app does not have a login/user-account mechanism, this is your best
+option. If it does, we recommend option 1.
+
+Some stores discourage hidden UIs; however our customers tell us it is common
+practice. For example, some apps may
+enable a “QA” mode in their app after a certain series of clicks or special
+gestures, etc., similar to how Android enables developer mode when [tapping 7 times
+on the Android version text in the settings app](https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/dev-options)
+From a QA mode, you could allow testers to switch to the “beta”
+patch track, even from your production app. They could similarly switch back to
+“stable” to move back to what production users see today.
+
+### Option 3: Control Shorebird Track based on how the app was installed.
+
+Other companies provide existing mechanisms for testing mobile apps before
+production. Apple TestFlight, Google Release Tracks, Firebase App Distribution
+are all examples of this. Shorebird does not have built-in detection of these
+distribution mechanisms, but it is typically possible to detect the mechanism
+via which an App was installed on the user’s device.
+
+It is then possible to pick the Shorebird track based on the detected install mechanism,
+allowing you to thus distribute patches _only_ to your TestFlight users, etc.
+
+Because detection of install mechanisms can be unreliable, we recommend option 1
+or 2 for most teams, but include this option for completeness. Most teams who
+distribute via TestFlight, for example, also have QA-specific accounts and thus
+option 2 is strictly better.