Revision as of 20:22, 25 January 2007

Becoming a Beta Tester

Analytica 4.0 includes a wide variety of new features, includ

Who can be a beta tester?

Analytica 4.0 introduces a wide variety of new features. We plan an extended beta testing period of 3 months to make sure it is very stable before officially releasing it. We have invited a small number of active Analytica users to be early beta testers.

In a month or two, after we get feedback from the early testers, and fix any problems they uncover, we will extend invitations to be beta testers to all licensed Analytica users with active maintenance -- to all who purchased a new copy or extended their maintenance contract in the last year.

Why become a beta tester?

Test drive Analytica 4.0 early at no cost.
Take advantage of the many new 4.0 features immediately.
Help improve the final release.
Participate in webinars on tips and guides on 4.0 features.

Responsibilities as a beta tester

We expect beta testers to:

Sign up as a beta tester.
Keep up-to-date by installing the latest beta build. We will email you when a new build is ready for download -- typically, every 1 to 2 weeks.
When you encounter an issue, submit a bug report as described in the next sub-section.
Read through What's new in Analytica 4.0 so you know what new features are available.
Explore new Analytica 4.0 enhancements of interest to you.
Revisit the Analytica Wiki periodically. We will be updating and adding to content here throughout the beta period.

Contributing 4.0 documention on the Analytica wiki

As you will see, we are creating documentation for the Analytica 4.0 features on this wiki. At present, the wiki documentation varies in detail and clarity. We at Lumina will be expanding and refining it during the beta period. Descriptions of 4.0 features has not yet been added into the Tutorial and User Guide PDF documents. The Analytica wiki is the only place to find this material until the final release of 4.0

As a beta tester, you also are invited to contribute to the documentation! Since it's on a wiki (using Mediawiki software, just like Wikipedia), you can add or edit any content. And others can edit or improve your additions. If you find text that is unclear or downright errors, feel free to fix them yourself. Or add comments, asking someone else to. If you find stubs or missing information, feel free to fill them in yourself, or add requests. Or if you come up with tips or interesting examples on how to use a feature, those also will be welcome.

This is a new experiment in the community development of user documentation. At Lumina, we know how important it is to have good User Guides and other documentation. But our resources are limited. We know that there are many highly knowledgeable Analytica users who may know more than us about ways to use particular features. And people seeing new features for the first time are better able to see holes or unclarities than we are. Together the community of users should be able to create better documentation than any single documentation writer. We look forward to your contributions!

How to sign up to be a beta tester

If you would like to be an early tester, please email us (support@lumina.com). We will send you a beta license code.

Submitting a Bug Report

When you encounter an issue in Analytica 4.0 beta or ADE 4.0 beta:

Check the Ana:Pending Analytica 4.0 Issues page to see if this is a new problem.
Attempt to identify a series of steps to reproduce it.
Report the problem via email to ana4beta.com.
Where possible, please include:
- The steps to reproduce the problem.
- Your model file.
- If the problem results in a crash, the auto-save recovery file.
- For ADE bugs, sample code or steps in AdeTest.exe to reproduce it.

We promise to keep entirely confidential any material you send, including model files. We will use it only for identifying the source of the problem.

Beta 4.0 downloads

The current beta build is 4.0.0.30. The installers are downloadable from:

Download the file, then run it.

What's New in 4.0?

See these links for comprehensive listings:

What's new in Analytica 4.0?
What's new in ADE 4.0?
Analytica 4.0 Reference: A place for a comprehensive reference.

Release Notes

The release notes contain basic information about specific builds that you might need to know.

Example Models demonstrating new 4.0 features

Listing of Ana:Example Models

Ana:Uploading Example Models: Please help by contributing example models, especially models demonstrating features new to 4.0! Here's how to upload contributions...

Mini-Tutorials on new 4.0 features

Coming soon: Quick tutorial-like introductions to some of the new 4.0 features.

Known issues

See the Ana:Pending Analytica 4.0 Issues page for known issues in the current beta build.
See Ana:Analytica 4.0 beta Release Notes for issues that present in early beta bulids, but since fixed.

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

See Ana:Analytica 4.0 Beta FAQs for answers to frequently asked questions regarding Analytica 4.0 Beta and ADE 4.0 Beta.

See Ana:Analytica User FAQs for frequently asked questions not specific to 4.0 or to beta.

Schedule

(TBA)

Other

User Group and Special 4.0 Webinars

Check the Ana:Analytica User Group page for information on webinars covering new 4.0 features and other topic of general interest to the Analytica community.

Consider being a presenter at a webinar yourself!

Analytica Web Player

To be announced.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 = Becoming a Beta Tester =
-== Who can be a beta tester ==
+Analytica 4.0 includes a wide variety of new features, includ
-Currently, we are restricting beta testing to a small number of dedicated users chosen by Lumina.  Soon we will transition to open beta testing when we believe Analytica 4.0 beta is highly stable.
+=== Who can be a beta tester? ===
-During open beta testing, any Analytica user with a current annual maintenance subscription can participate in beta testing and try or use Analytica 4.0.  (This includes anyone who has purchased in the previous year, or who has renewed their extended maintenance within the previous year).  Use of Analytica 4.0 beta during this period is FREE to people with a current maintenance subscription.
+Analytica 4.0 introduces a wide variety of new features. We plan an extended beta testing period of 3 months to make sure it is very stable before officially releasing it. We have invited a small number of active Analytica users to be early beta testers.
-== Why become a beta-tester ==
+In a month or two, after we get feedback from the early testers, and fix any problems they uncover,  we will extend invitations to be beta testers to all licensed Analytica users with active maintenance -- to all who purchased a new copy or extended their maintenance contract in the last year.
-* Chance to test drive 4.0 early at no cost.
+=== Why become a beta tester? ===
-* Take advantage of the many new 4.0 enhancements immediately.
-* Opportunity to help improve the final release.
-* Participate in training seminars on new 4.0 features during the beta testing period.
-== How to sign up to be a beta tester ==
+* Test drive Analytica 4.0 early at no cost.
+* Take advantage of the many new 4.0 features immediately.
+* Help improve the final release.
+* Participate in webinars on tips and guides on 4.0 features.
-Contact sales@lumina.com.  If you qualify, we will send you a beta license code.
+=== Responsibilities as a beta tester ===
-* How to report bugs and other issues
+We expect beta testers to:
-* What we would like you to do as a beta tester
+* Sign up as a beta tester.
+* Keep up-to-date by installing the latest beta build. We will email you when a new build is ready for download -- typically, every 1 to 2 weeks.
+* When you encounter an issue, submit a bug report as described in the next sub-section.
+* Read through [[What's new in Analytica 4.0]] so you know what new features are available.
+* Explore new Analytica 4.0 enhancements of interest to you.
+* Revisit the Analytica Wiki periodically.  We will be updating and adding to content here throughout the beta period.
+=== Contributing 4.0 documention on the Analytica wiki ===
+As you will see, we are creating documentation for the Analytica 4.0 features on this wiki.  At present, the wiki documentation varies in detail and clarity. We at Lumina will be expanding and refining it during the beta period. Descriptions of 4.0 features has not yet been added into the Tutorial and User Guide PDF documents. The Analytica wiki is the only place to find this material until the final release of 4.0
-== Responsibilities of a Beta-Tester ==
+As a beta tester, you also are invited to contribute to the documentation! Since it's on a wiki (using Mediawiki software, just like Wikipedia), you can add or edit any content.  And others can edit or improve your additions.  If you find text that is unclear or downright errors, feel free to fix them yourself. Or add comments, asking someone else to. If you find stubs or missing information, feel free to fill them in yourself, or add requests. Or if you come up with tips or interesting examples on how to use a feature, those also will be welcome.
-As a beta-tester, you are expected to:
+This is a new experiment in the community development of user documentation. At Lumina, we know how important it is to have good User Guides and other documentation. But our resources are limited. We know that there are many highly knowledgeable Analytica users who may know more than us about ways to use particular features. And people seeing new features for the first time are better able to see holes or unclarities than we are. Together the community of users should be able to create better documentation than any single documentation writer.  We look forward to your contributions!
-* Sign up as a beta tester.
-* Keep up-to-date with the latest beta build.
-New builds will become available periodically (a frequency of about each 1 to 2 weeks).  We will email you when a new build is ready for download.   We expect you to download these and install the newest build as these become available.
-* When you encounter an issue, submit a bug report as described in the next sub-section.  As a beta-tester, you are expected to take this seriously.
-* Read through the [[What's new in Analytica 4.0]] listing.
-* Explore new Analytica 4.0 enhancements.
-* Revisit the Analytica Wiki periodically.  We will be updating and adding to content here throughout the beta period.
-In addition, we invite all Analytica 4.0 beta testers to:
+=== How to sign up to be a beta tester ===
-* Contribute to the Analytica Wiki content.
-If you find errors, see stubs that you can fill in, find places where you can improve the content or make it clearer, or otherwise contribute content that others in the Analytica community are likely to find useful, please edit the pages.  Analytica 4.0 beta tester will be given edit permissions for the Anaytica Wiki.
-* Attend Analytica User Group Webinars.
-We will be offering webinars covering new 4.0 features.  This is a great opportunity to learn about 4.0, as well as to ask questions.
-* Make a present at an Analytica user group webinar.
+If you would like to be an early tester, please email us (support@lumina.com).
+We will send you a beta license code.
 == Submitting a Bug Report ==
@@ Line 44: / Line 43: @@
 When you encounter an issue in Analytica 4.0 beta or ADE 4.0 beta:
-* Check on the [[Ana:Pending Analytica 4.0 Issues]] page to see if this is a new problem.
+* Check the [[Ana:Pending Analytica 4.0 Issues]] page to see if this is a new problem.
 * Attempt to identify a series of steps to reproduce it.
 * Report the problem via email to ana4beta.com.
-* Include the following (as applicable) with your bug report:
+* Where possible, please include:
-** Description of the problem.
+** The steps to reproduce the problem.
-** Steps to reproduce it.
+** Your model file.
-** Your model file (which we keep confidential and use just for bug reproduction and fixing).
+** If the problem results in a crash, the auto-save recovery file.
-** If a crash is involved, the auto-save recovery file.
 ** For ADE bugs, sample code or steps in AdeTest.exe to reproduce it.
-We are likely to come back to you with additional questions or clarifications.  If so, be ready to provide additional information.
+''We promise to keep entirely confidential any material you send, including model files''. We will use it only for identifying the source of the problem.
 = Beta 4.0 downloads =

Difference between revisions of "Beta Tester Page"