beta.dataverse.org for the latest, unreleased code

[Philip Durbin]

Hello Dataverse enthusiasts!

For a long time we've had a server at https://demo.dataverse.org that we use for demo purposes. As we say at https://dataverse.org/software-features and other places, we encourage the community to try out new features there. The demo server runs the latest release, so as of this writing it's running Dataverse 6.0.

Today we are happy to announce a new server is that is oriented toward running the latest, unreleased code: https://beta.dataverse.org

It's called "beta" to reinforce the idea that the code has not yet made it into a release. However, it could be a useful place to explore a new feature, or confirm that a bug will be fixed in the next release.

You are welcome to play around with the beta server, but please do not expect any data you add to be preserved. Like the demo server, we will very likely set up something to clean it out periodically.

Thanks!

Phil

p.s. A few more technical details: You can check what version of the code is running by looking at the commit in the lower right of the page (or via API). Code is deployed automatically when pull requests are merged using GitHub Actions. As of 6.0, here's how that action looks: https://github.com/IQSS/dataverse/blob/v6.0/.github/workflows/deploy_beta_testing.yml

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Philip Durbin
Software Developer for http://dataverse.org
http://www.iq.harvard.edu/people/philip-durbin