Test builds and rolling back

What this is

Two blocks on Settings → Updates decide which build of strAImer you run: the Update channel picker and Release history. Installing, the warnings and everything else on that page are in the guide "Updates".

Stable and test builds

Two channels. Stable carries only builds that have been used on a real broadcast: fewer new things, fewer surprises. Test carries new features first, several builds a week, and something in it may break mid-stream.

Access to the test channel follows the strAImer account, not the app: it appears once the account has been given the tester role. Without that role the app is offered stable, which is normal and not an error.

The tester role is given by hand, and there is no button that grants it. To join, write to the developer through Help & Feedback → Contact and say which account you sign in with. Once the role is on, the picker appears on its own.

With the role, the application card gains an Update channel picker. The card also says where stable currently stands, so a tester can see how far ahead of it they are. The same picker is in the account cabinet on straimer.com, under Account and devices — either one changes the choice, and every machine you sign in on follows it.

Switching keeps everything. Channels, modules, overlays, statistics and history stay exactly where they are, in both directions. The database only ever gains columns, so an older build reads it without losing anything.

Three things worth knowing before going back to stable:

• The stable build is older than the test one, so the page offers to install it rather than to update. That is the same thing, worded honestly.
• Modules that need a newer core will not start on it. The page names them before the install, and they come back the moment you return to the test channel.
• Builds released before the picker existed do not have it. Going down to one of those is a one-way step from inside the app, and the page says so before the install. The way back is the cabinet on straimer.com, under Account and devices — switch the channel there, then update from the app as usual.

Picking a channel changes nothing by itself — it only changes what the app offers. The install is still a separate button.

Rolling back

Release history lists recent releases of your channel — stable releases for most people, test builds for a tester. Your own version is in the list too, marked Installed now: that is where to read the changelog of the build you are actually running. Every other entry carries its date, its changelog and a Roll back button.

It is not a list of files left on the disk: the installer for the version you pick is downloaded again, like any other. Only the last five releases of a channel are kept, so anything older is not offered and cannot be reached from inside the app at all.

Three things to know before you press anything:

• Rolling back normally keeps everything. A release only ever adds to the database, and an older build ignores what it does not know about. The exception is a release that changed the database in a way an older build cannot read: on those versions the block says Rolling back also restores the database copy made before that update — anything recorded since will be lost, and it means what it says — streams, donations and history recorded after that update go with the copy. The confirmation window repeats that line; the modules that will not start on the older build it names either way.
• Some entries have no button at all and carry a reason instead: either the build is old enough to predate rollback support, so nothing can promise your database would still work on it, or the copy that would take the database back is no longer kept.
• A build on an older browser engine empties the YouTube bot sign-in window. The entry says so before you press anything, and the bot itself keeps writing either way. The guide "Updates" has the rest of it, in its section "The YouTube bot sign-in after a bigger update".

The block is hidden when there is nothing to show — and also when the server cannot be reached, because the list lives there rather than on your computer.

What it cannot do

• Give you any version you like. Only the last five releases of your channel exist on the server: the newest of them is what the page offers, the older ones sit under Release history, and nothing else is reachable from inside the app.
• Show you the other channel's builds. The history is your channel's own. A tester sees test builds, everyone else sees stable ones, and swapping the list means switching the channel first.