I presume if I just overwrite the plugin directory with the beta zip that will be sufficient to upgrade?

BTW: When I assimilate new technologies I tend to write a few simple utilities that make it easier to express some central concepts. This helps me work through the details more deeply than I would otherwise and provides some basic tools I might use if I find them practical, so The first thing I wrote was a FieldBuilder that uses the fluent builder pattern. I’ll flesh this out and probably write a blog about it.

Usage follows this approach, where the first example uses the build call to get a constructed array and the second uses some shortcuts for common use cases.

$field1 = CDEFieldBuilder::create('text')
  ->name('cde_test')
  ->label('Test field')
  ->value('Value')
  ->description('Description text')
  ->help('Help text')
  ->attr('class', 'text')
  ->build();
  
piklist('field', $field1);

CDEFieldBuilder::select('cde_select', 'Select field', 'option2')
  ->hints('Description and help text')
  ->choice('option1', "Value 1")
  ->choice('option2', "Value 2")
  ->choice('option3', "Value 3")
  ->field();

I’m still debating whether the first case is actually more compact than the array declarations but the second certainly is. (hints uses a single value as both the description and help text, a lazy way of quickly prototyping, but it takes two parameters as well. I find this slightly easier to read.

The builder code is simple and looks like this:

class CDEFieldBuilder {
  
  private $building = array();
  
  function __construct($type) {
    $this->building['type'] = $type;
  }
  
  // STATIC CREATION
  
  public static function create($type) {
    return new CDEFieldBuilder($type);
  }
  
  public static function text($name, $label, $value = '') {
    return CDEFieldBuilder::create('text')->common($name, $label, $value);
  }
  
  public static function select($name, $label, $value = '') {
    return CDEFieldBuilder::create('select')->common($name, $label, $value);
  }
  
  // FLUENT ATTRIBUTES
  
  public function name($name) {
    $this->building['field'] = $name;
    return $this;
  }
  
  public function label($label) {
    $this->building['label'] = $label;
    return $this;
  }
  
  public function value($value) {
    $this->building['value'] = $value;
    return $this;
  }
  
  // Combine the most common properties
  public function common($name, $label, $value = '') {
    $this->building['field'] = $name;
    $this->building['label'] = $label;
    $this->building['value'] = $value;
    return $this;
  }
  
  public function description($description) {
    $this->building['description'] = $description;
    return $this;
  }
  
  public function help($help) {
    $this->building['help'] = $help;
    return $this;
  }
  
  // Combine description and help (same if only one provided)
  public function hints($description, $help = NULL) {
    if ($help == NULL) {
      $help = $description;
    }
    $this->building['description'] = $description;
    $this->building['help'] = $help;
    return $this;
  }
  
  public function attributes($attributes) {
    $this->building['attributes'] = $attributes;
    return $this;
  }
  
  // ADD SINGLE ATTRIBUTE
  public function attr($name, $value) {
    if (!isset($this->building['attributes'])) {
      $this->building['attributes'] = array();
    }
    $this->building['attributes'][$name] = $value;
    return $this;
  }
  
  // ADD SINGLE CHOICE
  public function choice($name, $value) {
    if (!isset($this->building['choices'])) {
      $this->building['choices'] = array();
    }
    $this->building['choices'][$name] = $value;
    return $this;
  }
  
  // GET BUILT ARRAY OR ADD IT AS A PIKLIST FIELD 
  
  public function build() {
    return $this->building;
  }

  public function field() {
    return piklist('field', $this->building);
  }
}