Principle:MarketSquare Robotframework browser Release Preparation

Overview

Preparing a release of the robotframework-browser library involves coordinating version bumps, documentation generation, and release notes creation across a multi-package project. The version string must be synchronized across six files spanning Python, Node.js, and Docker configurations. Keyword documentation is auto-generated from the library's source code, and release notes are compiled from GitHub issues.

Core Concept

Release preparation is the set of tasks that must be completed before a release can be published. These tasks are distinct from the actual publishing step and produce the artifacts needed for a release:

• Version synchronization -- Updating the version string consistently across all configuration files
• Keyword documentation -- Generating HTML documentation for all Robot Framework keywords
• Release notes -- Compiling a human-readable summary of changes from GitHub issues

Version Synchronization

The version string appears in six files that must all be updated in lockstep:

File	Format	Example
Browser/version.py	__version__ = "X.Y.Z"	__version__ = "19.13.0"
package.json	"version": "X.Y.Z"	"version": "19.13.0"
package-lock.json	Two locations: top-level "version" and packages[""]["version"]	"version": "19.13.0"
pyproject.toml (Browser)	version = "X.Y.Z"	version = "19.13.0"
browser_batteries/pyproject.toml	version = "X.Y.Z" and dependencies = ["robotframework-browser==X.Y.Z"]	Both synchronized
docker/Dockerfile.latest_release	robotframework-browser==X.Y.Z	robotframework-browser==19.13.0

The version task uses regex-based text replacement to update each file, ensuring the version string is consistent everywhere.

Keyword Documentation

The Browser library's keyword documentation is generated using Robot Framework's built-in libdoc tool:

• Libdoc introspects the Browser library class and produces an HTML file
• The generated HTML is post-processed to add Google Analytics tracking scripts
• If a version is specified, the documentation is saved to a versioned file in docs/versions/
• The latest documentation is always available as docs/Browser.html

This documentation is published to GitHub Pages as part of the release workflow.

Release Notes

Release notes are auto-generated from GitHub issues using the rellu library:

• The ReleaseNotesGenerator class queries the GitHub issue tracker for issues associated with the release milestone
• Issues are categorized and formatted into a markdown document
• The notes include:
  • Version number and release date
  • Links to the issue tracker
  • Installation instructions (pip, rfbrowser)
  • Playwright version compatibility
• Notes can be written to a file (docs/releasenotes/Browser-{version}.md) or printed to stdout for review

Release Preparation Workflow

A typical release preparation follows this sequence:

1. inv version X.Y.Z -- Update version across all 6 files
2. inv docs -- Generate keyword documentation
3. inv release-notes --version X.Y.Z --write -- Generate release notes file
4. Review and edit the release notes
5. Commit all changes
6. Create a GitHub release (which triggers the publication workflow)

Domains

• Release_Management -- Coordinating multi-file version bumps and release artifacts
• Documentation -- Auto-generating keyword documentation and release notes

Implemented By

• Implementation:MarketSquare_Robotframework_browser_Inv_Version_Docs

Related Topics

• MarketSquare_Robotframework_browser_Inv_Version_Docs -- Implementation details of the version, docs, and release notes tasks
• MarketSquare_Robotframework_browser_Release_Publication -- The automated publication workflow that follows release preparation
• MarketSquare_Robotframework_browser_Project_Build_Pipeline -- Building is a prerequisite for documentation generation