Announcing New ChromeDriver Beta Release 70.0.3538.16

[John Chen]

Hello ChromeDriver users,

We are happy to announce the first Beta release of ChromeDriver, version 70.0.3538.16. You can download this release at https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=70.0.3538.16/. This new release is still experimental, and is not yet a replacement for the official release of ChromeDriver, currently at version 2.42. Instead, it is a preview of the future release model for ChromeDriver, where there will be a tighter match between the release of ChromeDriver with the release of Chrome. Here is how the new release model will work:

• ChromeDriver will be using the same version number scheme as Chrome. See https://www.chromium.org/developers/version-numbers for more details.
• Each version of ChromeDriver will support Chrome with matching major, minor, and build version numbers. For example, ChromeDriver 70.0.3538.16 supports all Chrome versions that start with 70.0.3538.
• When a new major version of Chrome goes to Beta, a matching Beta version of ChromeDriver will be released. For example, this new release of ChromeDriver matches the Beta release of Chrome m70 from last week. Since this is our very first Beta release, it is happening a few days after the corresponding Chrome Beta release. As we refine the release process, we expect that eventually we will be able to release ChromeDriver Beta a few days before the corresponding Chrome Beta.
• After the initial release of a new major version, we will release patches as needed. For example, after 70.0.3538.16, we might release bug fixes in 70.0.3538.30, etc. These patches may or may not coincide with updates to Chrome.

Why are we doing this? There are several reasons.

• The existing release model requires each version of ChromeDriver to support several (usually three) major versions of Chrome. This makes ChromeDriver code hard to maintain, as it usually needs to choose different code paths depending on which version of Chrome it is connected to.
• Given a particular version of ChromeDriver, it is hard to determine which versions of Chrome it supports.
• The existing release model doesn't provide any opportunity for Beta testing. That means each release of ChromeDriver may contain new code that hasn't been well tested.
• In the old model, when bugs are found in a released ChromeDriver, it is impossible to update the release to provide bug fixes only. Instead, we had to wait until the next release to provide bug fixes. The new model will allow us to separate bug fixes from feature releases.

How do you find the right ChromeDriver under the new model? Here are the steps:

• First, find out which version of Chrome you are using. Let's say you have Chrome 70.0.3538.22.
• Take the Chrome version number, remove the last part, and append the result to URL "https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/LATEST_RELEASE_". For example, with Chrome version 70.0.3538.22, you'd get a URL "https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/LATEST_RELEASE_70.0.3538".
• Use the URL created in the last step to retrieve a small file containing the version of ChromeDriver to use. For example, the above URL will get your a file containing "70.0.3538.16". (The actual number may change in the future, of course.)
• Use the version number retrieved from the previous step to construct the URL to download ChromeDriver. With version 70.0.3538.16, the URL would be https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=70.0.3538.16/.
• After the initial download, it is recommended that you occasionally go through the above process again to see if there are any bug fix releases.

It is expected that this new release model, probably after some adjustments and fine tuning, will eventually replace the current release model. We don't yet have a firm schedule of when this will happen.

If you are the author of tools that automate downloading of ChromeDriver, we encourage you to consider how the new release model will affect your tools. We also encourage you to send us feedback on what you think of this new model. We welcome your suggestions to make the release model better.

Thanks,

John