Robot Framework development picking up steam

[Pekka Klärck]

Hi all,

There has been a steady progress with libraries and tools in the Robot
Framework ecosystem getting better and new ones popping up, but there
hasn't lately been too much progress in the core framework itself.
This is now changing and two new releases are planned for the first
half of this year.

= Robot Framework 3.0.3 =

This is a normal minor release concentrating on bug fixes with some
nice enhancements in it as well. It's a really long overdue as many of
the fixes/features were already done last year, but now the release is
very close. The plan is to have release candidate out this Thursday
around noon UTC, and then release the final after Easter. All the
issues targeted for the release can be found from the issue tracker:
https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/milestone/46

If you have issues in mind you'd still like to get included into this
release, you need to act fast. Reply here, submit issues to the
tracker, comment existing issues, or shout on the #devel channel on
our Slack community. If you aren't already on Slack, you can get an
invite at https://robotframework-slack-invite.herokuapp.com/.

= Robot Framework 3.1 =

This is going to be a new major release and the first such release
after direct sponsorship by Nokia Networks ended at the end of 2016.
The exact scope is not clear yet, but the tracker has a very initial
list of issues:
https://github.com/robotframework/robotframework/milestone/43

One main goal for RF 3.1 is going to be extending Robot Framework's
scope from test automation into other kind of automation such as
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_process_automation>. This is
going to require possibility to use different terminology than "test
cases", and having native support for IF/ELSE and TRY/EXCEPT
structures in the test data would be very useful as well. The plan is
not to change Robot Framework's focus away from test automation, but
rather to extend the focus to cover new but highly related automation
activities. The planned changes will be backwards compatible and many
of the new features are going to be useful in test automation as well.

The plan is to start more detailed RF 3.1 planning once RF 3.0.3 is
out hopefully next week, and the target is to have the release ready
in early June. It would be great to get more people helping with the
release, so let me know if you are interested either by replying to
this email or commenting on the #devel channel on Slack. You can work
with issues that are important for you (make sure they are in the
issue tracker first) and I'll also go through the tracker and label
issues suitable for new contributors somehow. I'll send a separate
announcement once we are ready to have the first planning session
together. The aforementioned #devel channel is probably the best place
for general communication about this, but we can also use the
underutilized robotframework-devel mailing list if it makes sense.


Both of these releases are sponsored by Robot Framework Foundation
<http://robotframework.org/foundation/> which has been steadily
getting new members lately and which also got some profits from the
awesome RoboCon conference. The Foundation has also opened the doors
for non-Finnish companies, but this possibility hasn't yet been
advertised too much (and even the related information on the web page
is outdated). If you'd like to sponsor Robot Framework development,
trying to get your company to join the foundation would be one great
way.

The RPA initiative is sponsored by a sub group of the Foundation
member companies. More information about that will be posted later.

Cheers,
.peke
--
Agile Tester/Developer/Consultant :: http://eliga.fi
Lead Developer of Robot Framework :: http://robotframework.org