Announcing the release of RIDE 2.1a3

[HelioGuilherme66 (Hélio Guilherme)]

I am happy to announce the release of RIDE v2.1a3 with nice features, bug fixes and more bugs for you to find .

Please use this topic to talk about the bugs you find, or wish to declare them as undocumented features .

Install or upgrade with:

pip install -U --pre robotframework-ride

Below is a copy of the release notes at project :

Robot Framework IDE 2.1a3

Please see the complete release notes here.

Below is an excerpt of it:

RIDE (Robot Framework IDE) v2.1a3 is a new release with important enhancements and bug fixes. The reference for valid arguments is Robot Framework installed version, which is at this moment 7.0.1. However, internal library code is originally based on version 3.1.2, but adapted for new versions.

This version supports Python 3.8 up to 3.12.

There are some changes, or known issues:

• - Removed support for Python 3.6 and 3.7
• - Added support for Setup in keywords, since Robot Framework version 7.0.
• - Added support for new VAR marker, since Robot Framework version 7.0.
• - Added to Grid Editor changing Zoom In/Out with Ctrl-Mouse Wheel and setting at Preferences.
• - Fixed plugin Run Anything (Macros) not showing output and broken actions.
• - Added actions on columns of Grid Editor: Double-Click or Right Mouse Click, allows to edit the column name for Data Driven or Templated; Left Mouse Click, selects the column cells.
• - Added command line option, –settingspath, to select a different configuration.
• - Added different settings file, according the actual Python executable, if not the original installed.
• - Added a selector for Tasks and Language to the New Project dialog.
• - Added UI localization prepared for all the languages from installed Robot Framework version 6.1, or higher. Major translations are: Dutch, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. Still missing translation of some elements.
• - Added support for language configured test suites, with languages from installed Robot Framework version 6.1, or higher.
• - On Text Editor, pressing Ctrl when the caret/cursor is near a Keyword will show a detachable window with the documentation, at Mouse Pointer position.
• - RIDE tray icon now shows a context menu with options Show, Hide and Close.
• - Highlighting and navigation of selected Project Explorer items, in Text Editor.
• - When editing in Grid Editor with content assistance, the selected content can be edited by escaping the list of suggestions with keys ARROW_LEFT or ARROW_RIGHT.
• - Newlines in Grid Editor can be made visible with the filter newlines set to False.
• - On Text Editor when Saving the selection of tests in Test Suites (Tree) is cleared.
• - Problems with COPY/PASTE in Text Editor have been reported when using wxPython 4.2.0, but not with version 4.2.1, which we now recommend.
• - Some argument types detection (and colorization) is not correct in Grid Editor.
• - RIDE DOES NOT KEEP Test Suites formatting or structure, causing differences in files when used on other IDE or Editors.

New Features and Fixes Highlights

• Added configurable style of the tabs in notebook pages, Edit, Text, Run, etc. Parameter notebook theme takes values from 0 to 5. See wxPython, demo for agw.aui for details.
• Added UI localization and support for Japanese configured test suites, valid for Robot Framework version 7.0.1 or higher.
• Fixed keywords Find Usages in Grid Editor not finding certain values when using Gherkin.
• Improved selection of items from Tree in Text Editor. Now finds more items and selects whole line.
• Changed output in plugin Run Anything (Macros) to allow Zoom In/Out, and Copy content.
• Added to Grid Editor changing Zoom In/Out with Ctrl-Mouse Wheel and setting at Preferences.
• Fixed plugin Run Anything (Macros) not showing output and broken actions.
• Added actions on columns of Grid Editor: Double-Click or Right Mouse Click, allows to edit the column name for Data Driven or Templated; Left Mouse Click, selects the column cells.
• Added command line option, –settingspath, to select a different configuration.
• Added different settings file, according the actual Python executable, if not the original installed.
• Fixed headers and blank spacing in Templated tests.
• Added context option Open Containing Folder to test suites directories in Project Explorer.
• Added a setting for a specific file manager by editing the settings.cfg file. Add the string parameter file manager in the section [General]
• Added minimal support to have comment lines in Import settings. These are not supposed to be edited in Editor, and new lines are added at Text Editor.
• Added a selector for Tasks and Language to the New Project dialog. Still some problems: Tasks type changes to Tests, localized sections only stay translated after Apply in Text Editor.
• Added UI localization prepared for all the languages from installed Robot Framework version 6.1, or higher. Language is selected from Tools->Preferences->General.
• Removed support for HTML file format (obsolete since Robot Framework 3.2)
• Added support for language configured test suites. Fields are shown in the language of the files in Grid Editor. Tooltips are always shown in English. Colorization for language configured files is working in Text Editor.
• Fixed New User Keyword dialog not allowing empty Arguments field
• Fixed escaped spaces showing in Text Editor on commented cells
• Improved keywords documentation search, by adding current dir to search
• Improved Move up/down, Alt-UpArrow/Alt-DownArrow in Text Editor, to have proper indentation and selection
• Added auto update check when development version is installed
• Added menu option Help->Check for Upgrade which allows to force update check and install development version
• Added Upgrade Now action to update dialog.
• Added Test Tags field (new, since Robot Framework 6.0) to Test Suites settings. This field will replace Default and Force Tags settings, after Robot Framework 7.0
• Improved RIDE Log and Parser Log windows to allow Zoom In/Out with Ctrl-Mouse Wheel
• Improved content assistance in Text Editor by allowing to filter list as we type
• Fixed resource files disappearing from Project tree on Windows
• Fixed missing indication of link for User Keyword, when pressing Ctrl in Grid Editor
• Added content help pop-up on Text Editor by pressing Ctrl for text at cursor position or selected autocomplete list item
• Added Exclude option in context nenu for Test files, previously was only possible for Test Suites folders
• Added exclusion of monitoring filesystem changes for files and directories excluded in Preferences
• Added support for JSON variables, by using the installed Robot Framework import method
• Colorization of Grid Editor cells after the continuation marker … and correct parsing of those lines
• Colorization of Grid Editor cells when contents is list or dictionary variables
• Added indication of matching brackets, (), {}, [], in Text Editor
• Improved project file system changes and reloading
• Added context menu to RIDE tray icon. Options Show, Hide and Close
• Added synchronization with Project Explorer to navigate to selected item, Test Case, Keyword, Variable, in Text Editor
• Control commands (FOR, IF, TRY, etc) will only be colorized as valid keywords when typed in all caps in Grid Editor
• Newlines in Grid Editor can be made visible with the filter newlines set to False, by editing settings.cfg
• Improve Text Editor auto-suggestions by using: selected text, text at left or at right of cursor

We hope to implement or complete features and make fixes on this final version 2.1 (in the end of 2024).

Linux users are advised to install first wxPython from .whl package at wxPython.org, or by using the system package manager.

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RIDE v2.1a3 was released on 22/July/2024.

[HelioGuilherme66 (Hélio Guilherme)]

I found already some undocumented features:

• New packaging system, creates ride executable. It has the strange effect, of reopening RIDE, when we close it (and then closes definitely).
• RIDE has a nice solution to create a Desktop shortcut, but this only works when installing from source code, i.e., python ./setup.py install. The “new” install mode, always create a .whl and installs from there, which does not calls this Desktop installer, as intended. Using the action RIDE->Tools->Create RIDE Desktop Shortcut, is the working solution. You can also call the script from command line, with python <path to python scripts>/ride_postinstall.py -f -install (on Windows this could be: C:\Python312\python.exe C:\Python312\Scripts\ride_postinstall.py -f -install). This Desktop shortcut, will use the direct call to Python code, not the shortcut to the new ride executable, which may cause confusion when using Virtual Environments (virtualenv). When you call this RIDE, it will call the code in the virtualenv, but not the corresponding robot. To be sure you use the virtualenv RIDE and robot, you should create a normal Desktop shortcut (or activate the virtualenv and run ride from there).
• A recent bug found in development, is: when using Text Editor and start a test Run (F8 or actions), the changes will not be saved, even if the Run Autosave changes checkbox is checked. You must click Apply Changes in Text Editor, or Save
• If you try the nice feature of localization (RIDE interface in several languages), you may have several new settings in different languages for Text Editor, or Grid Editor, in the settings.cfg file. For example in Portuguese you will see [[Editor de Grelha]]. We may decide later to keep this as a feature (really )

[HelioGuilherme66 (Hélio Guilherme)]

I have added a new feature to Text Editor, that I expect people to like

We can now activate auto-complete as we type in Text Editor (no need to press Ctrl-Space).
We have a switch in Tools → Preferences → Text Editor.

Note, that now the detection of Upgrades will not work because v2.1a3 is higher than this development version, v2.1dev60.