What a day! SpecFlow v2 is released today! The preview was released in December, I was writing about the list of changes and also the necessary upgrade steps and we also updated the documentation with the new features and changes. So from today on, you can get the new stuff from NuGet. Here is a BIG THANKS for all the people who contributed, especially to Darren and Sam.
PM> Install-Package SpecFlow
I will continue posting about the new possibilities of v2 and some other useful topics, so stay tuned on my blog, on twitter (@gasparnagy) or on my LinkedIn feed. Update: The v2 related posts on my blog can be found by filtering for the SpecFlow v2 tag.
It is worth mentioning that TechTalk is also providing an updated release for the SpecFlow+ Runner on the same day.
As v2 is out now, it makes sense to have a look at the upcoming steps, so here is a rough plan for the future.
Updated Roadmap
The SpecFlow development will not stop with v2, just the opposite, my plan is to allocate more time for maintaining SpecFlow (writing code and support contributors).
Under the further improvements I mean these categories:
- Improve Visual Studio integration
- Provide support for alternative .NET runtimes and platforms
- Extend SpecFlow with possibilities of the .NET 4.5 framework (dynamic, async, etc.)
- Add smaller feature improvements
Besides all these, we also would like to make experiments on new ideas related to new integration options, or new ways of describing specification elements.
The immediate next steps planned are the following:
- Clean up the branches on GitHub and move back the core development to the master branch from v2
- Make a small updated on the Visual Studio integration with a few bug fixes and updated integration to the newer ReSharper versions. (The current VS integration works with v2, so you don’t have to wait for this with the upgrade.)
- Setup the project/build/release infrastructure for the alternative runtimes
- Update Visual Studio editor to use the new Gherkin parser (will be much faster and more stable)
The plan is to make smaller, but more frequent updates, so that the fixes/smaller improvements can be used much quicker than before. Also the new Gherkin parser is more flexible in terms of language support (more info on this later).
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You can learn and practice the new features of SpecFlow v2 on my SpecFlow course (official SpecFlow course). See the upcoming courses or book a private in-house course!