(By Fir0002/Flagstaffotos (Own work) CC-BY-NC, via Wikimedia Commons)
Some days ago, right during the solstice, I have tagged version 1.6.0 of PhantomJS, the scriptable headless WebKit. This version is named Lavender, the story goes as follows:
…for this summer release, I pick the code name “Lavender”. This summer flower is not only beautiful, it is also known for its wonderful scent and soothing quality, often served as a remedy for anything from sore joints to insomnia. Well, with the widespread use of PhantomJS in various testing frameworks since some releases ago, isn’t that exactly what this headless WebKit also brings to many web developers? Helping people to stay calm, avoid anxiety, and increase their productivity is surely a decent goal to have!
Lavender is a rather minor update, you are welcomed to check the release notes to see what is inside there. Some of the features are added because they are necessary to other PhantomJS-based project. For example, Ivan has added functionalities important for Ghost Driver, an implementation of the Remote WebDriver Wire protocol. If you are currently using Selenium, keep an eye on Ghost Driver as it will be very useful to complement your Selenium-based testing workflow. In another front, Jon improved various aspects of PhantomJS such as stack trace and crash reporting, which in turns will benefit Poltergeist. If you develop Rails applications and use Capybara, consider looking at using Poltergeist since it can capture screenshots, debug remotely, give meaningful error information, and many more.
The last release, Ghost Flower, was a smashing success. The total download for all the source and binary packages reaches almost 30 thousands, the mailing-list grows to about 600 members. Let’s see if we can repeat the success with this summer edition.
Kudos to all contributors to this Lavender release!