In the final phase we test the release in an application and prepare all the assets for release. The design system team will help with updates to this site and the XD library files.

The release process goes as follows:

• The "develop" branch is merged into the "master" branch.
  • Note: any changes which have been merged into "develop" will therefore be present in the release. This might mean more than one component is released at the same time.
• The version is bumped to indicate a release candidate (e.g. 1.2.0-rc.1). If the changes are backwards compatible the minor version should be incremented. If it's a breaking change the major version should be incremented.
• New assets are created tagged with the RC version.
• Update this docs package to match the RC.
• Update the XD library
• The RC can now be testing against application code to find any issues
  • Any issues can then be resolved, which would result in a new release candidate (e.g. 1.2.0-rc.2) and application tests can be repeated
  • Release Candidates are not recommended for production use
• Once the RC passes acceptance then it can be promoted to a full release (e.g. 1.2.0) and new assets generated for that release.
• The release is now available for product teams to use in production.
• If required update designsystem.ul.com and the XD library.

Releases my also be carried out for other reasons (e.g. updating dependencies or bug fixes) even when no new functionality is being added. In these cases the patch level (z in x.y.z) will be incremented.