Summary
Version 17 includes several new features and a number of bug fixes: What's new in version 17? Our testing targeted those new features and improvements to ensure they worked correctly, and to check if they impacted existing Lawmaker functionality in any way.
Tests were performed using a combination of newly created documents, documents imported from legislation.gov.uk, and existing real-world documents copied from the Production environment.
To test UK Bills functionality, we used the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, Renters' Reform Bill, and Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, along with the corresponding tabled amendments to those bills. Version 17 introduces a new feature which makes it possible to download and upload large lists of amendments to a bill version for testing; we made use of this feature to perform tests on those bills using large numbers of amendments.
We also imported UK Act content from legislation.gov.uk to test performance on large documents, including the Energy Act 2023 and Online Safety Act 2023.
See below for more information on the specific testing outcomes related to new features in version 17.
Automatic tagging of references
Version 17 includes a number of significant improvements to the automatic Tag x-refs function. This function will now identify both internal cross-references an and external references to existing legislation, and tag them.
Our testing focused on the new behaviour of the automatic tagging function in a variety of document types, using real-world documents. Where references were missed or tagged incorrectly, we worked with the development team to refine the tagging algorithm further. We have included those refinements in the final Version 17 deployment.
Documents containing the newly tagged references were then used in end-to-end tests, to ensure that existing Lawmaker functionality is unaffected by the refinements to the automatic tagging function and the tags generated by that function. We did not identify any issues relating to the interaction of core Lawmaker functions and references as part of our end-to-end tests.
Referencing toolbar and the Edit ref modal
We tested the newly expanded referencing toolbar (which appears when double-clicking on a reference in the Editor) in all document types. We checked for potential user interface problems connected to the expanded toolbar, and we checked that initiating actions from the toolbar produced the same result as initiating those actions from the right-click menu.
We checked that the new reference toolbar had no effect on the performance of the Editor when opening larger documents.
User feedback helped us to identify an issue with the appearance and layout of the ‘Edit ref’ modal on smaller screens. We intend to fix this in the next minor Lawmaker release.
Generation of citation footnotes in SIs
Version 17 gives users the ability to automatically generate citation footnotes in SIs. We checked the content and format of these auto-generated footnotes using large numbers of real SI documents imported from legislation.gov.uk.
In response to user feedback, we made a number of refinements to the wording and formatting of these footnotes during the pre-release testing period.
Improved sorting of amendments on the Amendment Manager tab
Version 17 replaces the ‘OoC Sort’ button on the Amendment Manager tab with a ‘Sort by Marshalled Order’ button that correctly sorts amendments in the table according to the order in which they will appear in official lists. We tested the new sorting using Commons, Lords, and Scottish Parliamentary amendments, and ensured that the ordering logic was correct.
We identified and fixed an issue affecting sorting of large numbers of amendments (over 200). The fix has been included in the final version 17 build.
Church Measures
Version 17 now supports Church Measures documents. We tested the core Lawmaker functions in the Editor and on the Project tab in Church Measures projects to ensure that users can draft and manage Measures in Lawmaker.
User feedback enabled us to identify some features which were not enabled for Church Measures (including the push/pull function and the ‘Submit to TNA’ action for enacted Measures). We worked with the development team to enable and test those features for Measures, and have included the necessary changes in the final version 17 release.
Significant issues found during testing
We identified a bug which prevented images displaying in the Editor. This has been fixed in the final version 17 build.
We identified a problem with the tag x-refs function and the ‘remove reference tag’ action which affected some references in documents containing line numbering. Where a reference extended over the end of a line, using the automatic tagging function or the ‘remove reference tag’ action (from the right-click menu or the floating toolbar) would sometimes remove both the XML tags and the textual content of the reference. Only the reference tags should be removed. This has been fixed in the final version 17 build.
The automatic reference tagging function sometimes added additional reference tags around existing references; that has been fixed in the final build.