Addressing review feedback:

1) Refactored code to replace the global variable with a class attribute.
2) Implemented sorting of GitHub releases to obtain the latest version.

setup.py

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
-from _version import version
+from smsdk._version import version
 
 with open("README.md", "r") as fh:
     long_description = fh.read()

smsdk/_version.py

@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 #
 """
-Track version information for factorytx-core module here.
+Track version information for sightmachine-sdk module here.
 """
 import typing
 import itertools
 import requests
 import warnings
 import functools
+import re
 
 
 class VersionInfo(typing.NamedTuple):
@@ -30,49 +31,79 @@ def __str__(self) -> str:
 version = str(f"v{version_info}")
 
 
+def sort_releases_descending(
+    releases: typing.List[typing.Dict[str, typing.Any]]
+) -> typing.List[typing.Dict[str, typing.Any]]:
+    def version_key(
+        release: typing.Dict[str, typing.Any]
+    ) -> typing.Union[typing.Tuple[int, int, int, str], typing.Tuple[()]]:
+        version = release["tag_name"]
+        # Use regular expression to extract numerical and string parts
+        match = re.match(r"(?i)v(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)(\D*)", version)
+        if match:
+            major, minor, patch, suffix = map(match.group, (1, 2, 3, 4))
+            return int(major), int(minor), int(patch), suffix
+        else:
+            return ()
+
+    return (
+        sorted(releases, key=version_key, reverse=True)
+        if len(releases) > 1
+        else releases
+    )
+
+
+def get_latest_release_version(
+    releases: typing.List[typing.Dict[str, typing.Any]]
+) -> typing.Optional[typing.Any]:
+    if releases:
+        sorted_releases = sort_releases_descending(releases)
+        return sorted_releases[0]["tag_name"]
+    return None
+
+
 def get_latest_sdk_release() -> typing.Optional[typing.Any]:
     api_url = f"https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/releases"
 
     try:
-        response = requests.get(api_url)
-
-        # To raise an HTTPError for any bad responses
-        response.raise_for_status()
-
+        response = requests.get(api_url, timeout=10)
+        response.raise_for_status()  # To raise an HTTPError for any bad responses
         releases = response.json()
+
         if releases:
-            latest_release = releases[0]
-            return latest_release["tag_name"]
+            return get_latest_release_version(releases)
     except requests.RequestException as e:
         print(f"Error fetching latest SDK release: {e}")
 
     return None
 
 
-def version_check_decorator(func: typing.Any) -> typing.Any:
-    @functools.wraps(func)
-    def wrapper(*args: typing.Any, **kwargs: typing.Any) -> typing.Any:
-        # Define a global flag to track whether the API version has been printed
-        global api_version_printed
-        if not api_version_printed:
-            latest_sdk_release = get_latest_sdk_release()
-            installed_sdk_release = version
-
-            if (
-                installed_sdk_release is not None
-                and latest_sdk_release is not None
-                and latest_sdk_release != installed_sdk_release
-            ):
-                warnings.warn(
-                    f"Installed SDK Version: {installed_sdk_release}. It is recommended to install release version ({latest_sdk_release}).",
-                    DeprecationWarning,
-                )
-            # Set the flag to True to indicate that the version has been printed
-            api_version_printed = True
-
-        return func(*args, **kwargs)
-
-    return wrapper
+class VersionCheckDecorator:
+    api_version_printed = False
+
+    @classmethod
+    def version_check_decorator(cls, func: typing.Any) -> typing.Any:
+        @functools.wraps(func)
+        def wrapper(*args: typing.Any, **kwargs: typing.Any) -> typing.Any:
+            if not cls.api_version_printed:
+                latest_sdk_release = get_latest_sdk_release()
+                installed_sdk_release = version
+
+                if (
+                    installed_sdk_release is not None
+                    and latest_sdk_release is not None
+                    and latest_sdk_release != installed_sdk_release
+                ):
+                    warnings.warn(
+                        f"Installed SDK Version: {installed_sdk_release}. "
+                        f"It is recommended to install release version ({latest_sdk_release}).",
+                        DeprecationWarning,
+                    )
+                cls.api_version_printed = True
+
+            return func(*args, **kwargs)
+
+        return wrapper
 
 
 # Initialize the flag to False

smsdk/client.py

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 """ Sight Machine SDK Client """
 from __future__ import unicode_literals, absolute_import
-from smsdk._version import version_check_decorator
+from smsdk._version import VersionCheckDecorator
 
 import pandas as pd
 import numpy as np
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 import logging
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+version_check_decorator = VersionCheckDecorator.version_check_decorator
 
 
 ONE_DAY_RELATIVE = {