This document contains the practices that we follow to provide you with leading-edge web components, balanced with stability. We strive to ensure that future changes are always introduced in a predictable way. We want everyone who depends on Unified UX to know when and how new features are added, and to be well-prepared when obsolete ones are removed.
Unified UX version numbers follow the Temenos convention of using calendar dates in a way that is similar to semantic versioning, and help you understand the potential impact of updating to a new version.
Unified UX version numbers have three parts: year.month.patch. For example, version 2021.12.0 indicates a version from the year 2021, month 12 (December), and patch level 0.
The version number is incremented based on the level of change included in the release:
Yearly releases follow the calendar year and may contain significant new features. Some minimal developer assistance may be expected during the update. When updating to a new major release, you might need to run update scripts, refactor code, and run additional tests.
Monthly releases contain new smaller features and bug fixes and are issued monthly. They aim to be fully backward-compatible; no developer assistance is expected during update, but you can optionally modify your applications and libraries to begin using new features and capabilities that were added in the release.
Patch releases are low risk, cumulative bug fix releases and may be issued exceptionally to the latest monthly release. No developer assistance is expected during the update.
We let you preview what's coming in the next release by publishing frequent snapshot builds in our Downloads area.
Dates are offered as general guidance and are subject to change.
All yearly releases are typically supported for 2 years.
- 12 months of active support, during which regularly scheduled updates and patches are released.
- 12 months of long-term support (LTS), during which only critical fixes and security patches are released.
The following table provides the status of Unified UX versions under support:
| Version | Status | Released | Active Ends | LTS Ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Active | Feb 2021 | 31 Dec 2021 | 31 Dec 2022 |
Unified UX versions prior to 2021 are not supported.
As a general rule, a fix is considered for an LTS version if it resolves one of:
- a newly identified secuirty vulnerability
- a regression issue caused by a 3rd party change since the start of LTS, such as a new browser version.
Sometimes "breaking changes", such as the removal of support for select features, are necessary to innovate and stay current with new best practices, changing dependencies, or changes to the (web) platform itself.
To make these transitions as straightforward as possible, we make these commitments to you:
- We work hard to minimize the number of breaking changes and to provide migration tools when possible.
- We follow the deprecation policy described here, so you have time to update your applications to the latest best practices.
To help ensure that ou have sufficient time and a clear path to update, this is our deprecation policy:
- Announcement: We announce deprecated features in each release's changelog. Deprecated features will be marked as such in the documentation and there will be a runtime console warning for deprecated properties, methods and classes. When we announce a deprecation, we also announce a recommended update path. For convenience, Deprecations contains a summary of deprecated components and features.
- Deprecation Period: When a feature is deprecated, it is still present in the next yearly release. After that, deprecated features are candidates for removal. A deprecation can be announced in any release, but the removal of a deprecated feature happens only in a yearly release. Until a deprecated feature is removed, it is maintained according to the LTS support policy, meaning that only critical and security issues are fixed.
- npm dependencies: We only make npm dependency updates that require changes to your applications in a yearly release.