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As our customer base has grown to include some of today’s largest and most respected organizations, our processes have matured to support organizations of all sizes.

Network CRM Version Status

The following guidelines describe our release strategy to keep developers informed on API changes that may occur from one release to the next.

What Network CRM version are you on?

While all of us at Network Gate drive to move the framework forward technologically, we understand the importance of defining a stable and dependable API for our developer community. Network CRM versions are labelled in order to move the framework along a well defined path to deliver bug fixes, new features and enhancements in a timely fashion. To balance these needs, Network CRM follows the principle of major.minor.patch version numbering whereby versions are denoted using a standard triplet of integers: major . minor . patch

Each version represents improvements to prior releases in the form of bug fixes, enhancements and new features. The purpose of labelling versions this way is to communicate the kind of change that occurs between releases and some indication of the effort required to upgrade to a newer release.

Major Versions

Major Versions are large-scale upgrades of the API which may introduce a change in prior behaviour, remove deprecated properties from a prior major version, or contain fixes and enhancements that could not be accommodated without breaking backward compatibility. Major releases may introduce new classes, new properties, and may deprecate existing classes or properties. Major releases have the minor and patch numbers set to 0. A Major version will be released approximately annually.

Minor Versions

Minor Versions will maintain compatibility with older minor versions. Some classes or properties may be deprecated, however the earliest they will be removed completely is the next Major release. Minor releases have the patch number set to 0. Minor versions will be released approximately every 4 months.

Patch Versions

A patch version is the most up to date, stable version available. Changes in Patch versions are backwards compatible. These versions are a conservative incremental improvement that includes bug fixes, enhancements and new features and is absolutely backward compatible with previous PATCH releases of the same MINOR release. Changes to the API, to the signatures of public functions, or to the interpretation of function parameters will not change. Patch releases increment the patch number compared to the most recent patch release. Patch versions will be made available approximately monthly to Support Subscribrs.

Pre-release Versions

It is important to note that any release prior to a x.0 release is not subject to the guidelines described in this document. The version number may also be followed by an optional status e.g. 3.0-RC1.1. The optional status is an indicator of the release status, e.g. -alpha2, -m2, -rc1, etc. Generally, the status indicator is only used for major releases, e.g. 1.0.0-rc1 but is available for any release at the release manager’s discretion. Before a x.0 release (pre-release, release candidate (RC), alpha, beta, etc.), the API can and will be changing freely, without regard to the restrictions detailed by this document.

Before a new major release, release candidate (RC) packages are made available so that users can test them against their own code. There will be one or more release candidates given the version major.minor.0 RC, where the major and minor version numbers identify the upcoming release and RC1 identifies the first candidate release, RC2 the second, and so on. A release candidate does not guarantee backward compatibility with new API features introduced by any previous RC of the same upcoming version. A major version RC can change/remove API features introduced in a previous RC for the same major version.

Compatibility

We define “compatible” to mean that the API will remain unchanged. Generally, the objective is to maintain backward compatibility for minor releases and patch releases but major releases may not be completely backward compatible. Class properties may be marked deprecated with the intent to remove them in a future Major Version.

Network Gate Version Compatibility

Get Subversion Access

The development team continuously maintains the code and API documentation, adding features and addressing issues. Live updates to the code are maintained in a subversion repository which is available to Support Subscribers.

The subversion repository enables Support Subscribers to:

• keep local copies of the source up to date automatically
• continuously get the latest updates to the API documentation
• get a change history of files, diffs between arbitrary versions, etc.
• constantly keep abreast of the latest enhancements and fixes
• get advance preview of new examples as they are added

There are two branches maintained within the repository. There is one branch for the latest major version, and another branch for the prior major version. Each branch accommodates new features and bug fixes in a minimally disruptive way if at all possible.

Lifecycle

The following are the stages of the development of Network Gate products:

• Development. Under development and has not been made available to the general public.
• Beta, Milestone (M), and Release Candidate (RC). Released to the public but is not deemed to be stable for production.
• Official Release. Released to the public and is deemed to be stable. At this stage the software is the recommended version for production systems.
• Prior Major Release. Software that was deemed as an official release in the past, but for which a newer major official release has become available. Prior Major releases are eligible for “legacy” support, but Network Gate encourages an upgrade to the latest Major release as soon as possible.
• Deprecated Release. Software that has been replaced by at least two new major release. Deprecated releases are not supported in any way by Network Gate and may no longer be available for download.

The following table details the various download, upgrade, and support options that are available for each of the above mentioned types of release.

Network Gate Product Lifecycle

Demonstrative Code

In addition to the files included within the Network Gate framework, Network Gate also ships with several types of examples to illustrate and inspire how you might leverage the framework.

Examples

Network Gate ships with a comprehensive set of examples which are intended to demonstrate how to use various portions of the framework. Some examples may include customizations that are intended to illustrate a particular technique or inspire a developer.

ux – The “User Extension” namespace

The “ux” namespace contains custom code usually in the form of Classes. Some characteristics to note:

• ux’s typically extend/modify existing Classes or provide new features.
• various ux implementations may not be compatible with each other.
• inclusion of an ux may be discontinued at a Major release.

Experimental

Some classes and examples may be introduced as “experimental”. Experimental items have not been finalized and are subject to change.