Release policy
This document outlines our release policy for our supported products:
- DynamicWeb Commerce Suite (DynamicWeb 10)
- DynamicWeb All-In-One Business Platform (DynamicWeb 9)
- DynamicWeb Swift
- DynamicWeb Addons
Release Cadence
DynamicWeb development runs in sprints of 2 weeks starting every other Wednesday. By the end of every 2 sprints on the last Tuesday of each month, DynamicWeb will release a new minor.
Most bugs are planned for the next sprint meaning the goal is that all reported customer bugs will be fixed within the running sprint + next sprint. This means that the longest a bug can be on its way is 20 workdays/28 weekdays.
Bugs graded as critical or high will have other resolution times and will be released as soon as possible on a patch release of the latest minor during the sprint.
Bugfixes can be released in any active milestone branch.
Release terminology
Major release (example: 10.0) contains significant or breaking changes. For example, changes or removal of existing APIs, significant changes to the user experience, or removal or a major feature and scope of product.
Minor release (example: 10.1) can contain new features and changes to existing features in a backward compatible manner. Changes can include supported platforms or external dependencies (such as databases, operating systems, 3rd party dependencies) if needed if underlying technology requires a change due to deprecation, security issues or change of technology. Examples can be deprecated database versions, security breaches in 3rd party NuGet packages, changes to how cookies are handled in browsers that affect features etc.
Patch release (example: 10.1.1) can contain bug fixes, stability and performance improvements. Depending on the nature of the fixes they may introduce minor changes to existing features, but do not include new features or high-risk changes, and can be adopted quickly. We recommend regularly upgrading to the latest bugfix release for your current version.
Pre-release (example: 10.2.0-beta) versions have a lower priority than the associated normal version. A pre-release version indicates that the version can be unstable and might not satisfy the intended compatibility requirements as denoted by its associated normal version history. The pre-release flag indicates that changes can still happen to the API and that use of pre-release version might require changes to implementation and API usage once a final release is made. Pre-release versions might also contain features that will not make it to production.
Supported versions
DynamicWeb Commerce Suite (DW10)
DynamicWeb 10 is released following a versionless deployment strategy where milestones are pushed to release rings on a monthly basis, following a first-in-first-out principle.
The four most recent milestones are officially supported:
- R1 - Current
- R2 - Current +1 (semi-stable)
- R3 - Current +2 (stable)
- R4 - Current +3 (stable)
The principle behind our releases are:
| Release ring | Milestone | Features |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | Current | Contains the latest features and functionality. Will receive frequent bugfixes for as long as it remains the current milestone. |
| R2 | Current +1 | Will receive bugfixes weekly when applicable. You can consider this release ring semi-stable. |
| R3 | Current +2 | Will only receive critical bugfixes. You can consider this release ring stable. |
| R4 | Current +3 | Will only receive critical bugfixes. You can consider this release ring stable. |
All solutions hosted on DynamicWeb Cloud are set to use one of these release rings; when a new milestone is released they are therefore auto-upgraded and it is not possible to remain on an outdated version of the application. Self-hosted solutions can implement something similar on their servers if they so desire.
Critical security fixes will be ported to additional minors that have been released in the past 1 year.
DynamicWeb All-in-One Business Platform (DW9)
DynamicWeb 9 minors (e.g. 9.16 and 9.17) are released biannually – the last Tuesday in January and August.
The two most recently released minors are the actively supported versions of DynamicWeb 9 and will get patch releases (i.e. 9.16.3 and 9.17.2)
Patches are released every 2 weeks on Tuesdays for the active versions.
New small features and changes can be found in patches to the latest minor (i.e. 9.17.2) but will not be backported to ‘latest minor minus one’ minor (i.e. 9.16.*).
Critical security fixes will be ported to additional minors that have been released in the past 3 years.
DynamicWeb Swift
DynamicWeb Swift minors (i.e. 1.25 and 2.1) are released regularly every 1-2 months.
The latest minor is the actively supported version of DynamicWeb Swift and will get patch releases (e.g. 1.25.1)
Patches are released approximately every 2 weeks on Tuesdays for the active version. Bugfixes might be available before on GitHub on main branch.
Critical security fixes will be ported to additional minors that have been released in the past 1 year.
DynamicWeb Addons
DynamicWeb Addons are software components DynamicWeb releases and communicated as supported that is used in implementations – example of addons that are supported:
- BC and NAV Code units
- DynamicWeb Live Integration
- Payment gateways
- Delivery providers
- DynamicWeb CLI
The latest minor version of any addon is the actively supported version and will get patch releases.