There are a lot of questions we're asked quite frequently about SilverStripe, so we thought it might be a good idea to start addressing some of these through blog posts. This is number two in an ongoing series.
With all our talk about SilverStripe 3.0, people want to know what the implications are for older versions. On Twitter, @terryapodaca asked:
"Will SilverStripe 2.* be easily upgraded to 3.0 when it gets officially released? Can we still develop with the expectations that it will?"
When looking at upgrading versions, there are some important things to remember:
- SilverStripe Ltd maintain a large number of sites built in SilverStripe, so we are well aware of issues around upgrading. We'll be making sure the process is as painless as possible for everybody (have a look at our general release process).
- We're giving ourselves some leeway to make more radical changes to certain APIs in 3.0, for example the way SilverStripe is configured, or how you use the ORM to retrieve data. The concepts and technologies powering the web are moving fast, and we are trying to strike a balance between making new SilverStripe projects more flexible while keeping existing ones maintainable.
- Some features/capabilities from 2.4 will be pushed into 'backward compatibility' modules
- In all cases, we will provide an upgrading guide that tells people what they need to do to get their 2.4-based site working with 3.0. The guide is a living document that will grow as we add and change features.
- If you want to help, try out our alpha and beta versions when they're released and tell us if there were problems upgrading.
For more, we suggest checking out our roadmap, which has links to the presentations we've given so far about SilverStripe 3.0, and of course, the dev list is your best source for the newest information.
Got another question you'd like answered? Let us know!
