Addon - new version or enhancement

[Martimiz]

I'm trying to decide whether a module that already lives in the addons, but has had substantial overhaul, should be considered a new version or just an enhancement of the existing one. I've read the docs here: http://doc.silverstripe.com/framework/en/topics/module-development, but I'm still really unsure about the criteria.

I thought maybe the breaking point is backwards compatibility, so that as long as the old ways still work it's the same version - even though new functionality and/or a new workflow are added to (partly) replace the existing way of doing things. But that doesn't really feel right to me...

So then I thougt of creating a version 1.0 for the old version and continue developing in master. But that would leave users with two versions for SilverStripe 3.1, where they should really just use the new one...

 I'd appreciate your thoughts on this, before I muddle things up and possibly leave users in confusion.


Thanks, Martine

[Cam Findlay]

Hi Martine, 

This is something I have been experimenting with a bit over on the forum module, while I haven't formalised a "good practice" that module makers could/should use that is something I'd like to work on and improve the module contribution docs with.

At present in the forum module I am doing bug fixes and non-breaking changes against a versioned release branch (0.6) and breaking changes/big refactors against "master" - so while techincally there is 2 versions that can work in SS3.1, one is stable, the other is a more experimental/development version which will eventually become the next stable version once enough features and enhancements make it in, this will end up as version 0.7.

In github I set the HEAD to the stable branch 0.6 so it shows first.

It's a slight variation on the git "workflow" method with a bit less complexity, and as I say I'm still experimenting so this may be up for change.

Hope that helps.