Support timeline update: where are we heading?

Is my SilverStripe CMS version too old? Should I upgrade to a new version now? Which version should I upgrade to? What support will I be receiving? When should I do it? Is there any documentation that could help me? These are the common questions that SilverStripe community members often ask us.

Timeline

After a few months of community consultation, we have now published the support timeline that guides you, making it easier for you to make a decision on whether you should stay on your current version or upgrade. This timeline will be updated as we go.

Looking at the timeline, 'full support' means that SilverStripe Ltd will be releasing security patches, fixing major bugs, testing, and providing technical documentation to support these versions. ‘Limited support’ means that there will only be security fixes. ‘Support’ will not cover issues related to individual sites e.g custom code. You can make a decision on what version would be best for your site, based on what level of ‘support’ you will be receiving. 

How we will be dealing with future versions

As there are unreleased versions of 3.x still to come, we will ensure at least limited support continues on this line until the end of 2019.

As we release new major versions, such as 4.0, we will no longer actively support the 3.x line, which will be downgraded to limited support only on the most recent 3.x minor release.

At the time of writing, 3.4 is in limited support, and 3.5 is fully supported. When either 3.6 or 4.0 is released, you should upgrade to at least 3.5 to remain within the supported range of versions.

Support ends for some versions

SilverStripe 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 won’t receive security fixes after the end of this year, which is in line with our long-standing release process. SilverStripe 4 is currently at an alpha stage and will be on beta/‘active development’ stages later in 2017, then continues with ‘full support’ and ‘limited support’. From version 4 onward, some releases are marked as LTS  (Long-Term Support) – we recommend that customers seeking multi-year stability make use of LTS releases.

Note that the support timeline for future releases is merely an indication of our plans, so the release dates may change in the future. Please check back the support timeline to make sure you get the latest update whenever you are considering to change your SilverStripe version.

If you are looking to upgrade your production site, we recommend you use the latest stable release with its documentation. The best time to upgrade is always now.

Support for the Common Web Platform (CWP)

This change to our support timelines does not affect existing agreements with customers on the New Zealand Common Web Platform (CWP) (refer to the CWP release process and CWP  recipe support timelines).