it’s not fully clear to me how the Vaadin 14 LTS support works.
I usually consider a LTS a stable release: bug and security fixes only, no functional or environment changes.
Vaadin 14 LTS seems different: every 3/4 months, a new 14.x release introduces new functionalities and environment changes, in addition to bug fixes. See https://vaadin.com/roadmap
Can I still consider Vaadin 14 a true LTS release?
Should I fully re-validate my applications when moving to a new 14.x version?
For example, one of my application is currently on Vaadin 14.3.1 and Spring Boot 2.3.3.
I don’t expect issues upgrading to new Vaadin 14.3.x / Spring Boot releases 2.3.x.
I do expect possible issues upgrading to Spring Boot 2.4 so I plan to stay on 2.3.x until it will be supported.
Should I expect possible issues upgrading to Vaadin 14.4?
Upgrading 14.4 should be safe. As mentioned under Vaadin 14.x on the roadmap page,
We release backward compatible 14.x versions whenever a consistent feature set is completed.
There will be new features added, but they should not break existing APIs or behavior. If you’re in doubt, check the release notes of a particular version here: https://github.com/vaadin/platform/releases - they will list any breaking changes.
Thanks. I was aware of the “backward compatible” promise and I do not expect any breaking changes between any 14.x release. This will be against LTS and semantic versioning definitions.
I understand Vaadin way to handle a LTS version. I just think it is not very common among tools and libraries I know.
Agreed. I think in this case there’s the question of balancing a stable long maintained version, providing known missing features and not having an unsustainable amount of LTS versions at the same time.
Our original plan when we chose to use the LTS label was indeed to only include bugfixes. Along the way, we got lots of feedback from users who said that they still prefer to get new features for LTS - as long as we work hard to reduce the risk of regressions.