About two months ago, I speculated that TouchKit 4.0 beta 1 and TestBench 4.0 alpha 1 would be released within a couple of weeks. Since then, things have changed. Since both releases were depending on modifications to the core framework that were themselves not yet released, our plan was to simultaneously release Vaadin 7.2.0 alpha 1 containing only those required features.
When we started looking at what we already had in the master branch for Vaadin Framework, we realized that it already contained a respectable amount of enhancements. We couldn’t justify keeping those changes locked up in our repository until Grid and the new Sass theme are finished. To get the enhancements out to you, we changed the scope of Vaadin 7.2 to not include the two big missing features. With no big features missing, the release would actually be beta 1 instead of alpha 1. The only missing thing then were some small features that we wanted to get into that beta, so part of the team has been busy making sure those are in a good shape, causing a slight delay compared to our initial plans for alpha 1.
I won't go into the complete feature list of the 7.2 that we are now aiming at, but some examples of the functionality that we made us expedite the release include:
- Native support for IE 11 and Windows Phone 8.1
- Websocket support in Tomcat 8, Glassfish 4, Jetty 9.1 and Wildfly 8
- Inclusion of GWT 2.6
- Improved push reliability, thanks to Atmosphere 2
- Various features enabling new functionality in TouchKit 4 and TestBench 4.
We are currently doing the final changes for Vaadin 7.2 beta 1 and will make a release once we have verified that everything seems to work nicely together. Closely after that, TouchKit 4.0 beta 1 and TestBench 4.0 alpha 1 should follow.
This change in release plans means that Grid and the new Sass theme are now planned for 7.3 instead. Please note that you wouldn't have to wait for those features any longer because of this change. Some of us have kept on working just as hard on implementing those while other developers from the R&D team have prepared this additional minor release. We are thus creating a completely new slot for 7.2 and writing "7.3" on the slot that was previously labeled 7.2.
Beyond the now upcoming alpha and beta releases, we will keep monitoring your feedback. Before releasing stable versions, we will resolve any regressions or broken new features that you discover. While waiting for any potential issues to be discovered, we will also turn our attention to the CDI integration that has been just beyond the horizon for quite some time now. We will of course also continue working on the headline features for Vaadin 7.3: Grid and the new Sass theme.
So that's how things are stacked up right now. We hope you appreciate getting an expedited Vaadin 7.2 with a bunch of enhancements even though all the initially planned features are not included. We also hope you realize that this change of plans does not change the time frame for when those features will eventually be released. Please post a comment below with your opinions about changing the plans in this way!
Leif Åstrand is a jack of all trades in our R&D team. He knows a thing or two about how Vaadin, GWT and the internet works.