As many of you have already noticed from our roadmap, we will discontinue the free support of Vaadin 7 after February 2019. During the history of Vaadin, we have always supported two major versions in parallel, or at least five years from the initial release date. This holds for Vaadin 7 too, which was first released in 2013 and was, in fact, already extended by one year to allow our large Vaadin 7 community more time to prepare for migration. With the release of Vaadin 10 Long-term support (LTS) this year, the time has come to put our focus on supporting Vaadin 8 (supported until 2022), Vaadin 10 LTS (supported until 2023) and publishing new platform versions quarterly.
We encourage our community to move forward with their Vaadin versions to reap the benefits from the latest technology. We are thrilled that many have already embraced Vaadin 10 since its release in June 2018. Currently, Vaadin 10 user base is increasing by the day. However, Vaadin 8 is a great option for many projects, as we will continue to support it for years to come. In addition, we provide several options that make the migration easier or allow avoiding the migration completely.
Sometimes the Best Play Is Not to Play
You can extend your Vaadin 7 app lifetime, if you cannot or don’t want to migrate your business critical application after the support expires in February. In practice, we offer extended maintenance to Vaadin 7 until 2029 as part of the Enterprise Subscription. The extended support ensures your Vaadin 7 application gets the security fixes and is compatible with the supported browsers also in the future. This is the option for zero additional investments in migration work and allows smooth running for an app that already works well.
Do It Yourself
For those community members who are ready to migrate, we have created helpful documentation to help you navigate your way forward. We’ve created a free compatibility package for Vaadin 8 and migration instructions for Vaadin 7 users, as well as documentation on how to get to Vaadin 10. A good way to get started is to read this blog post on Vaadin 10 migration. This is the DIY option that involves some learning on the way, but after this exercise you have access to the latest Vaadin technology and can stay up to date for years to come.
Multiplatform Runtime
For Prime tier customers, we offer an additional helper called the Multiplatform runtime. It enables a gradual migration path to Vaadin 10 LTS from Vaadin 7 or 8. This way you can run your Vaadin 7 or 8 app as Vaadin 10 apps, all at the same time in the same environment, and migrate your app bit by bit. Maintaining just one code-base and migrating at your own pace can be a great relief and save a lot of developers’ time. This is naturally a DIY option as well, but supported by our team of experts through Prime and allowing a smoother migration.
Migration Assessment
If you are unsure of how big the migration project will be for you, and how your application will be affected, you can get help from our team to assess the migration. We will help you make informed decisions by analyzing your project and discussing the findings and the direction you should take. Our experts will estimate the effort needed to complete the migration and provide expert advice on the migration path you should take, which versions to target and what are the risks involved. We can even do parts or the whole migration for you, if you don’t want to tie down your own resources.
To summarize, your options are:
- Get extended Vaadin 7 support through Vaadin Enterprise subscription
- Start planning the migration based on documentation available
- Use Multiplatform runtime to allow gradual migration
- Get our expert team to evaluate the migration project and help you choose the right path for your app
Contact us to determine which option is the best for you!