Feedback wanted for Neos-UI Features

Community
1

Dear Neos Community,

as you all may know, the development of Neos follows the rules of semantic versioning and historically, Neos 8.3 is the latest release before the next big major version. Neos 9.0 is already pretty close, and we can’t wait to have the final release in public.

In the last couple of days, we had discussions regarding features in the Neos-UI. The decisive feature was “Allow grouping in DimensionSwitcher”. It is a really nice little feature and it does not harm anyone. But by definition it is a feature, and we would need a new Minor version of the Neos-Ui for it.

We have some more little features that would be nice for 8.3 users as well:

  1. Allow grouping in DimensionSwitcher
  1. Hide read-only workspaces
  1. Add information to dimensions menu

While these features are undoubtedly beneficial, the challenge lies in deciding how to make them available to the broader Neos CMS community. As these features fall under the umbrella of a minor release, we’re presented with two potential paths:

Option 1: Neos-UI 8.4 Release for Neos CMS 8.3 Users

One approach is to create a Neos-UI 8.4 release that can be utilized by Neos CMS 8.3 users. This would allow those who may not be ready to upgrade to Neos 9.0 to still benefit from these valuable enhancements. However, it raises questions about maintaining compatibility and ensuring a smooth integration process.

Option 2: Stick to Neos 9.0 Release

Alternatively, we could align the release of these features with the upcoming Neos 9.0 release, encouraging users to upgrade to the latest version of Neos CMS to take advantage of not only the Neos-UI features but also the broader improvements and innovations introduced in Neos 9.0. While this ensures a more uniform user experience, it may require some in the community to wait a bit longer for these enhancements.

Community Input Needed

We value the input and opinions of our community members, and we’re opening this discussion to gather your thoughts on the matter. What do you believe is the best course of action? Should we prioritize making these features available to Neos CMS 8.3 users promptly, or should we encourage users to upgrade to Neos 9.0 for a more comprehensive and unified experience?

Please share your thoughts, concerns, and any alternative suggestions you might have regarding this decision. Your feedback is crucial in shaping the direction we take, and we appreciate your continued support in making Neos CMS even more powerful and user-friendly.

Thank you for being part of the Neos community.

Best regards,

Markus

2

Thanks @markusguenther for bringing this up. In my opinion, Neos 8.3 will be around for quite a while and those three features are nice additions that don’t hurt anyone. So having Neos UI 8.4 would be a good solution (Option 1). I suggest to add a hint to the release notes because a lot of people will get this automatically when running composer update, namely all those having ^8.3 and not ~8.3 or something else.

1 Like
3

Thanks for your feedback @lorenzulrich

It would be the intention that the 8.3 users get the UI 8.4 automatically. So I, personally, would more address the people with the tilde in the composer file to not miss the 8.4 release :wink:

BTW: There would also be an Option 3 for the features. Creating own packages that extend the UI.
But that would be a bit more effort for maintenance.

4

I don’t care about the numbers, but I think it’s important, to have the possibility to add new features

1 Like
5

Hey,

Thanks for bringing up this discussion.

I would be for option 3 :wink:

I personally would not mind releasing these small features as patch level releases, because it keeps Neos core and the UI closer aligned version wise. For me this is more important than sticking bit by bit on semver.

Additionally to keep our efforts high on 9.0 I would not release a 8.4 before 9.0 is released if possible, because it may look like 9.0 is delayed longer and longer.

All the best,
Sebastian

1 Like
6

Hey Sebastian,

Thanks for your thoughts! I see the value in releasing small features for Neos 8.x to keep things aligned, but let’s be cautious about breaking SemVer rules. It’s crucial for consistency and user expectations and we kind of complaint when e.g. fluid does not handle Semantic versioning serious.

We can find a balance by evaluating each feature’s impact on versioning and communicating transparently with the community.

But I think we can find a good solution that brings the best for the majority.

7

I think an actual “regular” 8.4 wouldnt help much, as new bigger features would not be allowed via SemVer to be merged into this one after released and we might quickly face the question to add a 8.5 ;). Maybe we could just create a 8.4-dev branch which will actually never really be released, but those who are interested can develop new features for this and require this dev 8.4 in their projects.

1 Like
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We would be unable to introduce breaking features, but don’t understand the point with the bigger features? Maybe you mean features that also need adjustments in the Neos Development Collection.

And if we decide that an 8.4 could be the way, I think it would be also fine to have more versions.
I think Neos 9.0 will be really remarkable when we have the missing pieces in the User Interface and the Workspace Conflict handling, but the 8.3 LTS will be used for a long time, I guess. And as I don’t know how many 9.x release, we need to have the missing pieces, some people will wait until we are done with that.

But maybe it is more my personal point of view.

9

I personally would release new features with 9. Bigger projects will wait for 9.x LTS anyways so there is not much difference here to previous majors.

10

I think this is a really clever idea :kissing_heart: I like it a lot!

All the best,
Sebastian

11

Following our Neos 9.0 weekly meeting, we’ve decided to create an 8.4 branch for Neos-UI. Regular Neos and Flow features will be discussed for release as they emerge. To ensure Neos 9.0 success, major features requiring significant adjustments will go directly to Neos 9.

Your continued support is appreciated as we work towards a successful Neos 9.0 release.

Best regards,

Markus

1 Like
12

Thanks, I think this is a good solution. Can we assume that the features mentioned in your original post will go into this branch? That would be very welcome.

13

@lorenzulrich These PRs were examples, but we can try that of course :wink: