You might have noticed, we have changed the release cycle of ERPNext and Frappe recently. Now, instead of a weekly release cycle, we have opted for a monthly release cycle. Critical and security fixes though will be released on demand.
The main reason for the change was to deliver a stable release by doing proper testing before every release. Also, we realized that slow-release-cycle will give developers enough time to implement better/robust solutions for fixes/features.
Now, ERPNext has reached a stage where we canât afford new bugs introduced during new releases. We have also decided to improve the quality of existing features instead of adding new features in the coming months.
We are following the below schedules for current releases.
Version-11: 3rd Tuesday of every month Version-12: 3rd Thursday of every month Version 10: 4th Monday of every month
The pre-release branch will be made 5 days before the release date for each version and testing will be done on that pre-release branch. Any fixes based on testing should go into both pre-release and develop branches via separate pull requests.
Note:develop branch is now pinned for version-13. All the new features should go in develop branch, which will be released with version-13. The approximate date of version-13 release is the 1st week of April.
This indeed a exciting news for a few while mind-boggling for maximum developers (for sure). I completely agree, this is part of SDLC and path to enhancements & progress. I am with Frappe & ERPNext since v8. And, I always thought why every another release gifting us pain with migrating/installing & so on, while it should be smoother after every release.
At last, that release cycle got corrected now with v12. It took four major releases. Instead of v13 announcement, weâll be happy with v12.4, v12.5 & no matter it reaches v12.9.X. This atleast will be LTS version among all, you and we both can provide longer support to v12. You know, many of ERPNext users are still on v10, till v11 got stable & v12 was in develop they were in v4!! They canât afford migration (although, no option left to them) very rapidly, might theyâre approaching to migrate on v12, and this news might put that step back. As you said:
ERPNext has reached a stage where we canât afford new bugs
But, practically v13 will also contain bugs. They all will wait to get stabilize and meanwhile, youâll come up another announcement, v14 is going to happen very soon. Itâll put constant pressure on both of us, users as well as developers. I would recommend, ditch April ( Iâm very sure we have to ask in June, letâs say July, how much it takes to release v13? ) and schedule it around October - November atleast, so that v12 can attain that expected maturity, after that you may pause new features with v12 branch.
Also, re-think about frappe bench, to all fixes/improvements are merging with master and this breaking installation every after 2-3 days, like installation worked perfectly fine yesterday and today it producing XYZ error.
Improving the quality of existing features should be in top priority. I am novice to ERPNext, found some interesting features during my evaluation, but unfortunately many of them not working. Example is, multiple values in filter in List view not working, Dynamic filter for Query report does not work etc. These are all basic and essential features. I am not sure whether I am doing something wrong, but desperate in getting some help.
While this is THE place to learn, imho best to first take the time to search, read and inform yourself - then share what âahah got itâ pointers you find, that will benefit you and the community as a wholeâŚ
I totally agree on this one, as a user I would say some features are not quite working as expected. (some reports and bank reconciliation, etcâŚ)
As a developer, I also suggest that the updating the documentation of certain features are also very helpful for people like me who wants to contribute and gain deep understanding of ERPNext.
I found Developer Cheatsheet ¡ frappe/frappe Wiki ¡ GitHub need some updates and more details on testing. Aslo it will be great to have some step-through tutorials on how to understanding each module (regarding to design parterns or correct work flow) in erpnext so that new developers can dive into.
Maybe itâs just me, but almost 90% time I have to write my own modification in customized app instead of taking advantage of the build-in tool that frappe and erpnext offer.
Thank you for the announcement and all the efforts during the development, I wish I can learn more to join the contribution towards ERPNext.
@nabinhait
Hey Nabin,
I would interested and understanding why think that is the case:
It is interesting to see that alot of people âcomplainâ about feature quality. What is Frappe/ERPâs approach on answering to feedback like this? We often times face similar we find feature, that somehow work but donât seem to be finalized. Instead of receiving a more advanced version in a later release, often times we just get more and more new features, that are also ânot readyâ.
Usually in these type of dicuss threads, I donât see frappe/erp employees answers or addressing concerns like this.
Most of the features have been designed with certain use cases in mind and may not work for other use cases. When these get reported by frappe customers we fix them for everyone.
As far as the forum is concerned, there is unfortunately no bandwidth to answer unless we hire more people (working on it). I think there is now a growing number of contributors on GitHub who are helping fix these things.
Thank you for your thoughts and I totally understand. I am happy that you concisely answered and didnât feel offended (which was not my intention). I am looking forward to how the ecosystem evolves and I just keep hoping that together as a community we will make ERPNext an outstanding product with well-designed features, that radiate quality.
I have heard you even hired the first UX-Designers? Sounds like a good next step.
At the moment, there are many V13 available for you to play with. They are all on github just check the different branches and pick the one youâd like
I mean a stable version like a ârealâ beta version. Right now each ERPNext beta version come with new major change (include breaking changes) so each version intro different bugs. Because there are many versions so no version is most stable for end-users when we stop adding big refact or breaking changes.
