Release Plan

DRAFT CLARIN-DSpace Release Plan

CLARIN-DSpace is a fork of DSpace that provides an opinionated configuration and new features tailored to our operational and community needs. This page documents our release strategy, support approach, and upgrade planning to help set clear expectations for adopters and contributors.

Release Strategy

Our strategy is to base each release on a supported upstream DSpace version. The choice of upstream version depends on our assessment of stability and the new features it introduces.

We actively maintain a single major version at a time, though transitional overlap may occur during migration periods.

We track upstream minor and patch releases through either:

• full merges, or
• selective cherry-picking of security and stability fixes.

Features and bug fixes for our customizations may be introduced at any point during a version's active maintenance lifecycle; such changes should not introduce breaking changes.

As we begin transitioning to the next upstream release, development activity on the current version gradually decreases. We also operate our own production infrastructure on CLARIN-DSpace. Each major CLARIN-DSpace release has run on our production server for over a year before we've shifted our focus to the next major release.

Upcoming Releases

We plan to release a version based on DSpace 9 in the second half of 2026. At this time, we intend to skip DSpace 10. We'll reevaluate this intention in first half of 2027, depending on DSpace 11 release.

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    title CLARIN-DSpace versions
    dateFormat YYYY-MM
    axisFormat %b %Y
    tickInterval 3month

    section CLARIN-DSpace Releases
    CLARIN-DSpace@v7 production support :active, c7, 2025-06, 2026-11
    Migration toward DSpace 9 :crit, md9, 2026-06, 2026-11
    CLARIN-DSpace@v9 production support (1y est.) :done, after md9, 1y
    DSpace 11 release (TBA) :milestone, 2027-06, 1d
    DSpace 11 Evaluation :crit, eval11, 2027-04, 2027-08
    DSpace 9 EOL - 12 release (TBA) :milestone, d12, 2028-06, 1d 

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The following section provides a more detailed graphics.

Upstream DSpace Release Context

DSpace follows an annual major release cycle (typically in June) and provides security support for three consecutive major versions. Although bug fixes are primarily provided for the most recent major version, they are frequently backported to older supported versions as well.

Show CLARIN-DSpace versions in the context of upstream support windows and dependency lifecycle details

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gantt
    title Upstream DSpace Support Windows
    dateFormat YYYY-MM
    axisFormat %Y
    tickInterval 12month
    
    section Upstream Versions
    DSpace 5  :done, d5, 2015-01, 2023-01
    DSpace 6  :done, d6, 2016-10, 2023-07
    DSpace 7 feature complete :vert, fcd7, 2023-06, 1d
    DSpace 7  :done, d7, 2021-08-02, until d10
    DSpace 7.6.7 (final) :milestone, d767, 2026-06, 1d
    DSpace 8  :active, d8, 2024-06-21, until md11
    DSpace 9  :active, d9, 2025-05-23, until md12
    DSpace 10 :active, d10, 2026-06, until md13

    %%D10 :vert, md10, 2026-06, 1m
    D11 (TBD) :vert, md11, 2027-06, 1m
    D12 (TBD) :vert, md12, 2028-06, 1m
    D13 (TBD) :vert, md13, 2029-06, 1m
    
    section CLARIN-DSpace Releases
    CLARIN-DSpace @v5 -> @v7 codebase update :done, migration, 2021-10, until c7
    CLARIN-DSpace@v7 :active, c7, 2025-06, until c9
    Expected CLARIN-DSpace@v9.x release :milestone, c9, 2026-11, 1d
    CLARIN-DSpace@v9 production support (1y est.) :done, after c9, 1y

    section Major FE dependencies EOL
    D7 Angular 15 EOL :milestone, a15, 2024-05-18, 1d
    D8 Angular 17 EOL :milestone, a17, 2025-05-15, 1d
    D9/10 Angular 20 EOL :milestone, a20, 2026-11-28, 1d

    section Major BE dependencies EOL
    D7 Spring Boot 2.7 EOL :milestone, sb27, 2023-06-30, 1d
    D7 Spring Framework 5.3 EOL :milestone, sf53, 2024-08-31, 1d
    D7 Hibernate 5.6 EOL :milestone, h56, 2023-02-06, 1d

    D8/9/10 Spring Boot 3.5 EOL :milestone, sb35, 2026-06-30, 1d
    D8/9/10 Spring Framework 6.2 EOL :milestone, sf62, 2026-06-30, 1d
    D8/9/10 Hibernate 6.4 EOL :milestone, h64, 2024-08-06, 1d

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The EOL dates for dependencies mark the end of public/open-source/security support. Commercial support may be available beyond these dates. For Hibernate ORM versions prior to 7.0, the actual "stable support" end dates are unspecified; therefore, the dates shown in the chart represent the release dates of the last patch version.