Versioning Policy

Each release of CKEditor 5 Plugins, integrated into CoreMedia Content Cloud (CMCC) denotes its compatibility as Compatibility Matrix, similar to this:

Artifact	Version
CKEditor 5 (peer)	35.2.0
CMCC (used by)	11.2210.1

The following applies in principle:

• CKEditor 5 Plugins Maintenance Releases:

  A given CMCC version (here 2210) is always bound to a specific major version of CKEditor 5 plugins (not necessarily the other way round). As long as the given CMCC version ships maintenance releases, for any possibly required adjustment, a minor version update (or less) will be published.

  Maintenance releases will not include CKEditor 5 updates. Exception below.

• CKEditor 5 Plugins Security Releases:

  For any security issue within the plugin workspace, the same applies as for the maintenance releases mentioned above.

  Different to this, if any third-party dependency and here especially CKEditor 5 requires a security update to the most recent version, an exception applies to the rule above: In this case, a minor version update will be published along with the new version of the third-party dependency.

Short: If your CMCC version is bound to version MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH and the given CMCC version is under maintenance, you may expect corresponding minor or patch releases of CKEditor 5 Plugins without major breaking changes. Exception to this are only security updates of third-party dependencies, especially CKEditor 5: In this case, a minor release of CKEditor 5 Plugins will be published, which may contain implicitly triggered breaking changes.

Decision Matrix

This matrix is based on the Versioning Policy provided for CKEditor 5 (see latest version).

CKEditor 5 Plugins for CMCC consists of multiple npm packages. When releasing them, we use the following rules:

• We use the MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH version identifiers related to semantic versioning.

• All packages are always in the same version (different to semantic versioning, i.e., specific package updates may contain no changes).

• A major release of CKEditor 5 Plugins is published when at least one of its packages must have a major release.

• A minor release of CKEditor 5 Plugins is published when at least one of its packages must have a minor release and none of them require a major release.

• A package must have a major release when it contains a major breaking change.

• If none of the packages contain any breaking change, the following rules are used to determine the new version of each package:

  • If a package contains a minor breaking change, a MINOR version is increased.

  • If a package contains a new feature, a MINOR version is increased.

  • If a package contains only bug fixes, unrelated changes (e.g., updated translations), documentation or other internal changes, a PATCH version is increased.

Major and Minor Breaking Changes

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• CKEditor 5 Dependency: While loosely coupled to CKEditor 5 by using peer dependencies, each release is only tested with one specific version. As such we inherit the versioning policy by CKEditor 5. This results in the following relationship:

  • If CKEditor 5 plugins update to a new major of CKEditor 5, it is considered a major breaking change for CKEditor 5 plugins.

    Exception to this: If CKEditor 5 contains security fixes, the corresponding update of CKEditor 5 plugins is considered a minor breaking change, even if this may trigger migration efforts.

  • If CKEditor 5 plugins update to a new minor of CKEditor 5, it is considered an at least a minor breaking change for CKEditor 5 plugins. Most likely, it is considered a major breaking change, though, as history tells, that minor CKEditor 5 updates, may still require efforts on upgrade.

  • If CKEditor 5 plugins update to a new patch version of CKEditor 5, at least the patch version of CKEditor 5 plugins is increased.

• CoreMedia Services Dependency: While loosely coupled to CoreMedia Services API via peer dependencies, each release is only tested with one specific version.

  Similar to the CKEditor 5 Dependency, we inherit the versioning policy of CoreMedia Services API.

  • If CKEditor 5 plugins update to a new major of CoreMedia Services, it is considered a major breaking change for CKEditor 5 plugins.

  • If CKEditor 5 plugins update to a new minor of CoreMedia Services, it is considered an at least a minor breaking change for CKEditor 5 plugins.

  • If CKEditor 5 plugins update to a new patch version of CoreMedia Services, at least the patch version of CKEditor 5 plugins is increased.

• Plugin API Changes: Most of the API, which plugins expose, is not meant as API to be used outside this repository. Exception to this is API, which is meant for configuration, like utility methods to configure data processing.

  • Breaking changes frequency: rarely.

    For any API, which is meant to be used outside this repository, we try to limit breaking changes. If breaking changes are required (to fix bugs or to decrease technical debt, for example), we will try to release them in a “batch”. If possible, to-be-removed API will first be deprecated in one release, and removed in one of the next releases.

  • A breaking change in Plugin API is understood as a major breaking change. It is a minor breaking change, when the affected API is not meant to be used outside this repository.

• Configuration API Changes: This refers to configuration handed over when creating your CKEditor instance (ClassicEditor, for example).

  • Breaking changes frequency: rarely.

    Just as for Plugin API changes, we try to limit any breaking changes. Nevertheless, new features may require additional or even changes regarding the configuration. Just as for Plugin API, we try at best effort providing backwards compatible configurations.

    • A breaking change in Configuration API is understood as a major breaking change.

• Build and Tooling:

  • Node.js updates are considered a major breaking change. We will try to stick to LTS versions.