Contribute to the DSpace Development Fund

The newly established DSpace Development Fund supports the development of new features prioritized by DSpace Governance. For a list of planned features see the fund wiki page.

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Version 3.0 (Oct/Nov 2012)

DSpace has changed its release numbering scheme

With DSpace 3.0, the DSpace Developers will be changing our release numbering scheme. Release numbers will now only consist of two numbers: [major].[minor] (e.g. 3.0, 3.1, 4.0):

  • Major Releases: incrementing the first number ('major') will represent a new MAJOR release of DSpace. A major release may include any or all of the following: 
    • new features
    • system improvements
    • architectural changes
    • bug fixes 
    • (All major releases end in ".0", so "3.0", "4.0", and "5.0" would all represent major releases.)
  • Minor (Bug-Fix) Releases: incrementing the second number ('minor') will represent a new MINOR release of DSpace. A minor release will only include: 
    • bug fixes to an existing major release(For example, "3.1" and "3.2" would represent two minor releases which only include bug fixes to the "3.0" major release.)

There will be a migration path for users upgrading from v1.8.2 to the 3.0 release.

For more information see DSpace Release Numbering Scheme and the initial DSpace 3.0 Announcement

DSpace 3.0 is a scheduled, "time-based" release

In order to decrease delays in releasing new features and increase transparency, the DSpace Developers have scheduled 3.0 in advance and are basing its features on what we are able to complete within that timeframe.

Scheduling releases benefits us all as it should decrease the delays in releasing new features, and increase the transparency of the development process. The DSpace Developers feel that these benefits will far outweigh the cost of potentially having fewer major features in a given DSpace release. We hope the DSpace Community will also realize the immediate benefits, which should allow them to receive new features more quickly, rather than potentially waiting years for the next major release of the software. The DSpace Developers hope to continue this trend of "time based" releases with all future releases. 

Want to contribute to this release of DSpace? Please see the How to Contribute to DSpace page for ways that you can help out!

Why 3.0? What happened to 2.0?

In 2011, after much discussion, the DSpace Committers in conjunction with members of the DSpace Community Advistory Team (DCAT) decided to forgo releasing a "DSpace 2.0".

The reasons for this decision were numerous and include:

  • The discussions around DSpace "2.0" have gone through many different revisions over the past 8 years:
    • Discussion of "2.0" first began in 2004, with Robert Tansley's DSpace 2.0 Original Proposal
    • A reworking of the "2.0" concept happened in 2006, during a DSpace Architectural Review.
    • A further reworking of the "2.0" concept occurred in 2008-2009 when a prototype version of DSpace 2.0 was built and demoed at Open Repositories 2009.
  • As detailed in the 2.0 history above, much of the planning around a "2.0" is now many years old. Although many great ideas/concepts have come out of that work, much of it does need to be reanalyzed for the modern repository environment.
  • "2.0" has always been talked about as a "revolutionary" change to the DSpace software platform. In reality, we've found that many of the platform improvements attributed to "2.0" have been incremental in nature. In fact, several 2.0 code/concepts (from the 2009 DSpace 2.0 Prototype) have been included in almost every recent major release.
  • Because the "2.0" release has been perceived as being "revolutionary" in nature, it would be difficult to ever fully meet the expectations/assumptions that have built up around this release.
  • We all feel that the DSpace Community's immediate needs are better met by incremental changes (over several releases) than by revolutionary changes (over a single release). We feel that incremental changes provide an easier upgrade path between current and future releases of DSpace.

Many of the ideas/concepts of "DSpace 2.0" may still be coming to the DSpace platform. But, they will continue to be added incrementally over several releases. The ideas behind "2.0" still live on, even while the release numbering has changed.

New features in DSpace 3.0 (very tentative)

New Features are yet to be finalized and may change at a moment's notice

If you have ideas or code you'd like to see make it into DSpace 3.0, please submit it to our Issue Tracker.
Please see our How to Contribute to DSpace page for more ways (both technical and non-technical) that you and your institution can contribute to 3.0!

Developers: Add what you are working on to this list. Please try and link off to additional documentation (on Wiki) or related JIRA issues.

Release Schedule Details

Release Coordination

Instead of a single "Release Coordinator", the DSpace 3.0 release will be managed by a "Release Team".

Timeline and Processing

It has been decided that DSpace 3.0 will be released in Fall 2012. The exact date is still being worked out, but will likely be in October/November.

Release Timeline (PROVISIONAL):

  August 17, 2012 : Feature Freeze Date

  August 24, 2012 : Final Documentation "Due Date"?

  August 31, 2012 : Release Candidate 1 Release

  September 4-14, 2012 : Testathon

  September 28, 2012 : Release Candidate 2 Release

  October 1-10, 2012 : Final Testing / Bug Fixing

  October 12, 2012 : 1.8.0 Final Release

Release Process needs to proceed according to the following Maven release process: Release Procedure

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