View source for LimeSurvey roadmap

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=General= 

This page lists current Limesurvey releases, future development, and release goals. 

Goals cannot be fulfilled by itself so if you want to [https://manual.limesurvey.org/How_to_join_the_LimeSurvey_project_team give a helping hand] or [https://manual.limesurvey.org/How_to_contribute_new_features contribute new features] yourself please get in touch!

= Version Support Time Frames= 
For several reasons, we dropped the Long-term-support (LTS) definition for selected versions.
Instead, each version will have support periods as defined here.

Definition:
* '''Normal support''': Receives security fixes and non-breaking changes & updates at last two years from first release
* '''Extended support''': Receives only security fixes - at least one year on top of normal support. Updates may only be available if ComfortUpdate is used. In some cases, we may extend this period at our discretion if needed.

==Versions older than LimeSurvey 3.0 ==
* These versions will not receive new features or updates

== Limesurvey 3.x - First release: Dec 2017 ==
Support time frame:
* Community Edition: Extended support available until end of July 2023
* Cloud: Supported until end of November 2023

== LimeSurvey 4.x - First release: Jan 2020==
Discontinued. Version 4.x will not receive any updates.

== Limesurvey 5.x - First release: May 2021==

Support time frame:
* Community Edition: 
** Normal support until May 2023
** Extended support until May 2024
* Cloud: 
** Supported until May 2024

== Limesurvey 6.x - First release: Apr 2023==
Support time frame:
* Community Edition: 
** Normal support until April 2025
** Extended support until April 2026
* Cloud: 
** Supported until April 2026

= Release details =

== Limesurvey 3.x ==
Major changes:
* Using Twig as template engine.
* Possible for templates (now called themes) to inherit options and files from each other.
* Question templates (still work-in-progress).
* New side-menu and enhanced admin interface.


== Limesurvey 5.0 ==
* Updated interface
* Possible to install plugins and question themes via ZIP-file
* Update checks for plugins available in LimeStore
* Encrypted fields
* New plugin events : [[ExpressionManagerStart]] and [[SetVariableExpressionEnd]] allowing to manage expression by plugin.
* [[Survey Group Permissions]]
* More...

== LimeSurvey 5.1 ==

* Add RPC function to delete a response using its ID (#1928) (arnaudbore)
* Ability to export to SPSS .sav format (#1877) (Adam Zammit)
* Multiple UX fixes

== LimeSurvey 5.2 ==

* No new major features, mostly GUI fixes.

== LimeSurvey 5.3 ==

* No big new features, mostly internal improvements, e.g. database updates split into multiple classes and more PSR-12 fixes.

== LimeSurvey 5.4 ==

* New feature to deal with email notifications that failed to send out

== LimeSurvey 5.5 ==

*New feature #8436: Enable / disable users and fields to manage users (#2636) (Gabriel Jenik)
*New feature #8239: Allow for user friendly survey URLS (#2218) (Gabriel Jenik)
*New feature #18375: [security] Some plugin settings need encryption (#2645) (Gabriel Jenik)
*New feature #18204: Extend form via plugin (Olle Haerstedt)

== LimeSurvey 5.6 ==

*New feature #07641: Options to use Y/N conversion in RemoteControl API export

== LimeSurvey 6.0 ==

Breaking changes:

* The event afterSurveyCompleted is now fired in preview mode as well, with responseId = null
* Due to the conversion of LimeSurvey to Bootstrap 5, custom survey themes will have to be revised
* We only provide one admin theme at the moment, the previous variations have been removed

*New feature: Converted the application to the Bootstrap 5 framework
*New feature: Implemented a new administration theme
*New feature: Upgraded Twig from 1.0 to 3.0
*New feature #18453: PHP 8.1 compatibility (#2878) (Gabriel Jenik)
*New feature: Add get_available_site_settings RPC method (#2579) (Edgar R. M)
*New feature #18382: Fire afterSurveyCompleted event in preview mode (Olle Haerstedt)
*New feature #16619: Allow calling get_uploaded_files() remote control function by response ID (#2363) (Gabriel Jenik)
*New feature #18178: Add Quota CRUD RPC methods (#2458) (Edgar R. M)

== LimeSurvey 6.1 ==

Released May 22nd 2023.

New features:

* Allow to move question inside group and group order with activated survey

== LimeSurvey 6.2 ==

Released 1st of August 2023.

New features:

* New survey theme

== LimeSurvey 6.3 ==

Released 16th of October 2023.

New features:

* Google OAuth plugin for emails

== LimeSurvey 6.4 ==

Released 18th December 2023.

New features:

* Add column "active" to users, to be able to activate or deactivate users
* Preview survey in modal

== LimeSurvey 6.5 ==
Released March 19th, 2024

New features:

* Updated internal REST API with more functions

== LimeSurvey 6.6 ==

Scheduled for May 2024.

= Current release schedule =

A patch (bug fix) release is released every Monday, for all supported versions.

A minor release (new features without breaking backward compatibility) is released every 8 weeks, approximately.

A major release (new features that will break backward compatibility, e.g. dropping support for PHP versions or browsers) will be a major release if it breaks backwards compatibility in some way.

Please also see the manual about the [[How_to_contribute_new_features#Release_process|release process]].