YUI Roadmap

by Eric Miraglia and george puckett; Last Updated: November 13, 2008

How to evaluate dates associated with milestones described in this document: The YUI development team has consistently issued minor and patch releases within two weeks of the target once a date is established. The target date is best thought of as being the first date in a release window about three weeks in duration. Once announced, there is a very good likelihood that we'll release during that window. For major releases — for example, for the 3.x release process and the open source infrastructure initiative — dates listed here are planning targets and are less reliable than release-date forecasts in the 2.x development program.

YUI 2.x planning:

Next Patch Release: 2.6.1 (if needed)

We will issue a patch addressing significant 2.6.x issues as needed. The need for such a patch is assessed on a rolling basis, and we'll update the Roadmap here at the point where we've targeted a date and contents for a patch.

Next Feature Release: 2.7.0

Summary: We are in early planning stages for this release; expect to see some changes in the 2.7.0 Roadmap as we go forward. The principal target for 2.7.0 is expected to be the IE8 release and the treatment of IE8 as an A-Grade (or de facto A-Grade) browser in YUI.

1. Preparation of all YUI components to work under IE8 and, in some cases, to take advantage of IE8 functionality where that's appropriate.
2. GA for Selector, Element, and ImageCropper.
3. Address all high-priority bugs; continue to drive down the overall defect load in the 2.x codeline.
4. Possible addition of AccordionView and other new components from community contributors.

Date: No target date yet, but expected in Q1 2009.

YUI 3.x planning:

YUI 3.x represents the next major increment of the YUI Library. We've been working hard on YUI 3.x since late 2007 with the goal of providing a more modular, more consistent library platform that will carry the benefits of library feature-richness while allowing you to have less unused code on the page when using library components. YUI 3.x, when it reaches GA, will provide benefits in speed, size, extensibility, and security. We're still very early in this process, but YUI 3.0 Preview Release 1 is available for you to explore today and to provide feedback on.

Next Release: 3.0.0 PR2

Summary: 3.0.0 PR2 is a developer preview that provides adds in some additional components, including the first release of the 3.x widget framework. Objectives of the 3.0 preview series include:

1. Begin process of getting community feedback on the new architecture.
2. Begin process of getting community involved in development on top of the new 3.x architecture.

Projected Date: December 2008. Per the note above, 3.x projects represent our current targets but are more likely to slip than dates associated with the more mature 2.x code line.

Component	Details	Developer
YUI Core	Updates to YUI, Dom, Node and Event.	Matt Sweeney, Adam Moore and others
Component Framework	Updates to Attribute and Base, along with new components of the Widget framework	Satyen Desai and others
Sample Widget(s)	One or two sample widgets will ship with PR2 to prove out the new Widget/component framework.	Todd Kloots and others

Movement to 2-way Open Source:

YUI was released as free-source software under a BSD license in 2006. During its development, we've seen a fantastic community develop around the library, with more than 10,000 deveopers discussing YUI actively in the community forum. YUI became open for community contirbutions beginning in June, 2008, and with the 2.6.0 release we are seeing the first major community contributions becoming part of the YUI distribution. These contributions are being made by developers who have signed and returned a preliminary rights-assignment document (pending the completion of YUI's formal CLA) and have found a YUI committer to sponsor and code review their contributions (you can propose ideas and seek committer sponsorship on the YUI Contributors forum).

The current infrastructure, however, is not suitably conducive to contributions outside the core YUI team. In Q4 2008, we are dedicating significant effort within the team to create the necessary infrastructure for contributors at every level to have a good end-to-end experience working with the YUI codebase. This effort will begin in earnest after we ship the public preview of the YUI 3.x codeline. This effort will result in a public repository for YUI project code, beginning with the YUI 2.x and 3.x codelines; documentation of standards and practices for YUI code submision; and public availability of the build toolchain used in preparing YUI source for checkin and distribution.

If you're looking to contribute to YUI today, please join the Contributors group and put your proposal in front of the committer community. We look forward to debuting the more robust platform for contributions in Q408.