Branches and Versions

RedBeanPHP uses a very easy, straight forward branching model. Development is done in the develop branch, while the master represents the latest stable version. Besides these two branches, each version has its own branch, the version branch (like RedBeanPHP3_5_X) used to backport features and fix bugs.
New features or fixes are developed in feature branches (prefixed with the word 'feature') and merged into develop branch when ready.

Versioning

RedBeanPHP uses a very sane version numbering system. The version number tells you something about the version; it has meaning. All RedBeanPHP versions have a version number. The version number consists of three parts; major, minor and point release.

Meaning:

Major version

When the major version number increases, this means the new version is NOT backward compatible with all previous versions. Most of the time this means you better not use it in your current project if you are already using RedBeanPHP or you might have to make some changes to the project to make it work with the new version of RedBeanPHP. This is not always as bad as it sounds. For instance version 3 is not backward compatible with version 2, but only if you use the optimizers (which by default are turned off). So while this is a major version bump it's actually not that bad. However, while difference between 2 and 3 is relatively small, the gap between 1 and 2 was a really big one. Anyway whenever the major version number changes make sure you check the changelog to determine whether you can upgrade or not.

Minor version

A minor version change means new features! Minor versions don't break backward compatibiltity, they just mean new features have been added. Often, this goes hand in hand with changes in documentation or bugfixes. Therefore it's relatively safe to do a minor upgrade. Be sure though to check the changelog on the website. You might be able to take advantage of the new features!

Point version

A point version or point release happens when the last digit has been increased. Note that although you might assume a digit normally varies from 0-9, you might encounter minor and point releases like X.X.12 or X.30.X. Not sure if this will happen, however as RedBeanPHP matures you will see less major upgrades and more minor upgrades and point releases. A point release version is normally a maintenance version. This may include bugfixes, new tests, documentation changes or just some code cleanup. While it's always a good idea to scan the changelog most of the time you can be pretty sure there are no compatibility issues nor interesting new feature. Of course if you have reported an issue the point release can be quite interesting because the bug might have been fixed. In this case, the Github bug report number and the fix will be mentioned in the changelog.

Where is RedBeanPHP heading? Take a look into the crystal ball, peek into the future on the RedBeanPHP roadmap.

For actual information about the latest beta testing for RedBeanPHP ORM for PHP, consult the beta testing page.