JTL is about to make some important changes – as already announced at JTL Connect, we are changing the handling of our releases. JTL-Wawi and JTL-Shop are affected by this change. New releases are imminent for both products, and the new structure will come into force when they are published. We explain below what the changes look like and how they affect support cases.
JTL-Wawi
With the release of version 1.3 of JTL-Wawi, customers can find two different software options for JTL-Wawi on the download page of our website. These are the release candidate and the stable version. These differ as follows:
Release Candidate (RC)
This is the latest release of JTL-Wawi, which also contains the latest features. The RC corresponds to our previous product releases, so it has already undergone extensive testing with pilot customers and beta phases and has also been used productively. However, some problems can only be identified and rectified when used on a large number of different systems and by different customers. A release candidate is therefore always a product that is in a public test phase but is already largely stable.
Stable version
Once the public test phase of a product has been completed and the problems discovered have been resolved, we check whether a release candidate will now become the new stable version. The stable version we list is not necessarily the direct predecessor of the current RC, but the latest, most stable version of JTL-Wawi in our product catalog.
We want to give our customers the choice of either working with an intensively tested and therefore stable version or using a largely stable version that uses all the new features but may still cause problems in some places.
A final word on the stability of RCs: JTL-Wawi 1.3, which will be released shortly, has already undergone several months of testing with our pilot customers. 150 of these customers are already working productively with this version. However, based on previous experience, there may still be problems when used in a wide range of systems and structures.
JTL-Shop
With JTL-Shop we proceed in a similar way – from version 4.06 we distinguish between two releases: the Community Free Edition (CFE) and the stable version.
The CFE is the version that has already gone through beta testing, but may still contain some bugs that only show up on isolated systems outside our test environment and/or in production testing with many users.
The stable version, on the other hand, is a slightly older version of our store solution that has already received several patches.
With a Community Free Edition license, the CFE and stable versions are still available free of charge, but can only be used within the scope of the CFE license restrictions. However, with the introduction of the new structure, customers with a fee-based license can also use the new CFE version on their own responsibility. Switching from a stable version to the CFE, for example to benefit from new features, is easily possible using a normal store update. However, it should be noted that it is not possible to downgrade from the higher Community Edition to a lower stable version.
Support questions
For the Community Free Edition of JTL-Shop we provide limited support via forum for all users. If you have a fee-based license, you also have the option of receiving support via the Customer Center ticket system. This support always applies to the latest published version of the CFE.
For stable versions of our store software, support is provided as usual via customer center tickets. The current stable version receives full support. With the release of a new stable version, we offer you a further 6 months of updates in the form of security fixes for the previous version.
We support the latest JTL-Wawi RC exactly as known for customers. Those who use JTL-Wawi without fee-based licenses or additional support services will receive help via the JTL forum. If a customer is entitled to additional support, tickets for the RC can also be created in the customer center. This also applies to the stable version of JTL-Wawi.
The first RCs and CFEs will be available to you shortly. Of course, we will also keep you up to date on the innovations in the new versions in the blog.
