YUI Roadmap

by Eric Miraglia and George Puckett; Last Updated: April 25, 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 Release: 2.5.2

Summary: 2.5.2 is a limited bug-fix release with the following objectives:

1. Roll in current patches for DataTable and Menu;
2. Provide FF3b5 compatibility in advance of the FF3 release and anticipated A-Grade status (Eric's note: FF3 looks really good; we're making a couple of minor fixes here, but on the face of it we see the FF3 release as being uneventful. Please file SourceForge bugs if you find FF3b5 bugs that you can isolate to 2.5.1 YUI components.)
3. Provide Charts and Uploader ActionScript source — indadvertently withheld from previous releases due to an oversight in the build process; as part of this, we'll roll in some important Charts updates.
4. Several bug fixes.

Date: Freeze 5/13/2008; release 5/27/2008

Component	Details	Developer
Charts	Changes: - Dynamically created legends - New chart styles (spacing, legend) - New series styles (connect points, connect discontinuous points, discontinuous dash length)	Josh Tynjala
DataTable	Incorporate current patch; address additional bug fixes.	Jenny Han Donnelly; Luke Smith
Menu Control	Incorporate current patch.	Todd Kloots
Rich Text Editor	Update tab handler for upcoming changes in FF3.x.	Dav Glass
YUI Loader	Update metadata to correct dependency order for Container optional dependencies.	Adam Moore
All	Updates to ensure Firefox 3 support, as needed.

Feature Release: 2.6.0

Summary:2.6.0 is expected to conclude major development on the 2.x YUI tree. With this release, all beta and experimental components are brought to GA, including (most importantly) DataTable and Rich Text Editor. Core objectives:

1. GA release for DataTable, with refinement of current feature set and stabilization of all remaining problem areas;
2. GA for all other beta/experimental components, including the GA for Rich Text Editor.
3. Address all high-priority bugs in the 2.5.x family and flag as WONTFIX those issues that we don't anticipate addressing. While it is almost certain that there will be a series of 2.6.x maintenance releases that address additional bugs, we hope in this timeframe to be proactively identifying existing issues that are not planned for redress in 2.x.
4. Possible release window for the YUI Carousel, which was a slip from 2.5.0.

Date: No date is associated with this release. For planning purposes, a late-June freeze and July release is most likely.

Component	Details	Developer
Carousel (tentative)	New component. Carousel component based on Bill Scott's carousel with some additions to better conform to carousel design pattern.	Gopal Venkatesan
DataTable	Changes: - Stabilize scrollability - Stabilize key handling - bug fixes	Jenny Han Donnelly Luke Smith
Drag & Drop	Changes: - Added option for use of shim.	Dav Glass
All	IE8 support, pending a test-worthy build of IE8. (If we can't vouch for IE8 support in this release, IE8 will itself necessitate a subsequent patch or minor release on 2.x for that specific purpose.	All

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 improves speed, size, ease-of-use, extensibility, and security. We're still very early in this process, but we'll begin sharing preview milestones with the YUI community in Q208 and moving toward a full focus on 3.x development this summer and beyond.

Next Release: 3.0.0 PR1

Summary: 3.0.0 PR1 is a developer preview that provides the first public look at the new YUI Core and select utilities. Objectives 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.

Date:We anticipate releasing this in late Q2, but we're not forecasting a definite target quite yet. Stay tuned.

Component	Details	Developer
YUI Core	Inclusive of the current Yahoo Global Object, YUI Loader, Dom, Event, Selector, and Get components.	Matt Sweeney, Adam Moore and others
Connection Manager	First revision of XHR functionality for 3.x.	Thomas Sha
Drag and Drop	First revision of Drag and Drop for 3.x.	Dav Glass
Animation	First revision of Animation for 3.x.	Matt Sweeney
Widget Framework	Draft platform for development of 3.x widgets and plugins.	Satyen Desai and others
Developer Tools	Drafts of YUI Test and Logger to facilitate early explorations of 3.x implementations.	Nicholas C. Zakas 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, and in 2008 we will take steps to open up the development process to community contribution and ownership. We have committed to announcing a roadmap and timeline for this in Q2 (so, before the end of June). When we do that, the information will be made available here and in the community forum.