OpenSpirit Connection, Fall 2004

Developer Spotlight
Distributing OpenSpirit-Enabled Applications

OpenSpirit strives for compatibility between client and server at the IIOP level for minor releases. We can introduce new objects, new methods, or attributes on existing objects or new data store implementations without breaking existing clients built against older versions of the same minor release. Client applications only need to be modified in order to take advantage of new functionality released in newer versions.

We do not necessarily guarantee full compatibility with client side utilities between releases. For this reason we recommend that customers deploy a small subset of the OpenSpirit shared object libraries from the OpenSpirit version their client was built against, which will ensure that your client applications will work with newer versions of the servers.

Specifically, we suggest that you ship the libraries with your software distribution. If you follow this recommendation your application built against a version "x" OpenSpirit will continue to work with all version "x" OpenSpirit commercial releases made after your deploy your application. For example, if you build against v2.5.0, your application will continue to work against a v2.6.x installation. The only caveat is that you will not be able to take advantage of new functionality, but existing functionality will continue to work.A list of libraries is available on our web site at: http://www.openspirit.com/support/FAQ/developerfaqdistribution.html#q1.