Formpipe has worked hard to ensure that the level of support delivered for all supported versions of our products is kept at a high and consistent level. This includes frequent reviews of our support and product development lifecycles and clear guidance as to which releases attract such support.
Support Categories
Each product passes through the support lifecycle stages described below. The guidelines provided for each stage apply only to the latest build of any given major version.
This support lifecycle applies to the following Formpipe products:
Lasernet
Autoform DM
It does not apply to Formpipe’s connectors for Microsoft Dynamics 365.
This document refers to the general versioning of our products. Refer to Formpipe Release Terminology for more information on our release terminology.
Active Development
The latest major version is under "active development", meaning that all new features and updates are added.
Active Support
The previous major version is under "active support". This is one level below active development. It will not receive new features but will still receive bug fixes and security updates.
Bugs must be reported and verified in any version of either:
The major version that is under active development.
The major version covered by active support.
End-of-Life Support
The major version that precedes the version in active support is covered by "end-of-life support" for 12 months after it leaves active support. This is to allow customers time (before Formpipe ends support for the version) to complete upgrades to a newer release. This time can be required for complex implementations or for situations where such upgrade projects include a long testing period.
During this phase, such versions will receive assistance but will not receive bug or security fixes. Consequently, any issues that arise may require an upgrade to resolve. Product documentation relating to these releases will still be available via our support portal, but will no longer be actively reviewed, improved, or maintained.
Comparison
The differences between the support categories are shown:
Area | Active Development | Active Support | End-of-Life Support |
|---|---|---|---|
New features/enhancements | ✔ | - | - |
Technical support | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Defect support | ✔ | ✔ | - |
Security updates | ✔ | ✔ | - |
Feature requests | ✔ | - | - |
Our goals with this policy are to:
Improve product support by reducing the number of versions under active development.
Give clearer guidelines on the current stage of development and support for particular versions.
Increase efficiency of issue resolution by ensuring that the latest features are available to all.
Anyone contacting Support should be using one of the supported versions. Any tickets created in earlier versions may not be investigated until an upgrade has been performed.
Support Categories During the Development of New Major Versions
When Formpipe is creating the first release of the next major version of a product, a window of time may exist where the latest major version transitions to active support (because it is no longer being actively developed), and the major version prior to that drops to end-of-life support.
We will endeavor to keep this window as short as possible. However, it is necessary because it enables Formpipe to focus resources on the upcoming major release.
Currently Supported Releases
For lists of product releases with accompanying support category dates, see these pages:
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