Versioning in Connect vs Forge
Having a Connect app, you may be used to certain changes to your app that require Admin approval and some changes that don't. We've previously referred to these as Major and Minor updates.
The way these updates function in Connect and Forge is different, so when you register your Connect app on Forge, we want to be clear about what changes do and don't trigger an update that requires Admin approval.
How the naming changes
The key difference is that Minor updates in Forge don't require Admin approval, while in Connect they do.
Although this might at first seem like a relaxation of the type of updates that require Admin approval, some of the types of updates that were previously considered Minor in Connect are considered Major in Forge.
How the approvals change
To avoid being confused by the terminology of Major vs Minor, we can instead review the impact by looking at what types of updates require Admin approval.
When a Forge version of your app is made public on the Marketplace, it may be eligible for Non-admin approved updates if the new Forge version doesn't request elevated permissions compared to the Connect version.
This upgrade applies different criteria to your app when determining whether your app updates require a major version update, and should result in fewer major version updates for your app. If the customer's current installation of your Connect app and the most recent version of your Forge app satisfy the criteria, the app will be automatically rolled out to customers without requiring admin approval, enabling your customers to access the latest functionality of your app without administrator involvement.
Minor updates are progressively released over a period of up to 120 hours. During this time, customers are still able to manually update their apps to the latest available version.
Comparison of Connect and Forge admin-approved updates
|
Type of update |
Requires Admin approval in Connect? |
Requires Admin approval in Forge? |
|---|---|---|
|
Descriptor specific different apiVersion number |  |
N/A in Forge |
|
Increases or changes to scopes | | |
|
Licensing updated between Free and Paid | | |
|
Adding, updating or removing Connect Macros or Webhooks |  | |
|
Adding, updating or removing Forge modules | | |
|
Modifying content permissions CSP options | N/A in Connect | |
|
Modifying external permissions CSP options and URLs | N/A in Connect | |
|
Changing a provider client ID | N/A in Connect | |
|
Adding or removing a provider | N/A in Connect | |
|
Changing the baseUrl of a Remote | | |
|
Adding of a new Remote | N/A in Connect | |
How will updates change?
Automatic updates (after the first update)
Once your app has adopted Forge, automatic updates (those that do not require admin approval) will roll out at the same speed as automatic Forge updates (within minutes). Existing Connect apps took up to 33 hours to roll out to all customers.
Once your app is registered with Forge, the installed Connect lifecycle event will no longer be sent during automatic updates.
Removing Connect Modules (Preview)
Removing Connect modules from your app to make it entirely Forge will trigger a major version update, requiring admin approval.
This major version update, if eligible, can be distributed out to installations at mass using the Forge CLI.
This bulk upgrade operation will migrate existing installations of the app to the newer major version without requiring admin approval.
Next steps
Once you're aware of the limitations and differences when adopting Forge, you're ready to start adopting Forge in your Connect app.
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