Feature Releases

Feature Releases for the CHT Core Framework

To build and iterate on new features at a pace that is faster than our regular release cycle, some features are released in a Feature Release. Feature Releases (FRs) are based on the most recent release and only include improvements related to a feature being developed. These releases are tested to be production-ready so that new features can be studied with CHT partners in a live deployment, with the aim of getting the feature ready for wider use in an upcoming release.

Release names

A Feature Release can easily be identified by its version, which follows the pattern of {BASE-RELEASE-NUMBER}-FR-{FEATURE-NAME}. For example, if the latest release is 3.10.1 then the Feature Release for speedier upgrades would be 3.10.1-FR-speedier-upgrades. When this feature is found to be successful and ready for wider distribution it will be included in the next release.

Initial FR Installation

When you are on a non-feature release, you need to use horticulturalist (horti) to do the initial install of the FR. For example, if your instance was on 192-168-68-26.my.local-ip.co:8443 and you wanted to install 3.15.0-FR-bulk-user-upload-beta.1, after installing horti you would could start the installation with this command:

COUCH_URL=https://medic:password@192-168-68-26.my.local-ip.co:8443/medic horti --local --install=3.15.0-FR-bulk-user-upload-beta.1

On subsequent upgrades to the later beta’s of the FR, you will be able to more easily do it through the admin UI in the CHT.

Upgrades

Once the feature is ready for widespread use it will be included in a regular CHT release. Projects using the feature version can be upgraded as soon as practical to get back on to a fully supported release.