If you have a ZK 8.0 (or even older) project, this question must have popped up a few times in your head. If you have never thought about it, it’s time — it’s been 5 YEARS since ZK 8.0 was released.

Before answering this question, let’s look at WHAT has been changed in the meantime.

3rd party libraries are updated
3rd party libraries used in ZK are updated due to various reasons: bug fixes, new features, deprecated APIs, and most importantly, security fixes. It is recommended to eliminate known security risks by upgrading to a newer version. Some of the examples:

  • JQuery upgraded with security fixes: ex. ZK-3724, ZK-3719, ZK-4565
  • Google dependencies updated with security fixes: ZK-4561
  • Jackson library & Commons fileupload upgraded for better security: ZK-3857, ZK-3859
  • Jasperreport updated to replace deprecated API: ZK-3941
  • moment.js and moment-timezones-with-data.js updated to match the latest time zone data: ZK-4290
  • Replaced deprecated Google APIs: ZKGMAPS-25, ZKGMAPS-26

Browsers Evolve
Chrome make changes aggressively. IE browsers retire. Edge comes up with two implementations – the old Edge and the new chromium based edge. Only new ZK versions are designed and tested against latest browsers and will work best with them. For example:

  • Accommodate Chrome’s change in rmDesktop (potential memory leak): ZK-4204
  • Accommodate iPadOS’s change for user string: ZK-4451
  • Support both old and new Edge browser: ZK-4118
  • Improve efficiency by removing workarounds for IE6-IE8: ZK-4180

User Tastes Changed
Gradient or flat design? radio button or toggle/switch? Users’ tastes and experiences change, leading to a different expectation than before. In ZK, new features and components are added or updated to accommodate users’ expectations.

New Standards & Regulations
As society evolves, users and the public are focusing more on some of the topics that were less considered before – privacy concerns, security concerns (CSRF, OWASP…), web accessibility, etc. Efforts are made to satisfy these standards and regulations.

More than 700 changes were made between ZK 8.0.5 and ZK 9.5.0 — the list above is a summary extracted from the full release note. I recommend you to review this list and think about what’s relevant for your users and project and make the best decision for your project.

Further reading: ZK Upgrade Tips

Have more questions regarding upgrade? Feel free to contact us at [email protected] or contact Support if you are a customer.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Leave a Reply