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Release Process

Release Roadmap

ECLASS has defined a transparent release roadmap. MajorReleases shall be valid for a longer time period than MinorReleases as the included structural changes result in a higher upgrade effort for users. The possibility to publish all required additions, the removal of all erroneous keywords and values and the correction of clerical errors will be possible each year. Starting with ECLASS 6.0 a ServicePack exclusively comprises textual changes, i.e. clerical errors and translations, it is therefore language-specific. As it is not integrated into the release roadmap any more, it can be published on demand if needed for a specific language version.

Published Releases

Release Number Release Type Release date   No. of contained classes No. of contained properties No. of contained values
3.0 Major 2000-04-30   4.785 2.427 1.986
4.0 Major 2001-03-27   12.915 2.303 1.982
4.1 Minor 2002-02-28   15.315 5.504 3.143
5.0 Major 2003-09-02   24.870 3.667 1.287
5.0.1 ServicePack 2004   24.919 3.699 1.576
5.1 Minor 2004-09-27   25.658 5.525 4.544
5.1.1 ServicePack 2005-09-07   27.216 6.941 4.546
5.1.2 ServicePack 2006-07-12   27.442 6.964 4.712
5.1.3 ServicePack 2006-10-26   30.280 6.967 4.712
5.1.4 ServicePack 2007-07-01   30.329 7.136 4.720
6.0 (replaced by 6.0.1) Major 2008-04-30   32.592 8.653 6.811
6.1 Minor 2009-08-21   32.795 9.910 7.531
6.2 Minor 2009-12-01   32.832 9.919 7.533
7.0 Major 2011-02-15   37.868 15.397 19.123
7.1 Minor 2011-11-30   39.068 15.953 19.874
8.0 Major 2012-12-02   39.041 16.137 13.609
8.1 Minor 2013-12-02   39.085 16.203 13.819
9.0 Major 2014-12-08   40.870 16.845 14.365
9.1 Minor 2015-11-30   41.027 16.973 14.456
10.0 (replaced by 10.0.1) Major 2017-02-03   41.647 17.342 15.708
10.1 Minor 2018-03-29   42.220 18.867 17.022
11.0 Major 2019-07-29   45.293 19.139 24.979
11.1 Minor 2020-08-10   46.135 19.329 25.779
12.0 Major 2021-11-22   47.321 21.600 27.455

NOTE 1: Starting with Release 7.0 all releases are available in a BASIC and an ADVANCED version. The numbers of contained structural elements refer only to the BASIC version.

NOTE 2: The number of keywords is language-specific and not mentioned here. ECLASS 3.0 started with around 8.000 German keywords. ECLASS 8.0 contains more than 50.000 keywords in both German and English. More information is available in the relevant language version descriptions in the ECLASS Shop.

NOTE 3: Starting with Release 6.0.1 a ServicePack definition differs from before 6.0.1, please see: ServicePack.

Planned Releases

Figure 2: The current short-term roadmap
Figure 3: The short-term release milestones

Previously, a MajorRelease was usually followed by a MinorRelease. Starting from the ECLASS Release 12.0 only MajorReleases will be published as to accelerate the enhancements of the ECLASS Standard and to be able to meet the dynamic requirements of the users even faster.

ECLASS will publish


Table 1: Example: The general ECLASS roadmap

Release Numbers and Versioning

The ECLASS data model defines the format of release numbers, the versioning of changes and additions as well as the consequences for the release number. The release number consists of a "MajorRelease Number" (x.0) and a "MinorRelease Number" (n.x). A ServicePack additionally comprises a "ServicePack Number" (n.n.x).

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Change Requests (CR)

A Change Request (CR) is a proposal by an ECLASS user (=requestor) to change a part of the content of the ECLASS classification system. It can be a correction or even a deletion of something that is identified by the requestor as wrong or an enhancement of something that is still missing. Generally, the ECLASS classification system will never be finished as changes will always be necessary as long as markets are evolving. The number of change requests processed within a release varies according to the temporary requirements of the industry. The biggest release in regard to the number of submitted change requests was ECLASS 7.0 where more than 260.000 CR were processed. Different kinds of CR are valid in different kinds of releases, see above or have a look at the list of valid change requests per release.

All ECLASS Change Requests have to concur to specific guidelines and rules.

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Bulk requests

Major changes of the ECLASS standard done by the ECLASS expert groups can also be submitted as bulk requests with the help of MS EXCEL® import spreadsheets. As a huge amount of changes is usually prepared in a similar form by the expert groups themselves and a lot of experts have a look on it before even submitting the change requests (CR), ECLASS provides a normalized import spreadsheet to make an import of change requests easier for expert groups. The import spreadsheet only replaces the manual change request creation in the ContentDevelopmentPlatform. Any included change will be imported as a CR.

The normalized MS EXCEL® import spreadsheet that is used for the import of bulk requests is available at the ECLASS head office. It is mostly spread for internal use by the ECLASS expert groups and larger projects like e.g. brand new segments.

ECLASS maintenance process

Figure 1: The ECLASS maintenance process

The ECLASS association is organized in various bodies. The most important ones for the maintenance process are described in the following section. The ECLASS maintenance process is described in the following figure, followed by the description of the involved user roles:

Requestor

Every interested person or organisation can take part in the development of the ECLASS classification system. The proposal of change requests (CR) is open to everybody with the help of the online development and maintenance platform ECLASS ContentDevelopmentPlatform. In the case of a more complex and detailed contribution, a requestor is advised to contribute to the work of an ECLASS expert group. Every requestor has to fulfil the requirements and preconditions to create a change request. Detailed descriptions are to be found in the relevant section of. Otherwise a change request cannot be accepted by the ECLASS association. To be able to propose change requests, a requestor simply has to register in the ECLASS ContentDevelopmentPlatform. The registration is free of charge.

Known Bugs

With the thousands of Change Requests for each new ECLASS Release and despite the intensive testing during the test and beta phase, errors occasionally occur. These known bugs, comprising technical errors, errors of content or documentation mistakes, are listed here and documented in detail.

Further information about Known Bugs

Related information

References