Methods in Liferay’s APIs are deprecated when they’re no longer called by Liferay internally. Method deprecation occurs during major releases of Liferay. You’ll know when there’s a major release if you understand Liferay’s release version notation. Liferay version numbers consist of a three digit number. Knowing what each digit represents is key, so let’s consider a case where you were using Liferay 6.0.2, and Liferay 6.0.3 has just been released:
- Digit 1 (6.0.3): The first digit represents the major release version, which is a feature release. Along with changes to Liferay’s architecture, internal schema, and the introduction of new functionality, API methods get deprecated during feature releases. In our example, this number hasn’t changed, so any API methods we use in our custom development are intact.
- Digit 2 (6.0.3): The second digit indicates the minor release. Minor releases involve the introduction of new features and bug fixes. While customization might be affected when installing, API methods don’t get deprecated. For our example, this didn’t change. feature release. It also did not change in our example.
- Digit 3 (6.0.3): The third digit represents the maintenance release, or fix pack release. In our case, the third digit changed from 2 to 3, so we discovered a maintenance release. In terms of API method deprecation, you’re in the clear; in acoordince with our policy, methods you used in your custom development haven’t been deprecated.