Backward Compatibility Developer's Guide Webinar

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Backward Compatibility
Developer’s guide
Igor Miniailo
Magento 2 Architect

The main reason we reject a community Pull
Request (PR) or request additional changes is
that the code is not compliant with our Technical
Vision and/or Backward Compatibility Policy.

• Magento 2 Technical Guidelines
• Versioning
• Backward Compatibility Development
Guide

Why does BC matter?
For merchants, the process
must be cost-effective, while
developers want their
extensions to be forward-
compatible for as long as
possible.

Does Magento have to evolve?
Does every change in code bring backward
incompatibility?

Keep Magento backwards compatible vs.
improving it?

We MUST do BOTH

Backward Compatible Fix
*it works (most of the time), but code quality
is far from good enough

Backward Compatibility
policy for Magento code

Semantic Versioning
Version numbers are in the format
MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, where:
– MAJOR indicates incompatible API changes
– MINOR indicates backward-compatible
functionality has been added
– PATCH indicates backward-compatible bug
fixes

The backward compatibility policy
applies to PHP code annotated with
@api

Public and Private code

Public vs Private code
Private code is not supposed to
be used by third party modules,
so, in most cases, its
modifications will only trigger
PATCH version bumps.
Changes in public code always
trigger MINOR or MAJOR
version bumps.

What examples of Public code Magento has?
• PHP Interface (marked with @api)
• PHP Class (marked with @api)
• Javascript Interface (marked with @api)
• Javascript Class (marked with @api)
• Virtual Type (marked with @api)
• URL paths
• Console commands and their arguments
• Less Variables & Mixins
• Message queue topics and their data types
• UI component declarations
• Layout handles declared by modules
• Events triggered by component (both static dynamic)
• Schema of configuration types introduced by module
• Structure of System Configuration fields used by module

API vs SPI (Extension Points)
A PHP Interface in Magento can be used several ways by the core
product and extension developers.
• As an API. is a set of interfaces and their
implementations that a module provides to other
modules
• As a Service Provider Interface (SPI). is a set of
interfaces that a module uses internally and allows their
implementation by other modules.
• As both. APIs and SPIs are not mutually exclusive.

After the code is released, both API and SPI can
be evolved in a backwards-compatible way. But
both have their specific limitations.

We do not distinguish them separately.
SPIs are annotated the same as APIs.

Who decides whether interface/class belong to API or SPI?
YOU

Dependency Rules API
If a module uses (calls) an API, it should be dependent on the MAJOR
version.
API dependency example
{
...
"require": {
"magento/module-customer": "~100.0", // (>=100.0 <101.0.0)
},
...
}

Dependency Rules SPI
If a module implements an API/SPI, it should be dependent on the
MAJOR+MINOR version.
SPI dependency example
{
...
"require": {
"magento/module-customer": "~100.0.0", // (>=100.0.0 <100.1.0)
},
...
}

http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.1/release-notes/backward-
incompatible-changes-2.1.html

What keeps us from making mistakes?
To minimize this risk we have developed a tool Semantic
Version Checker Tool that analyzes two code bases and
determines what part of the version need updating
(MAJOR, MINOR, PATCH). As part of the delivery process,
we must run this tool and use the results for input to the
Version Setter tool.

Prohibited Code Changes

• Interface/class removal
• Public & protected method removal
• Introduction of a method to a class or
interface
PHP - Prohibited Code Changes

MagentoCatalogApiCategoryRepositoryInterface

MagentoCatalogApiCategoryListInterface

• Static function removal
• Parameter addition in public methods
• Parameter addition in protected
methods

• Method argument type modification
• Modification of types of thrown
exceptions (unless a new exception is
a subtype of the old one)
• Constructor modification

class ExistingClass
{
/**
* @var NewDependencyInterface $newDependency
*/
private $newDependency;
public function __construct(
OldDependencyIntreface $oldDependency,
$oldRequiredConstructorParameter,
$oldOptinalConstructorParameter = null,
NewDependencyInterface $newDependency = null
) {
...
$this>newDependency = $newDependency ?: MagentoFrameworkAppObjectManager::getInstance()
->get(NewDependencyInterface::class);
...
}
public function existingFunction() {
// Existing functionality
...
// Use $this->newDependency wherever the new dependency is needed
...
}
}

• Modifying the default values of
optional arguments in public and
protected methods
• Removing or renaming constants

The main rule is that backwards compatibility
is more important than niceness and effort of
the implementation.

Do all backward
compatible fixes look
ugly because we are not
allowed to make
refactoring?

Coupling Between Objects Reaches Its Limit with
a New Dependency

We MUST do continuous Refactoring!
Backward Compatibility should not be an excuse
for not doing refactoring!

Refactoring objects that
reach their dependency limit

Preserve public and protected class
interfaces to maintain backwards
compatibility.

Turn the existing class into a facade to
prevent existing usages of the
refactored methods from breaking.

The old public/protected methods
should be marked as deprecated
with the @see tag to suggest the new
implementation for new usages.

Remove all unused private properties
and methods.

Mark as deprecated unused protected
properties. Remove the variable type
indicated in the DocBlock to remove
the dependency.

To preserve the constructor signature:
• Remove type hinting for unused parameters to
remove dependency on their type.
• Add @SuppressWarnings(PHPMD.UnusedForm
alParameter) for unused parameters.

This is how Backward
Compatible fix should
look like

Q & A
@iminyaylo

Backward Compatibility Developer's Guide Webinar

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