Upgrade Dependencies

One of the main issues in planning the upgrade of any given Java ES component is that component’s dependencies on other Java ES components. You should evaluate whether such other components also need to be upgraded to support the upgrade of the dependent component.

The two types of upgrade dependencies are:

• Hard upgrade dependency. An upgrade of a product component requires you to upgrade a component upon which it depends. This requirement can be due to new functionality, new interfaces, or bug fixes needed by the dependent component. With a hard upgrade dependency, you cannot successfully upgrade and use the dependent component without first upgrading the component upon which it depends.

• Soft upgrade dependency. An upgrade of a product component does not require you to upgrade the component upon which it depends. With a soft upgrade dependency, you can successfully upgrade and use the dependent component without upgrading the component upon which it depends.

Upgrading a Java ES product component requires you to upgrade all the components upon which it has hard upgrade dependencies, but, with some exceptions noted in this book, allows you to not upgrade components upon which it has soft upgrade dependencies. When multiple interdependent components are involved in an upgrade, you have to upgrade a component if only one of the Java ES components being upgraded has a hard upgrade dependency on that particular component.

In a few special cases, due to incompatibilities that are introduced, upgrade of a component requires you to also upgrade a component that it supports. These special cases are noted in this book.