FlowFuse
Make new releases available to all customers, each release
Epic
No response
Description
As a customer
I want to have access to and be made aware that I have access to new features with each release
So that I can get the most valuable possible out of FlowFuse
We need a plan to ensure that customers have access to new features made available with each release, regardless of which type of deployment they have: FFC, self-hosted, or Dedicated. The goal will be to make features available to customers with minimal disruption to their workflows, and keep them informed of this.
FFC customers receive a message in their Notifications Hub upon each release. This is a part of the Release Checklist.
SH customers can be contacted by Customer Success to stay informed. What else is needed on the Engineering side to enable updating?
Dedicated customers can be updated by us, but need to be informed and coordinate on when this happens.
Which customers would this be available to
Everyone - CE/Starter/Team/Enterprise
Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Define process for informing and updating self-hosted customers
- [ ] Define process for informing and updating dedicated customers
- ...
Have you provided an initial effort estimate for this issue?
I have provided an initial effort estimate
@ppawlowski Can you take point on this issue, since you're aware of the immediate context behind this? What we're looking for is a clear statement of what has been shipped to the customer, and what they need to do to access it.
FFC customers receive a message in their Notifications Hub upon each release. This is a part of the Release Checklist.
That's exactly what happens currently.
SH customers can be contacted by Customer Success to stay informed. What else is needed on the Engineering side to enable updating?
We have no control over self-hosted environments other than notifying about a new version available. For them, the approach suggested in #4866 might be nice, but it is applicable only after they perform the update on their own.
Dedicated customers can be updated by us, but need to be informed and coordinate on when this happens.
That's how we handle FFD scenarios.
@gstout52 If we want to make self-hosted and FFD aware of new features after the update of their FF platforms, we could consider presenting a "What's new" pop-up box on first login to the updated platform.
We have no control over self-hosted environments other than notifying about a new version available.
@ppawlowski Can we send a message or provide some kind of alert with each release that informs them that they should perform an update?
@ppawlowski Can we send a message or provide some kind of alert with each release that informs them that they should perform an update?
There is nothing currently in the product to support this, and if implemented it would depend on the instance reaching out to an external resource to discover these messages.
So it would only be useful to users that install a version after it is implemented, there is no way to push this to existing users.
So it would only be useful to users that install a version after it is implemented, there is no way to push this to existing users.
Got it. Thinking of this in light of the existing FFC experience, could we create the equivalent of a SH Notifications Hub (for users that update their version with this near feature we are discussing), that we could then push messages to at some interval, when we send one?
While a central notification hub, where a single message about the availability of a new FlowFuse version can be created, sounds like a nice idea, this should work in a pull, not push model. I do not see a possibility to push a message to a self-hosted FlowFuse Platform deployed behind the NAT.
Closing this issue in light of @ppawlowski 's analysis. Will push this to Customer Success and ask them to email all self-hosted customers each release. cc @Esmewieringa