Deploy hotfixes for older AppSource apps
Important
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| Enabled for | Public preview | General availability |
|---|---|---|
| Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically | 
Mar 13, 2023 |
Apr 1, 2023 |
Business value
Until now, AppSource publishers haven't been able to apply hotfixes to their apps for the current release of Business Central once they have submitted versions for the next major Business Central release, because only the latest version can take a hotfix.
This has been a pain for ISVs, because apps had to be backward as well as v-next compatible, and there has been a tendency to hold off releasing a version of an app for the next major Business Central release, or uptake new features, in case there's a need to make a change in the version that supports current users.
After a couple of releases with investments in app handling behind the scenes, it will now become possible to apply a hotfix to an existing AppSource app once a version for the next major release has been submitted.
This will allow partners to deploy a hotfix for their app versions targeting older releases of Business Central, uptake new application or AL features without impacting the ability to deploy fixes to customers on older versions, and increase AppSource app readiness for the next major release.
Feature details
With improvements in handling AppSource apps by version and not just the latest submitted version, it will become possible to deploy hotfixes to existing, earlier versions of AppSource apps once a version for the next Business Central major release has been submitted. This removes a blocker for AppSource app readiness for Business Central major releases.
Note that the current recommended mitigation for this gap is to ensure that the AppSource app is compatible both with the current and the next version, allowing all users to update the next versions once submitted, and thereby ensuring only the next version needs a hotfix.
When a publisher submits a hotfix (new version) to an older AppSource app, we now automatically compute the maximum release for a submission based on the release targeted by the next (later) version of the app already submitted.
Based on this, the technical validation will run the AppSourceCop breaking change validation between the previous version and the deployed version, as well as the deployed version and the next version.
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