Extension Lifecycle

The extension lifecycle specification defines how OJS extensions progress from experimental ideas to stable core features. It establishes governance, versioning, and compatibility rules for the extension ecosystem.

Extension Tiers

Tier	Stability	Breaking Changes	Requirement
Core	Stable	Major version only	Required at specific conformance levels
Official	Stable	Deprecation cycle required	Opt-in, documented
Experimental	Unstable	May break at any time	Opt-in, marked with warning

Extension Identification

Extensions are identified by URN:

Tier	URN Pattern	Example
Core	`urn:ojs:spec:{name}`	`urn:ojs:spec:retry`
Official	`urn:ojs:ext:{name}`	`urn:ojs:ext:rate-limiting`
Experimental	`urn:ojs:ext:experimental:{name}`	`urn:ojs:ext:experimental:multi-tenancy`
Custom	`urn:ojs:ext:x:{vendor}:{name}`	`urn:ojs:ext:x:acme:billing`

Promotion Criteria

Experimental → Official

Two or more independent implementations
Conformance tests written and passing
Eight-week community review period
Four-week stability period (no breaking changes)
Working group approval

Official → Core

80%+ adoption across known backends
Six or more months of production use
Consensus approval from maintainers
Backward-compatible integration with core spec

Manifest Declaration

Backends declare supported extensions in their manifest:

{
  "specversion": "1.0.0-rc.1",
  "extensions": [
    { "name": "retry", "uri": "urn:ojs:spec:retry", "version": "1.0.0" },
    { "name": "rate-limiting", "uri": "urn:ojs:ext:rate-limiting", "version": "1.0.0" },
    { "name": "multi-tenancy", "uri": "urn:ojs:ext:experimental:multi-tenancy", "version": "0.1.0" }
  ]
}

SDK Negotiation

SDKs discover backend capabilities via the manifest and enable features conditionally:

client, _ := ojs.NewClient("http://localhost:8080")
if client.Supports("rate-limiting") {
    // Use rate limiting features
}

Extension Requirement Headers

Clients can require specific extensions, failing fast if the backend doesn’t support them:

POST /ojs/v1/jobs
OJS-Requires-Extension: rate-limiting, unique-jobs

If the backend does not support a required extension, it returns 501 with the missing extension name.

Community Process

RFC proposal: Submit an RFC with the extension design.
Prototype: Build a working prototype in at least one language.
Review: Working group review and feedback.
Experimental release: Publish as experimental with stability warnings.
Promotion: Meet promotion criteria for advancement.