Releases
There are a lot of questions regarding the availability of new features. This explains what the difference is between the release types and when to use them.
On the Domoticz forum you can find the latest release information.
Branches
Stable
Stable releases are well tested releases containing new features and bug fixes.
Binaries will be available for all supported platforms. So when supported by the platform of your choice you can use automatic updates.
Use a stable release in Production environments (eq the one your wife uses or contains data you want to keep)
You can find an explanation of the version naming and the table with the relation between known Versions / changes and a short title.
==>> here <<==
Beta
Beta releases are releases ready for testing containing new features and bug fixes.
Binaries will be available for some systems (Currently Windows build are generated automatically with every update to the Development branch. Other platforms require manual work and won't be as frequent). When supported by the platform of your choice automatic updates can be used when selecting the Beta-channel.
Do NOT use Beta versions for production, it's most likely there are bugs and errors in this release. Even features that worked before can stop working. So if you like your system to work and want to keep the data, please use a Stable release. If you want to help testing new features and bug fixes, you are welcome to download the Beta releases on a test environment.
If you choose to ignore this and do use Beta releases for production then please be aware there is no way you can revert to the latest stable version after switching to Beta.
Pull Requests
When developers want to contribute to Domoticz, they provide so called Pull Requests which you can find on Domoticz GitHub.
Such a PR contains a proposal for changes of the Domoticz source code to add/change/improve functionality. If and once these proposed changes have been reviewed and found useful, they get merged into the 'development' branch of Domoticz. From the source code of the 'development' branch, new Beta releases get build. So once a PR is valued as useful, merged into the 'development' branch and new Beta releases have been build, the added/changed/improved functionality can be tested/used.
As this process can take some time, depending on many things like complexity, impact, review changes, etc., it can take a while before functionality of a Pull Request becomes available for others to (beta)test.
One way to try out functionality of a PR, is to build Domoticz from source using the branch of the particular PR.
A second, for many easier, option is to take advantage of the automatically generated Linux build for each PR. Every time a PR is added or changed, a GitHub action is performed to try to build and test Domoticz with the proposed changes included. If that action is successful, an artifact is created. This artifact is a ZIP file that can be downloaded and contains a Linux tar-file, and checksum, containing the needed Domoticz files to run the specific PR version. These artifacts can be found for each PR by going to the Checks-tab and look for the artifacts link.
So for users that can't wait to try out functionality that is proposed by a PR, these artifacts can be used to try the functionality in a Linux (or Docker) environment.
Translations
Main language of Domoticz is English but it can be translated into your language too. At the moment Domoticz is translated into 35 languages.
Please go to https://explore.transifex.com/domoticz/ if you want to help translate Domoticz into your own language.
Versions
On March 22nd, 2020 a new method for version labeling is introduced. Releases (previously referred to with the label 'Stable') will have a major release number formed by the 4 digit year, a dot and a working number. The first stable release in 2020 is 2020.1, the second will be 2020.2, etc.. Hotfixes to these releases (only created when severe bugs are discovered) will receive an additional working number so the first hotfix applied to release 2020.1 will be 2020.1.1 Between release and beta, the development versions are labeled 2020.2 development (build: 11831) Approximately 4 weeks before a release, a beta release will be available for testing. It will be labeled like 2020.2 beta (build: 12007). The number after build: is the github commit number.
Up to and including V4.11807 Domoticz versions were coded with a Major number and a minor version number based on the commits (changes) to the code since the beginning of development. Generically speaking every commit increased the minor version number and an increase of the major number does not reset the minor number.
You can find an explanation of the version naming and the table with the relation between known Versions / changes and a short title. ==>> here <<==
Sources
It's also possible to download the source code from Github and build Domoticz yourself. The sources containing unfinished new features and bug fixes.
Only use the sources as developer on a development machine.
If no source code changes or special compile actions/environments are needed just install a pre-built binary (see the downloads page for that). Minimum supported Ubuntu version for pre-built: 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu installation in terminal: 'curl -sSL install.domoticz.com | sudo bash'
Going back to a previous Domoticz version
Going back to a previous version of Domoticz directly after you did an update (to a new stable or beta release). Hint: Make a backup first!!