# UIBUILDER development progress: Next release will be a major update (v7)

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-development-progress-next-release-will-be-a-major-update-v7/86488>\
**Category:** Share Your Nodes\
**Tags:** uibuilder\
**Created:** [17 March 2024 14:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-development-progress-next-release-will-be-a-major-update-v7/86488 "2024-03-17T14:49:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [17 March 2024 14:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-development-progress-next-release-will-be-a-major-update-v7/86488/1 "2024-03-17T14:49:16Z")

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Hi all, now that Node-RED 4 is in beta, I can now confirm that the next release of UIBUILDER (barring any minor fixes) will also be a major release, v7.0.

That means that it may have some potentially breaking changes you should be aware of. I will, of course, release actual details as they are coded but below is a possible list.

Note however that the key change will be setting Node.js v18 as the minimum supported release. Node-RED v3 will remain the minimum requirement as for v6 releases.

Please let me know if you may have issues with any of the following, there is still time to adjust things if needed.

* * *

### Potential breaking changes for UIBUILDER v7

Note that many of these will not impact many (if any) existing deployments.

- **Minimum node.js v18** - Everyone should already be at or close to this version already.

- **Remove uibuilderfe library** (and tidy gulp and source) - if you are still using this, please to try to move to the module based library as it is far more feature rich and has many bugs removed.

- **Removal of `uib-list` node** - The `uib-element` node does everything that it did and more.

- **Switch to default of case sensitive URL's for ExpressJS**. [Socket.IO](http://Socket.IO) is already case sensitive but ExpressJS is not. This can cause issues as shown in [Ref](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-and-url-case-sensitivity/81019/6).

- **Move socket.io-client from dependencies to dev-dependencies** - ensure removed from runtime code.

- In the client library, will consider **restricting `onChange` to only watch watched variables**.

- Remove Pollyfills from uibuilder editor code - shouldn't impact anyone using a browser from the last 5 years or so.

- Will consider removing the _css auto-load_ in the next major release since at least 1 person has hit a race condition. [Ref](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uib-brand-css-sometimes-injected/78876).

- Will remove `serve-index` dependency if the `uib-file-*` nodes have been delivered.

* * *

As always, UIBUILDER remains open source and completely free to use, even for commercial use. However, if you are finding value in it, please do consider some small measure of contribution. You can sponsor the work using any of the following as a one-off or regular contribution: [PayPal](https://paypal.me/TotallyInformation), [GitHub](https://github.com/sponsors/TotallyInformation), or [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/totallyinformation)

Many thanks as always to those who are already contributing.

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**Author:** ![fmarzocca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/fmarzocca/32/35901_2.png) [@fmarzocca](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/fmarzocca)\
**Post date:** [17 March 2024 15:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-development-progress-next-release-will-be-a-major-update-v7/86488/2 "2024-03-17T15:17:52Z")

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> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> In the client library, will consider **restricting `onChange` to only watch watched variables**.

Julian,  
could you pls elaborate this?

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [17 March 2024 15:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-development-progress-next-release-will-be-a-major-update-v7/86488/3 "2024-03-17T15:56:31Z")

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Hi Fabio,

To be honest, I think this one may be spurious. Since, having rechecked the definition of `onChange`, it can only deal with variables defined to uibuilder anyway.

What I may do though is prevent access to variables starting with `#` or `_` since those indicate that the variable should be private.

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**Author:** ![fmarzocca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/fmarzocca/32/35901_2.png) [@fmarzocca](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/fmarzocca)\
**Post date:** [17 March 2024 16:15 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/uibuilder-development-progress-next-release-will-be-a-major-update-v7/86488/4 "2024-03-17T16:15:44Z")

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Got it. Thanks for the clarification.