Ember’s major releases typically contain no new functionality, and 3.0 is no different. The main benefit of the Ember 3.0 release is the removal of previously deprecated features, clearing the path for new functionality and performance improvements.
After starting the project nearly five years ago, Ember focuses on predictable, well-documented, incremental updates, providing an easier upgrade path for their users. Yehuda Katz, co-creator of Ember, explains the project’s focus on longevity on Twitter:
Ember was built for a time when ES3 "classes" and globals were the way that people built web software. A time before npm. A time before JavaScript iterables. So it's now time to carefully, with respect for existing apps, and within the context of the Ember compatibility model, migrate towards a framework that embraces JavaScript as it is today.
Ember 3.0 drops support for older browsers such as Internet Explorer 9 and 10, and PhantomJS. Users still supporting these browsers can rely on Ember 2.18-LTS bug support until September 2018 and security fixes until February 2019. One of the largest changes with Ember is that you no longer include your Ember dependencies via a script tag. Instead, following a common trend in JavaScript development, Ember has embraced ahead of time (AOT) compilation to improve performance and development experience.Applications should make Ember a dependency via NPM or Yarn using the ember-source and ember-data packages.
Ember provides migration and deprecation guides for Ember, Ember Data, and Ember CLI:
- Ember: migration deprecation
- Ember Data: migration deprecation
- Ember CLI: migration deprecation
After successfully upgrading to 3.0, Ember users should start looking at the Ember 3.1 beta release for new functionality, including ES5 Getters for Computed Properties, refinements to the templating system, and other minor bug fixes and improvements. Katz reminds us that even with these planned changes, stability remains a top priority for Ember:
Like Star Wars, Ember's continuity is a big part of its success. We can't afford (and don't want) to break compatibility of change the way we do stability. Many of the core team have long lived apps!
To learn more about Ember 3, users are encouraged to start with the Ember Guide, or view the Ember source on GitHub. Installation of Ember is straightforward with npm or yarn using the following commands:
yarn global add ember-cli # Or npm install -g ember-cli
ember new my-project
cd my-project
ember serve # Then visit http://localhost:4200