A Brief Retrospective of Spree
By Tim Case
February 10, 2014
SpreeConf NYC 2014 starts on the 26th and its hard to believe that Spree is almost 7 years old! Here’s a retrospective showing some notable Spree moments and major releases.
July 15, 2007 RailsCart, the precursor to Spree, is created by Sean Schofield and gets its first commit as a Google Code project.
February 1, 2008 Sean is hired by End Point Corporation to work on RailsCart along with its other Rails developers. End Point sponsors Spree for the next year and a half.
February 15, 2008 RailsCart project moves from Google Code to GitHub and is renamed Spree.
June 1, 2008 Spree 0.0.9 released: sophisticated data model for inventory.
June 3, 2008 Product Properties added.
June 5, 2008 Spree 0.2.0 released: adds Spree extensions.
July 4, 2008 Zones introduced.
Sept 8, 2008 Refactored to REST routing added state machine to order.
October 1, 2008 New Taxonomy system introduced.
October 2, 2008 Spree 0.4.0 released: Taxonomy, and VAT-inclusive pricing.
November 26, 2008 Volume pricing introduced as an extension.
November 24, 2008 Spree 0.5.0 released: new shipping framework.
December 3, 2008 SEO friendly URLs.
December 4, 2008 Switched from attachment_fu to paperclip for image attachments.
February 3, 2009 Spree 0.6.0 released: friendly urls, attachment_fu to paperclip, paranoid deletion of products, standardized security model, rake tasks for translations.
March 5, 2009 Searchlogic gem added.
March 10, 2009 Spree 0.7.0 released: switches to ajax-based Magento-style single page checkout, order number as permalinks, French, Russian and Norwegian translations added.
April 2, 2009 Authlogic gem added.
April 23, 2009 Spreecommerce.com launched.
May 4, 2009 Spree 0.8.0 released: CSS based layout using compass, sass, and blueprint, Authlogic, guest checkout, expanded functionality for prototype products, improved upgrade rake task, improved order security using tokens.
May 18, 2009 Spree core team formalized.
May 28, 2009 Sean Schofield leaves End Point and founds Rails Dog.
September 22, 2009 Spree 0.9.0 released: Coupon and discount support, improved system of calculators, Thai, Hebrew, Dutch, Finish, and Mexican Spanish translations.
September 5, 2009 Spree now 100% jQuery for all JavaScript functionality.
March 13, 2009 Spree 0.10.0 released: Named scopes and product groups, pluggable search (Xapian, Sphinx, and Solr), theming, switch to multipage checkout, improved gateway configuration, multiple payment methods, refunds and credits, restful api.
June 14, 2010 Spree 0.11.0 released: new look for Spree, Rails 2.3.8 compatibility.
November 1, 2010 New extension registry.
November 9, 2010 Spree 0.30.0 released: Rails 3 support, reorganization into multiple gems: spree_core, spree_auth, spree_api, spree_dash, spree_sample, Rails engines introduced, site extension removed, extensions become gems, improved payments with addition of state machine, simplification of adjustments, new promotion functionality, no more “vendor mode”.
December 10, 2010 Spree 0.40.0 released: switched from Authlogic to Devise for authentication.
March 23, 2011 Spree 0.50.0 released: improved test coverage, replaced Searchlogic gem with Meta search gem.
May 13, 2011 Spree 0.60.0 released: removal of Resource Controller.
October 10, 2011 Announcement that Spree Commerce Inc. is formed and raised $1.5M in seed funding.
November 7, 2011 Spree 0.70.0 Integration with rails asset pipeline, theming support, themes as engines, extension generator, promotions extended.
January 31, 2012 Spree analytics with Jiraffe introduced.
February 9, 2012 Spree 1.0 released, namespacing introduced, Spree referenced routes, mounting Spree engine in routes, Spree analytics, Spree dash gem, command line tool, default payment gateway Spree/Skrill Spree_usa_epay, moved gateways out of core to Spree gateway gem, Refactored preferences, polymorphic adjustments, removed helpers and JavaScript related to VAT, removed sales tax and VAT calculators.
February 18, 2012 First SpreeConf held in New York City.
April 30, 2012 Spree 1.1.0 released: support for Rails 3.2, Ransack replaces meta search, Spree product groups is a standalone extension, theme support deprecated in favor of deface, major rewrite of credit card model, API rewrite, stronger mass assignment protection, clearer separation between Spree components, easier Spree spec testing.
August 31, 2012 Spree 1.2.0 released: Auth component completely removed from Spree and placed in separate Spree auth devise extension. Customizing state machine no longer requires completely overriding it.
December 19, 2012 Spree 1.3.0 released: Admin section redesigned, currency support.
December 20, 2012 New Spree “Fancy” theme introduced.
April 15, 2013 New documentation site launched.
May 19, 2013 Spree 2.0.0 released: Removed support for Ruby 1.8.7, Backend and Frontend split from core, Split shipments introduced, I18n names spaced translations, New API endpoints, instance level permission in API, Custom API templates, adjustment state changes, Order Populator in its own class, coupon applicator in its own class, product duplicator moved to its own class, new helpers to modify checkout flow steps, API supports “checking out” order, Auto-rotation of images, Unique payment identifier added to payments, removal of state call back in checkout controller, tracking URL for shipments, SSLRequirement deprecated in favor of ForceSSL, MailMethod model no longer exists,
May 21, 2013 Second SpreeConf held in Washington DC.
September 16, 2013 Spree 2.1.0 released: Rails 4 compatibility, breaking API changes, better Spree PayPal Express extension.
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