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Roadmap

Paper offers a rich API with a wide range of features that can help you unlock the full potential of your server. However, in order to make room for new features and improvements, some of the older APIs will be phased out. This page is intended to document any future API changes that are planned or possible deprecations that may be coming up.

Future plans​

Interface ItemStacks​

When you create ItemStacks, you create an API representation of an ItemStack. However, there are also places where you can obtain an ItemStack that is backed by a NMS object instead. This can lead to inconsistencies and unnecessary upkeep, since we need to maintain our own ItemStack implementation and also support the NMS-backed object using ugly methods due to it not being a plain interface.

In the future, ItemStack will be converted to an interface that allows developers to use an underlying ItemStack directly, instead of going through the API implementation.

Precautions​

  • Avoid directly extending the ItemStack class.
    • Custom implementations of this class are not supported.

ServerPlayer reuse​

Note: Only applies to NMS usage, will not apply to API.

Avoid directly storing player (ServerPlayer) entity instances. Currently, the player instance is reused when switching worlds, however, in the future, this behavior will be reverted to match Vanilla behavior. API entities (wrappers) will continue to function and will have their underlying instance replaced automatically.

This is done to help reduce possible inconsistencies between world switching between Vanilla and Paper.

Deprecation policy​

warning

It is highly recommended that you avoid using any APIs that are marked as deprecated.

If you continue to use deprecated APIs, your server may become unstable and may not function as expected. You may also experience performance issues and other problems. To ensure the best possible experience and longevity of your plugins, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest API changes and avoid using any APIs that are marked for deprecation.

API marked with @Deprecated should not be used in your code base, as alternative API may be able to be used instead. While certain API may continue to function despite being deprecated, it cannot be promised that this API won't be marked as deprecated for removal in the future.

@Deprecated
public void exampleMethod(); // Example deprecated method

Deprecated for removal​

In addition to being marked as @Deprecated, API may be marked as forRemoval with a given @ApiStatus.ScheduledForRemoval version. API scheduled for removal should only occur within major release versions of Minecraft. It is highly recommended you migrate away from API scheduled for removal.

It should be noted, that API scheduled for removal will be given adequate time to allow plugin developers to migrate away from said API.

@ApiStatus.ScheduledForRemoval(inVersion = "1.20")
@Deprecated(forRemoval = true)
public void exampleMethod(); // Example method marked for removal in 1.20

Deprecation reasons​

There are many possible reasons why an API might be deprecated. Some of the common reasons why API can be deprecated is:

Old API​

As the game evolves, the API may represent concepts that no longer exist in the core game.

Old API is most likely not functional and/or may behave unexpectedly in newer versions of the game, therefore it may be scheduled for removal.

Duplicate API​

As Paper continues to upstream Spigot, it can occasionally include APIs that clash with what Paper already has. Typically, Paper will deprecate Spigot’s API in favor of their own API.

However, in cases where upstream offers a more powerful API, Paper’s may be deprecated instead. While Paper is still upstreaming Spigot, any API introduced by Spigot will continue to function, and will not be removed.

Obsolete API​

Paper strives to improve on APIs that may already be included. There may be some cases where we have built new APIs to offer as a replacement to another.

Obsolete API is expected for function for the far future and may not be scheduled for removal for a fair amount of time.