Deprecation Policy

VitalSource will announce if it intends to discontinue or make backwards incompatible changes to its APIs or services. VitalSource will use commercially reasonable efforts to continue to operate the API versions and features identified at the Developer Network without these changes until 6 months after the announcement, unless (as VitalSource determines in its reasonable good faith judgment):

• required by law or third-party relationship (including if there is a change in applicable law or relationship), or
• doing so could create a security risk or substantial economic or material technical burden.

VitalSource will make every effort to ensure APIs and services remain backwards compatible, however there will be times when companies who choose to partner and integrate with VitalSource will be required as part of the business partnership to make changes to back-end services typically to increase performance, enhance security, or offer additional benefit(s) to both the partner and VitalSource. There are two stages of deprecation described below:

TO BE DEPRECATED - the route, process, service, or functionality is scheduled to be deprecated. The deprecation date will be shown, if available, on each specific API service. This stage is intended to notify you so that you can change your application appropriately.

Example message:

DEPRECATED - the route, process, service, or functionality has been deprecated. It is no longer supported by VitalSource and may be removed at any time without notice.

VitalSource will make reasonable efforts to reach out actively to impacted clients of specific services to be deprecated 6 months prior to the deprecation date. However, the best place to find deprecation dates and API status updates is via http://developer.vitalsource.com.

Frequently Asked Questions:

My application relies on functionality not available in any of the new APIs. What should I do?

We are working hard to ensure we have feature parity between API versions. Before we deprecate a specific end-point, we will make sure there's a reasonable alternative.

What if I don't have the time or resources to complete the integration and switch over before the deprecation date?

Companies who choose to partner and integrate with VitalSource will be required as part of the business partnership to make changes to back-end services typically to increase performance, enhance security, or offer additional benefit(s) to both the partner and VitalSource. While these requests require extra work by both VitalSource and our clients, it helps with the ability to continue to enhance our products and ensure your integrations are performant and secure.

If you do not have time or resources to complete the switch over before the deprecation date, the services may be removed at any time without notice. However, please contact vstdevelopersupport@ingramcontent.com to discuss options and alternatives.