Remove Foreman deprecations for 3.19 in develop - Core & Plugins

[ogajduse]

Hello Foreman developers and plugin maintainers,

As part of the Foreman 3.18 branching process, we need to remove accumulated Foreman deprecations that have reached their deadline from the develop branch.

I’ve analyzed the Foreman core codebase and found several deprecations that should be removed for Foreman 3.19.

Core Foreman Deprecations to Remove

Long Overdue (versions 3.3-3.4):

• db/seeds.rb:10 - Remove format_errors deprecation (deadline 3.4)
• app/models/setting.rb:203 - Remove Setting subclassing deprecation (deadline 3.4)
• app/services/proxy_api/resource.rb:70 - Remove ProxyApi headers deprecation (deadline 3.3)

Overdue from 3.12:

• app/services/owner_classifier.rb:16 - Remove user_or_usergroup method deprecation
• app/helpers/reactjs_helper.rb:24 - Remove webpacked_plugins_css_for method deprecation
• app/helpers/reactjs_helper.rb:71 - Remove css_tags_for method deprecation
• app/helpers/layout_helper.rb:120 - Remove webpack_asset_paths deprecation (JS)
• app/helpers/layout_helper.rb:126 - Remove webpack_asset_paths deprecation (CSS)

Expired in 3.18:

• app/controllers/concerns/foreman/controller/parameters/auth_source_ldap.rb:36 - Remove use_netgroups parameter deprecation

Plugin Deprecations - Plugin Maintainers

While reviewing the core deprecations, I also took a look at the foreman-tasks plugin and found some older deprecations. Plugin maintainers should check their own plugins for similar cleanup opportunities.

foreman-tasks Plugin (versions 2.4-2.5):

• app/lib/actions/helpers/lock.rb:18 - Old locking mechanism deprecation (deadline 2.4)
• app/lib/actions/middleware/keep_current_user.rb:22 - Current user setting deprecation (deadline 2.5)
• app/controllers/foreman_tasks/api/tasks_controller.rb:183-184 - Sort parameter deprecation

For Other Plugin Maintainers:

Please search your plugins for deprecations that should be cleaned up:

# Search for Foreman deprecation warnings with version deadlines < 3.19
grep -rE "deprecation_warning.*[\"'][0-3]\.([0-9]|1[0-8])[\"']" /path/to/your/plugin/ --include="*.rb"

As you can see from the foreman-tasks example, some deprecations can be quite old. I’d encourage plugin maintainers to take a moment and search for deprecations in plugins they maintain.

How to Help

For Core Contributors:

1. Remove the deprecated code entirely and update any callers to use the new methods
2. Check plugins you maintain for usage of these deprecated core methods
3. Run tests to ensure removal doesn’t break functionality
4. Create PRs targeting the develop branch

For Plugin Maintainers:

1. Search your plugins for the deprecation patterns above
2. Remove expired deprecations (anything with deadline < 3.19)
3. Update your plugins if they use any of the deprecated core methods being removed
4. Test compatibility with the latest core develop branch
5. Create PRs for your plugin repositories

When Removing Deprecations:

• Remove both the deprecated method/code AND the deprecation warning
• Update any internal callers to use the new approach
• Add tests if needed to ensure the new code path works correctly
• Update documentation if the deprecated functionality was documented

Timeline

According to the Foreman 3.19 schedule, we are branching on May 12, 2026. These deprecations should be removed before the branching date to ensure they’re cleaned up in 3.19.

Thank you for your help!