FAQ

=FAQ for customers=
==What is my current ZK Package?==
When you first purchase ZK products, we will provide your company's main contact person a document called “Delivery” which states the product, edition, licensed seats, and the number of support hours your company has purchased. The same information is also included in the invoice as well.
If you are new to the team, please ask your company's main contact person for ZK for the “Delivery” document to understand what package you are with. If you are uncertain, please email info@zkoss.org with your invoice or certificate number and we will send you the details again.

==How can I access licensed Software?==
Instructions on how you can download the software and leverage support services are documented in the "Delivery" document. Generally speaking, the software is offered in two ways - manually downloaded from our website or through Maven.

In the case of Maven, note that while most of the packages are offered under the ZK EE Maven Repository, some of the add-ons are offered in a separate repository. For example, ZK Spring and ZK Spring Security are both EE features for EE users. However, due to their dual-licensing nature (they are also available under GPL), they are not stored in the EE repository, but in the maven2 (CE) repository. This also applies to a few other components like GMaps and Calendar.

In short, most of the EE features are available only in the EE repository, but a few of them, due to licensing, are located in a separate repository. So please specify both repositories when using ZK EE. Here's a sample:
https://www.zkoss.org/wiki/ZK_Installation_Guide/Maven_Setup#Sample_of_pom.xml_for_licensed_Enterprise_Package

If you have any questions about this, contact us at info@zkoss.org or the support window.

==How can I request for Professional Support?==
Instructions are listed in the "Delivery" document as well. Basically if your package includes Remote Support service, you can send an email directly to <support@potix.com>to request for professional technical support. When you send your email, remember to include your Invoice number or License Certificate number so that we can associate you to our customer database. 

Each email will be turned into a support ticket in our support portal, and our support engineer will get back to you via email as soon as there’s an update, normally within 24 business hours. If your question is urgent, please mention it in the ticket. To respond to the ticket, you can either login to the support portal and reply/comment on the ticket. Or, simply reply to the same thread through email without logging into the support system. The benefit of logging into the support portal is that you can get an overview of all questions asked by members of your company, and can log additional information such as version number and browser versions.

The support portal is a 3rd party tool, it has its own login system which is different from your ZK forum account. To login to the support portal you will need to sign up for an account based on your email address. Or, simply reach us at info@zkoss.org and we can reset the password for you.

If you have multiple questions please create a separate ticket for each question instead of mixing them in one ticket. This makes easier for both you and the team to link the bug tracker and track the status of each independent question.

==Can I call you to get Supported?==
If you would like to discuss your technical question over an online meeting, please state so when writing to <support@potix.com>. Again, remember to include your certificate number or invoice number in the ticket, and describe your issue and expectation and let us know your timezone and availability, and we will schedule the call accordingly. Note that due to timezone difference, it is best to request a call at least 24 business hours before your desired date & time. 

Our default meeting tool is Zoom, if you have a different preferred tool you can let us know when requesting for such a call.

==How do I know how many support hours I have? What happens if I run out of the hours?==
The number of Remote Support hours included in your package is outlined in the “Delivery” document and your invoice. The time our support engineers spent on your ticket will be deducted from the total number of support hours you have. Depending on the complexity of your question the time spend on the ticket will be different -- quick questions may take 15 minutes or less, while a complicated task like creating a custom component may take hours.
When there is a limited number of hours remaining in your package, we will send you a notification e-mail. You can then purchase more hours if you find our support service helpful. Newly purchased hours will be effective for a one-year period.

==Tips on Requesting Support==
When submitting a request, it is important to provide us with sufficient information such as the ZK Product you are using, the version & edition, issue description with reproducing sample and related error message, and the expected behavior. With complete information we can provide fast and accurate answer to your question. Learn more about [https://www.zkoss.org/wiki/ZK_Developer's_Reference/How_to_get_Efficient_Support Get Support Efficiently] here.

==What questions can I ask Support?==
Professional support window <support@potix.com> is for technical questions only and our support engineers will get back to you directly. You can ask for code review, trouble shooting, performance tuning, theming, customization and so on. Note that if you have general questions relating to licensing, training, zkoss website or any other non-technical questions please reach us at <info@zkoss.org> instead.

==Can I use ZK Forum?==
We welcome everyone to ask questions and discuss ZK related topics on ZK Forum. However please note that ZK Forum is a place where community members help each other voluntarily. There is no guarantee that a question will be answered. If your question is urgent or important, please leverage your support hours and email to <support@potix.com> instead.

Note that some of the forum threads are out dated, it is likely that the question or answer worked for the then-current version is no longer applicable. Even though your question may look similar to an existing forum thread, if such thread is more than 2 years old, we suggest you to start your new thread with your actual example and specify the ZK version you are using. Do not respond to such out dated threads.

==Reporting a ZK Bug==
If you think you have identified a ZK bug, no matter you have Remote Support hours or not, you can contact us through the same support window <support@potix.com> mentioned above. If you have already posted an issue in ZK Tracker (tracker.zkoss.org), please still contact <support@potix.com> and inform us the tracker number you created so that we can check and prioritize your issue. Many issues are being reported from time to time and as we do not want to miss your ticket, so please do drop an email to support and let us know.

If an issue has been confirmed as a ZK bug, we will try to fix it in the coming version based on the Release Cycle. If you need to address the issue immediately, please inform the support engineer so that we can try to provide you with a workaround or a patch, before the next official version is available.

During the process, we may inform you of a Freshly Build which is used for testing & developing only. It can help both of us to verify the fix earlier and avoid future surprises in the official release. Freshly Builds are not fully tested and are not licensed.

In general, bug fixes for ZK products are free of charge for Professional and Enterprise licensed customers. However, if you are asking a patch/fix specifically for a non-active branch or for a custom package, such patch/fix will be considered billable.

==Release Cycle==
Major branch refers to the latest ZK branch (excluding freshly releases), and PE/EE updates for the major branch are being released approximately every 4 or 5 months. Older branches (non-major branches) do not have a fixed release cycle, updates are released when issues needed to be addressed.

In general, code will be frozen for testing two weeks before each release and no new feature will be added during this period. Therefore if you intend to do a major release that relies on ZK's release schedule or a particular feature or fix, please share with us your plan as early as possible so that we can try to adjust our schedule as much as possible to best fit your plan.

==Freshly Build vs Official Releases==
Freshly files (such as 9.1.0.FL.20200529-Eval or zk-8.0.1-FL-2015-12-09) are nightly builds that contain fresh fixes and are built automatically through our system. It is encouraged to test the latest fixes against freshly files. However freshly files have not been thoroughly tested yet and are not meant for production use. For production use, please use official releases such as 9.0.0 or 8.6.0.1 (without the FL prefix).

==Updates, Upgrades and Compatibility==
It is recommended that you always use the latest version of a branch. For example, if you are with ZK 8, the latest version is normally the last version available in the format of 8.x.y or 8.x.y.z in the premium download page or PE/EE maven repository. Note that maintenance releases are normally provided to PE/EE customers and ZOL users only.  
We always try to maintain the best compatibility within the same branch so upgrading within the same branch should require minimum effort.
 
ZK is an innovative framework where we try to include new technologies, simpler solutions, better codes in new versions. This means some older technologies would be deprecated or removed in order to produce a lighter and more concise product. Upgrading to another major version would sometimes require more effort. In case of any doubt in upgrading to a major version, we recommend that you reference Upgrade Note ( located at the end of each Release Note) or consult directly with us at info@zkoss.org.

==Do you provide Training?==
Yes, free, public online training [https://www.zkoss.org/support/training#expert Ask The Expert program] are arranged on a monthly basis. Additional [https://www.zkoss.org/support/training#topic topic-oriented training] sessions are arranged to accommodate special events or user's request. We welcome everyone to join these public sessions to learn with us.

If you are in a different timezone or are unable to attend, you can sign up or email to us and request for a recorded video.

In addition to public training sessions, we can also arrange private training for you. Feel free to reach out to us at info@zkoss.org and let us know your background, expectation and budget and we can put up a custom course for you.

==I have more questions==
Contact us at info@zkoss.org and we are willing to help!