i thought that there would be no db conversion necessary. only a schema update. but i think there is one conversion necessary in the db: timers.

for messages, you can simply make sure that the webapp does not accept incoming requests and then leave the command executor running for a while till all async messages are processed. (that also needs to be documented)

so we need to make a migration guide in the release notes of 3.2. The schema updates are already there (those need another update, but i can do that later).

to be added is guidance on how to convert the timers. wether a conversion script and code is required, i don't know yet. please evaluate the strategies with me:
1) writing a conversion tool based on hibernate. The tool could just take the old Timer.hbm.xml and the new Job.hbm.xml, load from one table and insert in the other. all with the same session cause you can assume that the job table will be in the same db as the old jbpm tables.

2) we could also just give one or more sql statements on how to convert the timers into jobs. of course this will cause more problems with db compatibility.

... any other strategy ?