v4 code migration: Updating dependencies

This guide is part of the v4 code migration guide designed to help you migrate the code of a Strapi application from v3.6.x to v4.0.x.

🤓 v3/v4 comparison

In Strapi v3, Strapi package names were prefixed with strapi-.

Strapi v4 uses scoped packages, prefixed with @strapi/.

In Strapi v4, many packages no longer need to be defined manually in the package.json.

The following examples show a comparison of a Strapi v3 package.json and a Strapi v4 package.json. All Strapi package versions from the @strapi/ prefix scope should be the same version.

Example of a Strapi v3 package.json file:

// path: package.json

{
  "name": "strapi-v3-project",
  "private": true,
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "A Strapi application",
  "scripts": {
    "develop": "strapi develop",
    "start": "strapi start",
    "build": "strapi build",
    "strapi": "strapi"
  },
  "devDependencies": {},
  "dependencies": {
    "strapi": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-admin": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-utils": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-plugin-content-type-builder": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-plugin-content-manager": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-plugin-users-permissions": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-plugin-email": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-plugin-upload": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-plugin-i18n": "3.6.9",
    "strapi-connector-bookshelf": "3.6.9",
    "knex": "0.21.18",
    "sqlite3": "5.0.0"
  },
  "author": {
    "name": "A Strapi developer"
  },
  "strapi": {
    "uuid": "64f95072-c082-4da8-be68-6d483781cf54"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=10.16.0 <=14.x.x",
    "npm": "^6.0.0"
  },
  "license": "MIT"
}

Example of a Strapi v4 package.json file:

// path: package.json

{
  "name": "strapi-v4-project",
  "private": true,
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "description": "A Strapi application",
  "scripts": {
    "develop": "strapi develop",
    "start": "strapi start",
    "build": "strapi build",
    "strapi": "strapi"
  },
  "devDependencies": {},
  "dependencies": {
    "@strapi/strapi": "4.1.2",
    "@strapi/plugin-users-permissions": "4.1.2", // Optional Package
    "@strapi/plugin-i18n": "4.1.2", // Optional Package
    "sqlite3": "5.0.2"
  },
  "author": {
    "name": "A Strapi developer"
  },
  "strapi": {
    "uuid": "b8aa7baf-d6dc-4c50-93d4-7739bc88c3fd"
  },
  "engines": {
    "node": ">=14.x.x <=16.x.x",
    "npm": ">=6.0.0"
  },
  "license": "MIT"
}

The following table highlights new and removed packages:

• Packages with a ❗ emoji before their name are required and need to be defined in the package.json file.
• Packages with a 🔌 emoji before their name are optional plugins/providers that can be installed or removed as needed.
• Packages with a ✨ emoji before their name have a new name in Strapi v4 but do not need to be defined in your package.json.
• Packages identified with the ❌ emoji have been removed from Strapi v4 and all references to these packages should be removed from the code.

Package name in Strapi v3	Package name in Strapi v4
strapi	❗ @strapi/strapi
strapi-database	✨ @strapi/database
strapi-admin	✨ @strapi/admin
strapi-utils	✨ @strapi/utils
strapi-helper-plugin	✨ @strapi/helper-plugin
strapi-plugin-users-permissions	🔌 @strapi/plugin-users-permissions
strapi-plugin-i18n	🔌 @strapi/plugin-i18n
strapi-plugin-upload	✨ @strapi/plugin-upload
strapi-plugin-documentation	🔌 @strapi/plugin-documentation
strapi-plugin-graphql	🔌 @strapi/plugin-graphql
strapi-plugin-email	✨ @strapi/plugin-email
strapi-plugin-sentry	🔌 @strapi/plugin-sentry
strapi-plugin-content-type-builder	✨ @strapi/plugin-content-type-builder
strapi-plugin-content-manager	✨ @strapi/plugin-content-manager
strapi-provider-upload-local	✨ @strapi/provider-upload-local
strapi-provider-upload-aws-s3	🔌 @strapi/provider-upload-aws-s3
strapi-provider-upload-cloudinary	🔌 @strapi/provider-upload-cloudinary
strapi-provider-upload-rackspace	🔌 @strapi/provider-upload-rackspace
strapi-provider-email-sendmail	✨ @strapi/provider-email-sendmail
strapi-provider-email-amazon-ses	🔌 @strapi/provider-email-amazon-ses
strapi-provider-email-mailgun	🔌 @strapi/provider-email-mailgun
strapi-provider-email-nodemailer	🔌 @strapi/provider-email-nodemailer
strapi-provider-email-sendgrid	🔌 @strapi/provider-email-sendgrid
create-strapi-starter	create-strapi-starter
create-strapi-app	create-strapi-app
strapi-generate-policy	strapi-generate-policy
strapi-generate-controller	strapi-generate-model
strapi-generate-model	strapi-generate-controller
strapi-generate-new	strapi-generate-new
strapi-generate	strapi-generate
strapi-generate-api	strapi-generate-api
strapi-generate-plugin	strapi-generate-plugin
strapi-generate-service	strapi-generate-service
strapi-connector-mongoose	❌ (removed from v4)
strapi-connector-bookshelf	❌ (removed from v4)
strapi-hook-redis	❌ (removed from v4)
strapi-hook-ejs	❌ (removed from v4)
strapi-middleware-views	❌ (removed from v4)

Example of updating a dependency to Strapi v4:

If the package.json file of a Strapi v3 application has the “strapi-plugin-users-permissions”: “3.6.x” dependency declaration, and the migration targets Strapi v4.1.2, the dependency declaration should be replaced with “@strapi/plugin-users-permissions”: “4.1.2”.

🤓 Next steps

Migrating the back end code of Strapi to v4 also requires to at least migrate the core features of the Strapi server, such as the configuration, routes, controllers, services, and content-type schemas.