Previous guidance on Custom Components advised users to update (recompile) their custom components with every new release of GeoEvent Server. This advice is no longer applicable, and should be replaced with the following strategy:
When creating a custom compoent for GeoEvent Server, the GeoEvent SDK version you compile the component with does NOT have to match your version of ArcGIS GeoEvent Server. When creating the component, you should compile against the earliest version of the SDK that you can, then test to verify your custom component works with the version of GeoEvent you are on. Or, if you don't aticipate having to be backward compatible (and you are already using a version that is 10.4 or greater), you can compile against your GeoEvent Server's current version SDK and expect to not have to compile it again for later releases.
In general, anything compiled against GeoEvent SKD 10.4.0 should be compatible with any release of GeoEvent Server 10.4 or later (up to the latest release). Components compiled against GeoEvent SDK versions previous to 10.4.0 will not work with the current versions of GeoEvent Server. If you have a custom component that was created using a version of the GeoEvent SDK prior to the 10.4.0 version, you must recompile it and redeploy it.
Once your component is compiled without error, you should test it against your current version of GeoEvent Server. In rare occaisons, a component may compile against an earlier version of the SDK, but not deploy correctly on the current version of GeoEvent Server.
There is an advantage to this change in strategy: When you upgrade GeoEvent Server, you should not have to upgrade every custom component. If it deployes and works, stick with what you've got. The main reason for this is, when you upgrade a custom component to a new version, you must re-create all of the inputs, outputs, or processors for that new version. So, unless you are fixing a bug or enhancing your component, you will not need to upgrade your custom component.
For this reason, you will find the following note on the GeoEvent Gallery Items as we update them:
NOTE: The release strategy for ArcGIS GeoEvent Server components delivered on the ArcGIS GeoEvent Server Gallery has been updated. Going forward, a new release will only be created when a component has an issue, is being enhanced with new capabilities, or is not compatible with new versions of ArcGIS GeoEvent Server. This strategy makes upgrades of these custom components easier since you will not have to upgrade them for every release of ArcGIS GeoEvent Server unless a new version of that connector is released. The documentation for the latest release has been updated and includes instructions for updating your configuration to align with this strategy. We apologize for any inconvenience this change in strategy causes.
