Clean Up Legacy Version References in NGINX Plus Live Activity Monitoring Doc

[travisamartin]

Overview

The Live Activity Monitoring documentation currently includes numerous references to features introduced in legacy versions of NGINX Plus—some going as far back as R9 (GA in 2016). Since we only support the last two NGINX Plus releases (currently R34 and R33), these older version references are no longer relevant and may confuse readers by framing standard features as “new.”

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Why This Matters

• Calling out features from 2016 (e.g., “introduced in R9”) is outdated in 2025.
• Removing legacy version callouts simplifies the content and improves readability.
• It aligns the doc with our support policy and avoids giving unnecessary prominence to deprecated or old versions.

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What Needs to Be Done

• Remove specific version mentions that predate the last two supported releases.
• Keep the focus on what’s possible now, not what was introduced years ago.
• Review the full doc for consistency and remove any outdated versioning language.

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Suggested Edits (Actual Examples)

1. REST API introduction (R14)

❌ “NGINX REST API available since NGINX Plus Release 14...”
✅ “The NGINX REST API provides extended status information, server and key-value store management...”

2. Superseded modules (R14–R16)

❌ “Note: Prior to NGINX Plus R14... Starting from R16...”
✅ “Earlier versions used the status and upstream_conf modules, which are now fully replaced by the api module.”
Or just:
✅ “The api module replaces the older status and upstream_conf modules for monitoring and management.”

3. Swagger UI and OpenAPI spec (R25–R26)

❌ “Prior to NGINX Plus Release 25, the Swagger UI was shipped... Since NGINX Plus Release 26...”
✅ “The OpenAPI YAML specification and Swagger UI are published separately from NGINX Plus packages.”

Or more succinctly:

✅ “The Swagger UI is no longer bundled with NGINX Plus; it is published separately, below.”

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Resources

• 📄 Live Activity Monitoring Documentation
• 📝 NGINX Plus Release Notes

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Impact

This is a small but meaningful update that helps keep the documentation accurate, current, and easier to maintain going forward.

[RMDavidson]

• Do you want any version numbers listed at all?
• What is the newest version? The section titled Getting statistics with the API uses version 9 as an example in the URL breakdown.