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Release Notes - Version 3.1

Graphical Workflow Definition

Project workflows can now graphically define the workflow. This makes the workflow more intuitive and provides a visualization of the workflow execution as well as a single location to manage the workflow definition.

Project Activity Removal

Project Activities have been removed for simplification and ease of configuration. The two pieces of information on the activity, agent filter and concurrency, have been divided between what the activity once connected, the job configuration and workflow. Job configurations now have a agent filter and the workflow can now handle running jobs concurrently. The upgrade will handle the removal of activities and the separation of the information to job configuration and workflow automatically.

Job Iteration

Within the workflow definition, you can define a job to run a specified number of times. This is useful if you need to perform the same job configuration but with different inputs. You can define the job iterations to run in parallel or serially. Currently, each job iteration has its iteration number available as a job property 'anthill.job.iteration'. The ability to create specific properties for each iteration will be available in future releases.

Working Directory Scripts

Working directory scripts have been implemented as a configuration outside of projects. You can manage these from Work Dir Scripts link on the Administration tab. The upgrade will automatically create working directory scripts from existing scripts. You will want to go through the working directory scripts created during the upgrade and give them meaningful names

JIRA Integration

JIRA Integration was added. You can now create issues, resolve issues, add comments to issues based on repository change logs, and create issue reports based on repository change logs. These were implemented as steps that can be added as publishers to job configurations. There is also a central JIRA integration configuration within the System tab for specifying the configuration with the JIRA server.

Cleanup Policies

Cleanup policies have been implemented as a configuration outside of projects. These can be managed from the Cleanup Policies link on the Administration tab. Cleanup policies belong to a specific Status group. They run based upon a schedule and will clean up build lives, build requests and miscellaneous jobs according to the configurations you choose. Projects now reference a cleanup policy instead of having the configuration embedded. The upgrade will automatically create cleanup policies from your existing project configurations. You will want to go through and name these appropriately.

Quiet Period Changes

Project quiet period configuration has been moved from the project main page to its own Quiet Period tab. An option to not use the quiet period has also been added. This is only recommended for use when you are configuring your projects to get them working as it saves time. You can also configure an option on workflows to skip the quiet period. This is useful if you want a continuous integration build and a nightly build on the same project. The continuous integration build would want a quiet period and the nightly would not need it.

Project Triggers

Triggers have been moved from the main project configuration screen to a tab on the workflow. This is more intuitive since they directly correspond to a single workflow. Also, the URLs for repository triggers have changed. In the prior version, the URL was not secure if you were using HTTPS. It now supports security. If you have existing repository triggers you will need to reconfigure the triggers. More information on this is available in the online help of the application in the 'How To' - 'Repository Triggers' section.

Other Improvements

• Charts and graphs can be generated in reports to provide a visual representation of the data.
• Environment Properties accessible in scripts using the ${property:...} format.
• $buildlife.LatestStamp.StampValue no longer shows up in emails for builds that fail quickly. It is replaced by a blank now.
• Copying projects copies the associated dependencies
• More shared settings display what they are used in.
• An agent variable pointing to the agent root has been added.
• Clearcase: Putting cleartool.exe in the cleartool path made optional. Agent variables useable here too.
• Build life search page displays date information.
• Artifact sets total size is displayed.
• Users can be looked up by user name.
• Workflow Properties: Added an optional user friendly label, default values.
• Added links to things displayed in the current activities screen.
• "Server group" has been renamed to "environment" to make it consistent with Environment Groups
• Various UI tweaks to hide advanced settings.
• Groovy: Updated to more recent version, corrected GROOVY_HOME, other improvements.
• Installer: Validates more of the values entered.
• Maven: Added Maven properties to allow for more customization of how it's run.

Bug Fixes

There were over fifty bug fixes in this release. Major ones include:

• Dependencies no longer stall on some transitive build cases.
• Event processing can no longer freeze up.
• StarTeam passwords no longer displayed in logs.
• Maven builder now provides appropriate default values and correctly identifies required fields.
• Errors in project, codestation project, repository and job deletion corrected.
• Improved handling of dependencies when unarchiving builds.
• Graphical installer no longer fails when installing only an agent.
• Errors sending notifications on one medium no longer interfere with sending on other mediums.
• Server now shuts down reliably.
• The server no longer needs to be restarted for mail settings to take effect.
• PVCS username and password used consistently.
• Change log step skipped for the first build of a project.