Release Notes - Version 3.4

This release was focused on an overhaul of the user interface. A new style is present across the interface. A number of new features are available as well. The most significant is the introduction of library workflow and jobs which allow a single job to be shared by a number of similar projects.

Updated user interface

For version 3.4, the User Interface underwent significant changes to increase user productivity and make AnthillPro more intuitive. Now Ajax enabled, version 3.4 combines many common processes reducing the time users spend navigating from page to page. The dashboard has been overhauled, and now provides the facility to put related projects into a hierarchy of folders. Most of the functions in the Administration tab have been moved to the System tab. The Administration tab is now focused exclusively on projects, workflows and jobs.

• Changes and My Builds Tabs. AnthillPro 3.4 features the addition of two tabs to the Dashboard: The Changes and My Builds tabs. The changes tab presents source code changes across builds and the My Builds tab displays builds and requests the user triggered.
• Workflow Level. AnthillPro 3.4 introduces the Workflow level to the Dashboard, where you can run builds and drill down on specific Build Lives. This provides a filter on the old project level dashboard to restrict the view by build workflow.

Job and Workflow Libraries

Version 3.4 introduces libraries for jobs and workflows. Jobs and workflows no longer have to exist within a project. Jobs and workflows that exist outside a project can be shared between any number of projects. This should save teams configuration time when many projects are built, tested or deployed in the same way.

Maven2 Dependency Integration

The Maven 2 integration allows AnthillPro 3.4 and Maven 2 to work in tandem. Dependency resolution relies on project and workflow properties identifying your Codestation/AnthillPro projects as Maven-enabled. Dependencies will still be configured in Maven; however, after the patch is installed Codestation will check to see if the project you are building is in AnthillPro; if it is, Codestation pulls down and checks the dependency graph. If the dependency is found, it will be pulled down. If Codestation does not find the dependency, or the project is not in AnthillPro, Codestation will then check for the dependency in every Maven repository AnthillPro can access. If it finds the dependency, it will pull it down from the appropriate Maven repository.

Improved Error Display

Drilling down from the dashboard, to the project, to the build life, to the job, to a failing step's log is a bit onerous when debugging a failed build or deployment. Now, once you reach the build life or job, the most recent failure will be displayed. Based on the error detection in the failing step's post-processor, Anthill will display the section of the log containing the errors and provide links straight into the logs with those errors. Additionally, more log information is generated for many steps and common error messages have been made more user friendly.

Restarting Failed Workflows

Workflows can be restarted from any step in the process. If a step late in a long running process fails due to an environmental problem, restarting from a step can save time relative to rerunning the workflow.

Lifecycle Model

Version 3.4 rolls the concepts of status groups, artifact set groups, clean-up policies and stamp styles in a single life cycle model. This supports workflow jobs which are configured to operate against a given lifecycle model.

Integration News

• Microsoft SqlServer supported as a back-end database..
• SourceGear Vault supported as a source repository.
• Synergy supported as a source repository.
• Microsoft Team Foundation Server supported as a source repository.
• MsBuild added as a builder.

CodeStation Improvements

• The CodeStation client can now resolve a project's own artifacts in addition to dependencies.
• CodeStation will now detect when the cache no longer matches the artifacts on the server for a build life and will refresh the cache as needed.
• CodeStation Ant task can now clean a single project from the local repository.

Other Notable New Features and Improvements

• Guest accounts can be created for teams that want to provide a public, read only, view of their AnthillPro system.
• Builders can now contain the actual build scripts they run. So if an organization wants to standardize on a single Nant script, that script can be added to a library job and be managed centrally.
• Workspace locking: Now, by default, Anthill will not permit two jobs to execute in the same working directory on the same machine at the same time. This should help prevent build collisions.
• Windows Tray available for users to download and install on their desktops. The tray icon will provide feedback about recent build status.
• Workflows can be given priority. When run with a priority, a workflow will be run immediately and any other jobs competing or resources will be suspended to allow the priority workflow to complete quickly.
• Manual tasks can now be configured to allow the user to select one of several actions to take. The question is also scriptable.
• Cleanup policies can now be run manually in addition to scheduled.
• Workflow's properties may be given a set of allowed values. End users of this workflow will be prompted with a drop down select box to pick which value they want to use for a given workflow.
• System directories can now be overridden by editing the server/conf/server/installed.properties file. The settings that can be modified are:
  • anthill3.var.dir - Common var directory
  • anthill3.logs.dir - Common log directory
  • anthill3.temp.dir - Common temp directory
  • anthill3.artifacts.dir - Server artifacts directory
  • anthill3.codestation.dir - Server codestation storage directory
  • anthill3.publish.dir - Server published files directory
  • anthill3.reports.dir - Server reports directory
  • anthill3.mavencache.dir - Server Maven2 cache directory
• Project Environment properties can be automatically passed to Ant, Maven, MsBuild and Nant builders as properties. The option to pass them automatically to all steps as environment variables remains as well.
• Job steps can be copied.
• Additional time zone names have been added.
• All date formats are localized to the standard date format of the server.
• Agents that are referenced by fixed agent filters are no longer deleteable.
• Report names are now dynamic and scriptable.
• The AnthillPro server is now an Eclipse update site for the Anthill Eclipse plugins.
• Secure parameters must now be typed twice to prevent typos that can't be seen from causing problems.
• Schedules can be temporarily paused / disabled. When paused, no triggers tied to it will fire. When resumed, it will operate as normal.
• All job properties, including the stamp and workspace date are displayed on the job trace page.
• Notes can be added to build lives. Explain why a build was rejected by QA or sent to production without going through all the prior environments.