TeamForge 19.3 has a lot of new features and enhancements. Here's a list of a few release-defining new features in TeamForge 19.3.

Release Information

  • Released on: October 30, 2019
  • GA Version: 19.3.382-652

Ad Hoc Query Support for Webhooks-based Event Broker Databases

The Admin > System Tools > Ad Hoc Database Query page.

Two new data store options, Baseline and WEBR, have been added to the Admin > System Tools >Ad Hoc Database Query page to let you query the Baseline and Webhooks-based Event Broker databases respectively. For more information, see Query the TeamForge Database (Ad Hoc Query Database).

Options to query the Baseline and Webr databases

Pre-submit and Post-submit Webhooks for Tracker Artifacts

You can have pre-submit and post-submit webhooks configured to enforce business rules on tracker artifacts and deliver custom-formatted event messages to other tools respectively. These webhooks are triggered when certain tracker events occur such as artifact create, update, move, clone or delete.

Pre-submit and post-submit webhooks for tracker artifacts are built on top of the TeamForge Webhooks-based Event Broker (WEBR), which is a webhook-driven message broker delivered as a microservice along with TeamForge.

For more information, see Set up Webhooks for Tracker Artifacts.

Webhooks for Tracker Artifacts

My Workspace

A new option, Documents, has been added to the Add new widget pane of My Workspace page. For more information, see My Workspace Widgets.

Documents Widget

You can now add the Documents widget to your My Workspace page.

New "Documents" widget option

Select the Documents option from the Add new widget page and click Add selected widgets to add the Documents widget to your My Workspace page.

Click the Edit widget configuration (gear icon) on the Documents widget and select the criteria based on which the documents would get listed on the Documents Widget.

Filter criteria based on which documents get listed on the "Documents" widget
Documents Widget listing documents in selected project and other filter criteria

Trackers

Here’s a list of enhancements made to the Trackers component in TeamForge.

Attachment Reminder for Tracker Artifacts

Have you ever forgotten to attach files when creating or updating Tracker Artifacts? If yes, the Attach Reminder feature comes in handy to alert you in case you’ve missed attaching the files while submitting an artifact.

If you’ve included the required keyword in the Description field on the Create Artifact page or in the Comment Text field on the View Artifact page, the Attachment Reminder dialog shows up, when you try to save the changes without attaching the files.

Attachment Reminder, if keyword is included in the Description field on the Create Artifact page.

Attachment Reminder alert, if keyword is included in the Description field

Attachment Reminder, if keyword is included in the Comment Text field of the View Artifact page.

Artifact Reminder alert, if keyword is included in the Comment Text field

For more information on this feature and the list of keywords, see Create Tracker Artifacts and Edit Tracker Artifacts.

Handling Simultaneous Updates to the Same Artifact

Previously, when you update a Tracker artifact that has been updated simultaneously by another user, a version mismatch error is thrown directing you to reload the page and your changes were not retained.

To handle this much better, the “Overwrite” feature is implemented in TeamForge 19.3. From now on, if you try to update an artifact that has been simultaneously updated by another user, you will get an alert to let you add your changes over other user’s changes or cancel to view the changes done by the other user.

"Overwrite" Alert message

Click Overwrite to update your changes on top of the other user’s changes. If you edited the same field that has been edited by the other user, your change replaces the other user’s changes.

Click Cancel, if you want to view/verify other user’s changes before saving your changes. After verifying the other user’s changes, you can proceed to save your changes using the Save or Save and Close option or leave the artifact with only the changes of the other user.

Support for Tracker Artifacts with Parent Artifacts in the Backlog Items Swimlane of Task Board

Earlier, the Tracker Artifacts without parent artifacts and with/without dependent or child artifacts were only displayed in the Backlog Items swimlane for a selected planning folder on the Task Board.

From TeamForge 19.3, all the artifacts which have parent artifacts are also shown in the Backlog Items swimlane. In other words, the Backlog Items swimlane now shows all the artifacts irrespective of their dependencies.

Reports

Selection of Multiple Planning Folders in Tracker Reports

Prior to TeamForge 19.3, when creating a Tracker report in a project, you can select only one planning folder within the same project. From TeamForge 19.3, you can select multiple planning folders from current project and across projects, when creating a Tracker report. For more information, see under “Tracker reports” in Table Reports: Task and Tracker Reports.

Multiple Planning Folders selected in current project
Multiple Planning Folders selected in other projects

Documents

The existing Documents list page has been redesigned for a better user experience. Beta version of this redesigned Documents list page (beta) is available from TeamForge 19.3. You can toggle between the existing and the redesigned Document list page using the Try the Beta toggle button on the Documents list page.

Most of the existing features are brought into the redesigned (beta) view. The UI enhancements in the redesigned Documents list page (beta) gives an enriched user experience.

Some of the noteworthy changes on the redesigned Documents list (beta) page are:

  • The left navigation menu has been completely revamped with the following menus.

    • All Files—This drop-down menu accommodates the Documents Root document folder itself. By default, the root document folder contents are displayed in the Documents list view. However, if you work on a different document folder, then that document folder structure is shown the next time you go to the Documents home page.
    • Recent Files—When selected, displays the recently added, modified, and viewed documents.
    • Favorites—When selected, dispays the documents set as favorites.
    Refurbished Documents Home Page Menu
  • In the redesigned list page (beta), the document name and the document id are grouped and shown under the single Name column. Here the document id is a link whereas the document name is a plain text in contrast to the existing list page, where both the document name and document id are shown in separate columns with the document name linked.

    Existing List View: Document Name and Document ID as separate columns
    Redesigned List View: Document Name and Document ID (link) shown under "Name" column
  • The action buttons for performing operations such as monitoring, move, and copy in the existing Documents list page are changed into action icons and placed at the top of the redesigned Documents list page (beta). Here the bell icon represents the monitoring feature and the more (…) option captures the operations such as New Folder, Rename, Move/Copy, Download, and Monitoring Users.

    Monitoring, Move, and Copy as Action Icons

Here’s a list of what’s new and what has been enhanced on the redesigned Documents list page (beta).

Maximum Download Size and Limit for Documents

If the size of the total number of documents being downloaded exceeds the size specified in the site-options.conf token MAX_DOCUMENTS_DOWNLOAD_SIZE, an error is thrown. Similarly, if the number of documents being downloaded exceeds the limit specified in the site-options.conf token MAX_DOCUMENTS_DOWNLOAD_LIMIT, an error is thrown.

File Releases

Here’s a list of enhancements made to the File Releases component in TeamForge.

Audit/Change Log for File Releases

Similar to Tracker Artifacts and Documents, you can now track the changes specific to a file release from the Change Log tab introduced in TeamForge 19.3.

The following are tracked in the Change Log tab:

  • Changes to the name, description, status, and maturity of a file release.

  • When associations are added to or removed from a file release.

  • When a file is added, updated, and deleted in a file release.

"Change Log" tab that tracks changes to a file release

TeamForge Baseline

Here’s the enhancement made to the Baseline component in TeamForge.

Export Approved Baselines/Project Baselines to Excel

You can now export all approved Baselines (item) and Project Baselines using the Export to Excel option on the View Baseline or View Project Baseline page.

"Export to Excel" option for approved Baselines

The name of the downloaded excel file has the format “[baseline_id]baseline_name”. For instance, if you export the baseline “export_baseline” with the id “base1015”, the name of the result excel file reads as “[base1015]export_baseline”.

If the baseline name has a special character other than an underscore (“_”) or if the baseline has a space in its name, it will be replaced with an underscore (“_”) in the name of the downloaded excel file. For example, when the baseline “test baseline for export#1” is exported, the downloaded excel file name reads as “[base1033]test_baseline_for_export_1”.

The excel file has worksheets for each component included in the exported Baseline or Project Baseline. Each worksheet has as many number of columns as the manifest fields for each component.

TeamForge Webhooks-based Event Broker

Here’s a list of enhancements made to the TeamForge Webhooks-based Event Broker.

TeamForge CLI—Enhancements and Bug Fixes

The latest TeamForge CLI version 1.9.12.3 is now available and is supported on:

  • 64-bit Linux (RHEL 6.x and 7.x)

  • 64-bit Windows 10

  • 64-bit Mac OS

Here’s a list of feature enhancements and bug fixes:

Features/Enhancements

  • Support for all methods of TeamForge related REST API calls—GET, PUT, PATCH, POST, DELETE, OPTIONS and HEAD.

  • validjson command has been introduced to validate JSON content, which can be passed as request content or returned as response content in REST API calls.

  • printjson command has been introduced for pretty printing JSON content for better reading.

Bug Fixes

Fixed the issue due to which the error message “ETag missing” was shown for the PATCH method of the Foundation API “Projects -> Update project data”.

GitAgile™—Enterprise Version Control

TeamForge—Git Integration is based on Gerrit version 2.15.17.

Download Folders from a Git Repository

From TeamForge 19.3, you can not only download individual files, but also the folders from a Git repository. A new icon Download this folder as a ZIP file ( ) is added to the View tab of the Code Browser for each repository and for every individual folder within the repository.

Select the Git repository and click this icon to download the files and folders residing in the selected repository.

Downloads the files and folders in the repository as a ZIP file

To download an individual folder within a Git repository, select a folder in the repository and click this download zip file icon.

Downloads the files and folders in the individual folder of the repository as a ZIP file

The name of the zip folder downloaded directly from a repository is named after the repository with the keyword “master” appended to it (say “git1master.zip” for the repository “git1”), while the zip folder downloaded from an individual folder within the repository has the name of the folder itself (say, “newtest.zip” for the folder “newtest”).

Support for Relative Paths to Files, Folders, and Images in Markdown Files

You can now add relative paths of files, folders, and images either as inline-style links or as reference-style links to the markdown files from within the Code Browser.

  • When you add the relative path of an image in the markdown file as an inline-style link or as a reference-style link as illustrated below, the image file is rendered on saving the markdown file.

    Relative path to an image in 'Readme.md' file
    Image rendered as referenced in its relative path
  • When you add the relative path of a file in the markdown file as an inline-style link, say [This is a link to a file](new) or as a reference-style link, a link to the file is added on saving the markdown file.

    Relative path to a file in 'Readme.md' file
    Link to a file as referenced in its relative path

    Click this link to view the file content.

    Content of the 'new' file
  • When you add the relative path of a folder in the markdown file as an inline-style link, say [This is a link to a folder](testqa) or as a reference-style link, a link to the folder is added on saving the markdown file.

    Relative path to a folder in 'Readme.md' file
    Link to a folder as referenced in its relative path

    Click this link to view the folder contents.

    Contents of the 'testqa' folder

Ignore Whitespaces in Code Diff View

A new Ignore whitespace option has been implemented in TeamForge 19.3 to let you get rid of any leading whitespaces, trailing whitespaces, and whitespaces in the middle of a line in your code, while viewing the differences in the code from the Code Browser.

The Ignore whitespace option is disabled by default. When it is disabled, you can view the code changes along with the whitespaces.

Code changes including whitespaces

If you enable it, all the whitespaces (leading, trailing and the middle) in your code are excluded in the code diff view. In other words, only the code changes are shown.

Code changes excluding whitespaces

Configurable Checkout Command for Git Repositories

Prior to TeamForge 19.3, by default, the checkout command/clone URL of a Git repository, included the SCP-based commit message hook for SSH protocol and cURL-based commit message hook for HTTP protocol.

From now on, you can modify the checkout command settings for both HTTPS and SSH protocols to include either the SCP-based or cURL-based commit message hook in their clone URL, using the two new parameters, HTTPS HOOK FETCH COMMAND and SSH HOOK FETCH COMMAND (Admin > Integrations > <Git hostname> page). This setting applies across projects on your site.

"HTTPS HOOK FETCH COMMAND" and "SSH HOOK FETCH COMMAND" parameters

For instance, if you want the checkout command for HTTPS protocol to include SCP-based commit message hook, you can select the option SCP from the HTTPS HOOK FETCH COMMAND parameter.

HTTPS clone URL with SCP-based commit message hook

You can also include the cURL-based commit message hook in the HTTPS checkout command by selecting the cURL option from HTTPS HOOK FETCH COMMAND.

HTTPS checkout command with cURL-based commit message hook

Similarly, you can select the option cURL from the SSH HOOK FETCH COMMAND parameter to include the cURL-based commit message hook in the checkout command for SSH protocol, if required.

SSH checkout command with CURL-based commit message hook

You can select the SCP option to get the SCP-based commit message hook included for SSH protocol.

SSH clone URL with SCP-based commit message hook

Support for Unified Diff View of Images in Code Browser

You can now compare the differences between versions of an image file in unified diff view of code browser.

Two modes of viewing differences between image versions are available:

  • Image Opacity—In this mode, which is shown by default, you can use the Revision image opacity slider to increase or decrease the opacity of both the base image and the revised image.

    For instance, with the slider in the middle, you can view the base image with revisions prominently shown at a single glance.

    Shows the differences between the base and the revised image

    Enable the Scale to same size option in this mode to scale both the versions of the image that differ in size, to fit into the frame.

    Option to scale both the image versions to fit the frame
  • Highlight Image Differences—You can switch to the Highlight Image Differences mode, if you want the changes in the revised image to be highlighted using a color. You can also view the changes in a transparent mode.

    For instance, from the image with the Ignore Colors option enabled, and the Transparent Mode option disabled, you can clearly make out the revised parts of the image as they are shaded with the selected color.

    Image with the "Ignore Colors" option enabled and "Transparent Mode" option disabled

    The threshold value for showing the changes is set to size 1200px X 1200px. Hence for images with size larger than 1200px X 1200px, only the changes included within this threshold value (1200px X 1200px) are shown and the changes in the remaining portion of the image are ignored and highlighted with the selected color.

    You may want to view the image in its original size because in both the image opacity and the Highlight Image Differences modes, images of any size fit into the frame. To view the image in full size in a new tab, click the VIEW FULL SIZED button.

    For more information on viewing the image differences and for the available options in these two modes, see Support for Unified Diff View of Images in Code Browser.

Inclusion of LFS Data in Downloaded Zip Archives of Git Repositories and Repository Tags

LFS data are now included in the downloaded zip folders of both the Git repositories and the repository tags. For more information, LFS Data in Downloaded Zip Archives of Git Repositories and Repository Tags.

Downloaded zip archive with LFS data

Bug Fixes

  • Two email notifications were sent at a time for a single import failure. Also, the error message in the email was generic for different issues. This is fixed. A single email notification, with an appropriate error message, is now sent on a failed import.
  • Code review comments were not displayed, when the Rich text comments option (toggle) was enabled. This issue is fixed.
  • A user, who is the member of a user group having Tracker admin and Planning Folder admin permissions in a specific project, was not able to access the Team information in that project via the REST API calls. This issue is fixed.
  • Usernames are not logged in the SSL access log file of TeamForge for git clone and git push operations over HTTPS protocol. This issue is fixed.

Also see: Bug Fixes in Gerrit 2.15.17.

Install/Upgrade

  • RHEL/CentOS 7.7 is supported from TeamForge 19.3.

  • From TeamForge 19.3, TeamForge Webhooks-based Event Broker is installed automatically when you install/upgrade TeamForge. In other words, you don’t have to run the command yum install teamforge-webr separately.

  • Review Board has been upgraded to version 3.0.15. TeamForge 19.3 supports Review Board 3.0.15 on RHEL/CentOS 7.7 and Review Board 2.5.6.1 on RHEL/CentOS 6.10.

  • Wildfly 17.0.1 is the latest software version supported by TeamForge.

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