Release Manual 7.0.x

    Upgrade instructions

    For upgrade instructions, refer to Upgrade XL Release.

    Important: If you plan to skip versions when you upgrade, ensure that you read the version-specific upgrade notes for each intermediate version. You may be required to perform manual actions as part of the upgrade.

    XL Release 7.0.2

    XL Release 7.0.2 release notes

    New features

    • [REL-3295] - Do not copy comments on tasks in template when creating a new release
    • [REL-4387] - Better management of the task retries

    Improvements

    • [REL-4788] - Fix CSS for markdown quotes

    Bug fixes

    • [REL-4388] - Variable order in user input task issue
    • [REL-4532] - Support WorkFlowMultiBranchProject in Jenkins
    • [REL-4558] - Disable 'Complete' action for User Input Task when required variables are left empty
    • [REL-4754] - Duplicate Tags accepted using JythonApi
    • [REL-4767] - User input task throws error if release in not started
    • [REL-4779] - Search filter not applied on Release Overview when logging in
    • [REL-4809] - Redirect to "login" screen after successfully logging in with wrong URL
    • [REL-4836] - Can not delete value (variable) of task output property
    • [REL-4855] - /api/v1/releases/byTitle works only for admin user
    • [REL-4891] - Error message on server restart
    • [REL-4953] - Mail notification not sent for Gate tasks
    • [REL-5025] - Unable to create new release variable with the same name as a global variable

    XL Release 7.0.1

    XL Release 7.0.1 release notes

    Improvements

    • [REL-4794] - Help link on Notification Setting screen

    Bug fixes

    • [REL-4505] - Quotes removed from json webhook response
    • [REL-4664] - XL Release long Release/Template titles hidden in Firefox; shortened in other browsers
    • [REL-4751] - Memory leak in plugin task scheduler
    • [REL-4780] - Logo in Notification message not displayed in Outlook
    • [REL-4808] - SMTP authentication fails
    • [REL-4819] - XL Release - XL Deploy plugin connection issue on Windows

    XL Release 7.0.0

    XL Release 7.0.0 is a long-term support (LTS) version that will be supported for a year after it is superseded by the next major LTS release. For more information, refer to Short-term support/Long-term support policy.

    If you are upgrading from XL Release version 6.0.x, make sure you view the release manuals for XL Release 6.1.x and XL Release 6.2.x.

    XL Release 7.0.0 new features

    Edit notification settings

    You can configure the email notification preferences in XL Release by adding or removing events that trigger notifications and by modifying the roles that receive the email notifications. You can edit the default notification email for a specific event and customize the email template that will be sent when the notification event is triggered.

    Added watcher role on tasks

    You can add yourself as a Watcher on tasks to receive email notifications when events occur on those tasks. If you have the edit task permission, you can also add other users as watchers on that specific task.

    Added the XL Deploy plugin for XL Release

    The XL Deploy plugin for XL Release xlr-xld-plugin allows you to start a control task or to start a deployment of an application on XL Deploy. It also provides the functionality to trigger undeployment of an application already deployed on XL Deploy. For more information, refer to Using XL Deploy plugin for XL Release

    Integrated Windows SSO authentication

    XL Release now supports using Integrated Windows Authentication to authenticate users and retrieve role (group) membership without prompting the users for a user name and password (Single Sign-On). In XL Release, Active Directory users and groups become principals that you can assign to roles. To use this feature, you must install the XL Release SPNEGO Authentication plugin that supports the SPNEGO/Kerberos based cryptographic exchange.

    Added new APIs

    New APIs are available in XL Release 7.0.0 for: * User management * Global Roles & Permissions * Folder / template / release permissions

    Export template to Xfile format

    You can view and export a template in Xfile format from the XL Release user interface. For more information about Xfile, refer to Release as code using Xfile.

    Added custom tiles

    As of XL Release version 7.0.0 you can customize the release dashboard by adding new tiles. For a more detailed procedure, refer to Create custom tiles.

    Added permission for managing blackout periods

    Added local permissions to define and edit blackout periods. This allows you to control which users can block or unblock a task during a blackout period. For more information, refer to Set blackout period.

    XL Release 7.0.0 upgrade notes

    Release and template API

    The ReleaseApi.getReleases() and TemplateApi.getTemplates() API methods used to return all releases or templates available in XL Release. This can cause performance problems so these methods were changed to only return 100 releases and support pagination. So if you had a script which relied on getting all the releases or templates from this calls you need to change it to query in pages. You can find how to do that in the documentation: Listing planned or active releases and Listing templates.

    Note that Jython methods releaseApi.getReleases() and templateApi.getTemplates() are now deprecated and you should use releaseApi.getReleases(page, itemsPerPage, depth) and templateApi.getTemplates(title, tags, page, itemsPerPage, depth) instead. The deprecated methods will be removed in future versions of XL Release.

    Improved security of passwords

    In XL Release 7.0.0 the password encryption security has been improved by adding a new security setting. Password values retrieved through the API are now encrypted in scripts and extension points. For custom script tasks, the recommended way to pass a password is through an input property.

    If there is a necessity to read password variable values from the API as unencrypted text, you can disable this new security setting. To do this, add the following line to the configuration file XL_RELEASE_HOME/conf/xl-release.conf and restart the server:

    xl.repository.decryptPasswords = true

    This change will lower the security level of your XL Release instance.

    Access log is enabled by default

    In a clean installation of XL Release the access logging is enabled by default: so XL Release will log all HTTP requests into the file XL_RELEASE_HOME/log/access.log, including the username, IP address of the caller, and how much time it took to process the request.

    If you upgrade to XL Release 7.0.0, please configure your logback.xml file to enable the access log. This will enable XebiaLabs support to better troubleshoot if there is a support issue.

    Tasks for releases without read permissions no longer shown in the My tasks page by default

    The My tasks page will no longer display tasks that are assigned to users if the user does not have read permission to the release containing the task. This change will speed up the performance of the My tasks page as XL Release was scanning the entire repository for tasks that belong to the user, regardless of permissions. If you want to display these tasks, you can do this by adding the following lines to the configuration file XL_RELEASE_HOME/conf/xl-release.conf:

    features {
        taskOverview {
            showTasksFromNonViewableReleases = false
        }
}

    XL Deploy plugin for XL Release

    If you are using the community supported XL Deploy plugin for XL Release, make sure you upgrade to xlr-xldeploy-plugin version 7.0.1. This plugin version works only with XL Deploy 5.5.x or higher.

    Deploy task fails after upgrading to XL Release 7.0.0.
    • Description: If you are using XL Release version 6.2 or earlier with an XL Deploy: Deploy task running and you upgrade to version 7.0.0 and then restart the server, the Deploy task fails with the message Can't find xldeploy/CheckDeploymentStatus.py.
    • Workaround: Retry the XL Deploy: Deploy task to fix the issue.

    Contact XebiaLabs Support if you have hotfixes

    If you have hotfixes installed, contact the XebiaLabs support team before upgrading.

    XL Release 7.0.0 release notes

    New features

    • [REL-2459] - Consistently handle start date, end date, and duration when creating a release
    • [REL-3342] - Use a variable for possible values of a List box variable
    • [REL-3863] - Automatically start a release on the scheduled date
    • [REL-3990] - Create documentation for custom tiles
    • [REL-4155] - Export a template to Xfile format from the UI
    • [REL-4314] - Reset the start dates of affected tasks when deleting or editing a blackout period
    • [REL-4320] - Add permissions for managing blackout periods (define, set, override)
    • [REL-4347] - Add risk score tile on the release dashboard
    • [REL-4439] - Add progress bar with label on release flow screen
    • [REL-4446] - Add TEMPLATE label on templates screen
    • [REL-4469] - Default notification scheme editor on global level
    • [REL-4483] - Add yourself as a watcher on tasks
    • [REL-4484] - Customize email templates
    • [REL-4492] - Notification on flagged task
    • [REL-4497] - Add "due soon" notification
    • [REL-4539] - Make Release Overview the landing page
    • [REL-4541] - Add other user as a watcher on tasks
    • [REL-4547] - Feature toggle for assigned tasks in non-viewable releases
    • [REL-4561] - Create Kerberos/SPNEGO/Windows/AD/LDAP (S)SO plugin
    • [REL-4562] - Set emails with high priority
    • [REL-4564] - Add email templates for release failed and release failing events
    • [REL-4565] - Implement iframe sandbox for tiles
    • [REL-4579] - Notify Task Team when there is no task owner present on a task and only the Task Owner role is configured to receive notifications

    Improvements

    • [REL-2507] - Support CSRF protection for the Jenkins plugin
    • [REL-4289] - Upgrade service wrapper to yajsw-stable-12.08
    • [REL-4426] - Clarify options for date formats
    • [REL-4435] - Add multi-tag search on all screens - release value stream, folders, templates, and release calendar
    • [REL-4436] - Fix inconsistency between Save/No save button on different XLR screens
    • [REL-4506] - Make the User management->Roles screen consistent with Folders->Roles screen
    • [REL-4543] - Enable AccessLogFilter by default
    • [REL-4618] - Task modal - move the Tags section to bottom
    • [REL-4619] - Allow usage of release variables in url property of external script task

    API changes

    • [REL-4128] - Public API: Security
    • [REL-4129] - Public API: User management
    • [REL-4261] - Public API: Add pagination to "Get all releases" endpoint
    • [REL-4512] - Public API: Export template as Groovy Xfile
    • [REL-4581] - Add an optional "scheduledStartDate" argument to create-release API

    Bug fixes

    • [REL-4227] - Unable to see more than 50 folders in a level.
    • [REL-4391] - User without admin permission cannot copy template in root level
    • [REL-4395] - AccessControlException when creating release from DSL
    • [REL-4552] - Script Task can see passwords of other releases
    • [REL-4554] - Unable to create global variable via Jython script task
    • [REL-4566] - Release created in a folder by DSL has wrong permissions
    • [REL-4567] - Scheduled/due dates not set when creating a release using DSL
    • [REL-4621] - External script task cannot use token instead of password
    • [REL-4633] - Unsupported script engine error when running external script task with query parameters
    • [REL-4639] - DSL does not broadcast any XL Release events
    • [REL-4646] - Overdue soon risk calculation does not work when no user activity
    • [REL-4650] - Precondition wipes input variables
    • [REL-4688] - Can't rename a folder to a new name if it has & or # character
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