Release Notes

Plastic SCM 7.0 is officially out!

7.0 was first introduced back in December 18th 2017 (release 7.0.16.1857) as a preview and was finally moved as official with BL2047.

COMPATIBILITY

7.0 is backwards compatible with 6.0 and 5.4.

* Compatibility is marked by the middle number *16* in the full version number, and it didn't change since 5.4.

* We strongly recommend to update all clients and servers, but progressive roll outs of the new versions are totally possible, which is especially helpful in big deployments.

WHAT IS NEW:

These are some of new features in 7.0:

* New Branch Explorer design (applies to all platforms).

* New web-based server admin tool: it was previewed as a late 6.0, but it is now officially supported in 7.0. http://blog.plasticscm.com/2017/10/webadmin-introducing-new-server-admin.html

* Gluon for Linux and Mac: the tool and workflow for non-coders is now available in all platforms.

* Attributes support for Linux and OS X GUIs.

* Greatly improved Bamboo DevOps support: http://blog.plasticscm.com/2018/03/devops-atlassian-bamboo-plasticscm.html

* Greatly reviewed command line help and usage.

* OS X usability improvements and restyling.

* Added support for Polarion 3.17.1+

* Windows GUI: much better responsiveness since lots of calls made in the main thread were removed. Clearly noticeable with distant servers (like Cloud).

WHAT IS COMING:

7.0 past pace evolution continues with new weekly releases. Here are some of the great features in the backlog:

* Merge-to with full conflict resolution: ability to do workspace-less merges with conflict resolution. Great for teams with full test automation.

* Enhanced DevOps: we are working on improving the integrations with TeamCity and Jenkins as we recently did for Bamboo. DevOps is a core priority for us.

* MergeBot as DevOps core: Plastic server will be able to run merges when branches are ready and trigger builds in CI systems.

* New WebUI: we are working on a full redesign of the web interface to browse repositories, perform code reviews, run diffs. It will be auto-deployed with the regular server as the WebAdmin does.

* More flexible workspaces: regular Plastic (developer mode) will be able to work in "partial mode" (Gluon mode) to enable more flexibility. We are also considering the option to mix working in full and partial mode together, for teams who require more flexibility.

* Improved code review: one of the big requests from customers. We will be finally working on updating the core feature and pushing it to the next level.

Bamboo CI Plugin can now update branch attributes based on the branch status.

Example: when a build starts, a 'status' attribute on the branch can be set to 'testing', then updated to 'failed', 'passed' or even 'integrated' depending on the final result.

This feature is key to implement a DevOps pipeline using Bamboo and Plastic SCM.

For further info about DevOps, trunk based development and task-per-branch check:

* A DevOps Primer

* DevOps with Bamboo and Plastic

To configure a Plastic repository in Bamboo and enable this new options:

1. Enable Enabled plan branch filtering (feature recently launched and explained in the 7.0.16.1995 release notes),

2. New fields will appear to set a given attribute name with a desired value when Bamboo triggers one the following events:

* A plan branch starts its build plan

* A plan branch build fails

* A plan branch build succeeds

* A plan branch is automatically merged (only if gatekeeper automatic merge feature is enabled).

The allowed values for these fields are <attribute_name>=<attribute_value>

Examples:

status=testing
status=failed
status=passed
status=integrated

REMARK: remember the <attribute_name> has to be previously created in plastic repository! Example:

cm mkatt status

(The attribute can be also created through Windows GUI too)

Windows GUI: The 'items' preview now supports IrfanView as an external viewer. IrfanView is a famous image viewer sofware that supports several image types. Now you can generate item previews of some image files using IrfanView as an external preview provider. To configure it just go to Preferences -> Preview tools -> Add, select it from the combo, and adjust the settings.