JIRA 3.2 Release Notes

Atlassian Software Systems is proud to announce the latest release of the issue tracking and project management application - JIRA 3.2 (download). Following the tradition of frequent and worthwhile upgrades, JIRA 3.2 once again raises the bar in the professional issue tracking arena with a host of new features, improvements and bug fixes. Included in this release:

• Customisable fields for transitions
• Tabbed field screens
• Contextual custom fields
• Extended Bulk Edit Capabilities
• Improved internationalisation
• Improved performance
• ...and much more!

JIRA just got a whole lot better!

Contents

1. New Features
2. Improvements
3. Bug Fixes

New Features

Field Screens

JIRA 3.2 allows configuration of field position and visibility for each issue operation and in Professional and Enterprise editions for each workflow transition screen.

Each page on which you view and enter data for an issue is now a customisable "field screen". This provides for a flexible, more intuitive interface, with the ability to configure exactly which fields are presented for each operation. Each screen contains only those fields that directly relate to the operation being performed - while fields that do not relate to the operation can be hidden.

For example, it is possible to configure the 'Create Issue' screen to display the 'Assignee' field, while hiding this field in the 'Edit Issue' screen. It is also possible to configure JIRA such that certain fields (including custom fields) appear only on specific workflow transitions: for example, if you have a 'QA Contact' custom field, you can now configure JIRA to ensure that it is shown only on the 'Close Issue' transition.

Field Screen Tabs

With JIRA Enterprise edition, you aren't even limited to a single field screen. Each page can have its fields divided amongst a group of tabs, creating a less cluttered environment as less used fields (e.g. attachments) can be placed in separate tabs.

Contextual Custom Fields

Custom fields have been enhanced even further to allow greater flexibility and potential for customisation. Custom Fields are no longer limited to a single project or issue type, but can be shared between multiple issue types and multiple projects. Gone is the need to create the same custom field over and over again. Custom fields can be defined within a specified context or set of issue types, allowing them to be defined exactly where you need them.

Custom fields related to several projects and/or issue types can be configured to appear for those projects and/or issue types. For example, a custom field 'Customer ID' could be associated with the 'Sales' and 'Customer Info' projects, while a custom field 'Operating System' could be associated with the 'Bug' and 'Improvement' issue types in the 'Support' project.

With configuration contexts, the same custom fields can still be configured differently for each project: for example having different default values.

Extended Bulk Edit

Further extending the bulk edit functionality, it is now possible to bulk edit more fields - a much requested feature. The list of fields that can be modified has been extended to include:

• Due Date
• Reporter
• Issue Security Level
• Issue Type

The bulk edit of assignee also works across multiple projects - allowing the selection of only valid assignees across all projects.

Internationalisation - Viva la JIRA!

Issue Constant Translations

Continuing our commitment to a fully internationalisable issue manager, JIRA 3.2 provides the ability to translate all issue settings - i.e. Priorities, Statuses, Issue Types and Resolutions. This allows for even more complete translations to present JIRA to each user in their own chosen language.

Hence, users who have selected the French locale will be presented with the French translations for the issue settings, while the Spanish users will be presented with the Spanish translations. The translations are presented throughout the JIRA interface - in issue creation/editing/viewing, reports, portlets, etc.

New Language Pack

With the addition of Traditional Chinese, JIRA's user interface can be displayed in 12 languages.

Subversion - Multiple Repositories Support

The most popular JIRA Subversion plugin feature request has been addressed with support for multiple repositories now included in the latest plugin release. This allows users to map multiple JIRA projects to multiple Subversion repositories.

New Portlets

JIRA 3.2 introduces the Voted Issues and Watched Issues portlets - respectively showing the issues voted for and watched by the current user. These portlets can be added to the dashboard in the normal manner - providing quick access to the data you need.

Shortcuts

Navigating through JIRA is now quicker than ever with the addition of a number of shortcuts. Every form - from issue creation to editing a version - in JIRA can be submitted with the shortcut ALT+S. Form submission can be canceled using the shortcut ALT+` (ALT + backquote).

For more information on keyboard shortcuts please see our documentation.

Profile Email

In order to protect against spammers harvesting email addresses from JIRA, this release includes the functionality to hide the email addresses located on the user profile page. It is possible to configure the display of this information as follows:

• Show
• Hide
• Mask (e.g. 'user@example.com' becomes 'user at example dot com')
• Show to logged in users only

Improvements

Performance - JIRA goes to boot camp!

One of the main goals of this release was to improve on overall performance of JIRA and there are major improvements in memory usage and speed. Utilising the Lucene search engine and some clever coding, some of the notable enhancements include:

• Issue Navigator
  • Much quicker searching and Sorting (usually under 1s)

• Browse Project
  • Quicker Project, Popular Issues and Open Issues reports benefit with up to 10x improvement

• Portlets
  • Project portlet is now 2x faster
  • Assigned to Me portlet is up to 10x faster and more efficient

• Importing and Indexing
  • Restoring JIRA backups or upgrading to a new version of JIRA is now 2x faster.

Smart Query - let JIRA find it for you!

The 'Smart Query' functionality within JIRA has been further extended to provide easy access to commonly requested searches. For example, entering the query 'unresolved' will direct the user to a list of unresolved issues. Further details on this feature can be found here.

EXCEL View

Many users requested that the EXCEL view display the same columns as displayed in the Issue Navigator view ... now it is possible to display all columns or just those visible in the the issue navigator.

Email Notification

Many users requested the ability to change the format of the From email address within JIRA notifications. The format is now fully configurable - with the ability to include or exclude the user name, email address and email hostname: for example, the format can be set to display as follows 'John Doe (ATLASSIAN) <jira@atlassian.com>'.

JDK 1.5 Compatibility

JIRA 3.2 is now fully compatible with JDK 1.5!

Bug Fixes

This release includes nearly 200 bug fixes - the best way to see them is them is to ask JIRA - JIRA 3.2 Bug Fixes.