JIRA 3.4 Release Notes

Atlassian Software Systems, Australia's fastest growing software company, is proud to announce the latest release of the issue tracking and project management application - JIRA 3.4 (download it here). Just over 3 weeks since the final 3.3.x release, JIRA 3.4 includes some 50 powerful new features and improvements along with over 70 bug fixes.

Features and Improvements:

• Issue Types Per Project
• Renderers
• Clone Portlets
• Issue Operation Plugin
• RSS Improvements
• RPC Searching
• Dynamic Header Banner
• Internationalisation
• Bulk Migration by Issue Type
• Change Parent Issue of Sub-Task
• Multi-User Custom Field
• Trackback Configuration

Contents

1. New Features
2. Improvements
3. Bug Fixes
4. Notes

New Features

This release includes over 50 new features and improvements - see the full list of features & improvements online

Issue Types Per Project

The most highly requested feature in JIRA - with over 200 votes - you can now configure Issue Types Per Project. Issue types can be defined for a specific project - adding contextual relevance to issue type selection when creating/editing/moving an issue.

This feature provides the ability to better define the context of a project with only relevant issue types available - resulting in a more intuitive user interface, and enables greater control over the users' issue selection process.

For example, the Sales project may require a Purchase Request issue type, while this issue type would not apply to the context of the Support project. Further, the issue type Support Request is relevant within the Support project but would not apply to the context of the Sales project.

Renderers

This release also introduces Renderers within JIRA text-based fields such as description and comments - allowing a greater range of expression within these fields.

This release ships with two renderers, the default text renderer, which preserves the functionality available in previous JIRA releases, and the Atlassian wiki renderer, which brings the power of the Confluence wiki engine to JIRA. In the Enterprise edition of JIRA, renderers can be configured on a per field, per project/issue type level, allowing a flexible combination of text and wiki markup. In the Standard and Professional editions renderers can be configured on a per field basis. Renderers are implemented as pure JIRA plugins, meaning that any renderer can be easily added to or removed from use within JIRA, including any custom renderers that may be developed.

Further details on the renderer functionality is available in the documentation:

http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/v3.4/renderers_overview.html

Clone Portlets

Dashboard administration is simplified with the ability to clone a portlet.

Issue Operation Plugin

This new system plugin allows new issue operations (links and HTML) to be added to the operations panel of the view issue screen. With a simple configuration process, it is possible to add quick access to commonly used links to every issue.

For example, the following operation will execute a Google search on the issue summary.

Information about how to create your own Issue Operations can be found in the docs online.

Improvements

RSS Support Improvements

JIRA has been improved to take advantage of browser support for RSS feeds. A result of any search can be accessed quickly and directly by adding 'live bookmarks'.

Basic authentication support for RSS feeds from JIRA has also been added in this release - allowing the option of avoiding the transmission of usernames and passwords across the wire in clear text format.

RPC Searching

The RPC searching functionality has been improved - results are returned quicker and more efficiently with fewer database calls.

Dynamic Announcement Banner

With thanks to Nick Minutello, the announcement banner can now be dynamically configured through the JIRA UI.

The announcement banner is displayed on all JIRA pages and is useful for alerting users to important information - for example, scheduled server maintenance, approaching project deadline, etc. This information can be updated immediately without having to restart JIRA.

Internationalisation

With the introduction of the Czech language pack, JIRA is now available in 16 different languages. This release also includes an updated Traditional Chinese language pack. Once again, the Atlassian team would like to thank our users who have contributed to the translation process - this work is much appreciated.

Bulk Migration by Issue Type

Previously, it was only possible to bulk migrate a collection of issues to a single project and issue type. Now, different issue types can be migrated to different projects and issue types - allowing you to specify exactly how each issue should be moved. With this fine-grained configuration capability, bulk migration operations are now easier and quicker.

Change Parent of Sub-Task

The parent issue of a sub-task can now be changed - allowing a sub-task to be 'moved' from one parent issue to another.

Multi-user Custom Field

It is now possible to select multiple users through the multi-user custom field.

This improvement has also been extended to the configuration of security level, permission and notification schemes. This means that by selecting users for the Multi-user field it is possible to control who will have access to the an issue and who will be notified when the issue is updated. Please note that using Multi-user custom field for permissions and security levels is only supported by the Enterprise Edition.

Trackback Configuration

Trackback configuration has been extended with three possible modes for Outgoing Trackbacks:

• Off for All Issues
• On for Public Issues Only
• On for All Issues

By using the On for Public Issues Only setting, trackbacks from issues protected by a security or permission scheme (i.e. issues not visible by non-logged in users) will not be sent - the external sites referenced in these secure issues will not be notified of the referral.

The operation of Incoming Trackbacks has also been modified such that 'secure' issues can receive trackback notifications. The issues will remain secure based on their security settings, but users who have access to the issues will be able to see the trackback references that issues have received.

Notable Features & Improvements

Some other notable improvements included in this release:

• New Jelly tag allowing a field (including custom field) to be placed onto a Screen
• Bugzilla importer preserves inter-issue dependencies
• Bugzilla importer converts Bugzilla text links to JIRA links
• Search user custom fields using group membership

Bug Fixes

This release includes over 70 bug fixes - the full list of bug fixes online

Notes

Javascript Caching

In some instances, the browser may read from a cached version of the Javascript files used throughout JIRA. This will result in certain elements appearing incorrectly - e.g. the issue type selection list may appear with repeated icons. This problem can be corrected by forcing a reload on the page in question - i.e. pressing 'CTRL-R' or 'F5'.