Documentation for JIRA 5.2. Documentation for other versions of JIRA is available too. 
Atlassian is proud to present JIRA 5.2 RC 4 (m11). This public release candidate is part of our Early Access Program (EAP) leading up to the official JIRA 5.2 release. We have finished adding features for JIRA 5.2, however we still want your feedback as we make the final touches.
Please provide us with your feedback here.
The completely redesigned JIRA search lets you quickly find and organize your issues, so you – and your team – can focus on what matters most. Getting the job done! JIRA 5.2 also includes workflow editing improvements, new webhooks integration, performance improvements and much more.
Highlights
5 November 2012
JIRA RC4 5.2m11 Upgrade Guide
New issue navigator
Workflow scheme designer
Getting started
Webhooks
Read before you install/upgrade: Atlassian does not support upgrades both 'from' and 'to' EAP releases. EAP releases should not be used in production environments as they are not officially supported. For all production use and testing of JIRA, please use the latest official release instead.
Key Features
New issue navigator
We made it easier to create and edit issues with inline editing in JIRA 5.1 and the create/edit issue dialog in JIRA 5.0. In this release, we're making it easier for you to find issues with a brand new issue navigator. With easily accessible filters, each team member can quickly access team priorities, view and remove blockers, and track progress toward a common goal.
Here's a summary of the features we've added so far:
- New system filters — Easily filter for the most common views in JIRA: 'My Open Issues', 'Reported by Me', 'Recently Viewed' and 'All Issues'.
- Favourite filters on the navigator — Quickly switch between views. Your favourite filters are now just a click away.
- Intuitive filter management — See who owns a filter at a glance and whether changes have been made, at a glance.
- New search bar — Simply select the criteria you want in your search. Focus on the search criteria you care about and hide the rest.
- Ad-hoc searches — Search and refine on the fly with immediate results. Refresh your results without reloading your page.
- Complex searches — Create and execute complex searches with ease. The new search UI makes this simple, regardless of the number of projects, custom fields, or your JIRA configuration.
We'll be adding more improvements with each new EAP milestone. However, being a technology preview, the issue navigator is incomplete and will have bugs. For a list of known issues, please see this page: New Issue Search Known Issues.
The new issue navigator is the default issue navigator in this EAP milestone. You will not be able to revert back to the old issue navigator. We would love to hear your feedback on this preview. You can provide feedback via the Give Feedback link on the new issue navigator in your JIRA instance.
In this release:
Workflow administration improvements
Following on from the improvements to workflow administration in JIRA 4.4 and project administration in JIRA 5.1, we're continuing to make editing workflows easier within your project. You'll still have the power and flexibility of JIRA workflows at your fingertips, but configuration will be much more intuitive.
Workflow scheme designer
This release provides you with the perfect complement to the existing workflow 'Diagram edit mode' — the workflow scheme designer. The workflow scheme designer replaces the existing workflow scheme page for a project (note, it is not available from the global list of workflow schemes). It provides you with a powerful tool for viewing and configuring a workflow scheme.
The workflow scheme designer shows a visual representation of a workflow scheme. A diagram of each workflow in the scheme is displayed in a table, with the associated issue types alongside. The old text-based view of each workflow is still available as well, if you prefer.
Configuring a workflow scheme is also much easier. Want to preview changes as a draft before publishing? Want to browse through diagrams of the workflows in the system when adding a workflow? Want to assign multiple issue types to a workflow in a single step? You can now do all of these tasks and more.
Screen design made easy
The screen designer has been overhauled in this release. Screens are just as customisable as ever, however the user interface is faster and much simpler to use. You won't have to wrestle with 
controls when reordering — just drag and drop to move a field or tab. Autocomplete is now used when adding fields, making this process quicker and easier as well.
Getting started
For new installations, JIRA now gives you the option of creating a demonstration project. This demonstration project contains a number of sample issues that explains some JIRA basics: searching for issues, keyboard shortcuts, and editing issues. You can keep this project for future new users, or delete it at a later stage if you no longer need it.
JIRA now has inline help tips to guide new users in getting the most out of JIRA, the most prominent being a handy message instructing users to create issues. Others include admin only tips for creating users and editing workflows.
Webhooks for issues
Webhooks provide you with a lightweight mechanism for letting remote applications receive push notifications from JIRA. For example, you may want any changes for bugs in JIRA to be pushed to a test management system, so that they can be retested.
Registering a webhook is as simple as entering the name of a webhook and the URL where the callback should be sent. Any time any issue changes in JIRA, a JSON notification will be sent to the URL. No polling required.
You can also refine a webhook to suit your needs — constrain a webhook to fire for a set of issues and/or specific issue events; use a variable to include the key of the issue that fired it; or configure a workflow post-function to fire a webhook.
Enterprise scale and performance improvements
In JIRA 5.1 we created a dedicated team focused on improving JIRA's core performance to make all aspects of JIRA faster, more scalable, and easier to manage. In 5.2, we've continued on to deliver more scale and management improvements for customers running JIRA in an enterprise environment.
Performance improvements
This release includes a multitude of performance improvements. You may not notice every tweak we've made, but it all adds up to a better user experience. Here are some of the areas that we've tackled:
- Speed — faster rendering for attachments, increased performance for nested filters, faster display of version lists (all browsers except Internet Explorer), faster rendering of wiki markup.
- Indexing — more low level lucene options exposed.
- Memory usage — a reduction in velocity files and more efficient searching
We've also released an HTTP requests log analyser, which you can download separately. See the Additional tools for download section below.
SSL configuration via the JIRA configuration tool
If you want to run JIRA over SSL or HTTPS, you'll be happy to know that we've simplified this process. You won't need to tinker around in XML files anymore, as the JIRA configuration tool has a new screen that lets you easily configure access via HTTPS. The configuration tool also validates your configuration, so you won't need to worry if you've mistakenly entered an invalid certificate.
Other improvements
Streamlined user interfaces for projects
We've been working hard to improve the user interface when you are browsing a project, so that you can concentrate on the task at hand without any distractions. The list of improvements are in the table below:
| UI Feature | Notes | Screenshot of new UI |
|---|---|---|
| New Create New Project button on the Browse Projects > All Projects page | N/A |  |
Browse Project > Summary tab redesigned:
|
|  |
| Standard issue filters directly available on Browse Project > Issues page | Used to be in Filters dropdown on Browse Project > Summary tab (now removed) |  |
| Standard issue filters directly available on Browse Version > Issues page | Used to be in Filters dropdown on Browse Version > Summary tab (now removed) |  |
| Standard issue filters directly available on Browse Component > Issues page | Used to be in Filters dropdown on Browse Component > Summary tab (now removed) |  |
| People section in Project Summary and page renamed to Roles | N/A |  |
| Project > Popular Issues page redesigned | N/A |  |
| Project > Labels page redesigned | N/A |  |
JIRA admin helper
We've bundled the popular JIRA admin helper plugin in this release. This tool helps JIRA administrators to diagnose and fix any of the following problems:
- A custom field not showing on the View Issue, Edit Issue or Create Issue screens.
- A user being able to see an issue when they are not supposed to, or being unable to see an issue when they are supposed to.
- A user receiving a notification when they shouldn't have, or not receiving a notification when they should have.
Simply navigate to the issue and select the Where is my field?, Permission Helper or Notification Helper option from the More Actions menu. You can also access this via administration console (JIRA tab > Admin Helper).
Copying and editing issue collectors
In JIRA 5.1, we introduced the JIRA issue collector — letting you embed JIRA feedback forms in your websites that create issues in your JIRA instance. In this release, we've added the ability to edit and copy issue collectors. Tweak an existing issue collector or use it as the basis for an entirely new one.
Faster and more reliable mentions
We added mentions in JIRA 5.0, which gave JIRA users an easy way to share an issue with other users via email. This release includes a significant performance improvement to this feature. You'll notice that user names are suggested much more quickly, when you start typing after an '@' character. The suggested results are also more accurate and reliable.
Platform changes
We have made a number of platform changes in this release, including upgrading JIRA to run on Tomcat 7 and support for Java 7. Some of these changes affect the installation and upgrade process for JIRA.
Please read the upgrade guide for details.
Additional tools for download
HTTP Requests Log Analyser
We recently developed a tool to analyse request logs that we are now making available to customers. The HTTP requests log analyser provides you with information, such as the maximum requests per minute, that can help you performance tune your JIRA instance. The tool is not bundled with JIRA, but you can download it for free.
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