GForge AS v6.3.0 Released
Today we are happy to announce the immediate availability of GForge Advanced Server v6.3.0. This release is a major release with a few bug and security fixes included. Important: With this release we are dropping support for the entire 5.x series. If you are running a 5.x version of GForge you will need to make plans to upgrade immediately. We are fielding support questions and even doing assisted upgrades for our customers. If you need assistance please read all about the GForge upgrade process and if you need help please send a support request. Now, let’s cover the exciting updates included in v.6.3.0:
Download GForge Advanced Server v6.3.0 Now!
Updates for Agile/Scrum Shops
We continue to add features important to Agile and Scrum development shops such as:
- User Stories – We’ve added a new User Stories Tracker to v6.3.0. Define stories by role, give story points and then track their progress.
- Burndown Charts – Enhance the power of GForge Trackers by embedding Burndown charts on your project’s homepage. Burn down charts can be built from any Tracker query you can think of.
Support Tracker
Your software projects can leverage the power of GForge Trackers to provide support to your customers and stakeholders. Support tickets include all the same basic Tracker features but this release includes special updates.
- Create new support tickets (or Tracker items) via email.
- Respond to suppport and Tracker items via email.
- Support and Tracker Item updates via email that have attachments will have the file(s) attached to the corresponding ticket or Tracker item.
- Support and all other Trackers can have reminders configured to let assignees and submitters know when a support ticket or Tracker Item is waiting on them.
- Support and all other Trackers can be configured to automatically close an item that has sat with the submitter for some predetermined amount of time (in hours).
- Customer Groups can be configured with a Tracker so that the customer or stakeholder only see Tracker items that they or others in their group have created.
- Assignees can now change the who the submitter of a Tracker item was. This is particularly useful if you provide support via telephone.
- You can now sort Tracker Items based on who the Tracker item is waiting input from (not to be confused with the assignee).
Worth mentioning, we love this feature so much that we have migrated from our old support system to use GForge Trackers. Customers should have received an email about this migration which included seamless migration of our customer accounts so the same username and password can be used. You should continue access our support page at https://gforgegroup.com/support/
Tracker Improvements
In addition to the new User Stories and Support Trackers, we’ve made a couple of other notable updates:
- Hide Intrinsic Fields – We have made it possible to hide some instrinsic fields (e.g. % complete, duration, etc) on Trackers. This basically turns GForge Tracker into a general purpose forms engine making it useful for surveys and questionnaires.
- Export Tracker Queries – The Tracker item browse page now allows you to download search results into CVS, XML and XLS.
Notable Miscellaneous Improvements
There are also a few other improvements that warrant a quick mention:
- Extended Commit Messages – Prior to v6.3.0 you could associate a commit in CVS, Subversion and Git using [#XXXX] notation. Now you can report time or even change the status of a tracker item via a commit using an extended notation [#XXXX, next-status, hours]. So, for example a commit with “[#1234, pull-request, 1.5] – Some message” would change tracker item 1234 by changing the status to pull-request, it will add 1.5 hours to the time tracking tab and it would associate the code changes to the Tracker item.
- Project Disk Quotas – Our first iteration of disk quotas allows GForge Administrators to set the quota limit for specific projects or even specify a sane default for all newly created projects. We also include a simple disk quota report for tracker purposes. Please note the quota enforcement is not present and will be a part of our next release.
- Project Reviews and Ratings – Are you running an open source project or some other community based GForge site? You can now let users rate and comment on projects.
- Chat Improvements – In v6.2.0 you could enter [#XXXX] in a chat room to render a summary view of a specific Tracker Item. This release allows you to also use #XXXX which will render a link to Tracker item XXXX with mouse-over text that displays the summary of the Tracker item.
- Project Invitations – Project administrators can now invite users to their project. This works for users with or without an existing GForge account.
- Dead Projects – We now include a new Dead Projects Report allowing GForge Administrators to identify and clean up any unused or dead projects.
- Project Emails – Project administrators can now send an email to all team members right from their GForge Project. We will store all sent messages for historical purposes.
BugFixes
As we said already, GForge v6.3.0 includes a number of bug fixes…too many to enumerate here so please have a look at the Complete GForge v6.3.0 ChangeLog