Release date AU/US/EMEA: 2020/05/06

Baselines: Improved Usability, Organization Structure and Search 

Baseline IDs

All baselines now display a unique and non-editable identifier that is generated when the baseline is created. 

Track Baseline Name Changes

Previously, when a baseline name was edited it would update all activities with the new name, making it hard to track name changes in the activity stream. Now you can tell when the name of a baseline has been changed because the baseline ID stays the same and the name is updated. 

Updated the Language from Baseline Folder to Baseline Source

Baselines have been previously grouped in source folders with other baselines that are made up of the same items. (For example, baselines created from a set of items, and from a review of the same set of items would appear in the same source folder.) "Source folders" are now called "Sources." They now have a green barrel-shaped icon to distinguish them and their unique behavior from folders.

Organizing the Baseline Tree 

Organization and project administrators now have the flexibility to organize their baseline tree using folders and drag and drop

Create, Edit, and Delete Baseline Folders

• Create a folder at the root level:
  • From the Add drop-down menu, select Add Folder.  

• Right-click on the folder, select Add Folder.
• Rename a folder: right-click on the folder and select Edit. 

       Note: Only empty folders can be deleted. 
 

Edit the Name of a Baseline Source

• Right-click on the baseline source and select Edit source.

Drag and Drop Baseline Sources and Folders 

• Move baseline sources from one location in the tree to another, from the root level to a folder, and between folders. 
• Re-order baseline folders at the root level or inside a folder. 

You can't edit a baseline that has been signed, whether manually or in a review. 

  

The Option to Add a Baseline is Now Limited to the Source, and the Available Options and Language are Simpler

Add and Edit Baseline Modal Language Changes

• Changed 'Baseline name' to 'Baseline'
• Changed 'Baseline description' to 'Description'

 

Restore a Deleted Baseline

A project administrator can now restore a single baseline, or group of baselines from the same source, by selecting Restore in the activity stream. 

Restored baselines appear in their original location and are highlighted in blue. Restoration activity is also logged in the activity stream at both the project level and inside baselines. 

If a deleted source is restored, it will be placed at the top of the baseline tree.
 

Undo Baseline Deletion 

Users that may have accidentally deleted a baseline can also quickly undo the deletion by selecting Undo in the confirmation message. 

New Activity for Baselines Created from a Review

An activity will be shown in the project and on the baseline when it was created from a review. The activity will include a link to the baseline.

 

New Signature Identifier in Baselines

• Baselines that have signatures have a new icon in the baseline explorer, making it easier to identify which baselines/reviews have one or more signatures applied.
• Baselines with a signature can no longer be deleted. The signatures must be revoked first.
• If the source for a baseline has been deleted from the project, users trying to create a new baseline or review from the baseline explorer will receive a message explaining that the source has been deleted. 

 

Baseline Search and Usability Improvements

Use the new baseline search feature to find a source or baseline. Keep the number of project baselines and sources under 14,000 to maintain efficient search performance. 

• When you type a search request, the results are highlighted so you can find them easily. 
• When you clear the search field, the results from the previous search are expanded and highlighted in the baseline tree. 
• When you create a folder or baseline, it is highlighted in the baseline tree. Selecting the baseline ID in the activity stream highlights the baseline and expands the source. 

Baseline Permission Updates

Users with write permission to a project, will now be able to:

• Create new baselines
• Delete, edit or restore baselines they created

Project administrators will continue to have the ability to manage any baseline in the project.  

  

Review Center:  Filtering, Usability, and Auditability Improvements

Usability Improvements 

This release introduces changes to the Review Center header, which offers streamlined workflows and improved usability.

1. Review participants now see their individual status in the header, instead of the bottom left corner of the Filter/TOC panel. A public user's status, "In Progress" or "Finished" no longer appears in the review header.

2. Views are now consolidated into a single drop-down menu: 

   • Review

   • Compare

   • Stats

   • Feedback

3. For Approvers and Reviewers, the "Finish" button now appears in the top right next to the Actions menu instead of the Filter/TOC panel. Since this is the primary way to finish a review, we removed the option to finish the review from the Actions menu. Participants can still finish a review by reviewing and approving all items in the review, and clicking the "Finish Review" button in the blue bar.

4. For Moderators with dual responsibilities, the review role toggle is now displayed in the header instead of the bottom left corner of the Filter/TOC panel.

5. Changes to the style of the progress bar, highlighting toggle, and View drop-down menu creates a more consistent experience with the rest of Jama Connect. 

 

Filtering Improvements in Reviews

This release introduces a new filter-and-find experience for reviewers.  

From the review header, select Filter to open the filter panel, which now slides out from the left. When you select filters, the active filters appear in a bar under the review header. 

Updates to Filters 

When you select multiple filters, the workflow is the same as other areas of Jama Connect with multi-select filters.  

New filters allow moderators and power users to take action on the items that matter most—items that are potentially holding up review progress:

• Items with open comments
• Items with closed comments
• Items with comments in a specific version
• Items with comments by a specific participant

When filters are selected:

• The number of items that match the filter criteria update dynamically. 
• A subsequent find search can be performed based off the filtered items. 
• Reviewers can navigate to different areas of the review workspace without losing their filter or search selection. For example, if you make a filter selection and go to another view, your filter selection is saved when you navigate back to the review. 

Note: Filtering does not persist across user sessions or browser refreshes. 

The Search/TOC tab that was part of the filter panel is now called Find. The default for this panel is the table of contents. 

When you select an item from the search results or table of contents, the item is selected and outlined in blue.

• Previously, the highlight appeared only briefly, making it difficult to track the results. 
• The outline goes away when you click outside it.
• You can now scroll without the outline disappearing.

Highlighting Improvements in Reviews

The highlighting library in reviews has been replaced with a new library that provides more flexibility for future development.

Existing workflows for highlighting have been maintained with these exceptions:  

• When highlighting is disabled, the reviewer can't highlight content in the review reading view. Previously, a reviewer could make highlights but they disappeared after saving the comment.
• When highlighting is enabled, the reviewer can see highlights specific to the revision that is selected in the review header.  

Highlighting Workflow and Navigation Tips

A reviewer can now:

• Use the tab key to move between highlighted items.
• Open the Comments modal for the highlight by pressing Enter or the space bar.
• Close the Comments modal by pressing Escape.

Important: Creating reviews from a project now opens in a new browser tab. By default, most browsers block a new tab from opening so update your browser settings accordingly. 

Additional colors were added to improve the readability of highlighted content. These colors replace the previous library, which included one highlight color and red text. A darker shade of yellow appears when a reviewer hovers or tabs between highlighted items or overlapping highlights. 

Audit History Available Within the Review

A record of important review activities is now available in a new tab under Stats. Creation date, version updates and changes to moderators are now easily accessible.

Activities Included:

• Review creation
• Publishing a new revision
• Review close — both manual and when a review automatically closes at the deadline date and time
• Review reopen
• Review archived
• Review deleted
• Review marked as approved
• Electronic signatures being applied as part of approving a review with electronic signatures enabled in the review settings
• Signature revoked

Signature activities will also display the signer role, if configured in the review settings.

Reviews with Electronic Signatures Can No Longer Be Deleted

Due to feedback from our users, reviews with electronic signatures can no longer be deleted. Reviews with signatures can still be archived.

In a review, when a moderator tries to select Actions > Delete review, they will see that the review cannot be deleted when an electronic signature is active. 

Under Reviews > Table view, moderators and review administrators will also see that the button to delete reviews has been disabled when a review has an active electronic signature.

EXCEPTION: This does not apply to project deletion. When administrators delete an entire project, the reviews associated with that project will also be deleted, even if they have an electronic signature.

  

Improved Review Organization and Reporting

More Clarity in Review Statistics

In a review, select Review > Stats to see three separate tabs of information:

• Participant progress for this version
• Item progress for this version
• Review activity across versions

Under the newly refreshed Item progress tab you can see:

• Total items
• Item types contained
• Average time spent
• Version with start and end date
• Approval status chart

Export Review Audit History

Under the Review activity tab, you can now select Export to download a document that meets the FDA requirement for "generating accurate and complete copies of records in both human readable and electronic format suitable for inspection, review, and copying by the agency."

Electronic Signatures Updates

Sign with Your Company's SSO

We are excited to announce that customers using SSO/SAML now have the ability to electronically sign reviews and baselines. You do not need to make any administrative changes or have your IT apply any updates.

Create or pick an existing baseline in any project, click on the Add signature option and complete the sign in request. After successfully signing the baseline, you can revoke your signature and delete the baseline. Please reference the User Guide for details.

Note: The application is required to open a new window with your company's sign in screen. If you are attempting to sign electronically and you do not see this window, disable your browser's pop-up blocker.

 

Signature Details Now Visible When Finalizing a Review

When electronic signatures are configured for reviews, users will see recently introduced signature meaning and signer role (if applicable) when finalizing a review.

If the organization utilizes SSO for authentication, the Approve and sign button will trigger the your company's sign in window to re-authenticate in order to apply an electronic signature.

As part of these improvements, we've streamlined the error messages to the user, removed buttons that should not be available for certain use cases and added links to the user guide for more information.

 

Review Export

Users are now able to export directly from a review to PDF or MS Word. The review export is configured to include a title page, participants section (which includes electronic signature information if applicable), the items included in the review and the item comments.

Additional Clarity in Review Stats Page

Multiple changes have been made to the Participant Progress tab contained in the review center Stats page in 8.45.

Users will now see:

• Participant details that include moderator(s) of the review, an option to email the moderator(s), approvers or all participants directly, participant counts, the voting subject (if applicable) and the revision start and end date.
• Approver status and reviewer status charts will now be displayed in bar graphs versus pie charts.
• Status by review participant will be displayed in one table that contains all of the approval information, electronic signatures and participant progress in the review. The previous version had two tables that the user had to toggle to see all of this information.

 

New Comment Chart in Reviews

Open comments by comment type can now be seen from the Review Center Stats Item Progress tab.

REST API Updates

Swagger Default Changed from 'Latest' to 'v1'

In preparation for future REST API version work, Jama's Swagger has updated its default REST version from 'latest' to 'v1'.
Use of named revisions such as 'v1' ensure that development teams retain control of version use as new versions are released, where "latest' is a rolling version which requires complex development solutions.

How does this impact developers:
A change of default in Swagger will not change the way your current API Calls will function, it simply presents a more sustainable revision to first time users of Jama's REST API.
Developers may still manually add 'latest' to the Swagger endpoint in order to test calls and generate Curl requests.
 

New API Endpoints: Retrieve Relationship Rule Sets

We have added the ability for API GET requests to supply Relationship Rule Sets to assist with integration processes.

Restored and enhanced GET / filter endpoint

Fixes a breaking change (SOS-DEF-2748) where private filters became hidden by default.

• Private filters of the authenticated user will be included in the result set as expected.
• Adds an optional parameter to dictate Public only, Private only, or both. (enhancement)
• There are NO CHANGES to result schema.

 

API Version Sunset Announcement

The release of Jama Connect 8.44 marks the beginning of a sunset period for the REST endpoint '/latest'.

Originally, when a new version was released, the /latest endpoint would cycle the architecture underneath to the most recent version publicly available. This way developers would not have to keep updating the version. However, an organization that was not prepared for this might experience breaking changes. To remove this risk, the /latest endpoint is being removed and replaced with unique named/numbered revisions going forward. 

Notes:

• With this release, no new features or bug fixes will be released to /latest (though we will still correct breaking change behavior).
• Beginning 05/22/2020, all tools connected to /latest are at risk of version removal and service outage. (This date may vary slightly.)
• There are more details on the Jama Community.

Impact on Jama Connect Users and Integrators

• Since this is a proactive change, and versions /latest and /v1 share the same schema, a simple search and replace in any integrations, code or properties, should bring you up to date.
• All integrations and scripts that use the /latest endpoint will be impacted.
• These changes will not happen automatically and require end user interaction.

Sample Migration Change

A call to Jama asking for all items in sample project 57 would change
From	https://product.jamacloud.com/rest/latest/items?project=57
To	https://product.jamacloud.com/rest/v1/items?project=57

Updates from Customer Feedback

We received a lot of positive feedback following the addition of links to baselines and reviews within an item's version history and some suggestions to help with usability.

• Single item view's version widget will show baseline/reviews in the order they were created (newest to oldest).
• If a review has been deleted, the link in single item view's version widget will become disabled.
• When a user creates a review from a baseline, the Review Wizard will open in a new browser window. This will ensure the user will not lose where they were working before being taken to Reviews. 
• Exports can now be created in PDF format.  
• Tool tips in the Explorer Tree now show the name of the item, rather than the item type. 
• Filter logic has a "NONE" option in addition to applying "ALL" and "ANY" of the filter conditions to create the results set. 
• The options to Delete in Risk Management Center have been changed to "Delete rows" and "Delete analysis" to avoid confusion for Moderators and Risk Administrators. When a Moderator goes to delete a risk analysis, the focus is placed on the cancel button versus the delete confirmation to avoid inadvertent deletion of an analysis. 
• Velocity reports now include a stack trace for faulty code, which improves troubleshooting when you build reports.
• Tags are now visible in List View. Note that they are not exportable.
• When you relate items, container items in the Explorer Tree (sets, components) are displayed as gray icons when all items within aren't relatable.  
• When you click Refresh Explorer, the Explorer Tree now maintains expanded components, sets, and folders. 
• When viewing the Test Runs in a cycle table, the Test Case column now shows the ID in front of the name.
• Admin tables, including the item type table, now have alternating row colors for improved readability.
• When you hover over an item's icon in the Explorer Tree, the item's type and full name are now displayed. This release adds the option to include images in the Test Run results column during test execution. 
• This release adds the ability to create a Trace View from the list generated by selecting "#downstream" or "#upstream" links.

1. Following the relationship could link to a filter for either upstream or downstream items. 

2. Click the Trace View button to generate a Trace View from that filtered list. 

• This release adds the option to restore deleted Test Cycles from the Activity Stream.
• Added type-ahead search to single and multi-select fields in Single Item View. 
• For test cases with images included in the test steps, images can now expand to a lightbox view.  
• Updated the signature meaning for electronic signatures from "I approve this review" to "I approve the content of this review."
• A reviewer can now transition to the compare view from V1 of a review with multiple revisions. No changes to the behavior of the compare view have been made—the compare view always loads the most recent revision compared to the next previous revision.

 

Additional Updates and Enhancements

 

Improved Trace View Item Detail

The right panel in Trace View shows readability improvements.

Consistent Editing of Items

The pop-up modal that appears after clicking the Edit button was removed to align with inline editing options (double-clicking or selecting the pencil icon). 

Consistency Updates to License Usage Chart

The chart displaying float creator use within the administration module has been updated to address errors in the display of dates and adjusted to show content in UTC to remove confusion when comparing usage across time zones. The times indicate UTC and the user's offset to UTC is indicated in the description below the chart.

Risk Usability Improvements

When a risk administrator removes all fields from a section in a risk template, the section header and risk analyses no longer appear in that template. Also, the section itself is no longer visible to users when they view definitions in the risk analysis. 

Note: The Adjust Rankings section is an exception to this rule. If you enable a ranking field before mitigation, the section is still displayed. 

 

Jama Connect User Guide Improvements

Thumbnail and Lightbox Images

Applying the thumbnail and lightbox feature to images reduces the impact of many large images so you can focus on the content. We've applied this option throughout the guide, particularly in topics with a lot of screenshots or when the screenshot is tucked inside a note. Select the image to enlarge it. 

 

Updates to Permissions Presentation

Differences between User Roles and Access Permissions have been clarified. 

Content Within Documents Over 25MB Will No Longer Be Searchable

Historically, documents' contents have been included in the search index data regardless of file size. To increase efficiency of indexing processes, this previously unbounded size limit has received a size cap of 25MB. Jama will continue to accept files of any size as attachments and description text and names of the attachments will continue to be searchable.

Content within a ZIP or similar archive will continue to be omitted from the search.

 

Velocity Reporting Update

A new Velocity reporting feature is now on by default and available to all users. For more information, see Velocity Reporting Usage FAQ. 

• A new proxy is inserted between Velocity reports and the database, making the connection more secure. Only methods known to be in use will be included in the proxy. Methods and sub-functions which perform or allow database-level modification are excluded from the proxy.
• Velocity reports are simplified, making the creation of new reports easier.
• New proxies or changes to the released proxies will be reviewed on a case by case basis for inclusion in future updates to the Jama Connect service.
• In the Velocity documentation, the previous error when searching for classes has been fixed.

 

Notes for Self-Hosted Administrators

Supported Database Changes

With this release, the use of MariaDB is no longer supported. Contact Customer Care if you have questions about switching to MySQL. See Supported Software Standard 8.49 for more information on supported databases.

Container Artifacts

• Replicated release number: 2.42.5
• Java version (JDK_UPDATE): 11.0.6
• NGINX_VERSION: 2.4
• TOMCAT_VERSION: 8.5.50

 

Base URLs with Double Slashes

Due to recent security changes in Spring Framework, URLs with double slashes are no longer supported. In Jama Connect, the base URL setup in the root administrator account must not contain a trailing slash to prevent system URLs from containing double slashes. 

For example, instead of http://localhost:8080/contour/ with the trailing slash, the URL must be http://localhost:8080/contour. In most cases, Jama Connect is set up without a trailing slash. If, however, you have a custom base URL with a trailing slash, you must edit it to remove the trailing slash. You can change the base URL from the root administrator account. 

This issue will be addressed in future releases. 

Updates to Administrator Options

• Self-hosted administrators can allow SVG images generated by the WIRIS equation editor, which uses scientific and mathematical symbols.
• Anonymized usage data collection is now enabled by default for Self-Hosted installations. For more information, see Usage Data FAQ. 

 

Search Services

This release upgrades Search Services.  

New Default Memory Settings

This release introduces changes to the default memory settings.  Review your current memory settings. If using default settings, you don't need to make any changes. 

For details, see Configure Memory Settings in the Jama Connect User Guide.

Replicated Upgrade to 2.42.5 and the Docker Host System

• Upgrade Replicated and the Docker host system:

•       curl -sSL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jamasoftware-ps/JamaConnect/master/install.sh" | sudo bash

• Go to the Admin Console and click the upgrade button
        This will download the 8.49.1 release then restart Jama Connect
• Logon as the root user and perform a full index operation*
        *This is required and not automated
  
  

Resolved Issues

ID	Resolution
SOS-DEF-450	Administration: License detail graph is showing incorrect date. (SOS-BUG-553)
SOS-DEF-713	Review Center Stats Report cuts off time in date section. (SOS-BUG-1088)
SOS-DEF-765	Editing date field (custom and pre-defined) is inconsistently saved when date format is changed to dd/mm/yyyy. (SOS-BUG-1069)
SOS-DEF-1340	In the review Single Item View, related items now successfully update when switching between items.
SOS-DEF-1447	Time zone is incorrect in Review deadline on Windows client for CEST customers.
SOS-DEF-1777	User can create multiple signatures by clicking multiple times in "Review Complete" window.
SOS-DEF-2264	In Reading or List View, relationship rules no longer break when using the "Relate to existing" action.
SOS-DEF-2403	When publishing a new revision of a review, the related items checkboxes don't honor the settings you selected.
SOS-DEF-2475	Password change error received "Incomplete reply from the server" because of MS SafeLinks.
SOS-DEF-2537	When working in the Review Center, highlights no longer disappear when editing highlights text before publishing new revisions.
SOS-DEF-2660	In some cases, an error appeared when accessing reviews. This release resolves this issue.
SOS-DEF-2762	In Trace View, the configured label appears instead of the default label.
SOS-DEF-4064	Logout timer is now working is now working as designed.
SOS-DEF-4202	When a baseline folder is created, a message now appears in the activity stream.
SOS-DEF-4256	Rest API now allows items to be related when “Allow relationships with item types not in this rule” is enabled and any combination of rules are set.
SOS-DEF-4436	Selecting a date in the reviews wizard calendar does not respect the dd/mm/yy format configured (e.g. EMEA customers see US date format, not what they configured).
SOS-DEF-4444	Links to reviews in the Single Item View versions widget are only active when the user is a moderator of the review.
SOS-DEF-4447	Chemistry editor icon is missing from the rich text editor.
SOS-DEF-4484	Reviews are closing prematurely
SOS-DEF-4509	Boolean parameters are not being populated when "Context Sensitive" is selected for Velocity reports.
SOS-DEF-4513	Velocity Report: getId() function for the Organization class is missing.
SOS-DEF-4523	The horizontal scroll bar is not present when expanding an image in an item description box.
SOS-DEF-4531	Security - XSS cross scripting issue
SOS-DEF-4534	SAML eSignature: unhelpful user message, needs clarity and direction to check for popup blocker
SOS-DEF-4548	Viewing comments or connected users results in HTTP Status 400 Bad request (Chrome v. 79 and MS Edge Chromium)
SOS-DEF-4557	List view filtering menus "view all" option only displaying a maximum of 10 results
SOS-DEF-4558	You can now delete date fields in an item using inline edit mode.
SOS-DEF-4579	In some cases, upgrading Jama Connect 2015.x or earlier to Jama Connect 8.x caused dates to update without editing due to a UTC change. This release resolves this issue.
SOS-DEF-4595	Word templates containing VBA macros now successfully export.
SOS-DEF-4601	Exporting from Microsoft Word now correctly saves settings from the template.
SOS-DEF-4603	In some cases, text entered in the rich text editor using full-screen mode wouldn't save when a session timed out. This release resolves this issue.
SOS-DEF-4607	Row highlighting in Risk Management now highlights the entire row.
SOS-DEF-4619	An error no longer appears when accessing a project if the dashboard's Activity Stream widget has "Baselines" selected in the Activity Filter settings.
SOS-DEF-4622	Upstream items are now correctly displayed as upstream relationships in the "All Item Details" report.
SOS-DEF-4623	You can now successfully import relationships when migrating from IBM Rational DOORS.
SOS-DEF-4638	Exporting a review no longer includes deleted comments.
SOS-DEF-4666	When using Google Chrome 79 and 80, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Edge browsers, the correct icons are now displayed in the Results column in the Test Run execution window.
SOS-DEF-4680	You can now select multiple steps when executing a Test Run.
SOS-DEF-4693	In some cases, closing a review produced a Minified React error #185 message. This release resolves this issue.
SOS-DEF-4705	Replicated startup scripts no longer cause permissions to reset when a file is placed in the wrong location.
SOS-DEF-4708	Creating a new baseline folder is no longer blocked by the "Add folder" pop-up window.
SOS-DEF-4710	Relationship rules are recognized when adding the "Related item" relationship type to a project.
SOS-DEF-4713	In some cases, deleted items didn't appear in reports because of permission checks. This release resolves this issue.

 

Known Issues

• If attempting to sign electronically using SAML authentication and your company's sign-in window doesn't appear, disable your browser's pop-up blocker.
• In certain circumstances, some unicode special characters might not correctly generate when exported to PDF.
• REST API: PUT /users/{userId}/active endpoint accepts null/negative/positive values and also activates and deactivates the user.