Jama Connect® 9.6.1 Customer-Validated Cloud

Release Date US: 2023/12/20
Release Date AU/EU: 2023/12/21

Important EOL and Transition Information

Updates to the Jama Connect Help Portal

The Product Help portal will host Cloud-only content starting with this release. Self-hosted content will be accessible from the Jama Connect® application and as version-specific PDFs in the Support Knowledge Base Jama Connect® User Guides, Jama Connect® KOTS, and Jama Connect® Traditional. This change provides a more streamlined user experience by focusing solely on product features while removing information specific to managing self-hosted instances. 

REST API - GET Relationships Performance Update and Transition

We have introduced new parameters for calling GET /relationships and will deactivate the previous method in the Spring 2024 release.  This transition focuses on performance enhancements and introduces improvements in the integration experience. The extension provides additional time to understand and adapt to the new lastId paging mechanism and combine lastId and maxResults to achieve a 1000 result limit. Ensure your integrations are updated to accommodate the changes introduced in this release.

Transition details: 

• Postponed Deactivation
  
  
  • The deactivation of the previous method and parameters for calling GET /relationships is now scheduled for the Spring 2024 self-hosted release.
    
    
• Introduction of lastId Paging
  
  
  • To achieve a 1000 maxResult limit, it is now essential to utilize the lastId field. For implementation details, see the REST API Cookbook.

Benefits of lastID Paging:

• Reduced System Load
  
  
  • Using lastId paging contributes to a noticeable reduction in the load on the system, mitigating the potential for performance and system stability concerns.
    
    
• Improved Integration Performance
  
  
  • The transition to lastId paging enhances the overall performance of your integration with Jama Connect.

REST API Access

Starting in this release, access to the REST API will be restricted to users with creator licenses.

Custom Icons

• For item configurations, you can now use custom icons (must be PNG and 16x16 pixels).

Jama Connect Advisor — Updated Scoring 

Jama Connect Advisor now provides updated scoring for INCOSE rules and EARS patterns.

After the text is analyzed, the following updates now appear at the summary level and in the Jama Connect Advisor results window:

• INCOSE rules show a percentage score instead of "X of Y rules flagged." 
  
  
• A new count if EARS errors were found

Note: Jama Connect Advisor is a separately purchased add-on for Jama Connect. Contact your Jama Software Customer Success Manager for more information. 

Test Plan Improvements

This release includes the following improvements to the Test Plans: 

• Improved load time of the test run tab, with the maximum number of test runs displayed per page reduced from 500 to 200. 
  
  
• Improved load time of the test cases tab, with the maximum initial load of 50 test cases per group and the option to load more.

• Improved load time of the test cases tab, with all groups loading in a collapsed state when there are more than 50 groups per plan.  

• A test case count is now displayed for each group.

Test Run Improvements

"Not applicable" is now an optional status for test runs.

Testers can use this status to document the omission of a step in a test run, or the omission of an entire test run from a test cycle.

Before Jama Connect 9.5, the system automatically passed any steps a tester skipped. Now, you can select an option to configure the system's performance when a tester skips over test steps during a test run.

"Pass with errors" status is now also available for test runs that don't include steps.

Test Case Improvements

As a system field, Test Case Status cannot be removed from a test case item; however, it can now be hidden from views. Organization and process administrators will see this new option when editing any item's Test Case Status field.

Additional Test Management Updates

When you edit a test cycle, a new message notifies you when a test run isn't removed from the test cycle when the status is Not Run or Assignee.  

Document View — Relationship Panel

The Relationship widget is now available in the slide-over panel in Document View. You can access the Relationship panel from the new Widgets menu to the right of items. Relationships link items together for traceability and can be upstream or downstream from an item. 

View 'At-A-Glance' Relationship Counts From the Widget Menu:

Within the Relationship Panel, You Can:

• View existing upstream and downstream relationships in a table layout (if available)
  
  
• Add new relationships with existing items.
  
  
• Update single or multiple relationships.
  
  
• Remove single or multiple relationships.
  
  
• Clear suspect links.
  
  
• Change Relationship Filter settings.
  
  
• Open related items in a new Jama Connect® tab (within the current project) or a new browser tab (outside the current project).
  
  

Reuse Baselined Items

You can now reuse baselined items created from folders, sets, components, text items, or a single item. They can be reused in the same project or in a different project, as long as the user has write access to the destination.  

With this feature, you can:

• Create a new baseline in the destination project.
  
  
  • The new baseline starts with the word "Reuse" so you can compare changes to the items that are reused. 
• Include categories when reusing the baselined items.
  
  
  • For successful reuse, categories applied to the baselined items must be enabled in the destination project.

To Reuse a Baseline, Choose From One of the Following Methods:

• From the baseline tree, right-click on a baseline, then select Reuse baseline. 

• Open a baseline, then select Reuse from the baseline header.
  
  

• Open a baseline source, select a single baseline, then select Reuse from the source header. 
  
  

Baseline In-App Comparison to Current

In Baseline Document View, you can now compare a baseline's set of items to their current versions in the project.
 

Additional Baseline Updates

• Organization and project admins can now unlock locked baselines from the baseline header.
  
  

• You can now sort and reorder rows from the baseline source List View. 

The new Baseline Document View replaces the previous Baseline Reading View, providing a more comprehensive and versatile way to interact with your documents. 

Baselines now include these additional fields:

• Number of attachments
  
  
• Number of links
  
  
• Relationship status
  
  
  • List View only
    
    
• Calculated fields
  
  
• Rollups
  
  
• Locked status

Baselines that were created before Jama Connect 9.6 will display an icon to indicate that the new fields aren't available. 

The Velocity API has been updated to include Baseline 'Status.' 

Categories — Now Available With Item Reuse

You can now include categories when you reuse items in the destination project. 

Note: The category isn't a synced field. It isn't reused if it's deleted from the destination project or if the organization admin reorders or removes the category path.

Categories — Now Available in Reviews

For the Categories field to appear in Review Center Reading View and in Review Center Single Item View, organization admins must enable it for all items that are sent to a review.

Once enabled, the Categories table is displayed when users are in a review. 

Updates to the Publish New Revision Window

When changes are made to the original review items, moderators can publish a new version of the review that includes the changes. 

This feature now allows all defined edits to be captured and displayed to moderators before they publish a new revision. Moderators can also use the feature to preview which edits were made by viewing the update notification labels on the review items or in the header.

Lookup Matrix Calculated Field Improvements

• Velocity Reports
  
  
  • You can now export the color background* with lookup matrix calculated fields. 
    
    
• Word and PDF Office Exports
  
  
  • You can now export the color background* with lookup matrix calculated fields from Single Item View, List View, Reading View, Document View, and Review Center.
    
    
• Review Center
  
  
  • The color background* for lookup matrix calculated fields is now visible from the "Item progress" table in Review Center.
    
    

*Color background for lookup matrix calculated fields only apply when configured in the calculated field’s dependent lookup matrix.

Special Character Use in Full-Text Search

• A few special characters have been updated so that they are automatically excluded (escaped) from full-text search, so that they can be searched for as plain text.
  
  
  • The auto-escaped characters are: \ ^ [ ] { } ~ /
    
    
  • If you used \ to exclude special characters manually, you can achieve the same results by using double quotations.
    
    
    • For example, if you previously searched using \*abc to treat the * character as text, you can now use “*abc” instead.
      
      
• When a special character search generates a syntax or general error, the reason for the error is now more specific and explains how to resolve it.

Note: Special character search only works with newly created items. To use with older items, re-index the items you want to use in the search. 

Updates to Wildcards in Search

This release includes enhancements to the wildcards in search option, which was released in Jama Connect 8.86.

• Wildcard for GET /abstractitems endpoint
  
  
  • The exiting /abstractitems endpoint now accepts a Boolean parameter for toggling wildcard results.
    
    
  • Toggling the new parameter will return the expected results.
• Wildcard results are now included in saved Trace Views and exported Trace View reports.

Updates to MathType and ChemType Equation Image Formats

This release includes new configuration options for the MathType and ChemType equation image formats. 

When you select PNG as the format, you can now choose the PNG quality:

• 96 dpi – Small
  
  
• 300 dpi – Normal
  
  
• 600 dpi – Large
  
  
• 1200 dpi – Extra Large 

MathType and ChemType configuration settings are now only available from Admin > Organization. You can no longer access these settings as a root user. 

Additional Usability Updates

• Info tips are now supported from the Batch Update window. 
  
  
• Extra white space has been removed from exported WIRIS MathType equations.
  
  
• Jama Connect now uses CKEditor version 4.22.1 for Rich Text editing.
  
  
  • This upgrade resolves specific issues; see SOS-DEF-5338 and SOS-DEF-6475 in the Resolved Issues table below for more information.   

Updates to REST API

You can now create, read, and update infotips for field labels in pick lists:

• GET /picklistoptions/{picklistOptionId}
  
  
• PUT /picklistoptions/{picklistOptionId}
  
  
• POST /picklists/{picklistId}/options
  
  

You can now create and read infotips for picklist values in fields for item types:

• GET /itemtypes/{itemTypeId}
  
  
• POST /itemtypes/{itemTypeId}/fields
  
  

As noted above, access to the REST API is now restricted to users with creator licenses.

Permission Management (Labs API Only)

Velocity Reporting Updates

Velocity reporting now offers these additional endpoints to access comments in reviews:

• getReviewCommentCount
  
  

• getUnresolvedReviewCommentCount
  
  

• getReviewComments
  
  

• getRevisionCommentCount
  
  

• getUnresolvedRevisionCommentCount
  
  

• getRevisionComments
  
  

• getRevisionItemCommentCount
  
  

• getUnresolvedRevisionItemCommentCount
  
  

• getRevisionItemComments
  
  

• getRevisionUserItemCommentCount
  
  

• getUnresolvedRevisionUserItemCommentCount
  
  

• getRevisionUserItemComments
  
  

• getRevisionWithBaseline

Performance Improvements — Review Center

This release features performance improvements in these areas:

• Opening a review
  
  
• Saving comments
  
  
• Finalizing a review

New Release — Microsoft Gallery Application for SSO between Azure AD and Jama Connect

The new SSO for the Jama Connect Gallery Application provides an efficient single sign-on experience for onboarding new applications. It minimizes complexities related to setup time and configuring applications. 

Additional capabilities include:

• Controlling user access to Jama Connect with Azure AD
  
  
• Enabling users to automatically log in to Jama Connect with their Azure AD accounts
  
  
• Managing all user accounts in one central location.

For more information, please  view the article "Microsoft Gallery Application - SSO for Jama Connect®."

Note for System Administators

The fix for SOS-DEF-2053 removes the ability to use the release1 predefined field on a Set, Folder, or Component. Before this fix, the field could be configured, but no release values could be saved because the Release Navigator doesn't save the value. If previously configured, we recommend removing the field and using a different predefined or custom release field.

Resolved Issues

Known Issues