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Release Notes for DevOps

Version 3.7.5

Bug Fix

Downgraded Azure Devops Rest-API

To ensure that older systems still work, the AD Rest API has been downgraded. The minimum supported API version has been downgraded from 7.1 to 5.

Version 3.7.3

Bug Fix

Fixed Encoding Issue during Pull Request Import

Resolved an unexpected text encoding issue encountered during the migration to the latest Azure DevOps standard. This update ensures that pull request imports function as expected.

Version 3.7.0

Feature Upgrade

Migration to New Package Versions

With this update, we have updated the dependencies in our tool to the latest standard. This introduces some new migrations: - The HTML editor has been changed. There are some new actions available, but some old actions have been removed. These removed actions are currently under construction, and we will publish more actions over time. - !For all users utilizing Azure OpenAI, there has been a migration with the deployment ID. Please go to the authentication settings to add your deployment ID to get Azure OpenAI running again!

This update also improves performance and visual changes.

Version 3.6.0

Feature Upgrade

Current Date Handelbar

With this update you now have the option to add the following handelbar, to display the current date: {{currentDate 'YYYY-MM-DD'}}. You can change the format 'YYYY-MM-DD' if needed.

Version 3.5.0

Feature Upgrade

Use handelbars in the templates of work items

With this update, you now have the option to add handelbar placeholders into your custom work item template. To do that just cick the first button in the ribbon bar of the editor.

After the template was insertet into the release note tab, the placeholder will be filled automatically.

Feature Upgrade

HTML Editor has been changed to a new event

In this update, we've updated the HTML Editor with a new change event, which enhances performance and ensures that data writing in the editor will continue to be processed correctly in the future.

Version 3.4.3

Bug Fix

HTML Editor in Templates had wrong default style

In this update, we've made changes to the HTML Editor in the template panel to eliminate default styles. Previously, the Editor automatically applied a default style that rendered text in white, causing it to become invisible. If you have previously created a template for any work item, we recommend removing the default format using the provided action within the editor, if necessary.

Version 3.4.2

Bug Fix

Improve of Subscription System

With this update, the subscription system has been optimized.

Version 3.4.1

Bug Fix

Improve Build Task output log

With this update, the log of the build task has been corrected with some labels and improvements.

Version 3.4.0

Feature Upgrade

Handlebar expressions for date and time format codes

A new handelbar helper was added that helps to format datetimes to a needed format.

For examlpe use the following handelbar {{dateFormat "L" (field "System.CreatedDate")}} inside the layout. Here you will find all available fomrats.

Version 3.3.0

Feature Upgrade

Build task third party tools update

The third party azure devops tools of the build task have been updated to improve the queality of the process.

Version 3.2.7

Bug Fix

"Release Note Writing Error in On-Premises Servers"

We have fixed a bug affecting on-premises servers with the extension installed. The issue was causing an error when navigating to the Release Note tab within the workitem, preventing users from writing release notes. The error was related to a failure to read the 'sessionStorage' property from 'Window' due to the document being sandboxed and lacking the 'allow-same-origin' flag. With this fix, users should now be able to navigate to the Release Note tab and write notes without encountering any errors.

Version 3.2.6

Bug Fix

Editing a placeholder inside an entry doesn't update correctly

With this fix, you can now edit placeholders inside an entry, and the changes will be correctly reflected in the preview and during export.

Version 3.2.4

Bug Fix

Labels Regex expression was not working

When defining labels, using a Regex expression in fromValue was not working. This issue has been fixed in this version, and you can now use Regex expressions to apply labels inside a entry.

Version 3.2.2

Feature Upgrade

Query action that list not written known issues and upcoming features

In the query there are now two new query action that list known issues and upcoming features. The action opens a panel that lists all work items from the query and displays their corresponding status of the known issues or upcoming features.

Version 3.1.0

Feature Upgrade

Import Log for Known Issue/Upcoming Feature entries

The import log is now also available for the known issue and the upcoming feature extension. You will find this action within the entry and the log will be updated after each sync.

Version 3.0.1

Bug Fix

Missing documentaion link in marketplace description

The documentation link in the marketplace overview description was empty. This has been fixed now.

Version 3.0.0

Big New Feature

Known Issues and Upcoming Feature Extension

This update introduces two significant enhancements to our product. The Known Issues and Upcoming Feature Extension.

In today's fast-paced software development landscape, transparency is crucial. Known issues (identified problems or bugs) in a software version play a central role in this transparency. By documenting and communicating these issues, both customers and internal teams are better informed and prepared for potential limitations. This promotes user trust and satisfaction while also facilitating collaboration and problem-solving within the team.

Simultaneously, Upcoming Features provide a preview of planned improvements or additions to be introduced in future software versions. By documenting and communicating these new features, both customers and internal teams can anticipate upcoming improvements. This fosters user trust and anticipation, while also facilitating collaboration and planning within the team.

Upcoming Features provide a preview of new functionalities that will be introduced in future updates. This helps users plan and anticipate how these features might enhance their workflows.

With these extensions, it is now possible to create, manage and export Known Issues and Upcoming Feature entries.

All essential information about these enhancements can be found in our updated documentation.

If you prefer not to use these new features, you can disable the extensions in the settings under 'General'.

Important!

Additionally, this update includes a significant modification to the Pipeline extension, which has been upgraded to version 3.0.0. From now on, new features and bug fixes will only be implemented from this version onwards. We recommend updating your Pipeline extension to 3.0.0 and taking advantage of the new configuration options as soon as possible. All information regarding this update is available in the documentation.

Feature Upgrade

Query action that list the not written releae notes

This feature introduces a new action to the queries. The action opens a panel that lists all work items from the query and displays their corresponding status of the release note. 

Feature Upgrade

Azure OpenAI integration

The new feature now allows the option to access the Azure OpenAI endpoint in addition to the standard OpenAI endpoint. You can find this setting under the OpenAI section in Authentication settings.

Version 2.12.0

Feature Upgrade

New countries for the subscription are available

The following countries have now been added and can be used when creating the customer when purchasing a subscription.

  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Ghana
  • Gibraltar
  • Hong Kong
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Japan
  • Kenya
  • Liechtenstein
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • New Zealand
  • Nigeria
  • Norway
  • Singapore
  • South Africa
  • Thailand
  • United Arab Emirates

Please note that before you purchase a subscription, your data will be validated in the external payment service. If there are any problems, you will be prompted to correct them.

Version 2.11.0

Feature Upgrade

Project visibility for release note entries

In this update, a new option has been added to the release note entries, allowing you to limit the entry to the current project (this project), which will list the entry only in that specific project, or define it for all projects, listing the entry across all projects. 

From now on, every newly created entry will be created with the visibility of 'this project'. If you have existing entries and wish to subsequently change them to 'this project', you can do so in the option of the respective entry.

Version 2.10.0

Feature Upgrade

Save & Done Button to Save & State Button

With this feature you now have the possibility to personalize the previous Save & Done button in the settings under Release Note. You can now define a state in the settings, which in turn changes the status of the respective work item when the button is triggered in the Release Note tab.

Version 2.9.0

Bug Fix

The elements for sorting in a Release Note entry were not updated

Once you have imported or removed Release Notes from a entry, the sorting elements, under the sequence tab, were only updated once and did not stay up to date with further interactions. This has been fixed with this update, and the sorting elements are now always updated and thus remain up to date.

Feature Upgrade

User-defined work items states to ensure Release Notes are always up to date

With this feature, you can now define custom states for the following options in the Release Note settings, which will then be used for validation:

  • Message User
  • Lock State
  • Display Error

Please note that this options must be enabled to define a custom state. If it is not required for your customization, leave it blank to use the complete state of the respective work item.

Feature Upgrade

Sort by specific levels of a area path

We introduced a new feature that allows you to sort your release notes by a specific level of a area path. This is particularly useful when you want to organize your notes based on a certain hierarchy, such as Project, Iteration, Feature...

For details on how this feature works and how to set it up, see the documentation.

Version 2.8.0

Feature Upgrade

The work item error message disapear after a release note is saved

If the Display Error option is enabled in the Release Note settings and an error is displayed on a work item, the work item is refreshed after the release note is written and saved. After that, the error message is no longer visible.

Version 2.7.4

Bug Fix

Hub not loading with no records

When opening the hub without data, an attempt was made to perform a migration, which in turn caused an error and the loading screen to load indefinitely. This has now been fixed. And access to the hub is now back to normal for everyone.

Version 2.7.3

Bug Fix

OpenAI wrong release note handelbar

The OpenAI layouts did not properly migrate the release note handlebars. This has now been fixed, and as soon as you reopen the hub, these values will be automatically migrated.

Version 2.7.0

Feature Upgrade

Open AI in the Hub

The OpenAI chat is now also available in the hub editor, when you edit a release note.

Feature Upgrade

Import Log

The import of release notes into the hub is now logged. All items are listed to provide an overview of which release notes were not imported. The import log will display only the latest import, which can be accessed in the hub after an import. To do this, look for a banner in the panel after an import where you can open the log.

Version 2.6.0

Feature Upgrade

Extended Handelbar System with a new file tracking system

With this new feature, users of the premium version of Release Notes for DevOps now have the option of integrating all work item fields into the layout.

If you now navigate to the settings under Layouts, you will find the following changes:

  • Grouping of trade bars in the trade bar panel.
  • Work item fields integration, which allows you to retrieve the fields of the respective work items per release note and use them in your layout.
  • File Tracking, which allows you to display a list of the changed files for the last commit in the work item.

Please note that due to this change, a migration of your previous layout is necessary. This happens automatically in the background as soon as you navigate to the Release Note Hub.

Here you can find an example integration to list the changes in your release note layout:

<div> Changes ({{commit "changecount"}}):</div> 
<ul>    
    {{#each commit.changes}}         
        <li><b>{{this.type}}</b> -> {{this.path}}</li>    
    {{/each}}
</ul>

Version 2.5.0

Feature Upgrade

Release Notes for DevOps Server available

The Release Notes for DevOps extension is now available for server usage.

Version 2.4.2

Feature Upgrade

Marketplace caption changes

We have revised the Marketplace text and captions, incorporating YouTube videos to effectively showcase the extension.

Version 2.4.1

Bug Fix

Save & Done function wrong complete state

When using the Save & Done feature, the status was always set to Done. Since work items can also have other completion statuses, this has been has been changed so that the Save & Done function now dynamically determines and sets the correct complete status of the work item.

Version 2.4.0

Feature Upgrade

Build Task - Converting placeholder usage

The Release Notes for DevOps build task has been updated to version 2.0.0. This update contains a change that is considered a "breaking change" because it changes the use of placeholders. In order to fill placeholders in the pipeline, a new option called "placeholders" has been added. There you can specify your desired placeholders in the following syntax:

[your_placeholder_name=value]
[your_placeholder_name2=value2]

In a YAML pipeline this looks like this, after you have added the build task to your pipeline.

placeholders: |
    [your_placeholder_name=value]
    [your_placeholder_name2=value2]

The square brackets "[]" must remain, and as you can see, as in the example above, you can fill in more than one placeholder.

To use this update and continue to receive future build task updates, you must change your build task from "Changelogs-for-DevOps-Build-Task@1" to "Changelogs-for-DevOps-Build-Task@2". The build task 1 is no longer supported.

Version 2.3.0

Feature Upgrade

Build Task - Skip CI Function

When using the build task and specifying a repository and branch to push release notes/changelogs, you may experience regression behavior if the trigger in the pipeline responds to the same branch in the same repository. This behavior occurs when the build task pushes a release note or changelog to both the specified repository and the branch. Since this causes changes in the repository, the trigger configured in the pipeline reacts to this change and initiates a new build. This process repeats as long as release notes/changelogs are pushed to the repository.

To prevent this reactive behavior, a new option field called "SKIP CI" has been introduced. This option can be used to specify that a new build is not triggered when the changelog is pushed, thus preventing the pipeline from being re-run.

The use of this option depends on the specific integration of the build task. Particularly for pipelines that are frequently triggered unexpectedly, this option should be activated.

Version 2.2.2

Product Name Change

Due to some confusion regarding the term "Changelogs", and because our extension can not only create and manage Changelogs, but also Release Notes, we have decided to rename the extension from "Release Notes for DevOps" to "Release Notes for DevOps". This change will only affect caption changes throughout the product. For you as a customer, everything remains the same. You will continue to see the caption "Release Note/Changelog" to indicate that both are possible.

Version 2.1.3

Bug Fix

PDF Donwload not Possible in Basic Version

If you were in the free version of Release Notes for DevOps, the option to download the changelog as a PDF was disabled. This has now been fixed and the PDF Print Browser is now working again for all subscription levels.

Version 2.1.2

Bug Fix

Pipeline Wrong Storage Reference

The build task had a wrong reference to the Release Notes for DevOps storage, which caused a subscription query to always return a basic subscription, this has now been fixed.

Version 2.1.1

Feature Upgrade

Premium AI activation

You now have the option to purchase the Premium AI Subscription. You can try it for free for 30 days.

Version 2.1.0

Big New Feature

OpenAI-Powered Changelog Integration

We're thrilled to introduce the groundbreaking OpenAI-Powered Changelog Integration, revolutionizing the way you craft and manage release notes. This integration seamlessly infuses OpenAI's cutting-edge AI capabilities into your workflow, enhancing your Release Notes for DevOps experience in remarkable ways:

  • Effortless Changelog Creation: Say goodbye to tedious manual input! Now, generating comprehensive changelogs is a breeze. The integration automates the process, extracting valuable information directly from work item descriptions. This feature saves you precious time and effort, allowing you to focus on what matters most - your development work.

  • Enhanced Content Quality: Experience a leap in content quality with our AI engine. It meticulously refines and optimizes the generated content, ensuring each changelog entry is characterized by clarity, precision, and a polished, professional touch. Your release notes will now impress and communicate with unparalleled finesse.

  • Seamless Translation: Break down language barriers effortlessly. OpenAI's AI capabilities enable automatic translation of your release notes into multiple languages, making it easier for global teams to access and comprehend updates. This facilitates smoother collaboration and ensures everyone is on the same page, regardless of their language preferences.

OpenAI Preview

With the integration of OpenAI, we're setting a new industry standard for changelog creation and management. Embrace the powerful synergy of AI and Azure DevOps, and witness your release notes elevate to a level of excellence like never before.

Upgrade your DevOps workflow with Release Notes for DevOps and unlock the full potential of AI-powered changelog generation. Stay ahead of the curve, stay organized, and keep innovating! 🚀

Feature Upgrade

Layout Optimization

In this update, we have revamped the user interface of the layout settings. You now have a clearer interface where you can switch between different components without having to save each time. Edit your entire layout and only save when you're finished. 

New Field Panel displays the available variables that you can use in your layout, and you can integrate them directly into your layout with a click. 

The revised image handling now allows you to add various images to a separate storage and then integrate them into the layout with a click. You can do this multiple times and when adding, you will no longer find a Base64 string in your layout.

Feature Upgrade

Display Changelogs in Hub

In the Changelog hub, next to the Create Action, you will now find a button to view the Changes of Release Notes for DevOps.

Feature Upgrade

Link all page, dialogs and panels with documentation url

An information button is now available on every page and panel, which directly leads you to the corresponding documentation.

Feature Upgrade

Welcome Guided Dialog

You will now be greeted with an onboarding dialogue in the Changelog Hub, which provides a basic overview of the Release Notes for DevOps Extension.

Feature Upgrade

Release note editing within a changelog jumps to the corresponding release note in the preview.

When you select a release note in the changelog, the preview view jumps to the release note, so you can see your change in the release note directly in the preview, without having to manually scroll there.

Bug Fixes

The following issues have been resolved with this release:

  1. Encoding and decoding problems with UTF8 characters have been fixed in the export and in the pipeline.
  2. Downloading a PDF document no longer truncates release note elements with the default layout. You will need to use page-break-inside: avoid; in your release note element if you have already customised your layout.
  3. The default layouts have been adapted and the bug that images are all the same width has been fixed.

Version 2.0.11

Feature Upgrade

Improvement of Reposiotry export

new functions have been added to this feature.

  1. Cross-repository display: With this feature you can control whether you want to push your changelog to a repository outside the project. To do this, activate the toggle and select the desired repository.
  2. Push mode: With this function you can set the push mode for the export. You can specify whether you want to create a new changelog file, edit an existing one (where the changelog is packed over the previous content), and replace a file with the changelog.

Feature Upgrade

Import via Pull Request

This new feature allows you to import release notes from linked work items in a pull request into your changelog. You can find the new action in the import settings under "Pull Request". Select your repository and the pull request you want to import.

Feature Upgrade

Work Item Listener revised

The work item listener is responsible for managing messages and errors in the work item. If the message user setting is active in the initialization and a work item is set to done and there is no release note, a notification is sent. The entire algorithm has been adapted to solve possible problems with different configuration settings.

Bug Fix

Multiple exclusion conditions cause problems

Creating multiple conditions in the Exclude Release Notes setting resulted in unwanted Excludes or Includes. The system has been reworked and the queries work again with multiple conditions.

Bug Fix

Pipelines list multiplies on reopen in Build Import

When opening the build opportunity page, pipeline items were displayed twice if opened repeatedly. This has been fixed with this update.

Version 2.0.5

Feature Upgrade

Search bar and equivalent sorting in the "Release Note" tab

In this update, we have enhanced the "Release Note" tab. With the integrated search bar, you now have the ability to search for specific release notes within the Release Note table.