24 June 2020

The Xray team is proud to announce the release of Xray 4.0.0.

This version features a revamp of the manual test steps UI and the ability to configure new Test Step Custom Fields per project. 

Another major feature in this release is Test Run Custom Fields. When executing Tests, users can now add additional information to the Test Runs. Test Run custom fields can also be configured by project.

As part of our continuous improvement, more performance enhancements have also been included in this version, especially when importing executions results.

Discover the key features below. (smile)

Upgrade Notes

Upgrading Xray to 4.0.x


If you are upgrading from a version lower than 3.2, this implies that an upgrade task will run to pre-calculate historical data. This action is a one time action and it will run in the background so that Xray is still available during the upgrade. A  re-index operation of your Jira instance is required so that the internal data becomes searchable and usable by Xray.

Please be aware that this upgrade task will run immediately after updating Xray. As this operation can take some time and use a considerable amount of server resources, we suggest scheduling the upgrade of Xray outside of business hours. It is always possible to cancel the recalculation operation in the Xray configuration section → Custom Fields → Maintenance.

If you are upgrading from v3.2.x or v3.3.x to v4.0, you must recalculate data in the Xray configuration section → Custom Fields. This recalculation is necessary because of the huge improvement in the amount of data that Xray needs to add to the table and to the Lucene indexes.

As this operation can take some time and use a considerable amount of server resources, we suggest scheduling the upgrade of Xray and the recalculation of the custom fields, outside of business hours.

Downgrading from Xray 4.0.x


Downgrading from Xray 4.0.x to a version less than 3.2.0 implies that you must perform a re-index afterward. This is because from Xray 3.2.0 onwards, the content and format of what Xray indexes has changed.

Historical Coverage Gadget

Some configuration parameters for this gadget were modified as a result of supporting multiple projects whenever using a saved filter as a source. It is possible that some users will get errors on the gadget after downgrading from 4.0.x. If this happens, please edit the configuration to ensure the gadget is configured properly. 

Manual Test Steps (Export) custom field deleted

The Manual Test Steps (Export) has been removed in v4.0.

This custom field existed with the single purpose of presenting the Test Steps in HTML when Test issues were exported using the native Jira actions to Word or HTML.

However, you can now include the Manual Test Steps custom field on the Test issue screen if you need to export these issues into Word or HMTL files.

For more information, please click here.

Release highlights 

Revamped Test Steps UI

The Test Steps UI has been redesigned to provide a better user experience when creating, editing, and viewing manual Test Steps.

Besides all the visual changes, you can now:

  • Use the Jira WYSIWYG wiki markup editor and toolbar which are now provided directly on the text fields.
  • Choose between two view modes: Grid or List.
  • Expand and collapse steps.
  • Create a new step in any position.
  • Edit all steps in a dialog, taking advantage of the additional screen real-estate for managing Test Steps.


Learn more about this revamp of the Test Steps UI here.



Test Step Custom Fields

Besides the revamp of the manual steps UI, Xray now features the ability to configure additional fields/columns for Test Step fields. It is also possible to hide/disable the native Xray fields for "Data" and "Expected Result." This way you can fully customize the columns for your manual Test Steps hiding native fields, and providing new fields.

Test Step custom fields can be text fields of course, but additional types are also available: Toggle Switch, Date Picker, Date Time Picker, Number, Radio Buttons, Select List, Select List (Multiple), Text (Multi-line), Text (Single Line).

It is also possible to configure mandatory fields, meaning users will not be able to create or edit a Test Step if any of the mandatory fields are not populated. 

Test Step custom fields can be configured at the project level, hence, these settings will not affect other Test projects within your Jira instance.

The REST API and Test Case Importer are also ready for Test Step custom fields.


Learn more about this feature here.



Test Run Custom Fields

It is now possible to define additional Test Run custom fields. These fields can be useful to add extra information to Test Runs, usually only available during or after executing Tests.

Test Run custom fields can be configured by project and by Test Type. Therefore, these settings will not affect other projects within your Jira instance. For example, it is possible to have custom fields just for Manual Tests within a project. 


Reporting

The Test Runs List report provides an additional column that displays the Test Run Custom Field values for each Test Run.

It is also possible to include these fields on the Tests data-table within the Test Execution issue.


What's next?

In the following releases, more features will be added:

  • filtering based on Test Run custom field capabilities (within the Test Execution and Test Runs List report)
  • importing execution results with Test Run custom field values using the Xray REST API format


Learn more about this feature here.



Performance improvements

As part of our effort for continuous performance improvements, we have improved the import of execution results, either through the UI or the REST API. In some cases, these performance improvements can reach 50% improvement.

Improving performance is an ongoing effort for us, so you can expect additional enhancements to come ahead.

Please take a look at the resources, Usage tips to improve performance, containing setup, and "best practices" for optimizing Xray performance. 


Just one more, yet important, thing...


Documentation is always important and sometimes you may miss it. We added a set of relevant articles to our already extensive documentation.

In this release, you may find some specific tutorials related to performance and load testing, including our recent partnership with the well-known load testing tool NeoLoad. We've also added a long-awaited tutorial for JMeter and another for Taurus.

Other important automation-related tutorials cover Salesforce apps and also Serenity BDD.

Here's a sum-up of all the relevant articles that we've added:

New Features and Bug Fixes in this release

 

Key Summary T Created P Status Resolution
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