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April 8thMay 10th, 2024

The Xray team is proud to announce the release of Xray 7.6.0

We are thrilled to announce the release of Custom Test Types, a powerful new feature that enhances flexibility and customization within Xray Data Center.
With this update, users gain the ability to define and utilize custom test types tailored to their unique testing requirements, providing unparalleled versatility and efficiency in test management.

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Table of Contents

Upgrade Notes

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Upgrading Xray to 7.6.0


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titleUpgrading from versions < 3.2.xany previous version

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

Note
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.
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titleUpgrading from versions 3.2.x and 3.3.x

Test Types

Xray supports the following kinds of Tests:

  • Steps - defined with an ordered list of steps. Each step contains the action and the excepted result along with other fields.
  • Gherkin - defined using the Gherkin language for BDD.
  • Unstructured - defined with a single text field without any enforced structure.

When Xray is first installed, one Test Type is installed for each Test kind that Xray supports:

  • Manual (Steps kind)
  • Cucumber (Gherkin kind)
  • Generic (Unstructured kind)

If upgrading from v3.2.x or v3.3.x to v7, 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 the Lucene indexes.

Note
As this operation can take some time and use a considerable amount of server resources, we suggest scheduling the upgrade of Xray and recalculating the custom fields outside of business hours.
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Downgrading from Xray 7.6.0


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titleDowngrading to any version

Downgrading from Xray 7.x6.x 0 to a previous version may have the following side effects:

After creating some specific data using Test Case Versions, the user may have some glitches when downgrading to a specific version of Xray

Until Xray 7.6.0, Xray DC only supported the Test types below

KindTest Type/ Pre-Condition Type
StepsManual
Gherkin

Cucumber, Automated[Cucumber], Gherkin, Behave, SpecFlow, Behat

UnstructuredGeneric, Automated[Generic], Other


  • If you create a new Custom Type and map it to a Kind, when downgrading, Xray will not know about this mapping and will assume it is an Unstructured Test.
  • On a Test Issue, multiple manual test versions with steps, when downgrading the test issue will show all steps from all the versions
  • On a Test Issue, multiple manual test versions with specific datasets, when downgrading the test issue will show the parameters from all the datasets 
  • On a Test issue, having different test versions linked to the same precondition issue when downgrading, the test issue will show an integrity error instead of showing the precondition table
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    And the precondition will show the warning of being linked to an archived test
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    • For example, you create a Type called "Hierarchical Steps" and map it to the Kind Steps. When downgrading, the testers will see the Xray UI of an Unstructured Test. When changing the Test type to Manual, the data and correct UI will be shown. 


Release highlights 

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Custom Test

Case Versioning Image Removed

Types


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Introducing Custom Test Types, the latest feature enhancement for Xray Data Center.

With Custom Test Types, users gain unparalleled flexibility and customization in their testing workflows. Users can now define and utilize custom test types tailored to your unique testing requirements, empowering teams to adapt testing processes to suit specific scenarios.
Whether it's exploratory testing, security testing, or performance testing, Custom Test Types allow you to define custom fields, statuses, transitions, and workflows that align perfectly with your testing methodologies.
Seamlessly integrate custom test types into your existing workflows, enabling greater collaboration and alignment across teams. With enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities, Custom Test Types provide valuable insights into testing activities and outcomes, facilitating informed decision-making and continuous improvement initiatives.
Elevate  testing experience with Custom Test Types and unlock new levels of efficiency and effectiveness in your testing processes.

This highly requested Xray Enterprise feature allows users to create and manage multiple versions of the same test case, to easily track and revert changes in your test specification.

Why Test case versioning?

Test cases are not static. They evolve when requirements change, or improvements are made to the application under test. Although Xray logs test specification changes in the Jira history, it is not easy to revert to a specific test case version. With Test case versioning, you can now:

  • Create a new version of a test case with a single click
  • Compare different versions of a test case and see what has changed
  • Restore a previous version of a test case if needed
  • Assign a test case version to a test execution or a test plan
  • Track the test execution results for each test case version
  • Mark specific milestones of the Test with versions
  • Have multiple active versions simultaneously,  even of different Test Types, as you can execute them all independently.

How does Test case versioning work?

Test case versioning works in the same way as versioning of other issue types in Jira. Since Xray's Tests are Jira issues, we follow the same approach so your users work in the same manner they already do.

To create a new version of a test case, you just need to click on the "Create new version" button on the test issue screen. 
Test case versioning is a powerful feature that can help you manage your test specification more efficiently and effectively. It is available for Xray Enterprise customers only.


If you want to learn more about Custom Test case versioningTypes, please visit our documentation page here.




Just one more, yet important, thing...

Documentation is always important, and sometimes you may miss it.

This time we added some process-related articles detailing how to integrate and perform exploratory testing with Xray and some ideas on implementing acceptance criteria and tracking related testing results.

Here's a summary of all the relevant articles that we've added and updated recently:

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All New Features and Bug Fixes in this release

  JiraserverXpand IT Issue TrackercolumnIdsissuekey,summary,issuetype,created,priority,status,resolutioncolumnskey,summary,type,created,priority,status,resolutionmaximumIssues50jqlQueryproject = XRAY and fixVersion = "Xray DC V7.0.0" and level is EMPTY and issuetype not in subTaskIssueTypes() order by issuetype desc serverIdb6309ad5-5416-33d6-9a09-a3e02f20d3e6 Image Added