Polarion ALM 18.1 - What's New and Noteworthy

[krotilr]

Polarion ALM 18.1 is here and brings you the latest improvements and enhancements, as well as ongoing quality improvements based on feedback from the customers that use our solutions every day.

Significant enhancements were done to the following: 

• Hierarchical Spaces for Documents & Pages- Create Sub-spaces for LiveDocs, Live Reports, and Classic Wiki Pages.
• Synchronization with DOORS - Bi-directional synchronization of Modules with DOORS.
• Improvements in New Test Execution View- Vertical layout, the reuse of recent results, and more.

Hierarchical Spaces

Hierarchical Spaces for Documents & Pages
Organizing hundreds of LiveDocs, Live Reports and Classic Wiki Pages will be easier than ever before with the new hierarchical Spaces for Documents & Pages. Now you can logically structure your Spaces into multiple nested levels for easier navigation.

Sub-spaces can be created by selecting a parent Space when creating a new Space. New artifacts can be then created in the newly created Sub-Spaces.

Work on the hierarchical Spaces continues and the next releases will fully integrate hierarchical Spaces with Favorites, offering an even easier way to reorganize the data among spaces in bulk directly from the Polarion user interface.

Note: 
In the current version, artifacts can be moved to newly created Sub-spaces directly via Subversion provided that the number of moved artifacts in one commit is limited to tens rather than hundreds.

DOORS Synchronization

Synchronization with IBM DOORS
The new DOORS sync connector allows DOORS objects and links to be synchronized to Polarion. Polarion information can also then be synchronized back to DOORS. Synchronization can be set up automatically so it's done in the background without the need to run it manually.

Synchronization is configured through ‘Sync pairs” just like with the existing connectors for JIRA and HPQC.

The DOORS synchronization connector supports links and module hierarchies, complex requirement definitions, custom attributes, enumerations, OLE attachments and much more!

Customers can even modify this data in Polarion and round-trip it back to DOORS for a seamless workflow.

Test Execution View Improvements

Vertical layout
Polarion 18.1 allows users to switch the execution view to a vertical layout, where a list of test cases is displayed on the left and the execution pane on the right. This layout allows testers view more data on wide-screen displays and streamlines the execution by eliminating unnecessary scrolling.

Reuse of recent execution verdicts
To help speed up the completion of test execution results, previous verdicts can now be reused in the new Test Execution View. Simply expand the "Recent" tab for a test step or a test case and select a previous one to reuse it for the current execution.

Additional toolbar actions
Execution view adds additional actions to the toolbar that allows users to:

• Open a list of test cases in Work Items table.
• Refresh the list of test cases in the execution view.
• Navigate to the previous or next test case for execution.

Consistency check
If a test case is being retested, or a paused execution resumed, the system warns the tester that the test case has been changed.

Other Enhancements

Improved style support in Word exports
The export of rich-text to Word now also supports margin styles so that indented text and lists are exported correctly.

Pasting Excel tables in Chrome
In previous versions, pasting an Excel table to Polarion rich-text content in Chrome created an image instead of an actual table. Polarion 18.1 fixes this behavior and makes it consistent across all browsers.

Enhanced configuration of external repository polling
Polarion regularly polls for new revisions in external repositories for change traceability linking. Two Polarion properties allow administrators to configure  the following:

• How frequently the external repositories are checked. (5 seconds is the default setting.)
• The connection timeout setting if the external repository does not provide a response time.
  (30 seconds is the default setting.) 

com.polarion.repository.pollingPeriod=5000
com.siemens.polarion.repository.git.timeout=30000

Performance and Scalability

Optimized workflow condition Linked Work Item Status
The Linked Work Item Status condition prevents a workflow transition if the children of a Work Item are not in defined states. The way Polarion evaluates this condition for Work Items with many children was significantly improved. As a result, these Work Items load much faster. (Dropping from tens of seconds to less than one!)

Notable Issue Fixes

DPP-156283 - Regression in 3.17.3: Coordinator assigns the default license to all concurrent users after a node restart 
DPP-159550 - Regression in 3.18.0: Concurrent synchronization/import/export fails 
DPP-120950 - Overwriting a referenced Work Item from another Project via the API leads to "Work Item does not exist" 
DPP-42639 - The Position of the ID and Outline fields in Table and Tree views cannot be changed 
DPP-43383 - A Work Item that’s moved out of a Document remains linked to the Document’s heading 
DPP-93342 - An Excel table is pasted to a rich text field as an image in Chrome 
DPP-92336 - A Wiki page link to a Live Report page leads to an empty Live Report page in Edit mode 

Update Information

Version 18.1 is an update for all Polarion ALM products. 

You can download the update distribution from GTAC:

     https://download.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/

    GTAC  > Polarion  > Full Products > 18.1  > PolarionUpdate_18.1.zip

If your maintenance subscription is current, you can update from version 2016 or 17 to version 18.1 using the License Key Code you already have. You only need to activate your updated installation, which you can do either online or offline. For details, see the bundled HOW_TO_INSTALL_THIS_UPDATE.txt in the update distribution.

Evaluation

If you would like to evaluate this release before updating your production installation, simply visit https://polarion.plm.automation.siemens.com/downloads, download the product of your choice, install it on any available computer and use the built-in 30-day evaluation license.

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me or your Polarion technical support contact. On behalf of our entire team, thanks for using Polarion ALM solutions.

Best regards,
Radek Krotil,
Polarion ALM Product Management

 

[MLangermann]

Hello,

Hierarchical Spaces for Documents & Pages- Create Sub-spaces for LiveDocs, Live Reports, and Classic Wiki Pages.

When is the above feature completly integrated in Polarion? When are Hierarchical Spaces also in the favorite navigation bar available?

Best regards

Matthias Langermann

[krotilr]

Hi Matthias.

Thanks for your feedback. In fact, we are actually working on getting the sub-spaces into favorites right now, aiming to complete for the next Polarion 18.3 release that is targeted for mid-December.

Best regards,
Radek Krotil