All release notes for the DC version of Automated release notes app are listed below.
🎉HTML template preview now allows you to download the HTML file. ⏬
Do you wish to download the HTML template output? An additional download option on the template preview screen makes this extremely simple.
🎉JQL input box changes its height dynamically
The height of the JQL input box is now dynamically adjusted according to the length of your JQL query. This allows you to read the complete JQL query at a glance. 😎
🎉Now, use the previous rule action's confluence page as the parent page for the current rule action 📑
Now, it's possible to create both parent and child Confluence pages using the same ARN rule. Simply choose the previous confluence action under the parent page setting, and you're done.
Read more.
🎉New library for PDF generation
We are using a new library to generate PDFs and it does not require any installation on the app server. 🙂
🐞Fix for correct rendering of fonts for multi-line Jira fields in the sequential layout 🛠️
Fonts applied for multi-line Jira fields in the JQL section's sequential layout were not correctly rendered. This problem has been resolved.
🐞Some users were unable to access ARN app 🐛
This fix will ensure there are no duplicate entries for a user which was preventing certain users to access the ARN app.
🐞Improved navigation between field customization menu to add columns menu
In the edit JQL section pop-up, users were having trouble figuring out how to return from the field customization menu to the add columns menu. Added a separate "back" button which makes the navigation simpler. 🧐
🤹♂️ Improvements to the markdown template ✅
The new ‘Group by' layout customization is now available in the Markdown template. Additionally, hardcoded styling for the status field and indentation have also been removed. This allows you to freely alter the template to suit your preferences.
Read more about the 'Group by’ layout customization.
🎉Improvements in sprint selector on template preview screen ✅
Jira API which provides a list of sprints associated with a board has some limitations & it always provides the list in chronological order. However, with the latest improvements on the sprint selector screen, you can fetch for latest sprints using pagination on the sprint selector screen. You can also filter sprints based on their status such as ‘Active’, ‘Future’ & ‘Closed’.
🎉Additional authorization methods for POST action ✔️
POST rule action will now provide more flexibility with two additional authorization methods Bearer token and Custom header.
🎉Template gallery for quick creation of release notes templates 📑
The template gallery feature is now live. Here you can see a list of ready-to-use templates useful for certain use cases. While you create a new template, you can easily browse, preview and use templates from the template gallery. We will be building a comprehensive gallery of templates that support a wide range of use cases.
🐞Fixed - Max JQL results (per JQL) setting ⚙️
Max JQL results (per JQL) setting set from the admin panel was not working properly due to some bug, It has been fixed now. Maximum no. of issues fetched in a JQL section and bar charts will depend on this instance level setting.
🎉Introducing bar charts 📊
Stats macro is now called a ‘Stats & charts’ macro. You can include a simple bar chart showing the count of issues returned by configured JQL aggregated over values of specific Jira fields. Read more.
🎉Ability to add page break in sequential layout for PDF template 📑
In the PDF template, page breaks can be added in sequential layout. Using this, you can choose to show each issue on a separate page of the PDF.
🐞Jira 9.0 compatibility 🛠️
Bug fixes related to Jira 9.0 Compatibility.
🎉Customization of 'Group by' fields layout is now completely flexible 👏
'Group by' field WYSIWYG editor is here. As opposed to the earlier 'custom CSS' approach, we now have released a full-fledged WYSIWYG editor to tackle the group by formatting.
Note: This change is applicable only for the new templates and existing templates will continue to show the earlier 'custom CSS' approach.
Read more.
🎉Support for sprint variables is here 🥳
If you use 'sprints' in your agile software development, you can generate release notes for your sprints created in Jira through ARN. Just like version variables, ARN now supports sprint variables in the templates and JQL sections. Plus, we have added the ability to trigger a rule automatically when a sprint is marked completed in Jira. Read more.
🎉Ability to insert expand macro in confluence template 🙌
The “Expand’ macro is one of Confluence's most popular macros. ARN confluence template now supports the ability to include expand macro. Read more.
🐞Fixed ! Rule actions triggered multiple times for version release trigger 🐞
There was a bug due to which rules with version release trigger were getting executed multiple times. This has been fixed now.
🎉Notification to admin while disabling 'run rule as' setting ⚠️
Admins shall be notified with list of projects which have active rules with rule actor ‘App user’ when they disable ‘run rule as’ setting. This will help admins to identify and disable such rules if required. Read here more about ‘run rule as’ setting and its impact.
🎉Now, create and execute rules from cross project ARN screen 📢
The ability to create rules and publish release notes from the cross-project ARN screen is here. You can create rules for email, confluence, POST action, and JSD announcement actions with the manual trigger. You can also see rule execution logs within cross-project ARN screen.
🐞Improvement in rule execution logs 👋
When a rule is triggered, entry for individual rule actions which are queued for execution, shall be seen in the logs immediately. This will give quick confirmation to the user that rule is triggered successfully. Status of individual rule actions shall get updated when they get executed one by one.
🎉Easily navigate to ARN in-project screen from cross-project screen 🧭
Many early ARN users would find it difficult to locate the in-project ARN screen and end up accessing the cross-project ARN screen. Now, you can easily navigate to ARN in-project screen from the cross-project screen. You have the necessary permission to access that screen.
🎉Easily navigate to ARN cross-project screen from in-project screen 🚸
Users can easily navigate to ARN cross-project screen from their regular in-project screen.
🎉Rule execution logs older than 90 days shall be automatically cleared 🗑️
Rule execution logs which can be viewed from logs tab, shall be available only up to 90 days. Logs older than 90 days shall be automatically deleted by the system.
🎉Insert page break in PDF templates 📑
Ability to insert page breaks in PDF template is now added so that, you can format the PDF output in a better way.
🎉Support for second level 'group by' field is here ! 👏
Now, you can add up to two fields in ‘group by’ configuration of JQL section. When two ‘group by’ fields are added, issues returned by JQL will be grouped by second ‘group by’ field within each group created by first 'group by' field. Read here more about this.
🎉New & improved JQL suggestions 👏
JQL suggestions are now more relevant & appear in logical groups. You will also get suggestions for the ARN-specific variables which makes template creation a lot easier.
🐞'Epic Link' was not shown as a link in 'group by', fixed ! 🐛
There was a bug due to which the ‘Epic Link’ field when added as ‘group by’ field in JQL section, was not properly shown in the template as a link (even when ‘display as a link’ is enabled). This is now fixed.
2021 |
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🎉POSTing the Markdown template 📑
ARN now supports the possibility of POSTing the Markdown to a pre-defined URL. This works especially well if you want to post the content to MS Teams.
🎉Adding more permissions for granular control ⚙️
Jira admins now have more control over the sensitive features of ARN to protect the organization's data from being released in public domain. Read more about this here.
🐞Multiple line breaks were getting ignored
Multiple line breaks included in the multiline field were getting ignored when transporting them to ARN. For the presentation nerds out there, we have corrected this behaviour 
🐞Font size of 'Custom field' was not getting updated 🧐
There was a bug which would not allow change of font size when one or more ‘Custom Fields’ were included in the JQL section. This is now fixed.
🎉ARN evaluation license can now be extended beyond 3 months 🥳
ARN server/DC variant supports evaluation up to 3 months. Now it is possible to extend it beyond by deleting all your existing data and starting fresh simply by confirming so within the app.
🎉
Welcome custom styling of 'Group by' fields 😻
The way ARN rendered Group by fields in release notes was hardcoded. Now it is possible to apply custom styling to the label & value of Group by field.
🎉
Dynamically include issue users as release notes email recipients 📧
Don’t limit release notes communication to pre-defined set of users, add issue users dynamically to the list. e.g. reporters, creators, assignees, watchers or any other multi-user custom fields.
🎉
'Run rule as' parameter to honour existing Jira project permissions 🔐
In Jira cloud, an app has a peculiar user called ‘App user’. This user has access to all Jira projects.
Before this, if anyone tried to use a JQL query (in ARN templates) that pulled data from projects they don’t have access to - they will see the data. But with this change, we are running every rule in the capacity of rule creator and allowing additional configuration of changing this behaviour - by turning on the ‘App user’ configuration.
🐞Run rule as value was being inserted as null causing errors in rule execution, fixed 🧐
For fresh installations, when default rules were added automatically they had ‘Run rule as’ value set to null. This caused errors while executing these rules. The fix will insert accurate entry instead of null and will also update all the existing rules where the value is already null.
🐞Hyperlinks from Scriptrunner's custom field were not rendered properly 🥺
To prevent XSRF, we had sanitised some special characters earlier. That caused some legitimate hyperlinks from Scriptrunner’s custom fields to not render properly. This is now addressed.
🐞Date time was auto added to headers in PDF templates
There was a bug that inserted date time into headers of PDF release notes generated via ARN. This is now fixed 🐞
🎉Cross project release calendar as a Jira dashboard gadget 🥳
It is now possible to insert cross project release calendar from ARN as a Jira dashboard gadget.
🐞Custom fields in release notes were returning values inconsistently 😟
In order to improve performance, we used a wrong API. ARN was fetching historical values for Custom fields included in the templates. This now stands corrected.
🎉🤩 🥳 🤓 Much awaited cross project release notes templates have landed!
No need to use some workarounds to generate cross project release notes. Now simply create a multi-version template on the ARN cross-project screen & bingo.
Read more here.
🎉Better support for multiple versions in ARN templates 👌
Support for cross project release notes is on the way and as a precursor, we are improving multi-version support. Read more about it here.
🎉Quick previews to improve efficiency 🏎️
We noticed that a lot of users relied on previews. Now there is a quick preview action right from the template listing page.
🎉List of release notes recipients just got better with Project roles 👨🎓
With this feature you can configure the ARN’s email action to send out emails even to users with specific project roles.
🎉🙌 JQL section titles now support formatting & Stats
Up until now it wasn’t possible to format JQL section title visually, or include Stats in it. Well, that changes now
🎉Send HTML release notes as email attachment 📑
Up until now, it wasn’t possible to send HTML release notes via email. Now it is. Similar to PDF, just attach the HTML release notes to an outgoing release notes email.
🎉Welcome JQL autosuggest 🎊
JQL sections are the core of ARN’s immense flexibility. Now, we have made them even better with the release of JQL autosuggest feature. Just type in and complete the JQL within ARN.
🎉ARN branding is now available across all visual templates 📌
We have introduced ARN branding for all visual templates. This branding cannot be disabled in the free cloud version, for others it can be easily taken out.
🎉🤖 ARN becomes smarter as it starts retaining last visited pages
To make your use of ARN a bit more swift, the app now remembers what ARN screen you visited last & brings you to that page automatically the next time.
🎉Calendar now displays detailed & structured info about releases 📊
We wanted the release calendar in ARN to be of more value to you. And thus we are introducing a pop-up displayed on click of a version in the calendar. This information is available in in-project & cross-project calendars.
🐞Minor correction in JQL autosuggest feature 😯
When there were too many values for a field in the JQL, autosuggest wasn’t working based on user’s inputs. That is now fixed.
🎉Confluence space & page selection without copy/paste 🙃
For some, getting the Confluence space key or the page id was too technical. We’ve made it easier for them, with an easy dropdown selector.
🎉Action names are now populated automatically 🐰
We observed how jotting down action names slowed you down while creating rules. Thus, ARN now populates these action names on its. If you want, change them or just continue with your critical path.
🎉It is now possible to trigger a manual rule from within rule details screen ▶️
🎉Cross project screen access is available by default to all users 🥳
We had already launched the cross-project screen earlier. But to improve its adoption, we now allow the configuration ‘Enabled for all users’ as an alternative to the existing one ‘Enabled for selected Jira groups’.
🎉Support for 5 new languages is now available 🗣️
Romanian 🇷🇴
Polish 🇵🇱
Chinese 🇨🇳
Hungarian 🇭🇺
Spanish 🇪🇸
That brings ARN’s total number of supported languages to 9.
🎉Sending emails is easier than ever 😇
Based on our user testing feedback, we realised that it wasn’t easy for new users to understand different types of email recipients. We have made that abundantly clear, with a new layout.
🎉Easily go back to the listing pages within ARN 🖱️
At times, breadcrumb based navigation wasn’t very clear - especially to the new users of the app. We are introducing ‘Back to listing’ links to improve this experience.
🎉Now version creation can trigger ARN rules 🥁
As many of you asked, ARN now supports the ‘Version created’ trigger.
🐞Bug introduced in 2.9 was crashing the app, now fixed
🎉Cross project calendar now displays color codes for each project 😇
ARN’s cross project calendar now visually differentiates between selected projects. Corresponding releases are highlighted in different colours in the calendar.
🎉♻️ Refresh the ARN logs without leaving the tab
In our UX tests, we saw many users refreshing the browser or switching the tab just to look at the updated logs. No need for that, a refresh button is now ready.
🎉Confluence URL validation is here 🤖
It was confusing for many users to input a Confluence URL, so we have now added a validation to prevent you from making a mistake.
🎉Use Confluence release notes URL in other templates 🌟
If you create or update a Confluence page via ARN rules, then it is possible to grab that Confluence page’s URL & use it in another template. Refer this help article.
🎉Confluence pages can now be appended/prepended to via ARN 💃
We’ve been working towards this for quite some time now
Excited to announce the ability to append/prepend release notes to an existing Confluence page via ARN. Simply use the relevant action and put out an identifier against which ARN will prepend/append.
🎉Now publish a Confluence page with Jira issue filter macro ARN
You can now use Jira issue filter macro right within the ARN template. That means, if you need the release notes to be dynamic - just use this macro 
🎉Cross project release calendar is here 🥳
As many of you requested, we have brought on cross project release calendar to ARN. Here is the help article to get you started. Check out the screenshot below.
🐞Confluence space key in small caps caused update action to fail 🙄
If your Confluence space key was in small letters, that caused the update action from ARN to fail with a cryptic error message. This is now fixed 🎉
🎉Support for German, French & Russian languages is here 🏁
We are excited to unveil support for German 🇩🇪, French 🇫🇷 & Russian 🇷🇺 languages. We are gradually expanding this list. If you are looking for a specific language, reach out to our support.
🎉It is now easier than ever to keep an eye on ARN's integrations 🧐
We came across lot of errors in rule execution logs for simple reasons such as modified credentials, missing configurations & so on.
Now with ‘Integration status’, anyone with access to ARN screen can spot Green/Amber/Red indicator and see detailed connection status within the Help tab. Check out the sample below.
🐞Version names in special characters caused JQL validation errors 🤓
If you used the 2.7 variable within the JQL section of ARN templates & tried to use a version which had special characters in it, validation bombed 💥. This is now fixed.
2020 |
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🎉Epic links can be further customised
If you are using epic links in your release notes, you can customise them further to meet your needs.
🎉Confluence page update 1.0 is here 🍻
ARN now supports ability to update an existing Confluence page. This is 1.0 & only full update is allowed. In the next 6 weeks, we will go live with 2.0 that lets you append/prepend to existing Confluence content.
🎉Settings icon added on field listing ⚙️
⚙️ without any UI element, it wasn’t clear that one can further customise the Jira issue fields further. Now it is abundantly clear
🎉Support for customer satisfaction fields
If you use ARN in Jira service management projects, then you can generate reports based customer satisfaction fields. We have added support for customer satisfaction & customer satisfaction date.
🐞Release dates off by a day in calendar
Calendar tab in ARN displays releases for a given project based on their start & end dates. For some timezones, the dates were off by one day. This is now addressed, all dates should appear correctly.