After beta version of JIRA 4 was announced on Atlassian Summit, we immediately installed it to check if JIRA Client works with the bleeding edge JIRA server. To our surprise and joy, most of the things worked — thanks to Atlassian developers for preserving backward compatibility! But we still had to make a few changes and now all features of JIRA Client 1.5.1 are compatible with JIRA 4 beta.

Upgrade is advised to everyone using JIRA Client, because there were some major problems fixed with this release. Before upgrading to the new version, please back up your workspace.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download JIRA Client
• Change Log
• Forum
• Issue tracker

The most prominent new feature in JIRA Client 1.5 is time tracking and integration with JIRA work logs (available for JIRA 3.10 or later). Here's how it works:

• You can select an issue as your current work with Right Click | Work on Issue menu item or Ctrl+G keyboard shortcut. The issue becomes your current work and time tracking is started — you can see that in the Time Control window, opened by Time | Time Tracking menu or with Ctrl+M shortcut.
• Using Time Control window, you can start, stop and pause time tracking. To change the issue you're working on just select it in a query result and hit Ctrl+G.
• At any time you can review the accumulated time tracking information as a time sheet and publish it as work logs. Use Time | Edit and Publish Timesheet menu or Ctrl+Shift+M shortcut. After time sheet is published, changes to the affected issues may be uploaded to the server.
• On any issue you can view, add, edit and delete work log entries, just like in JIRA web interface (viewing work log requires full issue download, as it is not automatically downloaded when issue is first retrieved from the server). The changes are kept in the local database until you upload them.
• JIRA Client detects periods when you're not using your computer or when it's asleep, and can automatically turn on pause in time tracking. You can adjust settings for auto-pause using Time | Time Tracking Options menu.

There are other improvements in this version, including:

• Minimizing into system tray — turn on with File | Use System Tray menu item (available on Windows, Mac OS X with Java 6 only). When JIRA Client has an icon in system tray it will show notifications about auto-paused time tracking;
• URLs and issue keys are now clickable in comments and text fields;
• Support for comment visibility restrictions;
• The main window has been slightly rearranged — most of the buttons from the toolbar on the top have been moved to issue details view and issue list header.

Before upgrading to the new version, please back up your workspace. After starting new version for the first time, run full synchronization with File | Synchronize menu.

Pricing Upgrade

With the release of this version we're changing the pricing for JIRA Client, in order to make it simpler. We're making floating and site licenses obsolete and adding instead fixed-quantity team licenses, starting with 5-user team license at $490. Team license is your best bet if you need, well, a team to work with JIRA Client, and personal and single-user licenses are good if you need only one or two licenses. You can review current pricing options at license comparison page.

All licenses except personal come with 1 year support and maintenance subscription. The price for the following years is now 50% of the base license price, per year. Extending support and maintenance is optional, but you will need an active subscription to run upgrades.

All existing licenses and quotations remain in power at the conditions that existed when they were issued. If you have purchased licenses within 30 days before pricing change, you can return the licenses and purchase again using the new prices.

Thanks to everyone who provided us with feature votes and opinion! We're looking for feedback on the new version, especially on the time tracking feature — please let us know what you think. If you have any questions on the pricing, feel free to contact sales@almworks.com.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download JIRA Client
• Change Log
• Forum

Upgrade is advised to all users. Please back up your workspace before installation.

Thanks to Ken, Bernhard and everybody else providing us with feedback!

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download latest version
• Full change log

The new version supports Bugzilla 3.2+ and also contains a number of improvements. Here's a recap of the new stuff:

• Support for Bugzilla 3.2 with all new types of custom fields and custom workflow;
• Due to some optimizations, the practical limit to the number of downloaded bugs is raised to 25000 (we're still working on version 2.0 with no practical limit);
• You can now edit bugs by dragging and dropping them on queries — if possible, the bugs will be changed so that they satisfy the query's filter;
• Support for voting;
• Searching by "user in CC list" filter and "Edit CC List" dialog;
• Keywords improvements: it's now possible to pick keywords from a list when editing a bug and build distributions by keywords;
• Deskzilla is now able to minimize into system tray (on Windows) instead of closing or minimizing into Task Bar;
• Bugs export/import allows you to select and copy a number of bugs into Clipboard as text URLs using Copy & Paste. Later you can import a list of bug URLs into Deskzilla by pasting URLs on a query or local tag;
• It's now possible to search for text when viewing a text attachment;
• When creating a new bug, you can now set its initial status;
• Bugs download is now faster.

The upgrade is recommended and free for licensed users. If you have evaluated Deskzilla 1.6.1 or older version before, you can try the newest Deskzilla again for 30 days without getting any additional license.

To upgrade from a previous version:

• Backup your workspace, as the new version will perform certain non-backwards-compatible changes on the local database;
• Install the new version over the old one and start Deskzilla;
• Perform full synchronization using File | Synchronize;
• Restart Deskzilla;
• If you have any queries based on Keywords, they most probably will not work until you edit and fix them.

Thank you for using Deskzilla!

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download latest Deskzilla
• Full change log

New in this version:

• Upgraded Bugzilla to 3.2.2;
• Pre-installed localization packs for German (Germzilla), French, Japanese and Russian;
• Virtual Bugzilla comes now with SSL preconfigured;
• Versioning convention for VBS changed to reflect the version of Bugzilla installed;
• Testopia is moved to a separate project;
• Linux distribution changed to Debian Etch;
• Virtual machine configuration upgraded;
• LSI SCSI virtual controller is now in use;
• Virtual disk for user data has now 200GB capacity;
• Organization of virtual disk space is slightly different.

Please note that we have removed Testopia from this project. We hope to release as separate Virtual Testopia server soon.

Upgrade from a previous version at your discretion. On one hand, upgrade may not be a trivial task and require minimal Unix user experience. On the other hand, the latest-and-greatest Bugzilla could be enough reason to upgrade. Please follow upgrade instructions and don't forget to make backups.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Virtual Bugzilla Server
• Download
• Documentation
• VBS forum

This release comes long-awaited as Bugzilla 3.2 has introduced several new custom field types and custom workflow, which were not very well supported by Deskzilla 1.6. If you are already using Bugzilla 3.2, you might want not to wait until we release the final version of Deskzilla 1.7 and grab the beta!

Besides support for Bugzilla 3.2, there are several other new features in this release:

• You can now edit bugs by dragging and dropping them on queries — if possible, the bugs will be changed so that they satisfy the query's filter;
• Support for voting;
• Searching by "user in CC list" filter and "Edit CC List" dialog;
• Keywords improvements: it's now possible to pick keywords from a list when editing a bug and build distributions by keywords;
• Deskzilla is now able to minimize into system tray (on Windows) instead of closing or minimizing into Task Bar;
• Bugs export/import allows you to select and copy a number of bugs into Clipboard as text URLs using Copy & Paste. Later you can import a list of bug URLs into Deskzilla by pasting URLs on a query or local tag;
• It's now possible to search for text when viewing a text attachment;
• When creating a new bug, you can now set its initial status;
• Bugs download is now faster.

There are a bunch of bug fixes and optimizations as well.

To upgrade from a previous version:

• Backup your workspace, as the new version will perform certain non-backwards-compatible changes on the local database;
• Install the new version over the old one and start Deskzilla;
• Perform full synchronization using File | Synchronize;
• Restart Deskzilla;
• If you have any queries based on Keywords, they most probably will not work until you edit and fix them.

Deskzilla 1.7 will work with any Deskzilla 1.x license key. You can also have a free 30-days evaluation period with this version even if you have tried an older Deskzilla version earlier.

As usual, we're looking for your feedback on the new version. Please let us know what you think.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download Deskzilla 1.7 beta 1
• Full change log

This is the first release of Tracklink for Visual Studio and we're looking for your feedback! Any comments or feature requests are welcome at Tracklink forum.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download Tracklink.NET
• Discussion forum

Upgrade is advised to all users. Please back up your workspace before installation.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download JIRA Client
• Full change log

• Edit issues by dragging and dropping them over a query;
• Bulk change issues with drag-and-drop;
• JIRA Labels plug-in support;
• Voting and watching support;
• Local tags export and import;
• Search when viewing text attachments;
• Support for editing date/time fields.

In this version we had to turn off spell-checker by default, due to some major problems with a third-party library. It still can be turned on by "spellcheck=true" command-line option (e.g. jiraclient.exe -J-Dspellcheck=true). We'll reinstate spelling checker functionality in a future version of the product.

JIRA Client 1.4 will work with any JIRA Client 1.x license key. If you have evaluated JIRA Client version 1.3.1 or older, you can have another free evaluation period with this version.

To upgrade, simply install the new version over the old one. Please note that this release significantly changes the structure of the local database, so it is especially important to back up your workspace before installation. After 1.4 is installed, please run full sync with File | Synchronize menu. If you already have a connection to JIRA with Labels plug-in installed, you will also need to restart JIRA Client after synchronization to finish the upgrade.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download JIRA Client 1.4
• Full change log

• Edit issues by dragging and dropping them over a query;
• Bulk change issues with drag-and-drop;
• JIRA Labels plug-in support;
• Voting and watching support;
• Local tags export and import;
• Search when viewing text attachments;
• Support for editing date/time fields.

There are a few more minor improvements and a bunch of bug fixes.

JIRA Client 1.4 will work with any JIRA Client 1.x license key. If you have evaluated JIRA Client before, you can have another free evaluation period with this version.

To upgrade from version 1.3, simply install the new version over the old one. Please note that this release significantly changes the structure of the local database, so it is especially important to back up your workspace before installation. After 1.4 is installed, please run full sync with File | Synchronize menu. If you already have a connection to JIRA with Labels plug-in installed, you will also need to restart JIRA Client after synchronization to finish the upgrade.

Please let us know what you think of the new features. All feedback is very welcome on our forum.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download JIRA Client 1.4 beta 1
• Full change log

Today we have released patches to the latest versions of Deskzilla and JIRA Client.

The patches contain fixes to the few issues that have surfaced since the release. Upgrade is advised but not required if you are not experiencing any problems.

To upgrade, just install the new version over the old one. Please backup your workspace before upgrading.

Igor Sereda
ALM Works Team

Links:

• Download Deskzilla
• Download JIRA Client
• Discussion forum