Novelties summary
A new Redmine version 5.0. has recently been released. As its nomenclature warns, it is a major version, so the update may be more complex than in other major versions. Let's see a summary of the improvements that Redmine 5.0 brings.
In Redmine 5.0 version, 143 tasks have been carried out to improve the platform, including new features, patches and bug fixes. Some of the improvements (such as having custom queries by default in request lists or being able to add followers to wikis) were already “classics” in Redmine.
The most noteworthy improvements are as follows:
Accounts and security
- 2FA authentication: this secure authentication mode can now be enabled only for certain user groups (#31920) or for Redmine administrator users (#35439).
- Increase email address length limit from 60 to 254(#36825).
- the import utility is improved: among other things, a new account notification can be sent to the user when a mass import of users is performed (#35365)
User interface
- Github's CommonMark Markdown text editor (GitHub Flavored) has been introduced, as an alternative to the existing Markdown (#32424).
- Mentions to users with the “@” symbol and associated notification (#13919). Long awaited functionality.
- Added “hints” to custom fields : although it is now possible to indicate values by default in custom fields, until now it was not possible to include text as instructions for the user that would disappear when the cursor was placed in the field (#14275)
- The texts of some buttons have been changed to make it clearer what action they imply.
Code
- It has been migrated to Rails 6.1 with Zeitwerk. These are important code changes, which will improve the performance of the application, but may also cause problems with installed plugins. Some of them will need to be refactored to work with this new version.
- Support for PDF thumbnails in Windows (#32898).
- IE11 is no longer supported (#34978).
- API improvements.
Tasks
- for issue lists, default custom queries can be determined at the application, project and user levels (#7360)
- in the “contains” type filters, the search has been improved, following this idea by Plan.io
- option in “My account” to be automatically added as watcher for issues in which you have contributed at some point in time (#4347)
Wiki
- watchers can be added to Wiki pages (#7652)
You can check the full list of improvements of this version here.
Therefore:
– In case your Redmine has no plugins added, it would be advisable to upgrade (although you will probably also have to upgrade more basic components such as the Ruby version).
– In case you have plugins installed in your Redmine, we recommend you to wait until the developers have made them compatible with the new Redmine version, otherwise the update may become a laborious and “risky” work.
