ANN: Anthill Pro v.2.3.0 now available

We are proud to announce the release of version 2.3.0 (Beta) of the 
Anthill Professional Build Management Server. This is a significant 
release with many new features and bug fixes. We outline some of the 
most significant features below. A complete listing of fixed issues is 
at the bottom of this email. For detailed information relating to any of 
these issues, please visit its Jira page at 
http://bugs.urbancode.com/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?reset=true&pid=10009&fixfor=10040 
or contact Urbancode.

This build has undergone much testing but we felt that with the degree 
of new functionality in this release the first public release should be 
labeled as a Beta. If you encounter any issues with this build, please 
let us know as soon as possible. We will fix them and make point 
releases available as quickly as possible.

Flexible Authentication
   Anthill Pro 2.3.0 supports now two approaches for authenticating 
users. The existing way has Anthill Pro manage your users and passwords. 
The new way allows Anthill Pro to use the servlet container for 
authentication.  This facilitates integration with LDAP and other 
authentication technologies -- most servlet containers use JAAS underneath.

To use your servlet container for authentication, the web.xml file needs 
to be modified and the AnthillPro.war file needs to be rebuilt.  The new 
distribution ships with two pre-configured web.xml files located in the 
/etc/ subdirectory.  The build.xml file in the root of the installation 
is an ANT script that will rebuild the AnthillPro.war file with the 
web.xml file located in /etc/.  All you need to do is rename the 
appropriate /etc/web-???-container-authentication.xml file to 
/etc/web.xml and run the build.xml file located in the root of the 
AnthillPro installation; then deploy the new AnthillPro.war file.

More Flexible Working Directories
   Where should the build take place? This has been a subject of debate 
on the mailing lists. Our answer is that it should take place where you 
want it to take place. The global working directory can be moved from 
its default location to anywhere on your system. Many of the source 
repository drivers also allow for added flexibility of building projects 
where you want within the global work directory or elsewhere on your system.

Better Support for Simultaneous Builds
   Builds from the same project are prevented from interfering with each 
other and Anthill Pro will no longer allow the same build track to be 
building simultaneously in multiple build daemons. The headaches that 
multiple build daemons used to cause should be greatly reduced.

Scripting
   The team has introduced scripted behavior to Anthill Pro in two 
places: versioning strategies and VCS drivers. File based versioning 
strategies accept a script that determines how the version file should 
be labeled when checked in. Several repository adapters also support a 
script to determine what the working directory will be. In 2.3.0, all 
scripts use Bean Shell (http://www.beanshell.org). We look forward to 
adding more scripting languages soon!

Aborting Builds
   Let's face it. Sometimes builds hang. Whether it's the source 
repository not responding, or Ant getting stuck, bad things happen to 
good builds. We've added an abort button to the build track view page to 
kill these builds and free up the build daemon.

Real Time Log Display
   You said it. We heard it. Seeing your build in the Execute step for 
the duration of the build can be nerve wracking if your build takes two 
hours and has hung in the past. From the build track page, you can view 
the log of the current build and see exactly how far along it is. Check 
back in a couple of minutes and see that your build is making good progress.

Better Error Detection and Logging
   Errors reading and writing from the settings files that used to be 
only recorded in logs are presented on the Anthill Pro main screen. We 
hope this feature will not be needed by your organization.

More Flexible Build Managers:
   Both basic and incremental build managers can now always build from a 
label (such as LATEST).  The incremental manager also has a "never build 
clean" option.

Thanks,

-- The Anthill Team

Issue# 168      VCS Work Directory should be Build Track specific        

Issue# 176      Guest user account that requires no authentication        

Issue# 177      Real time builder log display        

Issue# 179      VCS label and comment should be configurable        

Issue# 198      archive or pruning mechanism        

Issue# 245      Link to "Latest" version in the Intranet        

Issue# 251      Setting Permissions on Project overwrites existing 
permissions on BuildTrack        

Issue# 281      User Specified URL for user specified Publish Directory 
       

Issue# 295      StarTeam -- Incremental build pulls entire project     
       

Issue# 299      Stop-button        

Issue# 301      multithread builds failing        

Issue# 321      Work directory location should be configurable
Issue# 325      Ability to edit the URL of Anthill via the Web UI
Issue# 326      Incremental Build Manager - never build clean        

Issue# 341      Authentication should be JAAS based        

Issue# 344      Handling broken links between modules        

Issue# 345      Counter should not increment on every build attempt        

Issue# 346      Build Tracks don't learn of changes to the Branch until 
restart    

Issue# 355      The user is not informed when a module does not 
serialize properly.    

Issue# 357      A copied builder always has use anthill namespace 
checked.    

Issue# 359      Shell Script builder doesn't handle quoted path to 
script.    

Issue# 361      Optionally allow builders to run after an earlier 
builder failed.    

Issue# 363      Move AnthillPro/dependency directory to 
AnthllPro/work/dependency    

Issue# 364      Copied build tracks do not hold onto their counters.     
   

Issue# 365      Build Notification should have its own step in build 
process.    

Issue# 366      Email Build Notifier can sometime hang for hours.        

Issue# 367      CVS driver conf file may get polluted with an empty 
branch entry.    

Issue# 369      Installation is guessing archive type from OS type    

Issue# 370      Installation script is not robust            

Issue# 380      Option not to use build track specific names for working 
dirs.    

Issue# 383      Perforce build from changelist instead of label        

Issue# 384      AnthillPro can lose version number of 
PropertyVersioningStrategy   

Issue# 385      PVCS fails in windows when "project directory" has 
spaces.    

Issue# 387      Maven builder not passing Anthill properties        

Issue# 388      Pass the "build from tag" value to the builder as a 
property        

Issue# 389      Versioning Strategy to increment only on success
Issue# 390      Always build from label        

Issue# 391      Do emailing after publishing        

Issue# 392      Perforce Driver does not do incremental builds        

Issue# 393      New Module for Mailing Lists        

Issue# 397      Subversion doesn't build from label        

Issue# 401      Email Notifier does not list addresses sent to.
Issue# 404      Pass the build date and time to builders as a property    

Issue# 405      Main Screen Refresh Problem in IE        

Issue# 406      Perforce Get the last change list identifier and save as 
artifact    

Issue# 411      Subversion Driver can fail when building branches
Issue# 417     VSS Branching
Issue# 419     PVCS Driver should be able to check out whole project 
database