GForge Advanced Server
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 Create Demo Project Download GForge AS Overview Of New Features Integrations Support FAQ Change Log Video: New Features Overview PDF |
GForge Advanced Server is completely redesigned and rewritten from scratch to make a modular, modern system that is easy to install and maintain. Based on an object-oriented plugin architecture, it's also very easy to extend.
The Open Source Edition of GForge is maintained separately by the OSS user community at GForge.org.
Tour of New Features
Workflow and Process Enforcement
Permissions & Access Control
Enhanced Personal Space
Project Level Enhancements
Tracker Enhancements
Cruise Control - Build Automation
Visual Studio Plugin
Eclipse Plugin
MS Project Plugin
Workflow and Process Enforcement
The new workflow engine for the tracker allows you to define change rules on multiple custom Select, Radio, or Status fields in the tracker. Each field can have an unlimited number of rules attached to it, including which roles can make the change and which fields are required to be filled in during the change.
Automated re-assignment has been added as of GForge 5.4, so when a transition occurs, the tracker item in question can be automatically reassigned to a different role or roles.
The initial auto-assignment system works on any of the custom status, select or radio fields so you can define users to assign new items to based on the custom fields the user enters.
Source Code commit rules have been added so you can define rules on multiple fields simultaneously that determine when a commit can be made against a tracker item. An example might be to create a rule that only allows a commit when an item is in 'Open' status and 'Accepted as bug' resolution. This new feature allows you create and enforce a full workflow around source code changes.
>Video: Advanced Workflow
>Workflow Commit Trigger Setup
>Workflow and Auto-Assignment Setup
>Workflow Definition
Other process enforcements include requiring a defect or task ID before committing.
Starting with the GForge AS v5.3 release, projects can be organized into tree-like hierarchies, with lower projects inheriting users and their permissions from parent projects. If a user is a member of a top-level project, they will automatically be considered members of child projects, with all the permissions they have in the parent.
Groups have been added in GForge AS 5.3, so users can be added into groups, which can then be added projects. If a group of users, for example, is given &Assignee& permissions in a tracker, all the members of the group will be shown as assignees in the tracker.
GForge AS has a greatly expanded 'My' space, including a personal dashboard that lets you look across all your projects to get a status, aging report, and lets you filter by individual projects to get more detail.
Personal activity, To-Do list and gantt charts let you look across all your projects to get details on what you have been up to and what you have yet to do. The new forums tab lets you look at recent messages in all the forums you are monitoring from an easy interface.
>My Dashboard
>My Activity
>My Forums
>My Gantt
>My To-Do List
More reporting and major new features have been added to each project, including directory-level SCM Access Control Lists (ACL) which allow fine-grained access to source code repositories. More reporting and activity reporting. Export tracker data as .csv, .xls and .xml files.
SCM Enhancements include the directory-level permissions, a checkbox that a project admin can set which forces developers to attach each commit to a tracker item. Links between SVN, CVS and the trackers and mailing lists have been preserved.
>Road Map
>Versioned Doc Manager
>Searchable Mailing List Archives
>Project Activity Report
>Project-level Dashboard
>Directory-Level SCM ACLs
The tracker has received a large number of additions, and has been merged with the task manager. This means the tracker has inherited the functionality of the task manager, including Time Tracking, dependencies and multiple assignees.
Tasks also benefit from the merger, as they now have monitoring, unlimited custom fields, file uploads, and all the features of the old tracker.
New admin features include custom sorting and default selections for custom fields, and a feature to let you display custom fields on the browse page.
More powerful time tracking for tasks and defects with graphical reporting and exports to Excel so you can integrate the time tracking into your business processes.
>Tracker
>Tracker Custom Field Admin
>Tracker Browse
>Tracker Item Details
>Tracker Saved Query and Export Page
>Time Tracking with Reporting And Exports to Excel
Cruise Control (Build Automation)
Cruise Control, with continuous build automation and integration with the tracker, is now included as a plugin. This means each project can configure CC to continuously build your code and open tickets in the tracker if it fails.
>Cruise Control Project Admin Page
>CC Build Status Tab
>CC Tracker Integration
>CC History Reporting
The new Visual Studio plugin lets you work in your IDE of choice while also performing GForge tracker and document manager operations, including adding and updating artifacts and adding, updating and adding new versions of documents.
Like the eclipse plugin, the VS plugin lets you login to your GForge account from inside your IDE, shows a list of your projects, trackers, tracker items and documents arranged in folders similar to the web interface.
The Eclipse plugin brings the full power of the GForge Tracker and Document Manager to the desktop. Many users will be able to perform all their GForge work without ever opening a web browser, and without ever leaving Eclipse.
The Tracker plugin includes custom query building and editing, and add/update/delete of tracker items. Also included is a doc manager plugin that allows drag and drop between your desktop and the GForge document manager. You can even drag files between the tracker and the doc manager. Future modules include messenger, scm integration and tasks.
The powerful MS Project Plugin brings up a window from the tools menu which allows you to upload/download tasks from the GForge Task Manager.
The Plugin for MS Project can download and upload task changes made in either the GForge interface or MS Project. The two-way synchronization works on a subproject level, so each project in GForge can have an unlimited number of project plans with multiple assignees to each task.