Jira 4.1 Deep Dive – the rest of the story

In this fourth (and final) deep dive into the new features of Jira 4.1, I’d like to talk about some of the great “other” improvements that we added in this release. Despite not getting much of the limelight compared to the new issue tracking experience and usability improvements, there are loads of new things available providing added functionality and time savings for new users, power users and Jira administrators.

For all Jira users

With Jira 4 we introduced Jira Query Language (JQL) and OpenSocial dashboards, and we are continuing to build upon these technologies (and more) to improve your issue tracking.

• New JQL fields – We have added two new fields to JQL in this release to allow you to search for issues based on voter and watcher. This is awesome for finding specific issues that you know you (or someone else) voted for in the past, like this:
  project = jra and voter = currentUser()
• New JQL functions – We have also added two new date functions that allow you to query based on the time of your current or last login.
  So if you manage bug triage, you can created a simple JQL search to identify all of the bugs that were submitted since the last time you logged into Jira, like this:
  project = jra and issuetype = Bug and createdDate >= lastLogin()

• New and improved gadgets – We have introduced a new Heat Map gadget which provides a tag cloud displaying any statistical field for a particular Jira search.
  We have also improved the Jira Filter gadget by adding the Actions menu to the right-hand column (similar to the Issue Navigator search results)

. This saves you a few clicks by letting you need to edit or transition an issue directly from your dashboard.

• Bulk move across projects – For any long-time user of Jira, you probably know that moving issues in bulk from one project to another used to be a bit of a pain because the version and component fields had to be manually re-populated. Well not any more.. we have added the ability to map version and component fields through the Bulk Change feature to make this a snap.
• Fractional time tracking – You can now log work using non-integer numbers, like 2.5h or .3d, to make it even easier to track your time accurately.

For Jira administrators

For those of you behind the curtain pulling all of the strings, Jira 4.1 also has a number of significant improvements to make your life a lot easier.

• Bundled database drivers – First of all, Jira now ships with database drivers for all supported databases which can save you a ton of time right there.
• Jira Configuration Tool – We also provide a simple graphical configuration tool to help manage your Jira home directory and test your database connectivity.
  Great for initial setup, troubleshooting, upgrading or switching out databases, just launch the Jira Configuration Tool from the command line:
• For Windows: Run config.bat in the bin subdirectory of the Jira Installation Directory.
• For other Operating Systems: Run config.sh in the bin subdirectory of the Jira Installation Directory.

Then simply enter your database connection details in order to test the connectivity with a single click (No need to restart Jira repeatedly to test things out):

• Current User Sessions report – This new report shows you exactly how many user sessions are currently active within your Jira environment, including when and where they are accessing from (great for monitoring user activity or troubleshooting performance issues):
  
• Upgrade History report – For any Jira admin out there that has inherited their Jira instance, this is another great new troubleshooting report showing details of each Jira upgrade.

For a complete list of all of the bug fixes and feature improvements, check out the Jira 4.1 Release Notes.

Get Jira 4.1 today

Download Jira 4.1 now to upgrade or get started with a free 30-day trial. You can also check out our Online Trial (also free for 30 days) or play around with our live Sandbox which includes a guided tour of Jira 4.1.