What's New in ALM 24.1

The following new features and enhancements are now available in ALM 24.1.

What's New video

Learn about some of the new features included in ALM 24.1.

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Web Client

The following new features and enhancements are now available for Web Client (previously known as Web Runner):

Web Runner renamed to Web Client Web Runner is now renamed to Web Client.
View test runs

The new Test Runs module enables you to view and continue manual test runs in Web Client.

For details, see View test runs.

Filter enhancements

The filter function is enhanced in Web Client. You can now use Filter to:

  • Filter requirements, tests, and test sets in the tree view.

  • Group runs and defects in Grid view.

  • Sort entities based on sorting priorities.

For details, see Filter records in Web Client.

Requirement grid view

Grid view is added for the Requirements module, which gives you another option to view requirements.

For details, see Create requirements.

Manage favorites

You can now do the following to manage favorites:

  • Add favorites.

  • Update existing favorites and save them as new favorites.

  • Organize favorites into groups.

Favorites are available for Requirements, Test Plan, Test Lab, and Defects modules.

For details, see Manage favorites.

Add details and attachments to test folders and test set folders

You can now add more information to test folders and test set folders:

Workflow updates

The updates to workflows include:

  • More events and properties are available in project scripts.

  • You can define advanced project scripts to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of specific tasks such as creating, deleting, and updating entities.

For details, see Customize workflow.

Web Runner Admin replaced by Client Management

Web Runner Admin has been replaced. To enable or disable Web Client or its modules, use Site Administration > Client Management.

With Client Management, not only on-premises admins but also SaaS customer admins can configure the availability of Web Client.

For details, see Client management.

Support non-English languages

Web Client now supports more languages in addition to English, such as German, French, and Chinese.

For details, see Prerequisites for Web Client and Select a language for Web Client.

Keyboard navigation and accessibility

Web Client supports keyboard navigation to provide you with an alternative way to perform actions that are normally performed using a mouse.

For details, see Web Client keyboard navigation.

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Desktop Client

The following new features and enhancements are now available for ALM Desktop Client:

Analysis

The following Analysis enhancements are now available:

Group defects by custom periods in age graphs

You can now divide defects into a custom number of groups at a custom age interval.

For example, you can divide defects into 5 groups, with each group including defects aged cumulatively at the 14-day age interval.

For details, see Configure age graphs.

Enhanced display of X-axis labels

ALM enhances the display of X-axis labels to ensure better experience on reading graph annotations:

  • If a graph has long X-axis labels, they are fully displayed when the graph is saved as image, sent to email, or printed.

  • If X-axis labels are dates, they are always fully displayed.

For details, see View entity graphs.

Apply group color settings to new graphs

When you edit a group or category color of a graph, you can choose to also apply the color settings to both the following graphs created by you:

  • New graphs that include the group or category.

  • New group or category with the same name (case-sensitive) in existing graphs.

For details, see Set graph appearance.

Always hide unwanted groups of data independent of data existence

You can now select which groups of data are by default shown in a graph. This helps you ensure unwanted groups of data (regardless of whether they exist) are consistently hidden, unless you manually show such data.

For details, see Set graph appearance.

Support 64-bit Office for Template Creator

You can now use Template Creator with your 64-bit Microsoft Office to design report templates.

For details, see Design report templates.

My Homepage

With the Share Homepage permission, you can now share your ALM Homepage Overview settings. This enables you to centrally set up an aligned widget and distribute it to all project users without requiring them to go through extra steps.

For details, see ALM Homepage.

Recycle Bin

You can now move unwanted entities or entity folders to the Recycle Bin, and restore them to their original locations whenever you want to reuse them.

This feature is available for the Test Plan and Test Lab modules.

For details, see Recycle Bin.

Purge runs

The performance and user experience of purging runs are now enhanced:

  • Separate options for purging runs: Purge Runs to purge runs in all test sets, and Purge Runs in Selected to purge runs in selected test sets.

  • Purge tasks now run in the background. You can perform other operations without waiting until purges complete.

  • You can view the status and progress of purge tasks from ALM Task Manager.

For details, see Purge test runs.

Test Lab

When running a manual test, images or attachments added to the test step's actual result are not saved to the corresponding design step in the Test Plan module.

For details, see Run tests manually using Manual Runner.

Send email about entities

  • You can now use the Bcc field to specify people who are invisible to other recipients of the notification.

  • The Add to comments option, which adds a comment about to whom the entity is sent, is now by default selected.

For details, see Send email about entities.

Auditing

ALM auditing now records customizations on project entities and requirement types.

For details, see ALM auditing.

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Site Administration

The following new features and enhancements are now available for Site Administration:

Client Management

Replacing the previous Web Runner Admin, Site Administration > Client Management enables both on-premises and SaaS admin users to perform administrative tasks for Web Client, including enabling or disabling Web Client or its modules.

For details, see Client management.

API Key Management

API Key Management is now moved to Site Administration with enhanced functionality:

  • As a site admin or customer admin, you can now create and manage API keys for any ALM user from Site Administration > Users > API Key Management.

  • If permitted, as a basic user, you can create and manage your own API keys from Site Administration > My Settings > My API Key.

  • When creating an API key, you can specify its expiration time, which overrides the global expiration time defined by the APIKEY_EXPIRE_DAYS parameter.

For details, see API key management.

License assignment enhancements

Available for: SaaS only.

License assignment becomes more simplified and user-friendly for customer admins:

  • With Licenses > License Management > License Assignments, customer admins can perform all license related operations in a single screen, including assigning licenses to customers and domains and viewing assignments.

    For details, see Assign licenses to customers and domains.

  • Customer License Status provides more license assignment details with revamped user interface and enhanced reading experiences. For details, see View customer license status.

Reset passwords for site users

Available for: On-premises only.

As a site admin, you can now reset passwords for site users. This is helpful, for example, when a user forgets the login password but does not have an email address defined in ALM to receive the new password.

This feature is enabled when the new ENABLE_RESET_PASSWORD_BY_SA parameter is set to Y.

For details, see Reset passwords for site users.

Send password expiry notification

If a password policy requires users' password be reset regularly, you can configure the policy rule to determine when ALM sends notifications to remind users of password expiry.

For details, see Password policy management.

Filter users by multiple usernames

You can now filter users by multiple usernames separated by semicolons.

For details, see Filter users.

Add MS-SQL (AAD Auth) database servers

As ALM now supports connecting to Microsoft SQL Server using Azure Active Directory authentication, you can add a database server of the MS-SQL (AAD Auth) type.

For details, see Add database servers.

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ALM Client MSI Generator

When generating an ALM client MSI file, you can now choose to also register ALM client components for 64-bit applications using the generated MSI file.

For details, see Generate ALM client MSI file.

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Test Execution Agent

ALM Test Execution Agent now requires 64-bit JDK and registration of 64-bit ALM client components.

Note: Previously TEA requires 32-bit JDK and 32-bit ALM client component registration. After the upgrade to 24.1, install 64-bit JDK and register 64-bit ALM client component. Otherwise, you cannot start TEA.

For details, see Test Execution Agent (TEA).

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API

The following API updates are now available:

New REST APIs for customizing project lists

New REST APIs are now available for customizing project list.

  • GET /qcbin/v2/rest/domains/{domain}/projects/{project}/customization/used-lists. Gets project lists in use

  • GET /qcbin/v2/rest/domains/{domain}/projects/{project}/customization/used-lists/{list-id}. Gets details of a project list

  • POST /qcbin/v2/rest/domains/{domain}/projects/{project}/customization/used-lists/{list-id}/items. Adds an item to a project list

  • PUT /qcbin/v2/rest/domains/{domain}/projects/{project}/customization/used-lists/{list-id}/items/{item-id}.Renames an item of a project list

  • POST /qcbin/v2/rest/domains/{domain}/projects/{project}/customization/used-lists/{list-id}/items/{item-id}. Adds a sub-item to an item of a project list

  • DELETE /qcbin/v2/rest/domains/{domain}/projects/{project}/customization/used-lists/{list-id}/items/{item-id}. Deletes an item of a project list

For details, see REST API Reference (Core).

Use POST method for logout REST APIs

The GET method for logout REST APIs is now disabled by default. Use the POST method instead.

Impacted REST APIs include:

  • /qcbin/authentication-point/logout

  • /qcbin/authentication/sign-out

For details, see REST API Reference (Core).

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OData support for extended reporting

ALM now supports OData (Open Data Protocol), the OASIS REST-based standard for accessing ALM data. You can use business intelligence tools that support OData (such as Power BI and Tableau) to connect to ALM data and generate charts and reports.

This enables you to visualize and analyze ALM data using extended reporting capabilities, beyond the functionality provided by ALM reports and graphs.

For details, see OData support for extended reporting.

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Platform support

ALM 24.1 supports the following:

  • Oracle Java 17
  • Office 365 SMTP
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2022
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Oracle Linux 9
  • Connecting to SQL Server using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication

For details, see Support Matrix.

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See also: