Preparing for Jira 9.0 - multiple EAPs coming your way

Jira Development Jira Data Center Announcements
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Introduction

We are excited to share our plans for our upcoming Jira 9.0 platform release for Server and Data Center. As a reminder, a platform release often includes multiple breaking changes that lay down the foundation for continued improvement in future 9.X feature releases. Jira 9.0 is focused on responsible scale, providing enterprise customers with the assurance that they can scale strategically, securely, and without performance impacts.

Preparing for 9.0

Predicted scope of breaking changes in 9.0

Please note that as the development of the release is underway, the specifics of breaking changes will evolve. This is our best estimate of areas with breaking changes at this point in time. Our early access program releases (EAP) will contain the full scope of breaking changes in Jira for 9.0, along with supporting documentation with more details and specifics.

End-User Performance:

We are targeting a number of improvements to end-user performance. There will be enhancements made within Issue-View focused on attachments, workflow transitions and activity tabs. Additionally, there will be improvements made through deferred scripts within Issue-View and potentially Backlog-View as well as the Dashboard page.

Platform and Security upgrades:

There are a number of platform and security upgrades planned for Jira, including XSRF protection improvements, Java API deprecations removals, security Jira WebActions and restricting anonymous access to REST endpoints.

Jira Service Management SLA improvements:

We have been working on improving SLA consistency, scalability, and reliability with improvements to the way SLAs are calculated. As a part of this, we have introduced an improved default processor thatā€™s more resilient and cluster-efficient. We have also changed the way events are processed in Jira Service Management (JSM), which will decrease the pressure on the event processing on instances with mixed Jira Service Management/Jira Software/Jira Core projects, speeding up the processing of SLAs, automation, and notifications. We will also be introducing a new interface to help administrators manage the way SLAs behave in an instance.

Automation for Jira (A4J)

Bringing automation capabilities to the product will allow users to easily extend Jira to solve many of these use cases without the need to write code. Automation for Jira will automatically be included in Jira Software Data Center (Jira + JSM) from Jira 9.0 and beyond.

Test with Early Access Program (EAP) releases

Early Access Program releases are designed to provide vendors visibility and an opportunity to develop against the changes of the upcoming platform release. Between now, and the Jira 9.0 release, we plan to have multiple EAP releases (including an EAP Beta, and finally the EAP Release Candidate) containing breaking changes, bug fixes and improvements. We plan to release the first EAP in-mid January 2022.

With the introduction of the first EAP for Jira 9.0, we will also create a community discussion topic under the Jira Server category specifically to address the changes introduced with 9.0, and will have members of the Jira Product Management and Engineering team on hand to help answer any questions. Weā€™ll communicate ahead of the next EAP release and do our best to include most of the planned breaking changes as early as possible, to give you enough time to schedule changes to your app before the official Jira 9.0 release.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

We know that a platform release can provide many unknowns. Here are some questions that we wanted to address with the information we currently have.

When will Jira 9.0 arrive?

As mentioned above, we cannot provide an exact date, but our current target to release Jira 9.0 is mid Q2 2022.

Will there be breaking changes to Jiraā€™s APIs?

Yes, and we are still working on the full scope of breaking changes to either the REST API or Java API.

Are there any restrictions on who has access to the EAP builds of Jira 9.0?

No, there will not be any restrictions. The EAP is open to everyone.

Will there be additional resources to help us prepare?

Yes! In coordination with the EAP programs, we will provide more detail about breaking changes and the technical scope of Jira 9.0. We will also have technical documentation to provide detail on how to adopt the changes to Jira. Weā€™ll be publishing all the documentation on the EAP page.

Best,

The Jira team

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What does this mean for apps that currently integrate with either the free or paid version of A4J? Any impact on that?

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Also for Jira Server? Great!

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Hmm, you already missed this deadline :slight_smile:

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Hey Anthony,
Thanks for the question! Just so that I can answer your question fully, could expand on what sort of potential impact you may be concerned with?

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Hey Raimonds!
Indeed! Thank you for pointing out the typo!

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Hi @RomanKolosovskiy

I decided to check the non-public version of Jira 9 and I have one question, will it be possible to restore the old workflow transitions in the issue view?

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Hi @adam.labus, as the workflow transitions change on the issue view improves the performance and provides an aesthetic update, we are not planning of giving the option of going back to the current logic and look&feel.
Could you share with us why would you like to go back?

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Any update on when we can expect to see the EAP? We are keen to get started testing, as we anticipate Jira 9 might require a lot of change within ScriptRunner.

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Hi @mrzymski

I am asking because many of my business clients may have trouble understanding how it works, in my opinion it is a huge change from ā€œquick preview what actions I can take in specific processā€ to ā€œcolor button what status I am, where is my actions?ā€.

Second, in this solution the names of the transition probably get shorter and the emphasis is on the name/color of the status (not always important from the point of view of many processes)

Overallā€¦ I think the user experience may be worse than it was before the change.

Best regards
Adam

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Thanks @adam.labus, I got your concerns and Iā€™ll take your feedback to the designer and the team that worked on the feature.

Kind regards,
Maciej

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Hey Reece!
Itā€™s available :slight_smile: now: Jira Server Early Access Program (EAP) | Atlassian

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Hey Folks!
The first eap is released!
Here are the highlights: Jira 9.0 has a release candidate!
You can find the download here: Jira Server Early Access Program (EAP) | Atlassian

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@RomanKolosovskiy - I have apps that integrate with Automation for Jira, both the pro and lite version. Meaning, we provide actions, triggers, conditions, etc. I want to make sure this continues working.

Given that Automation will be included in Jira, how does that impact any app that currently integrates with it?

  • do the integrations (actions/triggers/etc) that apps provide continue working seamlessly?
  • are there any code changes required on our end to maintain the integrations?
  • can any app integrate with Automation? Some years ago, the Lite version of Automation for Jira stopped allowing app integrations. Certain apps were grandfathered in, to allow backwards compatibility. How is this handled going forward?
  • are existing rules that use our actions/triggers/conditions impacted by this release in any way shape or form? Meaning, is there a potential those rules will break, or need to be changed, or updated, or whatever?
  • are there any new capabilities we should be aware of as part of this release?
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Hey! Thank you for your questions.

We havenā€™t introduced any changes related to integrations - both for Automation for Jira, and the A4J ServerLite version. All actions, triggers and conditions that these apps provide, will continue working seamlessly. A4J Server Lite limitations remain unchanged. As always, we recommend testing these integrations to make sure there is no impact.

Weā€™re not introducing new functionalities in Automation for Jira in Jira 9.

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Hi @adam.labus

Iā€™d like to understand your concerns better through a quick conversation. If you would like to talk, please send me an email at nsilhacek@atlassian.com.

Thanks for your input!

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Hi,
Could Atlassian-Staff please point me to a Jira 9 App platform pom.xml thanks :slight_smile:

I would prefer a full file including this:

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>com.atlassian.jira</groupId>
                <artifactId>jira-project</artifactId>
                <version>${jira.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

Should I use this 9.0.0-QR-20211224040439 as Jira version to build against Jira 9 for now?

thanks.

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Hi @clouless

use 9.0.0-m0001

<jira.version>9.0.0-m0001</jira.version>

Cheers
Adam

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Thanks @OlgaSpringer, thatā€™s great to hear!

A related question is whether the existing JSM automation feature is going to be deprecated and renamed to ā€˜Legacy automationā€™ in Jira 9, similar to how this has already been enacted in Jira Cloud as per Legacy automation is being superseded by Automation in Jira Service Management?

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Hey!
In Jira Data Center ā€˜JSM automationā€™ will be renamed to ā€˜Legacy Automationā€™. Weā€™re not considering deprecation of Legacy Automation in Jira Data Center just yet, however, that may change in the future.

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