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Version history

Version Date Notes
5.3.0 03/03/2023 Maintenance release. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
5.2.0 03/06/2022 Compatibility release for Bitbucket 8. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
5.1.2 14/04/2022 Maintenance release. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
5.0.1 25/08/2021 Maintenance release. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
5.0.0 28/01/2021 Support for DevOps automations (compatibility release for the upcoming Better DevOps Automation for Jira app). Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
4.2.0 12/09/2019 Support for external systems using SSH access keys. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
4.1.1 11/03/2019 Maintenance release. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
4.1.0 19/02/2019 Compatibility release for Bitbucket 6. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
4.0.0 05/01/2019 Support for the new Data Center Approved Apps program. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
3.0.1 06/07/2018 Major performance improvements for super-large Bitbucket repositories. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
3.0.0 12/06/2018 Compatibility release for Commit Policy Plugin for Jira 3.0.0 (tons of changes!). Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
2.2.0 18/04/2018 Support for merge checks. Support for project-level settings. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
2.1.0 27/04/2018 Support for multiple Jira instances. Integration with Power Editor. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
2.0.1 30/05/2017 Maintenance release. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
2.0.0 08/05/2017 Support for Bitbucket Data Center. Compatibility with Bitbucket 5.0. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
1.0.0 11/07/2016 Stable version with minor bugfixes. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
0.9.0 09/12/2015 First version for Bitbucket Server 4.x on Atlassian Marketplace. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download
0.8.0 09/12/2015 First version for Bitbucket Server 3.x (a.k.a. Stash) on Atlassian Marketplace. Release Notes & Upgrade Guide Download

Release notes

5.3.0

This version is a maintenance release with no changes in the app functionality.

Improved configuration problem detection

It turned out over the recent months that most support tickets that are created for the app lead to investigating configuration problems. Sometimes the application link between Bitbucket and Jira was not configured correctly, sometimes user accounts were not synced between the two applications, sometimes product access on the Jira side was missing.

To make troubleshooting faster, in this version we made detecting the various types of configuration problems more precise. Plus, we wrote precise "how to fix?" instructions for each configuration problem type.

Bugfixes
  • Fixed: The same policy may sometimes appear multiple times in the commit policy selector.
Upgrading from 5.2.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

5.2.0

This version is a compatibility release for the Bitbucket 8 line.

Upgrading from 5.1.2

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

5.1.2

Improvements
  • Minor update in outdated dependencies.
Upgrading from 5.0.1

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

5.0.1

This version fixes a bug reported in Bitbucket 7.14 context.

Bugfixes
  • Fixed: When verifying commits pushed to Bitbucket 7.14, the "java.lang.IllegalStateException: withQuarantine method not found" exception appears in the log.
Upgrading from 5.0.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

5.0.0

This version prepares the foundation for a new Midori app called Better DevOps Automation for Jira.

Note that when upgrading from 4.2.0 to 5.0.0, there is no visible change in the Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket app's already existing functionality. But, under the hood, it implements the changes that will power the upcoming DevOps automation app. When upgrading Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket, don't forget to upgrade Better Commit Policy for Jira as well.

Although the DevOps automation app is not publicly available at the time when this version is released, we suggest upgrading to this version right away. Read on why.

What is the Better DevOps Automation app?

This is an early notice that we are releasing a new DevOps automation app soon!

This no-code, low-code automation tool will allow you to create all kinds of DevOps automation rules. The rules can be started by accepted commits, rejected commits, branch creation, tag creation, and other events. It will work with every Version Control System (both centralized and distributed) that is supported by Better Commit Policy: Git, Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, Subversion and others!

Have you heard about Smart Commits in Bitbucket Cloud? We have something even cooler in store!

Better DevOps Automation will introduce the concept of Genius Commits. These will be "smarter than Smart Commits" and will be way more powerful for building DevOps workflows in Jira. These will allow you to use custom commands with custom logic in commit messages. For example, just write "@deploy prod" in the commit message to start the automation that deploys the given code version to your production instance. Or, use "@done" to transition to the user story to the Done status, "@scan" to start a source code analysis or "@build" to start an expensive CI build. There are countless use cases.

DevOps automation tools for Data Center and Server

Please note that no-code, low-code DevOps automation features, that are so easy to use as a drag-and-drop interface are offered by Atlassian, but only for the Cloud deployment type. While we are planning to release our Better Commit Policy and DevOps Automation apps also for Jira Cloud in the future, we are focusing on Data Center and Server customers first.

For them, the best option today for automating DevOps processes and for connecting DevOps tools to Jira is to write and maintain custom scripts. It requires technical expertise to write and operate these.

The Automation for Jira app, however, already provides a user-friendly interface for building complex automation rules and workflows even for non-technical people. With Better DevOps Automations, we are unlocking the same ease of use also for DevOps automations!

What should you do right now?

Don't forget to:

  1. Lock in a massive 50% discount! Are you on board with DevOps automation? Once it's available at Atlassian Marketplace, we are offering Better DevOps Automation for 50% off for Better Commit Policy customers. You can lock in the discount if you purchase within 3 months after launch. You only need to join our Slack channel and drop us a line. We will fix you up with a promo code.
  2. Get your hands on it before anyone else! No sneak peek video and "signup for a wait list" bullsh*t. Join our Slack channel and claim early assess to the app, and try it yourself as soon as it fits you.
  3. Join the conversation. As an existing Better Commit Policy user, you are invited to our Slack channel where you can ask questions about Better DevOps Automation directly from the developers.
Upgrading from 4.2.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

4.2.0

Support for external systems using SSH access keys

When you use an external system (e.g. a build system) that authenticates to Bitbucket using SSH access keys, this new feature allows you to automatically accept or reject the commits pushed by the external system.

Learn more about verifying commits pushed by SSH access keys.

Improvements
Bugfixes
  • Fixed: When trying to push exactly 1000 commits (which is the upper limit), the app rejects it and asks me to push max. 1000.
Upgrading from 4.1.1

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

4.1.1

This version fixes a bug reported in Bitbucket 6 context.

Bugfixes
  • Fixed: Commit Policy dropdown is empty in the project-level hook configuration popup in Bitbucket 6.x.
Upgrading from 4.1.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

4.1.0

This version is a compatibility release for the Bitbucket 6 line.

Upgrading from 4.0.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

4.0.0

As you probably know, Better Commit Policy already supports Bitbucket Data Center deployments (i.e. clustered Bitbucket). To be precise, those are supported since app version 2.0.0 (released in May 2017).

In 2018, Atlassian re-launched its Data Center program and introduced new testing criteria for "Data Center approved apps". This version is the official release for the revised program.

Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket is a Data Center approved app!

The followings have been done to comply with the revised development and testing requirements:

  1. This version has been verified against the Atlassian's official Data Center technical checklist, which would identify potential non-cluster-safe parts in the app. All points are met.
  2. This version has been tested in our internal AWS infrastructure which is using "c4.xlarge" type standard EC2 instances to host the Bitbucket nodes. The testing confirmed that the app works correctly and consistently in clusters with 1, 2, 4 and 8 nodes (and anything in-between).
  3. This version has been successfully tested with UPM 3.0, the new generation of the Universal Plugin Manager.
"Commit Policy Plugin for Bitbucket" is now called "Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket"!

In this version we made a slight adjustment in the app's name. We did this, because the term "plugin" was replaced by Atlassian first with "add-on" and then with "app". We decided to get rid of this completely.

You may still see the old name popping up here and there, until we roll out the change everywhere. Thanks for the patience!

Improvements
  1. Safe handling of extremely long commit messages.
  2. Safe handling of extremely large number of commits pushed or merged in one go.
Upgrading from 3.0.1

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

3.0.1

More efficient computation of the "is existing" property for Bitbucket commits

Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket 3.0.0 introduced a new mechanism to detect existing commits (commits that are pushed or merged to a repo, but already existing on another branch in the same repository). It helps to avoid re-verifying existing commits, not because of performance, but because the issues referenced by the existing commits may already be in another stage in their lifecycle (like in another status) at their second push, which could lead to sub-optimal development workflows and policies.

As for implementation, unlike other Bitbucket commit verification apps, we did not use the "commit indexer" mechanism built to Bitbucket, because that is not reliable enough for this purpose. Instead, we used a lower level approach relying purely on Git. If it affected you, then your developers may have complained about unexpectedly slow pushes.

Although the original implementation of the "is existing" computation logic is working correctly, it did not scale to repositories with several hundred branches or with tens of thousands of commits.

In the new app version, we implemented a better approach that is two orders of magnitude (100x) faster even in huge repositories! For instance, the verification of a large push to a mega-repo now completes in less than a second instead of 2 minutes.

Compatibility changes

To take advantage of the improvement, the required Git version (that you use on the Bitbucket server) is 2.11.0 or newer. (But, older Git versions are still supported!)

Upgrading from 3.0.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

3.0.0

Compatibility with Better Commit Policy for Jira 3.0.0

The Jira counter-part of this app was released today, introducing a long list of new features and improvements.

Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket 3.0.0 is simply the compatibility release for Better Commit Policy for Jira 3.0.0. Its goal is to offer all the recent improvements implemented in the Jira app also for Bitbucket users.

IMPORTANT!

Upgrading to Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket 3.0.0 on the Bitbucket side also requires upgrading to Better Commit Policy for Jira 3.0.0 on the Jira side! Make sure you upgrade both, otherwise "Outdated GIT_SERVER hook script version 1/bitbucket found" warnings will be written to the Jira log and to the Git client.

Upgrading from 2.2.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

2.2.0

Just some days after the 2.1.0 version, we are releasing 2.2.0, which introduces two super-important features at the cost of reducing the range of the compatible Bitbucket versions. To be precise: Better Commit Policy 2.2.0 requires Bitbucket 5.2 or newer.

Why two new app releases in such short timeframe?

Our goal was to ship those valuable features that can be implemented for pre-5.2 Bitbucket versions in app version 2.1.0. And then quickly follow 2.1.0 with 2.2.0, which ships additional features that require Bitbucket 5.2+ due to technical reasons. In other words, we wanted to create the largest possible value for all users, regardless they use some older or a modern Bitbucket version.

Merge checks (verifying pull requests against commit policies before merging)

From this app version, this is possible to verify pull requests before merging. It aims to reject those pull requests that would violate the commit policy applied to the target repository.

Technically speaking, the commits in the pull requests (i.e. the commits that would be merged to the target repository) are verified against the commit policy in the same fashion as the commits pushed to repository are. If the policy rejects the commits, the pull request cannot be merged:

Learn more about verifying pull requests.

Project-level settings

Hooks and merge checks enabled at the project level (in contrast to being enabled for individual repositories) can significantly reduce the administration work if:

  1. There are multiple repositories in the same Bitbucket project,
  2. ...and the same commit policy should be applied to all of those repositories.

In this case, this is sufficient to configure the hook or merge check only once for the whole project.

Learn more about project level hooks.

Upgrading from 2.1.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

2.1.0

Support for multiple linked Jira instances

In enterprise deployments, the same Bitbucket instance may be linked to multiple Jira instances. Although previous Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket versions never had problems in these scenarios, they always connected the first linked Jira instance for policy verification, which didn't really allow precise control.

From this release, you can explicitly select the Jira instance to use for policy verification:

Learn more about linking to multiple Jira's.

Integration with Power Editor

Power Editor is a super-useful Bitbucket app (developed by Mohami) that accelerates daily work. It enables making changes via the Bitbucket web interface in a way that eliminates the time consuming pull-edit-commit-push cycles just to fix that damn typo or source code comment. (Sounds familiar, right?)

Starting from this release, thanks to the Mohami team, Better Commit Policy is integrated with Power Editor. Every commit you make via Power Editor is verified against the commit policy the same exact way like the commits you make in your "real" Git client:

As a result, you can work super-fast without compromising the quality of your source code, changes, repo structure or history. Don't take our words, install and try this free for yourself!

Learn more about the Power Editor integration.

New "Getting Started" page

We added a "Getting Started" page to the app to help first-time evaluators. It can be visited from the hook configuration dialog or via the link at Repository settings → Commit policies.

Improvements
  • Commit collector logic can tolerate loops (cycles) in commit sequences. (In theory, this should never happen, but in practice we have seen this in Git repositories converted from Subversion.)
Upgrading from 2.0.1

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

2.0.1

This version fixes a bug reported in Bitbucket 5 context.

Bugfixes
  • Fixed: Cannot push new branches to Bitbucket 5.
Upgrading from 2.0.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

2.0.0

Support for Bitbucket Data Center

How does the app work in a clustered Bitbucket deployment? "Commit Policy Verification" hooks are transparently replicated among the cluster nodes. The node that actually processes the "push" will communicate with Jira. If the changes are accepted, those are replicated among the nodes.

All in all, for the end-user this is completely transparent if this is a single-node Bitbucket server deployment or a multi-node cluster, the app works identically.

Support for Bitbucket 5.0

This version is also a compatibility updated for Bitbucket 5.0.

Upgrading from 1.0.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

1.0.0

We are happy to announce that Better Commit Policy for Bitbucket is now ready for production use!

The app has already been available to download for 7 months, and there wasn't any significant bugs found during this period. Therefore, we are marking this version as GA.

Bugfixes
  • No more "At least one commit ID must be provided to retrieve changesets" messages when trying to push empty change lists (ex: tags only).
  • Broken link fixed in the "Application Link not found" popup.
Upgrading from 0.9.0

Just update your app version using UPM (Universal Plugin Manager, the app manager built in to Bitbucket).

0.9.0

After many months of closed beta status, Midori is happy to release this new app on Atlassian Marketplace!

Note that this version is compatible with Bitbucket 4.x.

0.8.0

After many months of closed beta status, Midori is happy to release this new app on Atlassian Marketplace!

Note that this version is compatible with Bitbucket 3.x.