Space On-Premises 2023.3 Is Out!
Introducing Space On-Premises 2023.3 – the latest version of our intelligent and secure code collaboration platform, fully managed on your side.
To help improve productivity and streamline your development process, Space On-Premises 2023.3 brings a number of new features. Enjoy the Space Git subtree, seamless Jira integration, revised external users, and numerous updates to Space Issues and Documents, among other significant enhancements.
Read this article to discover all the new capabilities in this version.
Ready to try it out?
Customizable unfurls in documents
You can now change the look of an unfurled message in your documents. Three options give you the choice of having just a plain link all the way up to a fully interactive visual card that allows you to play YouTube videos or manage Space issue sub-items directly in the document.
Streamlined move, create, and copy dialogs in documents
Use our redesigned dialog windows to create, move, or copy documents with ease. They follow the context of where you are in the documents and allow you to create new folders in the process.
Easier-to-use issue board backlog
We've revamped the issue board backlog in Space to make your issue-tracking experience smoother and easier.
You now have two ways to add issues to your board’s backlog:
- Manually – Issues appear in the backlog only after they're selected from a list. To add an issue, navigate to your issue board and click Add issues in the Backlog panel. You can also drag and drop issues directly between your board and your backlog.
- Search query – Issues that match predefined search criteria will automatically appear in your backlog. You can customize the search query by adding or modifying issue field values, like tags.
To select either of these options, go to your issue board and click on Settings.
For your convenience, we've also made it possible to select multiple issues from the backlog and place them on the board or remove them from it.
Embedded folder description
Every folder now has a dedicated description field that is always visible and easily editable on the fly.
Granular permissions for folders and documents
Fine-tune access to personal and project folders and documents for anyone in your organization, regardless of their role.
You will receive a Spacebox notification containing a quick access link whenever a new entity is shared with you.
Unified project member view
In Space, projects are tailored to fit your team's specific needs. With the assistance of a robust permission management system, you can fine-tune predefined and custom roles to achieve your desired level of access for internal and external users.
Now, you can conveniently manage all project members from the <Your project> | People pane. Add or remove users, view, assign, and edit their roles and permissions, and quickly configure project roles – all from a single view.
Introducing external users in Space: Collaborators and Guests
You can now bring your customers and external contributors into Space to keep the entire development pipeline in one place.
In response to your feedback, we’ve refined the external collaboration process in Space. We've changed the definition of Guests and are introducing a new user type, Collaborator, each with limited access to your company’s data:
- The Collaborator role is highly customizable and provides full access to Space’s features. This role is ideal for freelancers or outsourced specialists who actively contribute to your project, whether by collaborating on code, reviewing it, running CI/CD tests, or working on issues.
- The Guest role gives limited access to your project resources. This role is tailored for customers or stakeholders who may not directly contribute to tasks but will engage in chats, create or comment on issues, and review documents.
- All existing Guests in your organization have been automatically upgraded to Collaborators. While their permissions remain intact, these users now can be granted full access to Space’s features.
Read this blog post to learn about external users in Space and the pricing for them, see how to use them in your projects, and find out more details about the automatic upgrade of your existing Guests.
Introducing the Space integration for Jira Cloud
We believe that well-organized processes are crucial for building software efficiently. With this in mind, we're taking an issue-centric approach to software development that seamlessly integrates coding into the pipeline, boosting developer productivity and reducing friction.
As an extensible platform, Space aims to provide a similar issue tracking experience for both external issue trackers and Space issues. Today, we're happy to take the first step and introduce the Space integration for Jira Cloud, which allows you to:
- Preview Jira issues in Space
- Create Jira issues from Space
- Automatically link Jira issues to commits and merge requests
For more information and to install the integration, head over to this page.
Space Git subtree
Our Space Git subtree functionality allows you to embed and automatically maintain the contents of multiple Git repositories within a single Space repository. Manage dependencies, incorporate external codebases, and enjoy instant server-side synchronization of code and relevant commits across Git repositories.
Full-text search in documents
Search queries now show results from entire documents and can be narrowed down to the scope of a specific folder.
Customizable webhook payloads
Space is an open platform with a multitude of events happening at the same time. You can track these events by creating custom subscription feeds in Space or by sending notifications to a third-party system.
Since some external systems require a specific request format from a webhook like Slack, we’ve added the ability to customize your webhook payload to better integrate your Space applications with such systems. All you need to do is specify a payload template when creating or editing your webhook.
Rich text table editor
As part of our ongoing improvements to rich text visual editing, we’re adding the ability to quickly add and edit tables in your documents.
Tables are now fluid and adaptable – the visual editor is packed with features to support all of your needs when editing documents. Your existing rich text documents will be automatically updated with the new features.
Introducing code reviews and merge requests in the Space mobile apps
The latest update to the Space mobile app brings full support for code reviews and merge requests to iOS and Android. Enhance your code collaboration even when you’re away from your desktop.
With this latest release, you can:
- Keep track of code review requests.
- Dive into changed files and diffs.
- View, accept, or reject code changes.
- Leave inline comments on code.
- View the status of quality gates.
- Perform a dry run and merge branches.
Install the app, learn more about the update, and discover how to use new features on the app’s Google Play or App Store pages.
Streamlined issue view in Chats
When you select an issue from the Issues tab, Chats now immediately opens a full view and puts the focus on the latest message, allowing you to pick up the conversation without missing a beat, and update issue details on the spot.
Bringing powerful IDE-like navigation to Space
We’re bringing the familiar, powerful, and keyboard-centric navigation experience from IDEs to Space to help software developers boost their productivity and efficiency. Having all the data in one place, you can now quickly navigate between chat messages, issues, and code reviews in no time.
To navigate anywhere, simply press Ctrl+K or ⌘K. Just like in your favorite IDE, the overhauled navigation is especially useful when you know the name (or at least a partial name) of the item you’re searching for in Space. Narrow down your search by choosing the types of results you want, such as reviews, issues, branches, documents, or any other items.
To help you better understand the search results and scan through them easily, we have divided them into sections. For instance, if you search for "UI", you'll find dedicated issues, teams, files, channels, messages, and other relevant content, separated by sections.
To speed up your work, you can also create new merge requests, issues, reviews, and other items on the go, by typing “+” followed by the command (e.g., “+merge request”). This streamlined approach eliminates the need to manually navigate to specific tabs, providing a smoother and more seamless workflow experience.
Customizable issue fields
No more fixed issue details!
Go to <Your project> | Issues | Settings to disable unnecessary issue fields, add custom ones, and rearrange them according to your needs and preferences.
Speed up your builds by storing caches in file repositories
Space Packages can help you speed up your project’s build time and save valuable resources.
You can now use file repositories to store build caches for popular build tools that support the WebDAV protocol like Gradle, Bazel, and sccache. This way, you can reuse the remote cache instead of having to rebuild the project from scratch or use the local cache.
To get started, go to Packages, create a new File repository, and select the preferred build tool. Space will guide you through the setup process with step-by-step instructions.
To reduce storage consumption, make sure to set up retention policies. Space Packages will detect unused caches and remove them according to the policies you set.
To prevent accidental deletions, set up repository permissions to update/write caches from a clean environment, like a CI/CD pipeline, and read caches on local machines to make compilation faster.
The Space Automation native caching feature uses file repositories to store build caches. Read this article to learn how it works.
Space On-Premises 2023.2 Is Out!
Introducing Space On-Premises 2023.2, a more accessible version with new simplified installation options and other useful features:
- One-click installation: We've added the AWS installation option, so you can get Space on your premises and start using it more quickly and easily. This stable solution for your AWS cloud consumes moderate resources and allows for safe data storage.
- Docker Compose customization: We've expanded the configuration steps for Docker Compose, enabling you to use it as a stable installation.
- Useful new features: Take advantage of powerful IDE-inspired navigation, issue time tracking, the ability to store build artifacts and cache project dependencies, support for Rust packages, and more.
Read this article to learn what’s new, including an overview of the available installation options to help you find the one that works best for your team.
Ready to give it a try?
iOS version 2023.4.1 update
- Added full support for issue drafts. You can now see the number of issue drafts on your Project Dashboard, edit them, and create new ones.
- You can now edit your code review or merge request details from the code review details screen.
Get the latest iOS app.
Authentication to private Docker registries
We recently introduced the new dockerBuildPush DSL to automation jobs, allowing you to run Docker build and push commands on a self-hosted or Space Cloud worker. This DSL is designed to replace job.kaniko in most cases as it provides a more native way to interact with Docker.
Additionally, you can now connect to private Docker registries using the dockerRegistryConnections DSL. All you need to do is establish an authenticated connection in Project settings | Docker registry connections and use the corresponding key in the host and container steps of a job. This provides an easier way to connect to private Docker registries, eliminating the need for lengthy manual commands.
Learn more about connecting to private remote registries.
Scheduled messages in Chats
We created Space as the intelligent code collaboration platform with a goal of improving team collaboration and fostering a healthy and productive work environment.
With this in mind, we’re pleased to introduce scheduled messages in Space Chats. This allows you to send messages at a specific date and time without any additional effort.
To schedule a message, click on the clock icon to the right of a chat’s message field and select the exact time and date to send the message.
To make it easier for you to know when it's best to deliver your message, Space shows your colleague's local time and availability. If they are on vacation or sick leave, you are offered an alternative time when they should be available.
Later, you can access the scheduled messages to edit, delete, send immediately, or change the scheduled delivery time.
Which messages can you schedule for later?
- Direct messages
- Channel messages
- Replies in threads
- Issue comments
Tip: Don't remember when you scheduled a message or for whom exactly? Just search for the clock icon in your contact list.
Saved filters for quick issue search
We’ve added favorite filters to issue search. You can now save your favorite search filters and access them later with just a few clicks.
To access project issues, go to a specific project and click Issues. From there, you can search for issues using different filters and save the filters by clicking the star icon on the right-hand side of the bar.
You can quickly access the filters from the left-hand project panel and from the quick filter panel of the issue list. To customize the panel, click on the setting icon next to your project's name.
Permanently accept changes in a merge request
Prevent your merge request approval from being reset with the new Accept and finalize approval status option.
Additionally, there are two scopes of responsibility available for reviewers – All files and Owned files.
When you’re assigned to review Owned files, the list of changes will be pre-filtered to reflect changes in only those files where you are the code owner. When you set the 👑 Accept changes status in this role, it will persist unless the owned files are changed again or there is a force push. When you’re reviewing All files, the status will be reset by the next commit in this merge request.
Setting the Accept and finalize approval status ensures it remains persistent regardless of your scope or changes in the merge request.
This is especially useful when starting with the Organization plan, when you can require code owner approval to complete a merge request as part of quality gates.
Improved folder tree navigation in Documents
You can now quickly navigate through files and folders with the new built-in preview in the Folders tab.
Use the arrows to navigate through the folder structure, press Enter to see the preview or Shift+Enter to open an item, and press / to quickly jump to the search bar.
Space now remembers your position and will always take you to the last opened file or folder when you return to Documents.
Support for Mermaid diagrams and CSV tables
You can now use Mermaid syntax to visualize your thoughts with handy diagrams in chats, issues, documents, and repositories. Hop into the playground to see examples and learn the basics.
When your diagram is ready, simply embed it in ```mermaid``` .
You can preview CSV files as a rendered table directly in chats, documents, repositories, and packages.
You can also manually create tables by embedding your content in the ```csv``` container. Such tables will have an option to switch between visual and code modes, and to copy the code for further use.
Pin dashboard items for project members
Project members with project admin roles can now pin repositories, issue boards, jobs, packages, and deployments for everyone in a project. This can be helpful for onboarding new members or highlighting essential resources for those joining a project from another team. When a project is empty, the first of each of these items will be pinned automatically.
To manage pinned items, click on the Customize project sidebar button next to the project name, and adjust them on a personal or admin level. If a project member doesn’t need any of the pinned items, they can unpin them at any time.
Manage and share Rust packages in Space
Working on Rust projects? We're introducing Cargo sparse-registry support, so that you can now store and share Rust packages using Space.
The new sparse protocol speeds up the downloading of package dependencies when building a project and unifies the assigning of credentials to them.
To create a Cargo repository, go to <your project> | Packages, click on New repository, and select Cargo registry. Read this article to learn how to publish and manage Rust packages in Space.
Actively track time spent on issues
In addition to retroactively logging the time you’ve spent on a Space issue, you can now dynamically track it to help you better manage your working hours.
In an issue, click the Play icon on the Spent time tab to start the counter. Only one activity can be tracked at a time, so starting tracking in another issue will automatically prompt you to confirm the new timer and stop the previous one, or cancel it and continue the initial tracking.
The time spent is logged with the current date and you can always resume an existing timer or edit the entry to accurately trace your sprints. A working day is set to 8 hours by default, but since everyone’s work schedule is different, you can adjust the number of working days and hours in a week by going to Your project | Issues | Settings | Time Tracking.
The new project-centered navigation
The new navigation has more room for you to focus on the project at hand, while preserving all the key features (chats, projects, blog, etc) and quick actions like item creation or accessing your to-do list and Help section.
The main navigation is customizable, so you can hide the features you don’t need and collapse the side panel when it’s time to dive deeper into the project. Only now you retain full access to the project's features even in the collapsed mode.
If you have any suggestions on how we can improve, feel free to reach out to us via Help | Send feedback or by creating a YouTrack issue.
Access issues across multiple projects
Space makes it easier to work on various projects simultaneously, because there is now one place where you can manage all of the issues available to you across the organization!
- If you’re using the new (modern) navigation scheme, click on the three dots on the bottom left menu, go to Projects, and select Issues.
- If you’re using the old (vintage) navigation scheme, click on your profile on the left side menu, and go to Issues.
You can filter issues by projects and other parameters.
Faster and easier search for issues
You can now search for issues more easily with advanced filters. The redesigned issue search feature in Space allows you to:
- Combine several filter values, which can help you find issues assigned to particular individuals, issues in particular projects, and more.
- Narrow your search using negative operators (`is not`, `none of`), which can help you find issues assigned to people other than those specified, created outside of a selected time period, and more.
- Use the arrow keys to navigate the filter bar and add filters more quickly.
Store build artifacts and cache project dependencies in file repositories
File repositories can now be used as storage for any of your build artifacts or as local caches for project dependencies to further streamline your CI jobs, save resources, and improve build times.
It’s now easy to store all the artifacts that your jobs produce, be they test results, code quality reports, or binaries. Additionally, we offer a declarative DSL for file inputs, allowing you to easily save project secrets as files or download any file artifact before your job starts.
Read more about each feature or explore the Upload/download file artifacts and Cache files between job runs snippet sections when creating a new automation job script to see code examples.
Configure dev environment warm-ups with devfile.yaml instead of using Automation jobs
With Space dev environments, you no longer need to spend time warming up your IDE. You can create a warm-up snapshot that contains project indexes, dependencies, and other data to speed up the dev environment startup.
We've introduced changes to the configuration of warm-ups and disabled dev environment warm-up via Space Automation. You can now set up the warm-up in the project’s devfile.yaml, along with other dev environment settings.
Why are we making this change? Getting the snapshot via a job was inconvenient because it required setting up Space Automation for the project and configuring a .space.kts job.
What actions should you take? With this update, your warm-up related jobs will no longer run. You can still use the warm-up snapshots created via the deprecated method. However, to keep them up to date, move your configuration from Space Automation to devfile.yaml as soon as possible.
Read this blog post to learn more about this change and get configuration examples.
Space On-Premises 2023.1.1 is here
Packed with a bunch of hotfixes and improvements, Space On-Premises 2023.1.1 is now live:
-
The
Import MessageAPI endpoint now supports importing issue comments. - It is now possible to specify a custom Docker registry for Space Automation workers. The registry is specified as a part of the Compute-service configuration.
-
It is now possible to specify the
httpsconnection for the Elasticsearch server (Kubernetes installation). - It is now possible to mirror Git repositories in the local network.
- (Fixed) An issue preventing usage of a reverse proxy for https connections to Space.
- (Fixed) An issue with propagation of the ssh key parameter for the VCS service.
- (Fixed) Various minor issues on service startup.
-
(Fixed) An issue preventing creation of custom subscriptions to the
Documentsevents. - (Fixed) An issue preventing PostgreSQL port customization.
Introducing improved Automation parameters
We reworked and improved the entire parameters subsystem in Space Automation! Now, it's much more than just a way to provide env variables for your jobs.
You can now reference Automation parameters in most of the fields in the Automation script. Automation parameters now let you:
- Customize a job run. We introduced a new DSL block, job.parameters, where you can define parameters and provide their default values. Before running a job, users can change these default values, choose another Docker image to run on, or provide custom command-line parameters.
- Pass string values between steps. Parametrize later steps in your build using parameters calculated in previous steps. For example, use parameters for an image that runs your build and dynamically resolve it during build execution.
- Get details about job execution context. You can get a current Git commit ID, a job execution number, information about the worker operating system, and other context data. See the list of predefined parameters in this article.
- Provide project secrets and parameters to a job. Such parameters are common for the entire project, like a URL for a service or a file path. Secrets let you provide jobs with sensitive data like passwords or access tokens.
Read this article to learn more about Automation parameters in Space and how to use them.
Pre-fill merge request description from commits
Merge requests and code reviews now have a dedicated description field to hold all relevant details. You can also pre-fill the details of a new merge request with messages from the branch commits by clicking Copy text from commit messages under the description field.
Create issues from code snippets
Code improvement is a continuous process, and it’s easy to have loose ends left over at the end of the day.
You can now highlight a portion of your code and create an issue from it or send it directly to a chat or channel. The highlighted area will be presented as a code snippet with a link to the corresponding file or commit in the repository so others can quickly preview and access it.
Publish container images to Docker Hub
Now you can publish your Docker and OCI images, and Helm charts, from Space Packages to Docker Hub.
To successfully publish your image to a remote registry, make sure to follow the Docker Hub requirements and have the target account/organization name included in the target URL (i.e. https://registry-1.docker.io/account/), otherwise the push will fail.
Space On-Premises Is Out of Beta
Today we’re announcing the general availability of Space On-Premises!
During the six months in Beta, our team stabilized the installation process, added more features, and fixed numerous bugs. Today, we're releasing On-Premises out of Beta and introducing the new version – Space On-Premises 2023.1 – with new features such as:
- Full Automation support in Kubernetes On-Premises
- Guest users
- Swimlanes and customizable issue boards
- Managing and sharing Dart packages
Want to learn more? Read this blog post to discover new features, installation options, and pricing plans.
Ready to give it a try?
Introducing guest users in Space
Do you want to invite more people to participate in your project?
With guest users, you can now bring people from outside your organization to collaborate in Space with limited access to your company data and resources. Use the guest users feature to invite:
- Clients to keep an eye on your project, monitor its progress, and communicate with your team.
- Freelance developers to collaborate on issues, review code, and chat.
- Freelance marketers, designers, and other specialists to collaborate with your development team.
- Partners to work together on a joint project.
You can customize guest permissions individually and give users access to your resources based on their jobs, from allowing them to view project details and communicate in chats to letting them actually collaborate on documents, Git repositories, code reviews, and issues.
Read this blog post to find out more about guests in Space and learn how to add them to your organization.
Enforce two-factor authentication for specific roles
Do you want to minimize the potential damage to your organization from a compromised account? Administrators can now enforce two-factor authentication for the following organization-wide roles:
- System Admin
- Member
- Custom roles
Navigate to the Administration tab on the left-hand panel, click on Roles, select the desired role, and then toggle Require two-factor authentication. Each user within the selected roles will be required to set 2FA on their next login in order to access the organization, and will receive an email reminder to do so.
To add even more flexibility in setting up access protocols, you can create a Custom role and manually assign teams or individual users to it. As an admin, you will always be able to see which user hasn’t set up 2FA yet.
Set up smart Space Automation notifications
We've just added Space Automation alerts to subscriptions, which are a flexible way to manage notifications in Space!
You can now receive notifications about finished and failed Automation jobs in a single feed, along with your other Space notifications, and customize them to match your workflow.
Space subscriptions allow you to get notifications about different events and create personal or group feeds with custom alerts. Read this post to learn more about them.
With this update, you can choose whether you want to receive alerts about all finished Automation jobs, only those that failed, jobs run by you, or those containing your commits.
By default, your job notifications will automatically be sent to your #Spacebox channel. You can customize the events for different jobs in the settings.
Create custom Automation notification feeds
You can also subscribe to notifications centrally instead of going to a specific job to set up custom alerts. Subscribe to a specific project repository and get notified about all jobs, sets of jobs, or a specific job. You are also free to choose which events you want to be notified of.
The custom Automation subscriptions are useful if you want to be aware of all failed jobs on a specific project instead of monitoring the status of each job individually.
You can create a custom subscription from My Profile | Subscriptions, and check out the documentation to read more about subscriptions and notification settings.
View your Calendar as a monthly schedule
Introducing a new Schedule view for your calendar in Space!
You can now get a different perspective on your monthly schedule with an ordered, day-by-day list of events. The Schedule view is more convenient than the regular view if you want to see a full overview of what's coming up, in order.
Want to see the busy days only? Hide the days when you have no meetings or plans in your calendar by clicking on the gear icon and unchecking the Show days with open schedules option.
Manage and share Dart packages in Space
Have you been looking for a private Dart package storage solution? Space Packages now lets you create your own Dart repositories. Use them to store and share Dart packages for your mobile, console, or Flutter projects.
To create a Dart repository, go to <your project> | Packages, click on New repository, and select Dart repository. Read this article to learn about how to publish and manage Dart packages.
Save as PDF and print Space documents and checklists
Want to export your Space documents or checklists? You can now print them or save them as PDFs in just a few clicks. To do so, just open a doc, click on the three dots in the top right, and select Print.
Archive and delete documents forever
You can now archive and delete both personal and project documents in Space.
- Simply open a document, click on the three dots icon in the top-right corner, and select Archive.
- Later, you can access them in the Archive folder and restore them, copy them, or delete them forever.
By default, only project administrators have the permissions to delete and archive project documents; however, they can provide this permission to other roles in your organization.
Introducing App Authorization Playground
Developing applications for Space is getting easier! The Authorization Playground is an interactive way to learn how app authorization works, and you can experiment with different authorization flows for your apps right in the Space UI.
Space supports app authorization with a permanent token and OAuth 2.0 flows. The playground allows you to check authorization requests and permissions granted, and you can also quickly generate code snippets that allow you to authorize your application.
To access the playground, go to Extensions > Authorization Playground. Read this article to learn more about authorizing apps in Space.
First-class Space integration with JetBrains IDEs
The Space plugin is now bundled with WebStorm, Rider, GoLand, CLion, and RubyMine, in addition to IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, and PhpStorm.
With first-class integration, you can browse Space projects and clone repositories, then start working on them directly. When your changes are ready, you can create a merge request and perform a code review from within the IDE.
Read this blog post to learn more about how to review code with Space.
Expand Space with Marketplace apps
Introducing a new way to customize Space to meet your team's needs!
Today we're releasing Space Marketplace Beta, where you can download applications for Space, create your own apps, and share them with other people.
You can get started by downloading apps created by JetBrains that allow you to:
- Enable Slack link previews in Space.
- Synchronize your Space and Slack channels.
Read this blog post to learn more about Space applications, find out how to create your own apps, and get an overview of the apps that are available.
Manage Space dev environments directly from IntelliJ IDEA and JetBrains Gateway
You can now manage your Space dev environments for remote development directly within IntelliJ IDEA 2022.2 or the JetBrains Gateway UI.
When your IDE is connected to your Space organization, all of your existing dev environments are synchronized. You can create a new dev environment for a repository and branch, and start coding right away with JetBrains Client. You can hibernate a dev environment to reduce resource consumption or simply delete it when your work is finished.
Read this blog post to learn more about managing dev environments from IDEA 2022.2.
Customize your issue board view
You can now customize the way your issue cards are displayed on issue boards. Select the attributes you want to see on each card, such as issue ID, due date, status, attachment preview, or other issue fields.
To customize the card preview, go to Your Project > Issue Boards > Settings > Cards. This feature is available in the Team plan and higher and requires board admin permissions to edit the view.
Prioritize issues and organize your board using swimlanes
You now can add swimlanes to your issue boards to speed up your workflow and differentiate tasks. Use swimlanes to:
- Track high-priority tasks by showing them at the top of the board.
- Organize project tasks by assignee, due date, creation date, creator, or any custom field.
- Group different products you’re working on into a single board.
Open the Swimlanes tab in the board’s settings and set any issue field, including custom fields, as a swimlane label. You need board admin permissions to set up swimlanes.
Introducing Safe Merge and Dry Run
Are you working on a fast-paced project on a growing team? You can now add an extra layer of protection to the main branch to ensure that a merge commit doesn't result in failed builds. With Safe Merge, you can run integration checks on the requested merge without actually merging potentially harmful changes into the main branch.
How does it work? Safe Merge creates a temporary merge commit combining the most recent main and feature branch revisions, runs predefined automation jobs or TeamCity checks, and lets you finalize the merge.
If you’d like to check your potential merge but don’t intend to finalize it just yet, there’s a new Dry Run option. Dry Run won't prompt you to complete the merge even if it passes all the checks.
How do you enable Safe Merge and Dry Run? Navigate to Your Project | Repositories | *your repository* | Settings | Protected Branches | Edit “main” branch. From there enable the Safe Merge option at the bottom, and then create a safe-merge.json configuration file. You will be automatically taken to the Quick Start Guide on how to set everything up.
Read this article to learn more about Safe Merge and Dry Run.
Space On-Premises is available in Beta
Do you want complete control over your data? We’re happy to announce the release of Space On-Premises Beta. You can now manage, maintain, and upgrade Space fully on your side.
Enroll in the Beta program and use the installation option that suits you best – Space On-Premises for Docker Compose for quick trial runs or Space On-Premises for Kubernetes for bigger installations that scale.
The Beta version is available for free and includes all the Organization plan features. You can use it for up to 1,000 users and 50 concurrent Automation workers.
Want to learn more? Read this blog post to learn more about the benefits of Space On-Premises, its installation options, and future pricing plans.
Want to give it a try? Follow these instructions to download and set up Space On-Premises.
Introducing Chat enhancements
We're introducing a batch of updates to improve your experience in Space Chats and help you communicate faster.
Find mentions easily and react faster
You can find all your mentions on a dedicated page by clicking on the @ icon
at the top of the left menu. You can quickly see the context you've been mentioned in, react
to messages right away, add them to your to-do list, create issues, and navigate to the
relevant threads.
Distinguish between browser tabs with favicons
Working with many tabs can be troublesome, especially if you have a lot to do. With the new favicons, you can now distinguish between Space browser tabs more easily, as Chat, Issue, Code Review, Document, and Profile tabs all have different favicons. Review code, work on issues, chat, and edit documents at the same time without mixing up your tabs.
Find code snippets in chat messages
Looking for particular code snippets in Chats? Find them more easily with the improved search feature in Space, accessed by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F. It allows you to find snippets even if you don't remember all the parts of a class or a function name.
Make public channels private
Want to keep a discussion amongst the participants? You can now make public channels private. To change your channel’s privacy level, click on the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the channel and select Make private. This setting is available to channel admins only.
Introducing Deployments in Space
Today we’ve got an important milestone in Space Automation development to share with you: We’re releasing support for deployments in Space.
Deployments let you track the delivery of source code changes to a deployment environment. Examples include delivering a web app to a production server, publishing a mobile app in a store, uploading a distribution to an FTP server, and so on.
Read this article to learn how deployments can be helpful to you and how to get started with them.
Adjust text width in chats
You can now choose between two line lengths in your chats – comfortable or full width. The comfortable reading setting always frames your main chat text regardless of whether you have a thread open or not. Full width lines, on the other hand, are bound only by the window size or the active thread.
Go to Chats | Settings | Advanced and pick your preferred mode under the Line length section.
Customize your Project dashboard
Following the release of personal dashboard customization, you can now adjust your Project dashboard as well.
This dashboard provides quick access to the items most relevant to your Project – Description, Members, Favorite Repositories and Documents, Issues, and Code Reviews. Shuffle or disable any of the widgets by clicking the Customize dashboard button in the top right-hand corner of the project overview.
Introducing redesigned Code Reviews
We're happy to introduce redesigned Code Reviews in Space. Our goal for this revamp was to make the interface simpler and the code review process easier.
You can now access an overview of your code review on a panel on the right-hand side of your screen. There you will find information about quality gates, conflicts, reviewers, dev environments, and linked issues.
The quality gates section has been completely reworked. You can now track the number of required approvals and their statuses without any extra clicks. This is especially useful when you have complex quality gate rules.
Commits and files are now located on the panel on the left-hand side of the screen. Also, the commit view now presents more information on the screen, so you don't have to hover over a title to see the full commit message.
Additionally, now you can edit the target for your Merge Request at any point during the review process.
Export Project Issue list from Space
Expanding on the release of Matrix and Time tracking reports, you can now export your Project Issue list in either .csv or .xlsx format as well.
Go to your Project > Issues and click on the Reports button in the top right corner, where you can select the format to export the issue list in.
Create code reviews and merge requests instantly
You can now create code reviews and merge requests in just a few clicks! Press + on the left menu no matter where you are in Space and select what you want to create – Code Review or Merge Request.
Space will automatically suggest the repositories and branches that you've recently pushed changes to.
Introducing Matrix reports for issues in Space
You can now create and export Matrix reports for issues in Space. This report allows you to display issues for two customizable attribute values, and view them as a matrix or a chart.
To create a report, go to Project | Issues, click on “Reports” in the top right-hand corner, and select "Matrix". By default, you will see how many issues are assigned to different users for each issue status.
You can customize your report by choosing issue attributes for the X and Y axes between Assignee, Created by, Status, and Tag.
Sort the data by clicking on the arrows next to the attributes. To access the list of respective issues, simply click on a number in the table.
Visualize your report as either a matrix or a chart by changing the report view.
To export your report in a .csv or an .xlsx file, click on the blue “Download” button in the top right-hand corner.
Read this article to learn more about how to use the Matrix report in Space Issues.
Space has been added to the Toolbox App
You can now access all your favorite Space projects right from the JetBrains Toolbox App.
- You can connect your Space account, as well as the other team tools and SaaS applications, in a new Services tab.
- Open your favorite Space projects directly from a list in the Toolbox App.
Read this blog post to learn more about the integration.
Introducing Time Tracking in Issues
You can now log and track time spent working on issues in Space. This update allows you and your colleagues to keep track of time spent on tasks and report the results to a manager or a client with downloadable .csv files.
Log time spent on issues
To log time spent on an issue, go to the issue and click on 'Spent time ➕'. Then, add Duration, Start day, and Description, @mention someone, or change the Assignee.
Log time spent on sub-issues
Adding time to sub-issues can be done in exactly the same way as issues. When logging time spent on a sub-issue, the overall issue time will be increased automatically.
Download time tracking reports
To download a report in .csv format, go to the issue and click on 'Time tracking report' in the top right-hand corner.
To view and log time spent on issues, you need the appropriate permissions. You can grant them to your colleagues as a project administrator, or request them from your admin as a user. Time tracking functionality is available in the Team plan and above, but not in the Free plan.
Introducing Space Automation workers
Do your builds require workflows that are not possible with containers? Do they require specific hardware or access to internal network resources?
We're introducing Space Automation workers – a new way to run your Automation jobs on your own hardware or on virtual machines in the Space Cloud. Automation workers let you perform CI/CD workflows that are not possible with containers.
What is an Automation worker? It's a lightweight Java application that runs on Linux, Windows, or macOS. A worker connects to Automation via the Space HTTP API, gets jobs and source code from Space, runs the jobs, and reports the results back to Space.
Space self-hosted workers
Using Space self-hosted workers, you can run any build script on your own hardware on Linux, Windows, and macOS. Build full .NET Framework apps on Windows and run builds on specific hardware, for example to build iOS and macOS apps, run ML tasks on GPUs, and more.
Read this article to learn more about self-hosted workers and how to use them.
Space Cloud workers
With Space Cloud workers, you can run build scripts on virtual machines hosted on the Space Cloud infrastructure. This means you can use them for CI/CD tasks that require full access to the system, which is not possible in Docker containers.
Check out this article to learn more about Space Cloud workers and how to use them.
How to choose a run environment for a job
The environment where a job will run depends on various conditions. Now, there are two available pool types – Space Automation Cloud (default) and self-hosted workers.
You can override the default pool value using the Requirements block. Learn how to do so in this article.
Space dev environments: Rider support, template configuration, and IDE version change
Develop .NET projects remotely with Rider
You can now use Space dev environments to develop .NET projects with JetBrains Rider.
To launch Rider remotely, make sure you have the JetBrains Gateway app. From any Git repository, click on the Open in IDE button to start a dev environment. Pick the machine size, select Rider as your IDE, specify the path to your .sln file, and Create your dev environment.
Read this article to learn more about how to get started with Rider using dev environments.
Configure reproducible dev environments for your project
Once pre-configured, Space dev environments allow you and your team to code remotely without having to prepare local machines. Using a devfile, you can now configure dev environments for your teammates, including such aspects as a docker image, environment variables, a default IDE, and CPU/memory resources.
What is a devfile?
Devfile is an open-source specification that uses YAML
formatting for configuring and running dev environments. To get started, create
a devfile.yaml in the .space folder of your project.
You can edit it by copy-pasting config examples from the snippets panel.
Read this article to learn more about how to configure your dev environment using devfiles.
Change an IDE version for an existing environment
You can now change the IDE version that you use for an already existing environment. To do so, go to the list of your Dev Environments using the personal navigation sidebar, select a dev environment, and click on the IDE version on the top. Your dev environment will be restarted using the new IDE version, with your uncommitted data saved.
Manage and share file artifacts with Space Packages
A new type of Space Package repository is now available for automated storage and sharing of project-related files – File Repository.
Use command-line tools, like cURL and Powershell, to remotely manage the repository or handle files and folders from within the UI. Thanks to file content immutability enabled by default, you can ensure reproducibility for your CI/CD pipelines.
To create a File Repository, go to your Project | Packages, click on 'New repository', and select 'File Repository'. Read the documentation for more information.
Integrate Space Calendar with your favorite calendar app with CalDAV support
Looking for ways to master time management? With this update, you can now manage your Space work schedule and personal plans from your favorite calendar app.
We've implemented CalDAV support in Space, allowing you to view and edit your Space calendar from calendars and mail applications that support CalDAV, such as Mac and iPhone Calendars, Thunderbird, and others.
What is CalDAV? CalDAV is a protocol that allows you to display and manage your calendar on any device using any compatible application.
Read these guidelines to find out how to view and edit your Space calendar from your other calendars, and to learn about supported clients.
Choose when to post a code review comment in IntelliJ IDEA 2022.1
When reviewing code changes in the IDE, you can now choose when to post a code review comment:
- Post Now immediately posts the comment in the code review and notifies the author and other code review participants immediately.
- Save as Draft batches all comments, and sends them in one go when you approve changes or wait for a response.
To learn more about Space code reviews in IntelliJ IDEA check out this blog post.
Use shortcuts with code review comments
We have improved the code review user interface and show applicable keyboard shortcuts. When posting a code review comment, you can use Enter to add a new line. Ctrl+Enter will save or post the comment.
Customize your Space dashboard
You can now rearrange the widgets on your personal dashboard or hide those you don’t need. The default dashboard provides an overview of useful day-to-day information, with widgets like the Calendar, Favorite Projects, Code Reviews, Followed Teams, and Recent Blog Posts.
To configure your personal dashboard, click on the 'Customize dashboard' button in the top right corner of your profile. You can adjust the widgets any way you like, and if you ever want to revert them back to the default view, you can simply click 'Reset to default'.
Upload any file, manage and automate everything centrally
With this update of Space Documents, managing files has never been easier.
- Everything you need to work on your personal and team projects is now conveniently accessible from a centralized storage space. Your personal Documents view shows every file you’ve recently interacted with throughout your Space organization. You can see each file’s location and easily narrow down your search with predefined filters and drop-downs.
- Upload, preview, share, and download any file! Starting now, you can upload personal files and all project-related artifacts (images, PDFs, etc.) directly to Documents.
- On top of that, we opened the Documents API for public use. You can now use API calls to communicate and interact with Documents to offload routine tasks to automation.
Learn the details of the new Documents and discover more about the update in this blog post.
Comment on multiple lines in code reviews
We've added multi-line comments to Space code reviews. To comment on several lines, open a code review or a merge request, drag your mouse pointer to select as many lines as you like, and leave your comment.
Suggest code changes in merge requests
When reviewing a merge request from your teammate, you can now make quick edits to the code and post them as suggestions instead of just leaving comments.
To suggest edits, select a line or a fragment of code, click 'Suggest changes', and edit it. Comment your edits as well if you'd like to explain the reasoning behind them. When your teammate sees your edits, they can accept and commit them right away with just a couple clicks.
Manage and share Composer packages in Space
Space Packages now lets you create your own Composer repositories. Use them to store and share packages in your PHP projects. To create a Composer repository, go to your Project | Packages, click on 'New repository', and select 'Composer repository'.
Read this article to learn more about how to create a Composer repository and publish Composer packages.
Integrate Space Packages with remote repositories
We're introducing mirroring for Space Packages! With this update, you can now:
- Manually publish local packages to a remote repository. To publish a package to a remote repository, such as Maven Central, you can now specify a list of related remote repositories for each local one and publish packages to any of them.
- Auto-cache packages from a remote repository. When you reference a package from a mirror repository, Space will download it from the associated remote repository and cache it locally if it's not available. This feature allows you to simplify referencing packages from remote repositories and optimize network traffic. You can now use a single Space repository to cache all build dependencies from remote repositories.
Read this article to learn how to use mirror remote repositories step by step.
Support for Vault secrets in Space Automation
Space Automation now supports HashiCorp Vault storage, allowing you to use secrets stored in a Vault server in your Automation jobs. Simply add a connection to the Vault server, create a parameter, and use it as if it were an ordinary parameter stored in Space.
Read this article to learn more about the update, and discover how to use Vault secrets in Space Automation.
Allow your Space applications to access private chat channels
Thanks to the new application authorization options, you can now allow your Space applications to access private channels in Space chats. We’ve also added an option to specify what your application can do within a particular private or public channel. For example, you can allow an application to view and post messages, update channel info, add new members, and more. This level of granularity in the permissions helps you keep your communication private by ensuring that the application can only access the information you allow it to.
To set chat channel permissions, head over to your application’s Authorization page | In-context Authorization, select the chat channel where you want to authorize your application, and choose the permissions you want to grant to it. You can also authorize the application from the chat channel by going to Channel info | Applications.
Please note that only channel administrators can grant chat channel permissions. Other users can request permissions from the channel administrators. Currently, applications don’t need authorization to access public chat channels, but we will introduce this requirement in one of the upcoming Space updates.
Take a look at this article to learn how to grant permissions to your application.
New in Space issues: add sub-items, track issue mentions, and filter issues by board
We’re introducing a few updates that will make working with issues easier and more transparent.
Break complex issues down into smaller tasks with sub-items
You can now add sub-items to Space issues. They allow you to break complex issues down into smaller tasks, or list requirements, DoDs, and other relevant information. Just like checklists, sub-items can have a nested structure, and you can check them off upon completion.
You’ll find the new Sub-items section under the issue description. To add a sub-item, click Add item and start typing. You can then leave the sub-item as a simple line of text, which can be formatted with Markdown, or you can convert it into an issue and assign it to any team member right away. You can also add an existing issue as a sub-item by clicking on the ✳ icon.
Check out this article to learn more about how to use sub-items in issues.
Track all mentions from the issue history
To make sure that you don't miss anything important, we’ve made it easier to track any mentions and discussions related to your tasks in Space.
Whenever somebody mentions an issue by its ID or link in a Space chat channel, code review comment, or another issue, the mention is automatically reflected in the issue’s history. This way, you can be sure no important discussions go missing and you always have the full context.
Here's an example. A chat message that contains an issue ID is copied to the mentioned issue:
The following rules ensure that private messages don't end up being made public. Space will NOT post mentions originating from:
- Direct messages
- Conversations
- Private channels
- Projects the owner of the mentioned issue does not have access to
Code review comments from a public project will be posted, but details will be only visible to project members who have access to the project repository. Read this article to learn how to comment on issues.
Filter issues by board and sprint
You can now search for issues even faster – use the new Board filter on a project’s issues list to filter by board and sprint. Head to this article to learn how to use issue boards.
More IntelliJ-based IDEs in Space dev environments
Want to code on your favorite JetBrains IDE remotely? Aside from IntelliJ IDEA and Fleet, Space dev environments now support more IntelliJ-based IDEs. You can launch GoLand, PhpStorm, PyCharm, RubyMine, WebStorm, and CLion (starting with the 2021.3 version) remotely using Space dev environments via JetBrains Gateway.
Read this blog post to see Space dev environments in action and learn how to launch your IDE remotely.
Faster build times in Space Automation
We’ve changed the underlying engine that runs Automation jobs, allowing you to enjoy faster build times with Space Automation. Start-up times for jobs have been dramatically reduced, and jobs consisting of multiple steps have received a significant boost, as well.
How fast do Automation jobs run?
Let's suppose you have to run a script that contains two jobs – one job with only one 'hello-world' container step inside, and another one with three such steps. With the new engine, the one-step job runs up to 10 times as fast, and the three-step job runs up to 5 times as fast.
How to speed up Automation scripts
Space Automation now uses the new engine as the default option, so you don't have to adjust any settings for your build times to be faster. If long build times were the main issue preventing you from using Space Automation, now is a great time to give it another try.
Bug fixed
We discovered that the new backend fixed a bug affecting container resource allocation. More specifically, the old backend ignored the CPU and RAM container configuration and gave the container access to all the resources available on the host where it was started.
While the new backend fixes this bug, you might experience a slowdown of your jobs with low CPU or memory limits configured, since they will now get the correct amount of resources.
Docker support in dev environment containers
Space now supports the Docker daemon inside the dev environment container. To run a container in a dev environment, just open the terminal in your IDE and run Docker or Docker Compose commands the same as you would on your local machine.
Check out this article to learn how to develop in a dev environment.