• Nameculture:

  • The term "Galasa Ecosystem" is being replaced with "Galasa Service" because it more clearly describes Galasa components that are deployed onto a Kubernetes cluster, providing testing as a service.

• Galasa Service Changes:

  • A submission ID is generated for each test run submitted. A new field has been added to the test structures passed over the REST interface. Client programs can use the submission ID to query test runs from the Results Archive Store (RAS).

  • Each user now has a role, which dictates what that user can do. See the documentation on Role Based Access Control (RBAC) for more details.

  • The Helm chart can configure specific users to be owners of the system, such that these users are immutable administrators of the system. Configuring owners is used to set up a system with some initial administrators, and to recover a system that no longer has any functioning administrators.

  • Completed test pods now count when calculating the maximum number of pods that Galasa creates. Use the Helm chart parameter max_engines to configure the maximum number of pods.

  • When tests complete, the pod for the test disappears quicker than in previous releases, to free up resources on the cluster. Instead of up to 5 minutes, completed pods are cleaned up within 2-4 seconds.

  • It is now possible to configure the Galasa service to use an etcd server that is external to the Galasa namespace, for Dynamic Status Store traffic. This option is not recommended but may be useful for allowing testcase developers to use the same resource pools as the rest of the Galasa service.

• Framework and Manager changes:

  • The addition of an IMS manager for contacting, controlling, and asserting against an IMS system.

• The Web User interface changes:

  • Everyone logged-in to the Galasa service can see the list of users on the system, and their roles.

  • Administrators on the Galasa service can delete the tokens of other users, change their role, or delete their entire user record.

• Command-line tool (galasactl) changes:

  • Users launching tests can use multiple override files with the --overridefile option.

  These files are combined into a single collection of properties, with warning messages generated in the logs if any property keys clash.

• Development process, infrastructure, and contributing:

  • Improvements to the build process and instructions you use to fork the code, and build your own Galasa binaries in your own GitHub organisation.

  • Added experimental instructions describing how to install the Galasa Service into Minikube. Minikube can be used when developing contributions to Galasa, but is not suitable as a useable run time platform.

• Various other component version upgrades and bug fixes.

• Forks and fork builds are now supported making it easier to contribute to Galasa!

• All Galasa components now use a common version number.

• CPS property names can now include the '@' character.

• The galasactl runs get command supports a new --group option to query test runs by the group ID they were launched with.

• Gherkin now respects the framework.continue.on.test.failure flag so it doesn't need to exit a feature when the first scenario fails.

• This release also includes instability fixes, and dependency updates.

• CLI updates:

  • You can get, set and delete secrets from the credentials store using the galasactl secrets command. Secrets support base64 encoding to handle special characters.

  • Managing Ecosystem encryption keys describes how to use galasactl secrets get and galasactl resources apply to replace the encryption key being used to encrypt credentials in the Galasa Ecosystem's credentials store.

  • Users can now be deleted with the galasactl users delete command.

• Web UI updates:

  • A new settings page has been added to the web UI to manage access tokens.

  • Recent login activity is now available on the profile page.

• This release also includes bug fixes, security updates, and other dependency updates.

• Galasa now supports Java 17.

• You can delete a test run by using the galasactl runs delete command. Deleting a test run removes all information about the test run along with any associated artifacts from an ecosystem's RAS.

• You can now create Galasa projects and build and compile Galasa test code using Gradle version 8. For more information, see the Upgrading tests to compile using Gradle version 8 section in the Upgrading documentation to understand the changes you need to make.

• Log into the Galasa Ecosystem and revoke a personal access token by using the galasactl auth tokens delete command.

• Set terminal size within Gherkin tests (previously only available in Java tests) and use Scenario Outlines.

• Various updates to the Galasa Web UI

• Various defect fixes

• Various documentation updates

• A fix to the database connector of the DB2 Manager

• Retrieve a list of all active personal access tokens in the Ecosystem by using the galasactl auth tokens get command. Use the information to revoke an access token.

• The default size of the PVC storage allocated by the Helm chart is increased from 1GB to 30GB and automatic history compaction is now turned on by default to minimise the risk of etcd running out of space.

• The unused WebUI /webui/worklist endpoint and dev.galasa.api.webui bundle are removed from the API server to resolve reported vulnerabilities.

• Various bug fixes

• Various documentation updates

• Authentication when interacting with an Ecosystem is now mandatory. You need to authenticate with an Ecosystem in order to use its API server or to use any galasactl commands that interact with an Ecosystem.

• CouchDB is upgraded to version 3.3.3. If you upgrade your Ecosystem to Galasa version 0.33.0, CouchDB will be upgraded. Though we don't anticipate any problems with the Helm chart upgrading CouchDB in-situ, we recommend that you follow the usual safety practices of backing up your data prior to any upgrade. You can then apply the backup to the new CouchDB pod after it is created. CouchDB cannot be downgraded after upgrading.

• Maven and Gradle plugins now accept a personal access token when publishing a test catalog to the Ecosystem.

• Various bug fixes

• Various documentation enhancements, including property updates for the CICS TS and z/OS Managers, and information on updating credentials in an Ecosystem.

• CLI updates:

  • You can re-try running a test run which appears to be hanging or looping by using the galasactl runs reset command.

  • You can cancel a test that is hanging or looping by using the galasactl runs cancel command. Cancelling a test removes all entries in the DSS for that test run. All information that is stored in the RAS about the test is kept and is not removed when either the runs reset or runs cancel command is run.

  • You can run Gherkin tests locally on your machine by setting the --gherkin flag on the galasactl runs submit local command.

• Updates to the Galasa authentication token and documentation updates around authentication, architecture, and logging into and out of a Galasa Ecosystem by using the galasactl auth login and galasactl auth logout commands.

• The Eclipse plug-in for Galasa is no longer supported. You can work with Galasa version 0.32.0 and later by using the Galasa command line interface (CLI).

• Various documentation enhancements.

• CLI updates:

  • You can explicitly specify the path to your local Maven repository folder when launching a test case by setting the --localMaven flag in the galasactl runs local command. This means that you can use a non-standard location for your local Maven repository if you want to, rather than having to use the default location of {user.home}/.m2.

  • You can create, update, apply, and delete one or more properties to an Ecosystem by specifying a checked-in resource file on the galasactl resources command, making it easy to set Ecosystem configuration with a single command.

  • The galasactl properties get command supports extraction of properties resources in yaml format when the –format yaml flag is set on the command so you can later apply those properties with different values by using a checked-in resource file specified on the galasactl resources command.

  • The galasactl namespaces get command now returns results of available namespaces in raw format when the –format raw flag is set on the command.

• When using the Galasa command line tool against a server, an error message is generated when the client and server versions are incompatible.

• Various documentation enhancements

• A new blog post by Louisa Seers, encapsulating her experiences during her first six months as Chair of the Galasa Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and the Galasa journey to adoption by the Open Mainframe Project (OMP), is now available on the Open Mainframe Project website.

• You can now read, update, and delete CPS properties by using the CLI, removing the need to directly access the etcd server or use the REST service. The galasactl properties set command makes it easy to set parameters and credentials in the Ecosystem for tests to read and use at runtime. Use the galasactl properties get command to read CPS properties and the galasactl properties delete to remove CPS properties from a namespace in the Ecosystem.
• The following REST API endpoints will be deprecated in the next release (0.31.0) as these are replaced by new endpoints delivered in this release:
  
  /cps/namespace/{namespace}/property/{property}
  /cps/namespace/{namespace}/prefix/{prefix}/suffix/{suffix}
  /cps/namespace/{namespace}
  /cps/namespace
  
• The --requestor parameter is removed from the galasactl runs submit local and galasactl runs submit commands. The --requestor parameter is always set to the current user id, removing the ability to artifically set who is running the test.
• Various documentation updates and enhancements.

• Upgrade of 'bouncy castle' crypto libraries to remove a security vulnerability.

• Updates to the runs get command, including the ability to filter test run results on a specified time period, and to display the returned results in a detailed or raw format
• Ability to download test run artifacts using the runs download command
• Ability to debug a test locally using the runs submit local command
• Various documentation updates and enhancements

• REST API enhancements:
  
  * allow queries of test run details using the run name
  
  * documentation added to the https://rest.galasa.dev/ website
  
  

• Command-line tool galasactl now supports:
  
  * the GALASA_HOME environment variable, which you can set to avoid using the {HOME}/.galasa folder
  
  * querying of test run status using the run name
  
  * the --development flag for galasactl project create and galasactl local init to enable generated code to use pre-released code versions of Galasa libraries, in addition to the ones published on Maven central
  
  * automated tests run on every build
  

• Initialise your development environment by using the galasactl local init command
• Launch a test within a local JVM by using the galasactl runs submit local command
• Create an example project by using the galasactl project create command, which now supports --maven and --gradle flags to control which build system the caller wants to use.
• 3270 images are generated in the RAS results store (experimental code for this release)
• SnakeYAML is upgraded to v1.33. This is a Java library for parsing yaml files.
• Documentation updates on using the CLI to:
  • initialise your local environment
  • create a project
  • run a test locally
• Various doc updates and enhancements to existing content

• Colour support for 3270 application streams. Tests can now validate that an application is using the correct colours and highlighting for specified field(s) and screen position.
• Various defect fixes, including fixing broken LTS connections in Java 11, updates to 3270 modifiable fields, and updates to the REST API.
• VTP Manager enhancements, including additional logging for problem diagnosis and increased keyboard wait times to minimise the risk of keyboard locking.
• New features have been added to the command-line tool:
  
  * A --log <filename> option has been added to direct log information to a file.
  * The --log - option directs log information to the console.
  * Omitting the --log option suppresses the log information.
  * Every error is numbered. For example: GAL1028E: Failed to unmarshal test catalog from REST reply for property 'xxx'
  * Errors appear on stderr and in the log (if logging is turned on)
  * Syntax documentation is fully generated and linked to from the README in the cli repository.
  * galasactl is now supported on MaxOSX on arm64 architecture machines.
  
• Artifact Manager is updated to remove the need to create a second resources folder.
• Upgrades have been made to some dependencies.

• The minimum Java release now required for Galasa is version 11, rather than version 8. You will need to install a Java version 11 JDK or later to run Galasa tests. Note: We do not currently support Java 17 or later.
• Various enhancements to the DB2 Manager.
• Various defect fixes.
• Various documentation fixes and enhancements.

• New Helm charts are available for deploying a basic Galasa Ecosystem into a Kubernetes Namespace. Documentation can be found in the helm repository in GitHub.

• The z/OS 3270 Manager now supports 3 new methods setCursorPosition(row,col), retrieveText(row,col,length), and retrieveTextAtCursor(length).
• The z/OS Batch Manager has a new method waitForJob(Second).
• The z/OS File Manager now supports two new methods getMemberName() and clone(IZosVSAMDataset model).

• An initial basic version of the DB2 Manager is now available. This Manager is not yet ready for Production use and will be documented soon.
• An initial basic version of the Cloud Manager is now available. This Manager is not yet ready for Production use and will be documented soon.
• Various build dependencies have been upgraded to remove publish security vulnerabilities.
• All Galasa bundles are now upgraded to version 0.21.0 to remove historical security vulnerabilities.
• A minor defect in the 3270 Manager is fixed. This Manager now supports DONT TIMING_MARK.
• A minor defect in the CICS TS Manager is fixed, resolving the issue of terminals not starting properly.
• The usage of Random is now replaced with SecureRandom.
• Various documentation enhancements.

• The Galasa VTP Manager is now in Release. You can create an automated integration test in Galasa and use the VTP Manager to transparently record the interactions between the test and your CICS programs. The recorded file can be played back by using IBM Z VTP.
• Installing the Galasa Ecosystem by using the Kubernetes Operator is updated.
• Use the galasactl runs command to select tests based on the @Tags annotation by using the --tag option.
• Galasa Docker images are moving from DockerHub to icr.io. Images in DockerHub (release 0.19.0 and before) will be deleted when 0.21.0 is released.
• The Core Manager now provides a @ResourceString annotation and IResourceString interface to generate random locked strings. Further details will be available on the website once the Manager documentation is refreshed.
• Various bug fixes and enhancements.
• Various documentation updates, including z/OS Program Manager documentation.

• The Galasa MQ Manager is now in Alpha, providing the ability to connect a test to an existing IBM MQ queue manager, and enabling one or more messages to be written to and read from existing queues.
• Various bug fixes and enhancements.
• Various documentation updates, including MQ Manager documentation.

• Various bug fixes

• The z/OS File Manager contains a breaking change in this release. The void store(String content) and String retrieve(String content) methods in IZosUNIXFile have been replaced with void storeText(String content), void storeBinary(byte[] content), String retrieveAsText() and byte[] retrieveAsBinary() methods. This means that binary data is transferred as byte[] rather than String and now matches IZosDataset and IZosVSAMDataset. If you are using the store() or retrieve() methods, you should change these to

storeText() and retrieveAsText() methods respectively.

• The Galasa CLI is available for submitting and monitoring Galasa test runs.
• You can reset and delete automation runs in the Eclipse Galasa Runs view.
• You can search stored artifacts through the eclipse editor.
• Various bug fixes and enhancements.
• Documentation updates – Galasa CLI documentation and Galasa Hub page.
• Various documentation enhancements.

• The 3270 Manager now supports different screen sizes and can respond to query partition with colour and highlight. It also supports bind_image and sysreq renegotiation.
• A range of Managers now have IVT tests associated with them. The IVTs help with testing the Managers themselves and also provide examples of how the Managers can be used.
• Selenium Manager has been updated to squash some null pointer exception causing bugs.
• Galasa tests can now be built with either Maven or Gradle. A set of Gradle example tests for SimBank is available.
• Various bug fixes.
• Documentation - updates to installing the Galasa plug-in, running the SimBank tests and viewing the test results.

• Galasa now runs in any Java release from version 8 onwards.
• The Galasa Eclipse plug-in now supports all levels of Eclipse from Photon onwards.
• Docker and Kubernetes provisioning implementations are available for the Selenium Manager. Additionally, a Selenium Grid can be used from Galasa. Local drivers are used in the same way as previous releases (with edited CPS configurations).
• The Find dialog box is now available in the Run Log view of the Eclipse Editor.
• The IManager.youAreRequired() method signature has a new field. If you have a Custom Manager, you must recompile your Manager with this modification for it to run in release 0.15.0.
• The AbstractManager.addDependentManager() method signature has a new field. If you have a Custom Manager, you must recompile your Manager with this modification for it to run in release 0.15.0.
• The Core Manager is always loaded for every test run.
• The Docker Manager now supports exposed ports.
• Increased test coverage delivered via IVTs and Integration testing
• Basic Java and Windows Managers have been added. These Managers will initially be used internally for testing Galasa itself.
• Various bug fixes
• Our internal Galasa build has moved to Gradle. No user impact is expected, but if you do find any problems whilst you’re using Galasa, you can raise an issue in the project management repository or post a question in our Galasa Slack workspace.
• The Maven Bundle Plugin that is used in the Galasa builds is now set to version 5.1.1 for Java compatibility.
• The GPG key to sign Maven artifacts is set to 5AB3E02B
• Galasa is available for distribution as a zip file, which contains the Eclipse plugin, and necessary Maven artifacts and Docker images for local running. This allows customers who do not have access to Maven Central, Eclipse Marketplace or Docker Hub from their company network to use Galasa.
• Documentation updates - Installing the Galasa Ecosystem on Kubernetes documentation plus various documentation enhancements.

• z/OS Console oeconsol Manager is now in Alpha, providing an implementation of the z/OS Console by using the z/OS UNIX oeconsol command.
• Enhanced Docker functionality, including volumes and custom start up configurations
• CPS restore from file functionality. Use the --restorecps command-line parameter when initialising the framework to trigger the restore CPS functionality. Specify the file to restore from by using -f or --file in the KVP format (<property>=<value>), with one new property per line.
• @ContinueOnTestFailure annotation. Use the annotation in the test class or switch the same functionality on globally by using the CPS property framework.continue.on.test.failure=true.
• Documentation enhancements, including updates on Managers and writing test cases

• CEDA Manager is now in Alpha, providing CEDA 3270 interaction
• CEMT Manager is now in Alpha, providing CEMT 3270 interaction
• Changes to the following CPS properties for z/OS MF:

zosmf.server.SERVERID.image=IMAGEID
zosmf.server.SERVERID.https=true
zosmf.server.SERVERID.port=443
zosmf.server.SERVERID.request.retry=3
zosmf.server.SERVERID.credentials=ZOS
zosmf.sysplex.PLEXID.default.servers=SERVERID,SERVERID
zosmf.image.IMAGEID.servers=SERVERID,SERVERID

If you have zOS/MF servers on each z/OS image, the following properties are the minimum that are required:

zos.image.MV2D.ipv4.hostname=mv2d.example.com
zosmf.server.port=9999

These settings assume a zOS/MF server on MV2D and the port overridden from 443 to 9999 for all zOS/MF servers.

• Various bug fixes
• Documentation enhancements, including updates to About and Ecosystem documentation

• z/OS Manager support for RSE - provides tests and Managers with access to RSE functions, and implementations of z/OS Batch and File Manager by using the RSE API.
• CPS Backup feature - enables CPS properties to be output to a plain-text file. Use --backupcps as a command-line option when running the galasa-boot jar alongside the file option -f or --file to specify an output file for the properties.
• Various bug fixes
• Updated documentation for RSA, Linux and Open Stack Managers

• Galasa Kubernetes operator is now in Alpha. The Kubernetes operator creates and maintains Galasa ecosystems by using Kubernetes, enabling Galasa tests to run in an automated environment or pipeline. See the ReadMe for more information.
• z/OS 3270 improvements and fixes, including support for NEGTSECURE ports and for z/VM (TN3270)
• Various bug fixes
• Documentation updates - Galasa Ecosystem - overview, architecture and Docker operator installation guide, documentation improvements

• z/OS Program Manager is now in Alpha
• Docker Operator is now in Alpha. The Docker Operator creates Galasa ecosystems in Docker, enabling Galasa tests to run in an automated environment or pipeline. See the ReadMe for more information.
• Various bug fixes
• Documentation updates - upgrading and z/OS Program Manager

• CECI Manager is now in Release
• HTTP Client Manager is now in Release
• Updates to the Visual Studio Code Galasa extension, including full support for local runs - search for Galasa in the extensions marketplace and check the ReadMe for prerequisites (essentially, Java 8 JDK, and only Java 8 JDK, plus a version of Maven that supports Java 8)
• Documentation updates - z/OS 3270 Manager and IP Network Manager
• Landing page improvements

• NEW Improvements in Artifact Manager make streaming text content a single-step process
• NEW alpha version of a Visual Studio Code Galasa extension - search for Galasa in the extensions marketplace and check the ReadMe for prerequisites (essentially, Java 8 JDK, and only Java 8 JDK, plus a version of Maven that supports Java 8)
• 3270 Manager bug fixes and updates
• Message lines in the run log are now shorter
• Documentation updates - HTTP Client Manager and the z/OS family of Managers

• NEW TSO Command SSH Manager (alpha) - securely issue TSO commands
• NEW UNIX Command SSH Manager (alpha) - securely issue UNIX commands
• CECI manager is now in Beta
• JMeter manager is now in Beta
• CICS CECI manager is now in Beta
• Plus other enhancements and bug fixes

• Selenium Manager (alpha) - enabling a test to run Selenium WebDrivers in order to drive Web Browsers during the test.
• JMeter Manager (alpha) - enabling a JMeter session to run inside a Docker Container.
• Documentation update - how to start writing your own independent Galasa tests.

• z/OS Batch Manager (beta) - enabling tests and Managers to submit, monitor and retrieve z/OS batch jobs.
• CICS CECI Manager (alpha) - providing CECI 3270 interaction - initially supporting containers and link programs.
• Ecosystem Manager (alpha) - enabling deployment of an entire Galasa Ecosystem to Kubernetes to enable integration testing against Galasa.
• Docker Manager (release) - enabling containers to run on infrastructure Docker engines - either for testing directly or for assisting the testing process.
• Documentation update - how to start writing your own Simbank tests.
• Documentation update - new SimBank z/OS Batch Manager tutorial available.

• Docker Manager (beta) - enabling the provisioning of Docker Containers for tests to use.
• Kubernetes Manager (alpha) - enabling the provisioning of Kubernetes Namespaces.
• Galasa Ecosystem Manager (alpha) - enabling the provisioning of the entire Galasa Ecosystem in Kubernetes so you can run an integration devops pipeline.
• Elastic Logger Manager (alpha) - enabling test results to be exported to Elastic Search.
• Shared Environment (alpha) - enabling Managers to create a testing environment for multiple tests to use.
• Documentation update - Manager reference pages are available.