Release Notes

Changes in Behavior

• Added private_ip_address attribute to the instance and server resource declarations in cat.
• Allow users with only the ss_end_user role to use Self-Service Plugins

Changes in Behavior

• Added support for the encrypted field for volume resources in CAT.
• The cred() function in both CAT and RCL now chooses exact match before failing over to partial match

New Features

• Added methods to base64 encode and decode strings
• Added request_content_type to plugin endpoint this enables xml support
• Added XML Support to CAT plugins

Changes in Behavior

• You can now import multiple plugins in the same CAT.

New Features

• Added a rand function to Cloud Workflow which generates a random number within a specified range
• Added methods to HTML encode and decode strings
• Added methods to URI encode and decode strings

Changes in Behavior

• Self-Service is now enabled for all RightScale accounts
• Improved the account selector to show accounts by Organization

New Features

• Plugin CATs can now be more easily identified in the Designer view with a new column that shows the type of each CAT.

  

Changes in Behavior

• Account names in the account picker now have a hover-over effect to show the full name in case the name is truncated in the list

  

• Bugfix: fixed bug that prevented downloading CAT source for imported packages

• Bugfix: fixed bug that prevented canceling or postponing a custom scheduled action

New Features

• Self-Service Plugins are now available, allowing you to integrate and manage any service through Self-Service CAT files. Integrate with any service from any cloud or service provider by defining a plugin in your CAT and publishing the application to the Catalog.

New Features

• An indicator has been added for the deprecation of CAT version 20131202. Anyone impacted has also received an email with additional information
• After publishing a CAT from Designer, the Launch link in the success growler will now launch the CloudApp from Catalog, instead of from Designer

New Features

• Any modification to a scheduled action, either postponing it or canceling it, will now be tracked in the Activity Feed view of the CloudApp along with the user that performed the action.

  

New Features

• Support for the Resource Group resource introduced in Cloud Management

New Features

• A Failed CloudApp can now be forced into either the Running or Stopped states by users that have either designer or admin privileges. This can be leveraged when the logic in the CloudApp or some environmental factors cause errors in a CloudApp operation, but the underlying issues can be resolved manually. This action is available in the CloudApp view in the UI and the Execution resource patch action in the API.

Changes in Behavior

• Bugfix: fixed a bug that caused a session expired growler to show in Self-Service on the CWF Console when another browser window changed accounts in Cloud Management
• Bugfix: fixed a bug in custom provision functions that required that the function take an actual named resource as its input parameter -- such functions can now accept a generic resource declaration name

New Features

• Introducing support for bulk resources in CAT, allowing CAT designers to easily specify resources with many copies and efficiently launch and manage them
• Custom provision functions are now available, providing authors with a built-in method for customizing the provisioning of any CAT resource
• The above and more are available in a new CAT version (20161221)

Changes in Behavior

• See the new CAT version documentation for changes in the new version - existing versions are unaffected

Changes in Behavior

• Notification emails are now sent when a CloudApp fails if the launch process was aborted or canceled

New Features

• Cloud Workflow code debugger is now available under the Designer menu -> CWF Console. This console provides the ability to execute Cloud Workflow code (RCL) directly in order to help debugging your custom code. This feature is available in Labs.

Changes in Behavior

• The use of sha has been changed to ref

Changes in Behavior

• Bugfix that was preventing some column preferences from being saved

Changes in Behavior

• Improved the support drop-downn (when clicking your name in the UI) to include more information and an easier method to create support tickets
• The Next Action now includes custom scheduled actions, in addition to the lifecycle actions that have always been shown
• Implemented performance improvements for CloudApp runtime operations, particularly impactful when using call frequently to call other definitions

Changes in Behavior

• Changed the from email address on Self-Service automated emails to noreply-selfservice@rightscale.com
• Updated the CAT parser to throw an error if the rs_ca_ver value is a string (it should be an int)

New Features

• A new function to retrieve Credential values has been added to both Cloud Workflow and CAT. This allows you to more easily leverage sensitive credential values in your CAT/CWF code. Learn how to use the cred() function in both CAT files and in Cloud Workflow code.
• Added the ability to set schedules and end dates for Test CloudApp launches from Designer to help your CAT authors save costs when they are developing CloudApps.

Changes in Behavior

• Bugfix: fixed a bug that prevented checkboxes from rendering properly in the CloudApp launch dialog

New Features

• Azure Resource Manager Volumes are now supported in CAT using the volume declaration type

Changes in Behavior

• Bugfix: fixed a bug that prevented sleep_until calls from being canceled if the operation/process was canceled
• Bugfix: fixed a problem in RCL when following resource links with the view attribute

New Features

• New strftime() function in RCL allows easy translation of datetimes into various string formats for use with other APIs. Learn how to use this function in our docs.

Changes in Behavior

• The parser will now throw an error on upload if an operation is missing a definition field
• Redesigned tabs for consistency across fht eplatform
• Bugfix that was causing buttons to appear/disappear and the page to jump
• Various other bugfixes and UI improvements

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug with using retry and skip keywords in error handlers in RCL v2

New Features

• Improved performance on the Manager page when viewing large lists of CloudApps.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug with using import statements in a file with Windows-style line endings
• Improved error messages for some cases

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug in the tag_value function in RCL version 2

New Features

• CAT Imports is now available, allowing you to create package CATs that can be imported into other CATs, enabling code reuse and best practices implementation. You can read more about how it works on the Packaging CATs docs page. Please note that this requires using a new CAT Version and associated RCL Version that both contain breaking changes. Details on the changes are listed on the CAT Changelog and the RCL Changelog pages.
• Support for escaped characters and shorthand classes in RCL regex

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug that prevented some users from changing their timezone

Changes in Behavior

• CloudApp Description Change: the description of a CloudApp is no longer populated with the short_description from the CAT. Previously, if a user launched a CloudApp and didn't set a description, the system would copy the short_description from the CAT -- this is no longer the case.
• Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented user time zone settings from being saved
• Fixed a bug related to selecting days when editing an existing Schedule in Designer
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes show an error growler when deleting a CloudApp

New Features

• Self-Service Only Users - Users can now be granted access only to Self-Service, allowing them to launch and manage infrastructure that has been defined and approved by application designers. These Self-Service only users are not able to log in to either Cloud Management or Optima. Read more about how to add these users here: Granting Self-Service only access.

New Features

• Additional String Functions - Cloud Workflow now supports many more common string functions to make it easier for you to work with different data sources in RCL. For more information, see the pertinent section of the RCL Functions documentation.

Changes in Behavior

• to_s Function - Changed the behavior of the to_s function for hashes to return a correct JSON representation of the hash as documented. It was incorrectly returning a string representation (similar to what inspect does).

New Features

• Account Selector - We've added an Account Selector control to the header in the Self-Service UI to make it easy to switch to a different Self-Service enabled account in any shard. See Account Selection in the Self-Service User Interface Guide for additional information.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug that would sometimes select other CloudApps in index view after a period of time.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug that prevented using strings as regular expressions in the split() function.

New Features

• CloudApp Details - We have revamped the UI when viewing details of a CloudApp based on user feedback and suggestions. The information and styling has been improved for all user types of Self-Service. For additional information, see the Viewing CloudApp Details section of the Self-Service User Interface Guide.

New Features

• Introducing Test CloudApps - In order to help CAT developers during the design and testing phase of CATs as well as simplify the End User experience, we have introduced the notion of Test CloudApps. Test CloudApps are any CloudApp launched from the Designer UI and they are hidden from End Users. For more details, see Testing CATs on our docs site.

Changes in Behavior

• It is now easier to use HTTP functions in RCL with RightScale APIs. To make any call to any of the RS APIs, just omit the authentication header and Cloud Workflow will use the existing session to make the call. Note that this means the user running the CloudApp must have the requisite permissions (or have had them delegated to the CloudApp).

• Fixed a bug where terminating Azure instances sometimes failed due to the boot volumes not having been deleted yet.

New Features

• New Resource Support - The CAT language now supports additional resources, including: Networks, NetworkGateways, PlacementGroups, RouteTables, Routes, Subnets, and more. Leveraging these resources gives you the ability to define entire networks as part of your CloudApp. For more information on the resources supported by the CAT language, see our reference guide..

Changes in Behavior

• Bugfix: fixed the denormalization of HTTP headers in http_ function calls in RCL.
• The Next action for CloudApps is now more accurate, showing only actions that apply given the current state of the CloudApp (i.e., we will hide the start action if the CloudApp is already in the Running state).
• Improved the handling of regular expressions for parameter input validation. For more details, and for a link to an interactive, online regex testing tool, read our reference guide.
• The logic used for the delete() function in RCL (used both in custom code and by the auto_terminate built into Self-Service) has been improved to more accurately determine resource dependencies and ensure that resources are deleted in the correct order.

Changes in Behavior

• Improved the error message shown to designers when a server's launch call fails.

New Features

Permissions Actions - Added new permissions actions specifically for the sensitive view of Credentials and SSHKeys resources. This means that you no longer need the admin role to publish CATs that contain those resources. The new actions are called index_sensitive and show_sensitive.

Deferred CloudApp Launch - You can now choose to defer launching of a CloudApp if you've selected a schedule that is outside of the current time. Simply choose the Launch CloudApp at next scheduled start option on the Launching CloudApp screen and your CloudApp will be launched at the scheduled start time rather than immediately. For more information, see the Select a Schedule when Launching a CloudApp section in the Self-Service Creating Schedules Guide.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug that was preventing parameter descriptions from showing on the launch modal.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed the join() function in CAT to take an array as the first argument.

New Features

New Resource Types - The CAT language now supports two additional resource types: Credentials and SshKeys can now be incorporated into a CAT file natively, allowing you easily create these secrets on a per CloudApp basis and leverage them within the other servers, arrays, and other assets.

RCL Enhancement - We have added the ability to use variables as actions in Cloud Workflow, making the language even more powerful for interacting with the API. For example, you can now do @cloud.$resource_type.create(...), dynamically calling create based on the value of the variable.

Changes in Behavior

• We have removed the ability for End Users of Self-Service to Delete CloudApps that are in the Failed state. This should prevent instances of users accidentally leaving resources running in Cloud Management. Designers and Admins can still delete those CloudApps, and should always make sure that the deployment is cleaned up in Cloud Management first.

New Features

Introducing CloudApp Permissions - The permissions required to launch and operate a CloudApp in Self-Service are now captured in the CAT itself and can be delegated to users with lower levels of permission. This allows you to build complex CloudApps that can be launched by anyone on your team without worrying about giving them explicit permissions on all the resources in the CAT. Older CloudApps that use the legacy permissioning model are labeled as such in the Catalog for Designers so that they can be updated. Read more about CloudApp permissions here.

Changes in Behavior

• Text inputs now support multi-line entry. Just hit enter or paste in text and the text input will grow as needed.

New Features

User Inteface Enhancment - Introduced a new slideout panel for interactions with large amounts of content (such as launching a CloudApp and viewing a CAT source).

Cloud Workflow Language - The provision() and delete()` functions have been rewritten in Cloud Workflow RCL language. The definitions used for these functions will be publicly documented in the coming weeks and allow you to inspect their behavior or create your own equivalents.

Changes in Behavior

• Improved the auto_terminate behavior so that any resources that fail to be terminated/deleted are skipped and the user is notified, while any resources that can be terminated/deleted, are.
• Bugfix: fixed a bug that prevented users from Terminating a CloudApp that was in the Stopped state.
• Bugfix: fixed a bug that was calling the on_error handler during a cancel rollback.
• Added a timeout to the canceling_operations transition. When a CloudApp is terminated and operations are running, we cancel those operations. There is now a 2-hour timeout for those operations to be canceled, else the operations will be aborted.

Changes in Behavior

• Bugfix: fixed non-working filters in AccountPreference.index call.
• Bugfix: fixed end-date calendar to not show today if it's already passed.
• Bugfix: made the system smarter about using an existing session.
• Bugfix: made the UI remember your column visibility and sorting preferences.

Note: Archived Release Notes are Available Here

New Features

• Added new run action to ScheduledActions resource in the API so that any custom operation can be scheduled.
• Improved the login process so that users are redirected to the correct location when they come to Self-Service by way of a link.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug that prevented End Users from modifying a running CloudApp schedule and end date.
• Fixed a bug that was causing notification emails to be sent for Terminated CloudApps.
• Added ranges as a first class entity type in RCL, providing an easy method to iterate through numerical or string ranges.

Note: Archived Release Notes are Available Here

New Features

• Removed the ScheduledOperation resource from the API. This will be re-implemented by using ScheduledAction with the action name of run and additional metadata.
• New publish modal is available that shows a live preview of the card in the Catalog as you're publishing. You can choose whether to use information from the CAT, from an existing published version, or create your own. Markdown tips are also now embedded in the modal.
• Email notifications from Self-Service are now white labeled using the same settings as the portal. We use the primary background color and the primary logo as a header in your emails.
• CloudApps in card view now load lazily as you scroll down the page - previous search and filtering works just like before.

Changes in Behavior

• Fixed a bug where the terminate operation could sometimes go above 100%.
• Changed the HTTP functions to encode spaces as %20 instead of + so that they will work with AWS services.
• Fixed a bug where failure messages in the UI would not wrap correctly when using Firefox.
• Fixed a bug where the sleep() function would not take duration style arguments.
• Fixed errors in the behavior of the unary - and ! operators.
• Fixed a bug where deleting a CloudApp from the Catalog did not remove it immediately.

Note: Archived Release Notes are Available Here