Yesterday, the team at Gitlab released GitLab 11.7, an application for the DevOps lifecycle that helps the developer teams work together efficiently to secure their code. GitLab 11.7 comes with features like multi-level child epics, API integration with Kubernetes, cross-project pipeline and more.
What’s new in GitLab 11.7
Managing releases with GitLab 11.7
This version of GitLab eliminates the need for manual collection of source code, build output, or metadata associated with a released version of the source code. GitLab 11.7 comes with releases in GitLab Core which helps users to have release snapshots that include the source code and related artifacts.
Multi-level child epics for work breakdown structures
This release comes with multi-level child epics in GitLab portfolio management which allow users to create multi-level work breakdown structures. It also helps in managing complex projects and work plans. This structure builds a direct connection between planning and actionable issues. Users can now have an epic containing both issues and epics.
Streamlining JavaScript development with NPM registries
This release also delivers NPM registries in GitLab Premium that provides a standard and secure way to share and version control NPM packages across projects. Users can then share a package-naming convention for utilizing libraries in any Node.js project and NPM.
Remediating vulnerabilities
GitLab 11.7 helps users to remediate vulnerabilities in the apps and suggest a solution for Node.js projects managed with Yarn. Users can download a patch file, and apply it to their repo using the git apply command. They can then push changes back to their repository and the security dashboard will then confirm if the vulnerability is gone. This process is easy and reduces the time required to deploy a solution.
API integration with Kubernetes
This release comes with API support to Kubernetes integration. All the actions that are available in the GUI currently, such as listing, adding, and deleting a Kubernetes cluster are now accessible with the help of the API. Developers can use this feature to fold in cluster creation as part of their workflow.
Cross-project pipeline
With this release, it is now possible to expand upstream or downstream cross-project pipelines from the pipeline view. Users can view the pipelines across projects.
Search filter box for issue board navigation
This release comes with a search filter that makes navigation much easier. Users can simply type a few characters in the search filter box to narrow down to the issue board they are interested in.
Project list redesign
Project list UI is redesigned in GitLab 11.7 and mainly focuses on readability and summary of the project’s activity.
Import issues CSV
This release makes transitions easier. Users can now import issues into GitLab while managing their existing work. This feature works with Jira or any other issue tracking system that can generate a CSV export.
Support catch-all email mailboxes
This release supports sub-addressing and catch-all email mailboxes with a new email format that allows more email servers to be used with GitLab, including Microsoft Exchange and Google Groups.
Include CI/CD files from other projects and templates
With this release, users can now include their snippets of configuration from other projects and predefined templates. This release also includes snippets for specific jobs, like sast or dependency_scanning, so users can use them instead of copying and pasting the current definition.
GitLab Runner 11.7
The team at GitLab also released GitLab Runner 11.7 yesterday. It is an open source project that is used to run CI/CD jobs and send the results back to GitLab.
Major improvements
- In GitLab 11.7, the performance of viewing merge requests has been improved by caching syntax highlighted discussion diffs.
- Push performance has been improved by skipping pre-commit validations that have passed on other branches.
- Redundant counts in snippets search have been removed.
- This release comes with Mattermost 5.6, an open source Slack-alternative that includes interactive message dialogs, new admin tools, Ukrainian language support, etc.
Users are generally happy with GitLab 11.7 release. One of the users who has been using GitLab for quite some time now is waiting for MR[0]. They commented on Hacker News, “I’m impatiently waiting for this MR [0] that will allow dependant containers to also talk to each other. It’s the last missing piece for my ideal CI setup.” To which, GitLab’s product manager for Verify (CI) replied, “Thanks for bringing this up I hadn’t seen your contribution! I think this is a great idea. I know the technical team has been overwhelmed with community contributions as of late – which is a good problem to have but one that we’re still solving. I’m going to try and shepherd this one along myself.”
Some users think if GitLab can pull off the npm registry well, then this might prove to be the beginning of a universal package management server built into Gitlab. One of the comments reads, “Gitlab API is amazingly simple and flexible, can be used efficiently from the terminal to list CI jobs, your issues, edit them.”
Users are also comparing GitLab with GitHub, where some users are supporting GitHub. One user commented, “GitLab’s current homepage hides their actual site (the repositories) and makes it hard as a developer to actually get started compared to Github.” Another user commented, “We’ve started using Gitlab where I work and it’s so much better than GitHub.”
Users are also facing issues with memory optimization. One of the comments reads, “I like GitLab but noticed my Docker container running it is steadily requiring more memory to run smoothly. It’s sitting at 12GB right now, which is a little too high for my taste. I wish there were ways to reduce this.”
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