4.2.0

Released: 24 April 2015

This version of uPortal is a general audience (GA) release of the next uPortal minor version.  It provides several new and exciting features that are not in the 4.1.x line, as well as all the maintenance updates – primarily bug & security fixes – that are included in the 4.1.x line.  This release includes some modest changes to default configuration settings.  (See Developer Notes below.)  In upgrading to uPortal 4.2 from version 4.1, you are free to continue with the configurations you have;  but you should review these changes and strongly consider making them locally.  These changes offer better alignment with planned future enhancements.

The following enhancements or bug fixes are especially noteworthy.

• Hover chrome, which provides access to chrome-based functions (e.g. Minimize, Maximize, Remove, etc.) for portlets with showChrome=false

• Numerous enhancements and fixes to uPortal's Multi-Tenancy features

• The Portlet Manager UI has been greatly improved & simplified

• A client-side session timeout warning message, with the option to continue the session, has been added

• A 6-column layout option has been added;  works gorgeously with small portlets like the App Launcher

• The Portlet Marketplace UI has been greatly improved & simplified

• Added MAINTENANCE portlet lifecycle state (accessible from the Portlet Manager), which displays a user-friendly message when a portlet is out-of-service

• Added support for the Experience ("Tin Can") API

• Added Transient Layout Node support for unauthenticated (guest) users;  this enhancement means that guest users can access – provided they have the proper permissions -- portlets that are not on the guest layout

Release announcement as posted on uportal-user@ email list and as posted on uportal-dev@ email list.

Maven Project Site: (insert)

• Requires Servlet API 3.0 to run. Tomcat 7.0 supports this version.  Choose the most recent Tomcat 7. Not compatible with Tomcat 8.

• Requires Java 7 ("JDK 1.7") or Java 8 ("JDK 1.8").  

  • Note: Some portlets may not build using Java 8 yet, but this does not affect using those portlets as overlayed portlets within uPortal. Also the portlets are compiled with a target of Java 7 and should run on Java 8.

• Data export and import is required when upgrading from uPortal 4.0.x or earlier.  (It's also worth considering if you're upgrading from uPortal 4.1.x, depending on how much is changing.)

• The default PAGS implementation has been switched from XML file-based (legacy) to database-based (JPA);  the legacy configuration still works, but you may want to make the switch (some future administrative tools may require the JPA strategy);  there is a Groovy script for migrating

• The BROWSE permission now exclusively governs whether a portlet is available to a user in the Customize Gallery, Search results, and the /api/portletList API (used by Customize Gallery).  The behavior of /api/portletList, moreover, has changed to include portlets with no categories.  This change will require uPortal 4.1 and prior to review their data entities to add BROWSE permissions when migrating portlet definitions to uPortal 4.2.0.  Without the BROWSE permission, users will not see portlets in these interfaces.

• The Universality theme has been retired;  Respondr is now the only theme for non-mobile devices

(Note that this is only as good as the affects-version metadata on JIRA issues).