[rt-announce] RT 4.2.0rc1 released

[Alex Vandiver]

We're extremely excited to announce the availability of RT 4.2.0rc1 -
the first release candidate for the next major version of RT.

We would be thrilled to hear your experiences installing or upgrading to
this release; the more feedback we get, the sooner the official release
of RT 4.2.0 can occur.  Please be sure to review the upgrading
documentation available in docs/UPGRADING-4.2, as there are a number
of backward-incompatible changes that come along with the new
version number.  Upgrading documentation is also available here:
http://www.bestpractical.com/docs/rt/4.2.0/UPGRADING-4.2.html

http://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/devel/rt-4.2.0rc1.tar.gz
http://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/devel/rt-4.2.0rc1.tar.gz.asc

3e82778fa3f820dd87c8c60e174aec5ce0fc643f  rt-4.2.0rc1.tar.gz
4a8aac0a0d65fe9db94d89de0d56dd44ee4cbc1d  rt-4.2.0rc1.tar.gz.asc

A partial list of the new features in RT 4.2.0 is included below.  Many
of the new features will also be described and demoed in a series of
blog posts on http://blog.bestpractical.com/ in the coming weeks.

 - Alex Vandiver, for Best Practical


  * Much improved reporting via search result charting
      - Multiple group by and statistic calculations in a table
      - Time statistics such as average, minimum, and maximum durations
        between Created and Resolved, Created and Started, Started and
        Resolved, and more.
      - More robust layout of charts

  * Increased performance for searches and ticket pages
      - Faster searches on all databases (especially Pg)
      - Ticket pages load quicker
      - Menus load before the rest of the page is loaded
      - History is loaded asynchronously
      - Faster serving of static assets

  * Scrips per queue
      - Apply scrips globally or ad-hoc to individual queues, a la custom
        fields
      - Less duplication of scrips and/or need for empty templates

  * Custom field groupings
      - Display CFs in configurable groupings (boxes) on the ticket
        display/edit pages
      - Includes arbitrary grouping names as well as standard ticket
        groupings (Basics, Dates, People, Links, etc.)

  * User summary pages

      - Display information about users such as tickets, history, groups,
        etc.
      - An extended "More about requestors" page for any user
      - Easy to get to via links and user search

  * HTML templates enabled by default for new installs, available for
    upgrades too

  * History improvements
      - Rich text/HTML messages are preferred for display by default
      - Images are inlined with text in ticket history display instead of
        presented at bottom
      - Clickable users, tickets, articles, and other items

  * Many interface improvements, such as:
      - Per-user preferences for the dashboards which appear in the Home
        menu
      - Floating page menu for quicker access to ticket actions, subpages,
        etc.
      - Autocomplete for ticket links, including when merging
      - Autocomplete available to self service users
      - Improved CF and links display in search results
      - Sticky simple search for quick search refinements
      - Attachments on reply can no longer be mixed up when replying to
        multiple tickets at once
      - ReassignTicket right to assign tickets without stealing first;
        useful for managers

  * S/MIME support integrated with GnuPG support
      - Decrypt and verify incoming GPG and SMIME messages
      - Send all outgoing messages as either GPG or SMIME

  * Migration tools
      - Migrate from one database type to another (MySQL, Pg, Oracle)
      - Merge multiple RT instances together

  * Thousands of bug fixes; nearly 2000 commits totalling more than
    250,000 lines of code changed.