11.1

GitLab 11.1 Release

GitLab 11.1 released with Security Dashboards and enhanced code search

GitLab 11.1 released with Security Dashboards, security reports at the pipeline level, advanced code search syntax, merge request redesign, and much more!

In GitLab 11.1 we are shipping increased security visibility with dashboards and views to give you contextual information in the right place at the right time along with better code search, a heap of UX improvements, and a lot more!

Increased visibility for your security team

GitLab is designed for collaboration. Our mission is for everyone to contribute, and specifically we've designed a tool so that Product Management, Engineering, Quality Assurance, Operations, and Security can all collaborate together. It’s why we've built the entire software development and operations lifecycle into a single application. And it’s why we’ve built the Merge Request to be a powerful tool for collaboration.

But sometimes, the Merge Request isn’t the right view for your needs.

MRs are great when you want to see how a discrete change is affecting your app. But what if you want a higher-level view? Sometimes you want visibility into how all current security issues are affecting a branch in aggregate. The new Security Dashboard now gives you this visibility. This lets you make decisions about priority so you can focus remediation efforts on the most important vulnerabilities. Instead of having to collate reports across Merge Requests, now it’s all in one place. We see this as being especially helpful for security operations and engineering. They now have a specific view in GitLab to help them get their job done. Working right from the dashboard, security teams can adjust the criticality weight of vulnerabilities, creating issues to remediate critical items while dismissing others so they don’t repeatedly show up in reports.

Find what you’re looking for faster

Robust code searching capabilities are fundamental to developer productivity. Whether you are a new developer on a project or simply trying to navigate a large code base before adding a new feature, search is the way you become familiar with the key areas you need to understand. While code search has been available for a long time in GitLab, today, we've made it even better. With enhancements to the advanced search syntax, you can now filter by filename, path, and extension, enabling you to find the right files more quickly.

Even more!

In addition to great new security functionality, we’ve also shipped an improved UX with a redesigned Merge Request widget, a Merge Request panel in the Web IDE, redesigned contribution analytics, and more!

Read on to see all features now available in GitLab 11.1.

Join us for an upcoming event 11.1 Release Radar webcast

GitLab MVP badge

MVP This month's Most Valuable Person (MVP) is awarded to Jasper Maes

This release’s MVP is Jasper Maes. Jasper has been and continues to be an integral part of our ongoing effort to upgrade GitLab to Rails 5, with awesome contributions over the last few months.

Thank you, Jasper, for your ongoing contributions to make GitLab better! We’ve sent Jasper some GitLab swag as a thank you, including a hoodie, socks, and a handmade tanuki.

11.1 Key improvements released in GitLab 11.1

Security Dashboard for projects

Security Dashboard for projects

Security professionals are focused on preventing threats that could harm the applications they are responsible for. Even after code has been merged into the stable branch or deployed to production, they need to be able to continually monitor and jump into any problems that could affect security.

In order to make their life easier, GitLab 11.1 introduces the Security Dashboard that reports the latest security status of the default branch for each project. This gives a very accessible view to Security teams that can easily spot if something is wrong and if actions must be taken. The new dashboard can be found in the Project menu of the project’s side navigation. It is an interactive dashboard, so it can be used to dismiss false positives or to create issues to solve existing vulnerabilities.

Security Dashboard for projects

As teams generate large amounts of source code continuously, searching through all of that code can be difficult. Having great tools to manage and, in particular, search through all that source code is critical.

With this release, we are introducing new advanced search syntax options, allowing you to nail down your code search via three more granular filters. You can now filter by filename, file path, and even file extension when searching through repository code, resulting in more targeted search results. These filters are available in both the Web UI and in the API.

For Core, these filters are available at the project-level scope.

For Starter and higher, if you use Elasticsearch with GitLab, the filters are available at the group-level scope and global-level scope additionally.

For GitLab.com, the filters are available at the project-level scope only for all tiers, since Elasticsearch is not yet available on GitLab.com. (We are, however, working on bringing Elasticsearch to GitLab.com.)

File name and path filters for advanced code search

Container Scanning and DAST reports at pipeline level

Container Scanning and DAST reports at pipeline level

Security reports in the merge request are very useful to spot new problems that are introduced by new code, even before the code is merged into master. But since the vulnerabilities can appear even before a merge request is created, sometimes developers need to know the security status for a specific branch in a specific moment.

GitLab 11.1 completes the set of security reports shown in the pipeline view, adding both Container Scanning and DAST. Simply review the Reports tab to access all security information and take the proper actions.

Container Scanning and DAST reports at pipeline level

SAST support for Node.js

SAST support for Node.js

Static Application Security Testing allows you to spot code vulnerabilities as soon as your changes are committed to the repository. With this information available in the merge request, you can fix any detected vulnerabilities, so no problems will land in production, adopting the ‘shift left’ approach automatically.

With GitLab 11.1, we add another great language to the list of supported SAST languages: Node.js. You don’t need to change any setup in your Node.js project. The new language is automatically detected and tested by the sast job.

SAST support for Node.js

Merge request widget info and pipeline sections redesign

Merge request widget info and pipeline sections redesign

In GitLab, merge requests and in particular, the merge request widget, is a powerful feature showing you many integrated and relevant information and functionality. As such, we want to be constantly evaluating the design and ensure that the information presented is as easy to consume as it is useful.

In this release, we’ve tweaked the design of the information and pipeline sections, making them easier to consume by breaking them slightly away from the rest of the widget content.

Merge request widget info and pipeline sections redesign

Groups dropdown in navigation

Groups dropdown in navigation

Switching between groups should be an easy task that doesn’t disrupt your workflow. To make this step easier than ever, we’ve added a dropdown to the Groups link in the top navigation for quick access.

Searching for a group is now directly available behind a lightweight dropdown menu, removing the need to navigate away from your work into a separate view when you’re looking for a hard-to-remember group. Similar to the Projects dropdown, your frequently visited groups are also displayed.

Groups dropdown in navigation

View merge request description in the Web IDE

View merge request description in the Web IDE

When working on a merge request or reviewing a merge request it can help to refer back to the merge request description for why the changes were made and further context.

With this release, instead of having to switch tabs, you can now open the merge request description side by side with the code directly within the Web IDE.

View merge request description in the Web IDE

11.1 Other improvements in GitLab 11.1

Contribution Analytics redesign

Contribution Analytics redesign

We redesigned the Contribution Analytics page for a more readable and consistent user experience. We’ve focused on enabling this page to handle a large number of contributors, so groups are now able to better understand contribution patterns across many users.

Contribution Analytics redesign

GitLab subgroups in JIRA Development panel

GitLab subgroups in JIRA Development panel

Teams who use JIRA with GitLab have taken advantage of the JIRA Development panel integration. This feature allows JIRA users to see GitLab merge requests, branches, and commits right inside the right Development panel of a JIRA issue itself. In particular, you configure the integration by pointing a JIRA instance to a GitLab top-level group. All projects in that group are now visible to that JIRA instance.

With this release, we are extending that visibility so that all projects in that top-level group as well as all subgroups nesting down are also known to JIRA. This gives even more power in your integration, allowing you more flexibility to structure your projects in a hierarchy structure on the GitLab side, without changing how you do issue management on the JIRA side.

GitLab subgroups in JIRA Development panel

Confidential issue quick action

Confidential issue quick action

You can now set an issue to be confidential via a quick action right from the issue comment field. This allows you to type a comment and set an issue to confidential, all without leaving the keyboard.

Thank you Jan Beckmann for your contribution!

Confidential issue quick action

Merge request comments Vue.js refactor

Merge request comments Vue.js refactor

Since 2016, when GitLab decided to adopt Vue.js, we’ve been using it not only to build new features but also to refactor existing ones in order to allow for more interactive user interfaces and increased performance.

In this release, the merge request comments user interface has been rewritten to allow for better control of performance in upcoming months, as well as set the groundwork for creating new features more efficiently and cleanly using Vue.js. (For example, we are already working on batch commenting).

See the ongoing improvements for this refactor beyond what we have already merged for this release.

Merge request comments Vue.js refactor

Merge request locked state in API

Merge request locked state in API

In this release, we added the locked state of a merge request to the GitLab API. This was a previously internal-only state not exposed in the API. A merge request is in this locked state while the source branch is being merged into the target branch.

By allowing access to this state in the API, external systems can no access all merge requests reliably, even merge requests that are in this tranisent locked state.

Initialize README on project creation

Initialize README on project creation

At GitLab, we believe that everybody can contribute. Making the creation of a new GitLab project as straight-forward and intuitive as possible is an essential step towards this goal.

With GitLab 11.1, we introduce a new option to initialize a repository by adding a README when creating a new project. If this option is checked, a project repository is initialized with a default master branch which can be cloned right away. The created README file includes the project name and description.

Initialize README on project creation

Improved Web IDE staging and committing

Improved Web IDE staging and committing

In this release we’ve made it easier to commit your changes in the Web IDE with a pre-filled commit message and the ability to Stage & Commit your changes with one click. When editing a branch you don’t have write permissions to, like the master branch, the Web IDE will default to the Create new branch option, including a prefilled branch name so you can always commit your changes with a single click.

Previously, the commit message was not pre-filled and the commit button would be disabled when opening the Commit panel. This made it hard to commit changes quickly and it was unclear why the Commit button was disabled.

Improved Web IDE staging and committing

Allow SAML assurance level to bypass 2FA

Allow SAML assurance level to bypass 2FA

In many cases SAML providers already support or even enforce two-factor authentification natively via an assurance level property.

With GitLab 11.1, it is now possible to honor the SAML assurance level allowing to disable the two-factor authentification on GitLab side via a new SAML configuration option.

Thank you Roger Rüttimann for your contribution!

Improved Kubernetes Cluster page design

Improved Kubernetes Cluster page design

We have improved the Kubernetes page design to make use of tabs for each option when adding a cluster, minimizing the amount of irrelevant options shown on-screen.

This is the first step in a series of changes that will enhance the design of cluster addition and management, making it easier and more intuitive.

Improved Kubernetes Cluster page design

Manage third party offers

Manage third party offers

With GitLab 10.8 we began to inform users of third party offers they might find valuable in order to advance the development of their projects.

There may be instances were these offers are not applicable or you simply don’t want them shown on the application. With GitLab 11.1 we introduce the ability to control the display of third party offers in the administration area, providing more control over the display of these offers.

Manage third party offers

Omnibus improvements

Omnibus improvements

  • GitLab 11.1 ships with Mattermost 5.0, an open source Slack-alternative whose newest release includes a post interception feature, increased character limit on posts, combined join/leave messages, plus much more.
  • Raspberry Pi packages are now available for Raspbian Stretch.
  • Omnibus has been updated to 5.6.12.
  • Prometheus can now be configured to read and write to remote services.
  • Prometheus exporters have been updated, and some metric names have changed: node_exporter 0.16.0, alertmanager 0.15.0, postgres_exporter 0.4.6, redis_exporter 0.20.2.

Milestone list pages redesign

Milestone list pages redesign

In this iteration, we redesigned the milestone list, including the project list page, the group list page, and the dashboard list page for a more consistent experience.

This is a first step in simplifying the design, making it more delightful and usable, ultimately allowing teams to better manage their milestones.

Milestone list pages redesign

GitLab Flavored Markdown with CommonMark

GitLab Flavored Markdown with CommonMark

GitLab Flavored Markdown (GFM) allows users to simply and quickly format and style text across GitLab, including in issues, merge requests, epics, comments, and other places. Up until now, GitLab was using Redcarpet, an older implementation of Markdown to support GFM. This resulted in a number of issues.

With this release, GFM is now rendered using CommonMark, a modern standard, for new Markdown content. (Existing Markdown content continues to be rendered with Redcarpet. See the docs for additional details.) Besides solving many of the aforementioned issues, CommonMark is more performant. Additionally, GitHub has also standardized on CommonMark. So GitHub users coming to GitLab will now have the same experience with Markdown. Additionally, in the future when repository Markdown files will be rendered in CommonMark, importing GitHub projects to GitLab will render Markdown files the same way.

Thank you blackst0ne for your contribution!

GitLab Flavored Markdown with CommonMark

Autocomplete epics and labels in epics

Autocomplete epics and labels in epics

In this release, we’ve improved autocompletion in epics. In particular, when you are typing in a GitLab Flavored Markdown textbox in an epic (that is, the description or in a comment), you can type the & character, and GitLab will autocomplete search for epics in that group. Similarly, typing ~ will autocomplete search for labels, similar to issues and merge requests already.

Autocomplete epics and labels in epics

Issue board configuration API

Issue board configuration API

We previously released a feature called Configurable issue boards in GitLab 10.2, allowing teams to save a configuration issue scope, per issue board. This feature is now available via the GitLab API.

This allows teams to create their own custom and/or even automated workflows. For example, if you wanted to re-use the same issue board each iteration to represent your team’s workflow, you can now change the configuration’s milestone via the API, and have that be automated through an external script run in between iterations.

Transfer projects between namespaces via API

Transfer projects between namespaces via API

In the project settings, Owners can transfer an existing project into another namespace. This allows for flexible organization of projects within groups and personal userspaces.

With this release, we add access to this settings via our project API, allowing you to bulk-move many repositories in one go.

Thank you Aram Visser for your contribution!

Improved user experience on SSH key configuration

Improved user experience on SSH key configuration

Using GitLab, anyone should be able to contribute and push to projects without a daunting learning curve. With this ideal, we found that configuring SSH, a core requirement to start contributing, remains a hard thing to do.

With this release, we improve the user experience of and documentation for our SSH Keys user setting.

Improved user experience on SSH key configuration

GitLab is only as strong as its community, and nothing energizes us more than empowering new contributors!

With this release, we make it easier for GitLab Core and GitLab.com users to find our GitLab contribution page with a handy link, available right away from your user profile menu.

'Contribute to GitLab' link

New HEAD method in File API

New HEAD method in File API

Our repository files API allows CRUD (create, read, update and delete) operations on files stored within your GitLab projects.

With GitLab 11.1, we add support for the HEAD HTTP method to our files API that allows to just read file metadata. This request could be used to check for a file size before deciding to download, for example.

Thank you Ahmet Demir for your contribution!

Application Metrics now available in Operations menu

Application Metrics now available in Operations menu

Viewing your application’s performance metrics is now easier and quicker than before, with the addition of Metrics to the Operations menu. Clicking on Metrics will directly open the performance dashboard for your production environment, if you have one, as well as provide an easy drop down to change to other environments as desired.

Previously users had to navigate to the Environments menu, find the desired environment, and then select Monitoring button. Switching to another environment required going back through this process. With GitLab 11.1, your production metrics now are just one click away!

Application Metrics now available in Operations menu

Store user ID in OpenID Connect sub claim

Store user ID in OpenID Connect sub claim

GitLab can be used as an OpenID Connect (OIDC) identity provider to sign into external services. This layer is built on top of OAuth 2.0.

In previous version, we were storing the sub claim of OIDC based on a hashed version of the GitLab user ID. This could lead to a potentially unstable API as the obfuscation is tied to GitLab specific logic. With GitLab 11.1, we are directly storing the user ID in sub, following the OIDC specification. To allow migration, the previous value is still available in the sub_legacy claim.

GitLab Runner 11.1

GitLab Runner 11.1

We’re also releasing GitLab Runner 11.1 today! GitLab Runner is the open source project that is used to run your CI/CD jobs and send the results back to GitLab.

Most interesting changes in this release include:

List of all changes can be found in GitLab Runner’s CHANGELOG.

Deprecations Deprecations

The complete list of all features that are currently deprecated can be viewed in the GitLab documentation. To be notified of upcoming breaking changes, subscribe to our Breaking Changes RSS feed.

Removals and breaking changes Removals and breaking changes

The complete list of all removed features can be viewed in the GitLab documentation. To be notified of upcoming breaking changes, subscribe to our Breaking Changes RSS feed.

Upgrade barometer Upgrade barometer

You can upgrade to GitLab 11.1 from 11.0 without any downtime. See the documentation on downtimeless upgrades.

For this release we have migrations, post-deploy migrations, and to help with a possible larger migration we have introduced one background migration.

When we upgraded our own GitLab.com instance, migrations took approximately 30 seconds and post-deploy migrations amounted to a total of around 1 minute.

GitLab Geo users, please consult the documentation on upgrading Geo.

Changelog Changelog

Please check out the changelog to see all the named changes:

Installing Installing

If you are setting up a new GitLab installation please see the download GitLab page.

Updating Updating

Check out our update page.

Questions? Questions?

We'd love to hear your thoughts! Visit the GitLab Forum and let us know if you have questions about the release.

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