What’s new

This section provides a summary of the notable changes in Swarm for the 2024.1 release. Full details are available in the distribution's RELNOTES.txt file.

Major new functionality

To share your feedback about Swarm, see Getting help.

Added support for Helix Authentication Service as an SSO provider

Swarm now supports Helix Authentication Service (HAS) as a Single Sign-On (SSO) provider. This helps to simplify configuration and create a more robust SSO solution. If your Helix Core Server is configured to use HAS, Swarm will automatically authenticate with the Helix Core Server using HAS. When HAS is configured, the option to log in using SSO is displayed on the Swarm login page. See Log in with SSO.

Minor new functionality

Improved performance of the Swarm review page

Performance of the Manage reviewers dialog when handling large sets of users and groups is improved. See Edit reviewers.

Improved performance of My Dashboard

Performance of My Dashboard has been improved when loading the page. See My Dashboard.

Added support for Helix Core Server 2023.2

Swarm now supports Helix Core Server 2023.2. See Helix Core Server requirements.

Added support for P4PHP 2023.2

Swarm now supports P4PHP 2023.2 for the Swarm package and tarball installations. See Required PHP extensions.

Important information

Upcoming changes to SSO configuration

Swarm now supports Helix Authentication Service (HAS) as a Single Sign-On (SSO) provider. This helps to simplify configuration and create a more robust SSO solution. The SAML configuration will be removed from Swarm in a later release.

PHP 7.X versions will no longer be supported in Swarm 2024 release

Swarm will drop support for PHP 7.X in 2024. This is part of our commitment to move away from using versions of platforms that have reached End-of-Life (EOL).

PHP version 8.X addresses important security issues and helps improve Swarm's performance. You can upgrade to PHP 8.x when you upgrade Swarm.

Project level test and deploy code features to be deprecated in a later Swarm release

The project level test and deploy code features will be deprecated in a later Swarm release. We recommend you use test integration to automatically deploy code within a review. For more information, see Add a test.

Swarm 2022.3 or later only works with Helix Core Visual Client (P4V) 2021.3 or later

When upgrading to Helix Swarm 2022.3 or later, ensure that you upgrade Helix Core Visual Client (P4V) to 2021.3 or later.

The emulate_ip_protections configurable now defaults to false

From Swarm 2022.2, the default setting of the emulate_ip_protections configurable in the SWARM_ROOT/data/config.php file is now set to false. If you are upgrading Swarm and have emulate_ip_protections set to true, the upgrade will not change your setting.

API version updated to v11 for Swarm 2022.1

For Swarm 2022.1, we introduced a new set of v11 APIs. These refine and extend the v10 APIs, and further standardize the endpoint and response pattern. The v10 APIs will continue to be available for some time to come

• Any improvements made in the migration to v11 will not be backported to v9 or v10.
• New API endpoints will be created as v11 and will not be backported to v9 or v10.

Swarm no longer supports Microsoft Internet Explorer

Swarm 2022.1 and later no longer supports Microsoft Internet Explorer. This is part of our commitment to move away from using platforms that have reached End-of-Life (EOL).

Swarm no longer supports CentOS 8

Swarm 2022.1 and later no longer supports Swarm installation on CentOS 8. This is part of our commitment to move away from using versions of platforms that have reached End-of-Life (EOL).

Swarm no longer supports Ubuntu 16.04

Swarm 2021.1 and later no longer supports Swarm installation on Ubuntu 16.04. This is part of our commitment to focus on supported technology platforms.

Swarm no longer supports CentOS 6 and RHEL 6

Swarm 2020.2 does not support Swarm installation on CentOS 6 and RHEL 6. This is part of our commitment to focus on supported technology platforms.

Upgrading from Swarm 2019.1 and earlier

Swarm 2019.2 introduced a Redis in-memory cache to improve performance and reduce the load on the Helix Core Server. This replaces the file-based cache that was previously used by Swarm.

On Swarm systems with a large number of users, groups, and projects, the initial population of this cache can take some time. If you have a large Swarm system you should read through the Redis server connection and configuration options before installing or upgrading Swarm, see Redis server.

Known limitations

After an upgrade to Swarm 2022.3, you may see partial text labels or unexpected page artifacts

After an upgrade to Swarm 2022.3, if you see partial text labels or unexpected page artifacts, clear your web browser cache and refresh Swarm in your web browser.

No activity event is created when a project setting is updated

When a project setting is updated, Swarm does not create an activity.

Issue with userids containing a / character

Issue: Logging in to Swarm 2020.2 or earlier with a userid that contains a forward slash (/) character results in a spinner for the user icon that does not go away.

Fix: This is fixed for new installations of Swarm 2021.1 and later, but is not fixed if you upgrade from an earlier version of Swarm. To fix this issue when you upgrade from Swarm 2020.2 or earlier, add AllowEncodedSlashes NoDecode to the VirtualHost block of your /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/perforce-swarm-site.conf file. For more information about the VirtualHost block, see Apache configuration.

Swarm shelvedel trigger can fail for a specific Windows use case

The Swarm shelvedel trigger will fail in the following specific situation:

When the Helix Core Server is hosted on Windows and a user runs the shelf delete command while in the root of one of their local drives.

For example, c:\p4 -u bruno -c my_shelf shelve -d -c 9

Unsupported characters in user names and group names in Swarm 2019.2 and later

Swarm does not support the following characters in user names and group names: :@{}()

Swarm support for the "Private editing of streams" feature in Helix Core Server 2019.1 and later

Supported: stream specs can be edited in your workspace using the Private editing of streams feature and they are displayed in reviews.

Not supported: Swarm cannot commit locked stream specs.

Multiple Helix Core Server instances on a single Swarm instance

Issue: Swarm will lose connection to all of the Helix Core Servers if you edit the base_url configurable value in the environment block of <swarm_root>/data/config.php. This will stop your system working.

Fix: Remove the base_url configurable from the environment block of <swarm_root>/data/config.php.

Global Dashboard does not support Single Sign-On (Helix Authentication Service)

Issue: If Helix Authentication Service is enabled for Swarm and the Try to login to all available servers with these credentials checkbox or the All available servers option is selected in a login dialog, Swarm will not try to log in to any of the other Helix Core Server instances that are configured for Helix Authentication Service.

Workaround: Log in to them individually using the instance Log in button in the sidebar or by including the server instance name in the URL, for example: https://swarm.company.com/serverA.

Project Commits tab can fail to show some Helix Core Server commits in the top level view

The Project Commits tab top level client view is made up of all of the branches of the project.

 

For example, Project Alpha:

 

Branch: QA:

//depot/alpha/dev/QA/...

 

Branch: Dev :

//depot/alpha/dev/...

-//depot/alpha/dev/QA/...

 

The project commits tab view is generated by processing the branches in the order that they were created in and from top to bottom for the paths in each of those branches.

For the project Alpha example above:

The first path includes all of the directories and files under //depot/alpha/dev/QA/ in the project commits tab top level view.

The second path includes all of the directories and files under //depot/alpha/dev/ in the project commits tab top level view.

The third path excludes all of the directories and files in //depot/alpha/dev/QA/ from the project commits tab top level view.

 

Result: commits made to //depot/alpha/dev/QA/ that should be shown for the QA branch are not displayed in the Project Commits tab top level view.

 

When you have a simple branch structure this can be avoided by considering this issue when you create your branches. In the example above, creating the Dev branch first and then creating the QA branch avoids the problem because//depot/alpha/dev/QA/ is not excluded from the Project Commits tab top level view.

Task Stream Reviews

Pre-commit reviews in a task stream are not yet supported.