What’s new

This section provides a summary of the notable changes in Swarm for the 2023.1 release. Full details are available in the distribution's RELNOTES.txt file.

Major new functionality

Blocking Approval panel in the Swarm Review page (preview)

From Helix Swarm 2023.1, we have introduced a Blocking Approval panel in the Swarm Review page (preview). This panel displays a summary of all the pending actions that are preventing a review from being approved.

The Blocking Approval panel provides information about any pending required individual or group reviewers, any tests that are failing or are in progress, pending moderator votes, and pending minimum up votes. Depending on the configuration, this panel can also display if any pending comment tasks are blocking the review. For more information, see Blocking Approval.

To share your feedback about the Blocking Approval panel, see Getting help.

Limit maximum number of files for a review

You can now set a maximum file limit when creating or updating a review. This feature is useful for large commits like branching or merging of large changelists that are too big to review. For more information, see Maximum files limit.

Important information

PHP version support changed for Swarm 2022.1

We have removed support for PHP 7.0 and 7.1 for Swarm 2022.1. 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 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.

Helix Core Server 2020.1 stream spec file permissions change

Helix Core Server 2020.1 and later, permissions have changed for viewing and editing stream spec files in Swarm. To view and edit stream spec files in Swarm, the Swarm user must have admin permissions for the entire depot //...

Trigger script updated for Swarm 2020.1

The swarm.shelvedel shelve-del trigger script has been updated in Swarm 2020.1, the trigger script must be updated in the Helix Core Server trigger table or added if it does not already exist, see Update the Helix Core Server triggers table to run the trigger script.

Custom module support in Swarm 2020.1 and later

The Zend 3 Framework project has been forked to an open source project called Laminas, see https://getlaminas.org/about/. Swarm 2020.1 now uses the Laminas framework, this is part of our commitment to move away from using versions of platforms that have reached End-of-Life (EOL).

If you have existing custom Swarm modules created for Swarm 2019.3 or earlier, you must update them to use the Laminas framework. For instructions on updating your Zend custom modules to Laminas, see Migrate existing custom modules to the Laminas framework.

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.

Workflow feature support changed for Swarm 2019.2

The Swarm workflow feature is enabled by default. If you are upgrading from an earlier version you will need to update your triggers, see Upgrading Swarm.

PHP and Apache version support changed for Swarm version 2019.1

We have removed support for versions of PHP older than 7.0 in Swarm 2019.1. As a result of this change, support for Apache 2.2 has also been removed. This is part of our commitment to move away from using versions of platforms that have reached End-of-Life (EOL).

Ensure that you can install a supported version of PHP and Apache before upgrading to Swarm 2019.1. For information on versions of PHP and Apache supported by Swarm, see PHP and Apache web server.

P4PHP 2019.1 or later required for Swarm 2019.1 and later

The latest version of P4PHP is included in the Swarm package, OVA, and tarball installations.

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.

Review page (preview)

Swarm 2022.2: Some review page features are not yet supported by the new review page preview. This will be addressed in a later release of Swarm. In the meantime, if you need to use any of the unsupported features, switch back to the original Swarm review page with the Preview toggle. Help for the original Swarm review page is available in the Swarm 2021.2 documentation, see Review display.

The following features are currently not supported in the review page preview UI:

Comments:

Comment likes: you cannot add a like to a comment.

Files tab:

Show full context: the Show full context: button is not available.
File view controls: the Show whitespace, Inline, and Side-by-side view settings are not sticky and are reset on a page reload
Show whitespace: is not showing CRLF line endings or tabs correctly
3D model files: 3D model files are not displayed.

Other features:

Terminating list of files/file if size is too large: we do not limit how many files we display.

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.

Tip

Individual branch views display the commits correctly.

Task Stream Reviews

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