5.00 Upcoming Release
August 16, 2023AASHTO and the PTF are planning to continue the six-month release cadence, with releases every March and September. You can see the details of any release, whether Full Release or Software Patch, by visiting https://www.aashtowareproject.org, logging in, and navigating to Support>Releases. When you view the details of a release you can find the Release Date, all Call Tickets reported against that release, all TMRs originating from that release, and all TMRs resolved by the release (which you can sort, search, and download).
We hear you – keeping up with the AASHTOWare Project releases takes some work. But we think it is worth it. For the past three and a half years we have been releasing a new Full Release twice a year. Every release is packed with enhancements, bug fixes, technical upgrades, performance, and security improvements. On top of that, we release Software Patches as needed to fix critical issues, sometimes releasing every month. Some agencies can remain current, installing new releases within a month or two, and installing each patch as soon as it becomes available. Other agencies choose to adopt a less aggressive approach, choosing to upgrade to every other Full Release (for example, every Fall, after construction season), and choosing to only install patches that fix bugs they have reported. Like t-shirts, one size does NOT fit all.
We encourage you to review every new release to see how it impacts your agency. It may include TMRs that significantly improve your users’ daily experience. It may include new functionality that is important to your agency. You may find that the release warrants expedited review, testing, and upgrade. Your agency’s End User Designee receives an email announcing every release; consider asking them to forward it to you. Or, if you’re only interested in certain TMRs, consider clicking the “Follow this TMR” button available on all TMRs to receive notifications as the TMR progresses. Note that some TMRs go into multiple releases, Software Patches and Full Releases. Expand the TMR’s “Release Info” section to see a list of releases and click any release to see its status.
The next Full Release, Project 5.00, will be released on 9/22/2023. It already has 113 TMRs in it and there may be additional bug fixes added before we begin to finalize the release.
The eighteen Enhancements include three that will benefit all agencies, regardless of the modules they license:
- APR-15436: Support Attachments on Notification Messages
- APR-18891: Time Out Should Take Into Consideration Multiple Tab Use And Use The Most Recently Used Tab Activity To Determine Log Out
- APR-21132: Provide Sort and Default Value Control for Agency View Dropdowns and Radio Buttons
There are additional TMRs; five for Materials, four for Construction, four for Estimation, and one each for Civil Rights and Labor Management and web-based Data Analytics.
The added Technical Upgrades will benefit all agencies, particularly the following:
- APR-24151 Issue Opening Reports With Supported Browsers
- APR-26141 Update System To Support Modern Browser Time-out Functionality.
We thank the agencies that helped fund some of these TMRs – Connecticut, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, and Ohio.
We don’t have room here to include more about the other TMRs in this release – so head over to the website to learn more @ www.aashtowareproject.org.
Looking further into the future, we are already beginning work on the Project 5.01 and 5.02 releases with 21 Enhancement TMRs selected from the Top 3 TMRs in each category of the 2022 PUG Ballot. We thank the agencies that helped fund some of these TMRs – Minnesota, New York, and Ohio.