Changing Product Templates
In Spira v6.0 we introduced the idea of reusable product templates that allowed multiple products to use the same template. This meant that you could have a standard set of priorities, types, statuses, workflows, and custom properties that were used by multiple products, dramatically simplifying maintenance for large installations. However one limitation in v6.0 was the fact that once you had a created a product with a specific template, you could not subsequently change that product's template.
With Spira v6.2.1 we have now added the ability to take an existing product and change its template after the fact. This lets you consolidate your existing products and templates to take advantage of the new product template feature. To change a product's template, you simply choose the name of the new template from the dropdown list in Administration:
Now changing a product template means that Spira needs to map the various fields used in the product to the new template. If you don't have the same names for types, statuses, priorities, and custom properties, it will not necessarily know how to map the data over. In such cases it will either blank out the field (if optional) or set to default value (if required). Therefore the system will warn you before making the change if it detects cases where it will need to change a value to either blank or a default value:
As a further safeguard, before you can complete the operation, you need to type in the full name of the product to ensure you mean to make the change. Once you click Change, the system runs the template change process in the background:
Once it completes, your product will now be using the new template.
Data Synchronization Improvements
With the updates to the administration navigation and layout in Spira 6.0, we separated out the functionality related to system administration and product administration. However one awkward side effect was that the main data synchronization page was a mixture of system and product-level functionality, with no easy way to navigate to the Product Mappings configuration for different products without having to leave administration, choose a different product and then come back.
With version 6.2.1 we have improved this user experience:
You can now see in the drop-down list, which products are using the different plugins (for example some products may use Jira and others use Azure DevOps / TFS), and you can navigate to the product mappings for any product directly from this screen.
Where Can I Learn More
In addition to these two main enhancements, there are numerous other smaller enhancements and bug fixes. The full list is available in the Spira 6.2.1 Release Notes.
For more information specifically on how the product template changing feature works, please refer to this help topic - Changing Product Templates.
How Do I Get the New Version?
For on-premise / download customers, you can get the latest version right away by going to the secure Customer Area of our website.
For cloud customers, you have already been updated to v6.2.1.0 last weekend and there will a second update this coming weekend to v6.2.1.1 to fix a minor usability issue we found with artifact attachments
Webinar Recording
We also have a webinar that discusses the new features in v6.2 and v6.2.1: