Can someone from Atlassian please help me understand how to actually keep up to date with the different versions of Sourcetree for Windows and to see whether a reported bug has been fixed in a certain version? Currently the web pages gives a very confused message about this. First some background: My company recently moved to Git and opted for Sourcetree as the GUI tool. We have roughly 170 people using the application, so when we rolled it out several issues were found and reported to me for coordination. I try to ensure that everything has been reported to Atlassian and try to keep track of new releases in order to see when issues has been fixed so I can test and then recommend my users to upgrade. I really want to help make Sourcetree better, but currently you are making this very hard for me: * The download link on https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ is not pointing to the latest version. Currently it is pointing to 3.0.12 but I know for a fact that 3.0.15 has been released since some of our users have received it via the automatic update. The download link for the enterprise version is even older, currently it is at 3.0.8. I get that you may want to use a slow roll-out for new releases via the automatic update, but since there are so many issues with the current versions I must be able to get hold of the latest one in a controlled manner. * The download archive on https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/download-archives is very outdated and does not seem to be maintained at all. * Release notes are very hard to find and cannot be matched to reported issues. The only release notes links I can find on the web pages are on the download archive, which only contains very old versions. By guessing what the URL ought to be I managed to get hold of it for 3.0.15, but that is not very convenient. The issue id used in the release notes use the SRCTREE prefix, but is referring to an internal Jira rather than the one I can publicly access. This makes it impossible to track the status of reported bugs in the SRCTREEWIN project. * In general the publicly accessible Jira projects would benefit from a cleanup and must follow what is actually released better. The release handling in SRCTREEWIN lags behind, and all releases still have status Unreleased there. Some have dates, some have not. It is also very confusing that there are three different projects, SRCTREE, SRCTREEWIN and SRCTREEDEV. The activity from Atlassian staff also needs to improve in these projects, particularly if I at-mention a user to provide new information or ask a question. * Are new releases announced somewhere? I have not managed to find anything, and the blog on https://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/ has not been updated since August 2018. * How do I know whether Atlassian has picked up a problem when reporting it on the community forum? Do I have to create an SRCTREEWIN issue just to make sure?

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How to report/track bugs and find releases

Magnus Björklund

Can someone from Atlassian please help me understand how to actually keep up to date with the different versions of Sourcetree for Windows and to see whether a reported bug has been fixed in a certain version? Currently the web pages gives a very confused message about this.

First some background: My company recently moved to Git and opted for Sourcetree as the GUI tool. We have roughly 170 people using the application, so when we rolled it out several issues were found and reported to me for coordination. I try to ensure that everything has been reported to Atlassian and try to keep track of new releases in order to see when issues has been fixed so I can test and then recommend my users to upgrade. I really want to help make Sourcetree better, but currently you are making this very hard for me:

The download link on https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/ is not pointing to the latest version. Currently it is pointing to 3.0.12 but I know for a fact that 3.0.15 has been released since some of our users have received it via the automatic update. The download link for the enterprise version is even older, currently it is at 3.0.8. I get that you may want to use a slow roll-out for new releases via the automatic update, but since there are so many issues with the current versions I must be able to get hold of the latest one in a controlled manner.
The download archive on https://www.sourcetreeapp.com/download-archives is very outdated and does not seem to be maintained at all.
Release notes are very hard to find and cannot be matched to reported issues. The only release notes links I can find on the web pages are on the download archive, which only contains very old versions. By guessing what the URL ought to be I managed to get hold of it for 3.0.15, but that is not very convenient. The issue id used in the release notes use the SRCTREE prefix, but is referring to an internal Jira rather than the one I can publicly access. This makes it impossible to track the status of reported bugs in the SRCTREEWIN project.
In general the publicly accessible Jira projects would benefit from a cleanup and must follow what is actually released better. The release handling in SRCTREEWIN lags behind, and all releases still have status Unreleased there. Some have dates, some have not. It is also very confusing that there are three different projects, SRCTREE, SRCTREEWIN and SRCTREEDEV. The activity from Atlassian staff also needs to improve in these projects, particularly if I at-mention a user to provide new information or ask a question.
Are new releases announced somewhere? I have not managed to find anything, and the blog on https://blog.sourcetreeapp.com/ has not been updated since August 2018.
How do I know whether Atlassian has picked up a problem when reporting it on the community forum? Do I have to create an SRCTREEWIN issue just to make sure?

Accepted answers

bgannin

Hi Magnus,

Thank you for reaching out and expressing your concerns. We really appreciate passionate users such as yourself. We are honored that millions trust us to manage their repositories and as a small team we do our best to balance delivering Sourcetree with responding to users here on Community and in tickets. We are continually working to make more resources available and improve all aspects - not just the app itself - but can certainly do better as you highlighted.

A few years ago we published a blog post that detailed our general release process and how the team approaches shipping Sourcetree to everyone. It’s largely a waterfall from alpha → beta → GA with a progressive rollout based on stated schedules; once we complete rollout then we move it to the front page. During this year’s holiday break we missed the window when it came to coordinating with the web team to post the 3.0.15 GA release and that meant it took longer than it normally does. We're sorry for the inconvenience and everything is up to date now.

When we introduced an Enterprise distribution for the Windows app, it was with the guarantee that while any version is available for download immediately, we certify that a build is reliable enough for IT to use by posting an article in the Enterprise collection. That’s why the version there might be older than what is available for download on the front page or via auto-update.

One suggestion would be to have your team members utilize the Enterprise distribution (MSI) since it disables auto-updates. This would mean in your corporate environment it can be centrally managed and users don’t end up with mismatches that create support headaches. You can subscribe to updates for that collection to know when there’s an IT recommended release and it includes the list of changes and notes directly in the article.

Typically we make release notes accessible within the app from the Help menu and point directly to that release’s section when opened. I’ve passed the request along to the web team for them to consider how it might be incorporated into the front page or elsewhere.

You raise many fair points and the logical question is - what are we going to do about them? I can’t provide an exact timeline but throughout the year we plan to:

automate updating download URLs on the front page (coordinating with web team)
automate version and release additions to projects in Jira (coordinating with admins)
automate ticket linking in release notes and ensure they are to public ones only
remove unusable references to internal tickets or projects from release notes
review older/out of date tickets and update appropriately (single pass)
review top tickets and update appropriately (filter with weekly scheduled session)
review recent ticket and update appropriately (filter with weekly scheduled session)
continue our focus on Atlassian’s security policy to ensure a safe experience

We know how frustrating and unfortunate it is to encounter an issue or oddity, especially with an app you use on a regular basis, and we apologize for those you and your team hit.

If you have a troubleshooting question or a discussion topic then Community is your one stop shop. We use it ourselves to post informative articles such as this one on debugging Sourcetree. We do our best to review and respond in all locations (Jira, Community, social media) but for prioritization, scheduling, and visibility for others to comment and vote the Jira projects (SRCTREE for Mac, SRCTREEWIN for Windows) are our source of truth and we’re going to make that more robust and clear going forward.

Cheers,

Brian Ganninger
Principal Developer, Sourcetree

All comments

bgannin

Hi Magnus,

You raise many fair points and the logical question is - what are we going to do about them? I can’t provide an exact timeline but throughout the year we plan to:

automate updating download URLs on the front page (coordinating with web team)
automate version and release additions to projects in Jira (coordinating with admins)
automate ticket linking in release notes and ensure they are to public ones only
remove unusable references to internal tickets or projects from release notes
review older/out of date tickets and update appropriately (single pass)
review top tickets and update appropriately (filter with weekly scheduled session)
review recent ticket and update appropriately (filter with weekly scheduled session)
continue our focus on Atlassian’s security policy to ensure a safe experience

We know how frustrating and unfortunate it is to encounter an issue or oddity, especially with an app you use on a regular basis, and we apologize for those you and your team hit.

Cheers,

Brian Ganninger
Principal Developer, Sourcetree

bgannin

To clarify a bit: "filter with weekly scheduled session"

We'll create appropriate Jira filters for each type and review each filter's results for triage and commenting at least once per week with a scheduled session on our team's calendar.

Magnus Björklund

Thank you @bgannin for clarifying this, I really appreciate your thorough and honest answer.

While at it I can also report that the button "Download free for Windows" in the top header of the Enterprise web page has not been updated to 3.0.15, but the button at the end of that same page has.

bgannin

We're shipping 3.0.17 shortly, I'll make sure it's updated everywhere. Thank you for the note.