Release Notes

New Features

Approval Status Overview Gadget

• New project-scoped dashboard gadget showing a summary of issue approval statuses across a project
• Displays counts and breakdowns by overall status: Awaiting Decisions, Approval Passed, Approval Failed
• Optional grouping by issue type for detailed visibility
• Configurable filters: project, Jira workflow status, include/exclude issues with no approvers
• Completion percentage and pass rate metrics computed in real-time
• Auto-refresh interval support

Approval Cycle Metrics Gadget

• New project-scoped dashboard gadget displaying process health metrics from the approval audit trail
• Key performance indicators: average time-to-decision, first-attempt approval rate, return rate, SoD violation rate
• Configurable date ranges: 7, 30, 90, 365, or 730 days
• Filter by all issues or completed issues only
• Helps process owners identify bottlenecks and measure approval efficiency

Notify Approver on Removal

• Approvers now receive an email notification when removed from an issue
• Conditional logic based on approver status: PENDING, APPROVED, and RETURNED approvers are always notified; ADDED approvers are notified only if the “email on add” setting is enabled
• Closes the communication loop for approvers who were expecting to act on an issue

Enhancements

Non-Destructive Plugin Disable

• Removed the “Remove all pending approvers” option from both global and project disable flows
• Disabling the plugin now never deletes approver data — all existing approvers, decisions, and audit history are preserved
• Two remaining disable options: “Allow pending approvals to finish” (finishing mode) and “Disable plugin completely”
• Aligns DC behavior with the Forge version of the plugin

My Approvals Gadget — “Added” Status Filter

• New “Added (not yet notified)” filter option in the My Approvals gadget status dropdown
• Narrows existing “Pending (needs my action)” filter to match only PENDING approvers (previously included both ADDED and PENDING)
• Default selection remains “Pending” for the most actionable view
• Separates approvers who haven’t been notified from those actively awaiting a decision

New Features

My Approvals Dashboard Gadget

• New dashboard gadget showing issues where the logged-in user is an approver
• Configurable filters for approval status (Pending, Approved, Returned, All), project, and max results
• Auto-refresh interval to keep the approver inbox current

“Not Started” Approval Status

• New fourth overall approval status for issues where approvers have been added but none notified
• Grey “Not Started” lozenge displayed in the panel and BSO – Status custom field
• Completes the four-state lifecycle: Not Started → Awaiting Decisions → Approval Passed / Returned
• JQL support: "BSO - Status" = "Not Started"

Jira Audit Log Integration

• Administrative actions now appear in the Jira Audit Log (System > Audit Log)
• Structured events with from/to change tracking for configuration changes
• Audited actions: global and project config changes, plugin disable transitions, CSV export start/download, debug logging toggles
• No event emitted on no-op saves (avoids audit noise)

Selective Reset Decisions by Role/Group

• New workflow post-function that resets approver decisions based on project role or group membership
• Useful in multi-stage workflows where backward transitions should only reset the relevant stage’s approvals
• Supports OR logic (match either role or group), fail-closed when no filters configured

Three-Option Notify Dialog

• Notify Approvers dialog now offers three options:
• Notify new approvers only — emails only approvers in ADDED status
• Notify all new and pending approvers — emails all undecided approvers
• Reset all decisions and notify all approvers — clears decisions and re-notifies everyone
• Smart defaults select the most appropriate option based on current approver states

Hide Decision Buttons for Added Approvers

• Approve/Return buttons hidden for approvers not yet notified (ADDED status)
• Informational message shown: “Once notified, you can approve or return this issue.”
• Buttons appear automatically after the approver is notified
• Server-side hardening rejects decision attempts from un-notified approvers

Enhancements

Distinguish Add Notify from Review Notify

• Audit history now differentiates “you’ve been added” notifications (badge: ADD NOTIFY) from “please review” notifications (badge: NOTIFIED)
• Previously both appeared as identical NOTIFIED entries

New Features

Lock Decisions After Status Change

• Approval decisions can now be locked when the issue transitions to a new workflow status
• Once locked, approvers cannot change their decision unless the issue returns to the original status
• Configurable at global and project levels with project override support
• Reset post-function respects decision locks (silently skips locked approvals)

Decision Authority Setting

• New “Require Edit permission to decide” setting controls who can record approval decisions
• When enabled (default), approvers must have Jira Edit Issues permission on the project
• When disabled, any user with Browse permission can approve (useful for read-only stakeholders)
• Configurable at global and project levels with project override support
• Fail-closed enforcement: if permission check fails unexpectedly, the decision is denied

Selective Notify Approvers by Role/Group

• New workflow post-function: “Notify Approvers by Role/Group”
• Selectively notifies only pending approvers matching specified project roles or groups
• Supports OR logic (match either role or group), multi-role and multi-group selection
• Fail-closed: if no filters configured, no approvers are notified
• Works in Finishing Mode (no plugin enabled check)

Enhancements

Enhanced Group/Role Approval Validator

• Two-tier evaluation: existence check (are enough approvers assigned?) then approval check (are enough approved?)
• Explicit minApproved count per rule — set exact number of required approvals
• Threshold-percentage fallback when minApproved is omitted — uses the project’s effective approval threshold
• Backward compatible with existing validator configurations

Approver Panel Layout

• Redesigned compact Cloud-inspired panel layout
• Merged two-row header into single row
• Improved approver card layout with avatar display
• Relocated decision locked badge for better visibility

Notify Approvers Dialog

• Updated dialog UI for notifying approvers

Audit History Dialog

• Updated dialog UI for viewing approval history

SoD Violation in CSV Export

• CSV audit export now includes a column indicating whether the approval violates strict Separation of Duties rules

Bug Fixes

• Fixed decision authority check using fail-open pattern (changed to fail-closed)
• Fixed null user handling in Edit permission check
• Fixed setup-permissions.sh to update all permission schemes (not just the first one matching “Default”)

Compatibility

Jira 10.5+ Velocity Allowlist Fix

• Fixed Velocity method allowlist that was entirely disabled on Jira 10.5+ due to invalid ImmutableGroup entry
• Removed invalid <allow> XML elements (replaced with proper <method> syntax)
• Added missing allowlist entries for HtmlEncoder.encode() and SignoffProjectConfigAction methods
• Plugin now loads and renders correctly on Jira 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7.x

Approval Workflow

• Add and remove approvers on any Jira issue via the sign-off panel
• Record approval or return decisions with optional comments
• Configurable approval thresholds (50% – 100%) at global and project levels
• Automatic status calculation: Pending, Approved, Returned, Partially Approved
• Email notifications to approvers when added or when decisions are needed

Governance & Compliance

• Separation of Duties (SoD) enforcement — reporters and assignees excluded from approving
• Eligible approver filters by project role or group membership
• Configurable comment requirements (all decisions, approvals only, returns only)
• Global finishing mode to freeze all approvals across projects
• Protection against removal of decided approvers (admin override available)

Custom Fields

• BSO - Approvers — multi-user field with type-ahead search, synced with sign-off panel
• BSO - Approval Status — text field with JQL autocomplete, synced with approval decisions
• Full JQL support for filtering and reporting on approval status
• Approver selection on create-issue screen with real-time eligibility validation

Audit & Export

• Complete approval history log with action tracking (added, removed, approved, returned)
• CSV export of audit history with date-range and multi-issue filtering
• Async background export with progress tracking for large datasets
• History pagination and summary endpoints

Workflow Integration

• Workflow conditions: require approval status before transitions
• Workflow validators: enforce approval thresholds at transition time
• Workflow post-functions: trigger notifications and status updates on transitions

Data Center Ready

• Cluster-safe architecture with distributed locking and shared storage
• Node-local log level synchronization across cluster nodes
• ActiveObjects-backed persistence for all plugin data
• Automatic cleanup of orphaned data on issue and project deletion

Administration

• Global configuration panel for plugin-wide settings
• Per-project configuration with override capabilities
• Debug logging controls with automatic expiry (1 min – 24 hours)
• License management with expiry notifications and grace period handling
• REST API for all operations (/rest/bso-signoff/1.0/)