Release date: January 31st , 2024

New general improvements #

• New extension for Salesforce app: Live Check Quality for Salesforce – Code Builder extension

Quality Clouds has recently integrated the Live Check functionality into the Code Builder extension. This significant enhancement empowers users to systematically assess and implement coding best practices. Additionally, you will be able to request a write-off when needed.

Explore further details on this new functionality by clicking here. 

Peer Review View Enhancements #

• Date filters changes in Peer Review view. Explicit filters for Requested date range and Resolution date range.

Pre-requisites: The Peer Review feature must be enabled, and the permissions to access the Peer Review view must be granted to the user.

Description:

The Peer Review view provides the information related to the write-offs requested by the developers using the Quality Clouds application in ServiceNow, Salesforce and Office.

In order to select the Peer Reviews that are visible in the view, it is possible to apply date filters based on the Requested and Resolution dates of the Peer Reviews.

Before this release, these date filters were combined into a single date range, with a drop-down menu to indicate the type of event to which the selected date applies. This was confusing and it did not allow users to specify a filter based on both the Requested and Resolved date. 

After this release there is one independent filter for each of these events. When both filters are activated, they are combined with an AND condition. By default the view will show all Peer Reviews Requested in the last month.

  → How to find the new Peer Review view:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal. 
• Select ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance.
• Select the Peer Review view on the ‘View’ tab.
• On the top of the Peer Review view you can select the Resolution Date Range box or the Request Date Range box, or both.
• Select the range of date you would like to track. (Peer Reviews Requested and/or Resolved in the selected date ranges).
  
  

Impact: Provides the exact data for selected periods of time.

Use cases:

• To track the evolution of the approved Write-offs within a range of time.
• To track the evolution of the rejected Write-offs within a range of time.
• To track the evolution of the requested Write-offs within a range of time.

• New labels showing the level of the issue severity in each Write-off on the Peer Review view.

Pre-requisites: To have access to the Peer Review view. 

Description:

The different levels of severity issues are calculated on the global count of issues associated with each scan. There are four levels of severity:

• High (Red): Issues ranked among the ‘High’ level affect essential requirements for which there are measures to resolve at a high level.
• Medium (Orange): Issues ranked among the ‘Medium’ level affect essential requirements for which there are measures to resolve at a medium level.
• Low (Yellow): Issues ranked among the ‘Low’ level affect essential requirements for which there are measures to resolve at a low level.
• Warning (Grey): There is an exception to take in account, when an issue is detected on an inactive configuration item, or in a commented block of code. In this case, the severity of the issue is reduced to a ‘Warning’ issue.

This new improvement is available to all users (Normal user, Customer Admin, and Project user) and on all platforms (ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance).  

→ How to access to the Peer Review view:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Go to the Peer Review view.
• Review the top left corner of each card and you will see the severity of each issue with a colour label.

Use cases:     

• Those Write-offs related to warning issues are easily detected.
• It is possible to quickly identify and prioritise the issues to be evaluated and solved. 

• ‘Write-off expired’ included in the ‘Issue Activity’ information from the write-off in the Peer Review view.
  
  Pre-requisites: To have access to the Peer Review view.

Description:

In the Peer Review view, by clicking on a specific requested write-off, all the issue activity related to that specific write-off can be identified by tracking the history with detailed information in the ‘Action’ column.

Now it is possible to see when a Write-off has expired and also when an expired Write-off has been reopened.

          → How to access the Peer Review view:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Go to the Peer Review view.
• Select the write-off you would like to check in the ‘Done’ column.
• Check the ‘Issue Activity’ tab.
• Check if the Write-off is expired.

Use cases:

• A Write-off expires when the time to review has expired.
• When an issue is reopened due to a Write-off expiration and the new expiration date also expires. 

Profiling View Enhancements #

• New data available in the profile: ‘Num Developers with issues’.

Pre-requisites: Have access to the Profiling view.

Description:

The Profiling view provides detailed information about the instance through different performance indicators related to the code inventory (New lines of code, applications, new configuration elements, custom tables, etc).

In the Profiling view there is an ‘Active Developers’ box which shows the number of developers working on the instance in the last 3 months. Now it is possible to see the number of developers with issues.

This new improvement is available to all users (Normal user, Customer Admin, and Project user) and on all platforms (ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance).

→ How to access the Profiling view:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Select ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance.
• On the ‘View’ drop-down menu, select the Profiling view.
• On the left side of the Profiling view, scroll down until you find the Active Developers box and click on it. 

Use cases: 

• It is possible to identify and to compare the evolution of the number of issues by developers on different specific dates and times.
• Date resolution on Time machine widget on the Profiling view has been changed to monthly.

Pre-requisites: Have access to the Profiling view.

Description:

The Profiling view provides detailed information about the instance through different performance indicators related to the code inventory (New lines of code, applications, new configuration elements, custom tables, etc).

In the Profiling view there is the Time Machine widget that provides a historic view of how customisations and issues have been introduced in an instance,  from the first time an instance has development activity (which may be before the instance go live date) until the launch of the first Full Scan.

The Time Machine widget is available to all users (Normal user, Customer Admin, and Project user) and on all platforms (ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office instance). 

Data is now displayed monthly instead of daily:

• CEs Over Time – The cumulative number of configuration elements included in the Quality Clouds scan. This includes configuration elements added to the instance by the customer, as well as out of the box modified elements in the instance.
• CEs Added per month – The number of configuration elements included in the scan created on the specific month.
• CEs Added with issues per month – Out of the total configuration elements created on the specific month and how many had at least one issue on the date of the first Quality Clouds scan.
• The date displays the year and the month.

           → How to access the Time Machine widget:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Select ServiceNow, Salesforce, or Office365 instance.
• Select the Profiling view on views.
• On the left side of the Profiling view, scroll down until you find the Time Machine widget and click on it. 
• The Time Machine graphs will be displayed, with the following information:

Impact: Provides trends of instance customization.

Use cases:

• Identify peaks of technical debt introduction in the instance and link them to past development activities. This can provide support in proactively preparing for future development in order to avoid repeating past patterns of technical debt introduction.

Admin Portal Enhancements #

• Improvements to the Peer Review Configuration Form in the Admin Portal.

Pre-requisites: Have access to configure the Peer Review settings using the Customer Admin role.

Description:

The Peer Review feature can be enabled on the Quality Clouds Admin portal. The Peer Review view provides the information related to the Write-offs requested by the developers using the Quality Clouds application in ServiceNow, Salesforce and Office.

The fields in the Peer Review Configuration Form have been reorganized and re-labelled to make it explicit so that the email notifications which can be configured from this screen apply to the default assignee. 

→ How to find the ‘Default Assignee’ in the Peer Review setting options for Salesforce and ServiceNow:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Click on the ‘Admin‘ section.
• Select the ‘Account‘ option.
• Click on the ‘Instances’ tab.
• Select Salesforce or ServiceNow 
• Click on ‘Edit‘ in the selected instance.
• Go to the ‘Peer Review’ tab.
• Enable the Peer Review feature.
• In the Peer Review Workflow section select ‘Write Off assignation’.
• Select ‘Auto Assign’.
• Select the mail of the Default Assignee on the dropdown menu.
• Enable ‘Default Assignee Notifications‘ if you want the default assignee to be notified when a write-off is assigned.
  

Use cases:

• Manual Assign will hide the Default Assignee drop-down menu. 
• Auto Assign will show the Default Assignee and there won’t be any other option than to select one person from the list.

Note: We keep working in the alerts definition and configuration screen for Peer Reviews. Expect further changes in this area in coming releases.

• No longer possible to define a ServiceNow instance without entering a username and password.

Pre-requisites: Access to ServiceNow instances configuration on the Admin Portal using the Customer Admin role.

Description:

We have removed the option ‘do not persist credentials’ in the instance definition page while configuring the Instance Set up options. There was an option to select in the instance definition page in which it was possible to define an instance without the credentials. This is no longer possible as Update Set LiveChecks will not work without valid credentials configured on the instance definition. 

           → How to access to ServiceNow instance creation:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Go to the Admin portal
• Select the Account option.
• Click on the Instances tab.
• Select ServiceNow.
• When creating a new instance, ‘do not persist credentials’ won’t be available.

Impact: In the version 9.6 of the ServiceNow app the credentials stored in the Quality Clouds backend are used to perform the Update Set and Application scans. Therefore it is not possible to have any instance defined without credentials.

• Filters in Users Account will keep the list of users filtered in the Admin Portal.

Pre-requisites: Customer Admin role to manage users.

Description:

When you have added some information to the filters or applied some of them from the drop-down menu, after you edit a profile and go back to the main page the filters will remain applied. The list of users and after performing some changes in any of them, once filtered it is possible to keep the list of users after saving or cancelling any change, so that it is possible to continue editing the pre-filtered users.

→ How to access the users creation option in the Account Admin Portal:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Go to the Admin portal
• Select the ‘Account’ option.
• Click on the ‘Users’ tab.
• After filtering and performing changes, the filters will remain the same.

Impact: Not to lose the filtering strategy while managing users.
 
Use cases:

• Filters will remain after creating a new user.
• Filters will remain after editing an existing user.
• Filters will remain after deleting an existing user.
• Filters will remain after copying an existing user.

• The active users will appear by default in the Users Account tab in the Admin Portal.

Pre-requisites: Have a customer Admin role to manage users.

Description:

As a customer admin when accessing and navigating to the users creation tab, it is possible to see only the Active users by default. 

→ How to access users creation in the Account Admin Portal:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Go to the Admin portal
• Select the ‘Account’ option.
• Click on the ‘Users’ tab.
• All the active users will appear by default.

Impact: Active users need to be properly and quickly identified.
 
Use cases:

• If it is required to check inactive users it will be necessary to filter the ‘State’ drop-down menu.
• If it is required to check all users, (active and inactive) it will be necessary to filter the ‘State’ drop-down menu.

Other Enhancements #

• Export Limitation: Message in ServiceNow Executive view with over 10k elements.

Pre-requisites: Have access to the Executive view.

Description:

The Quality Clouds platform only supports exporting XLS files containing 10k or less elements in ServiceNow instances.  For this reason, if a user attempts to export an XLS file surpassing 10k elements, a message will show advising them to use filters to reduce the element count.

Message: Export is limited to 10k elements. Consider applying filters ro reduce the count. 

This improvement will affect all the customers using ServiceNow and all users (Admin user, Project user, Normal user).

→ How to export XLS files in Executive view:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Select a ServiceNow instance. 
• Go to the Executive view.
• Go to the issues grid and click on ‘Export XLS’.

a) If the export exceeds 10k elements a message will pop up, recommending the use of filters to reduce the element count. 

b) You can export 10k or fewer elements without any issues.

Impact: ServiceNow user may need to use the filters to export an xls file.  

Use cases:

• If your export exceeds 10k elements a message will pop up recommending the use of filters to reduce the number of elements.
• Password strength improvement

Pre-requisites: Have admin user permissions.

Description:

When creating a new user or updating their password, the system now requires the new passwords to be at least 12 characters long, while other security attributes remain unchanged.

This improvement will affect all the customers using all platforms (ServiceNow, Salesforce and Office 365)and all users (Admin user, Project user, Normal user).

→ How to change the password:

• Log into the Quality Clouds Portal.
• Navigate to the user menu, situated on the upper left side of the screen.
• Click on ‘Change the password’.

• Add the new password.

• Click ‘Save‘. 

New ServiceNow Best practices #

We implemented an automated process to reverse the deprecation of rules in release 23.15 concerning the use of GlideRecord. Additionally, we modified existing rules to specifically detect GlideRecordSecure, ensuring separate rules for GlideRecord and GlideRecordSecure. This enhances clarity in rule detection.

• GlideRecordSecure should not be used in client side scripts – New ServiceNow rule (SN-GLIDERECORD-USAGE).
• GlideRecordSecure should not be used in Catalog UI Policies. Script false– New ServiceNow rule (SN-GLIDERECORD-USAGE-CUIP-FALSE).
• GlideRecordSecure should not be used in Catalog UI Policies. Script true – New ServiceNow rule (SN-GLIDERECORD-USAGE-CUIP-TRUE).
• GlideRecordSecure should not be used in Service Portal Widget-Client Script – New ServiceNow rule (SN-GLIDERECORD-USAGE-PWI-CLIENT).
• GlideRecordSecure should not be used in UI Policies. Script false– New ServiceNow rule (SN-GLIDERECORD-USAGE-UIP-FALSE).
• GlideRecordSecure should not be used in UI Policies. Script true – New ServiceNow rule (SN-GLIDERECORD-USAGE-UIP-TRUE).

New MSDynamics Best practices #

There are 257 rules from ESLint that can be added to the user’s existing ruleset in order to scan all the JavaScript elements in MSDynamics. The links for these rules point to the original ESLint site. 

New Salesforce Best practices #

There are 257 rules from ESLint that can be added to the user’s existing ruleset in order to scan all the JavaScript elements in Lightning and LWC elements in Salesforce. The links for these rules point to the original ESLint site. 

Other new rules:

• Avoid Losing Exception Information

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-LOSING-EXCEPTION-INFO).

Description:

This best practice aims to address the issue where information of launched exceptions is lost. Its impact is mitigated by either removing the invocation causing the exception or utilizing the return result to preserve relevant information.

• Avoid duplicate queueable jobs

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-DUPLICATE-QUEUEABLE-JOB).

Description:

To prevent race conditions and record locking caused by duplicate queueable jobs, use the QueueableDuplicateSignature class methods (addId(), addInteger(), addString()) to create a unique signature for your job.

• Set maximum depth for chained queueable jobs

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-QUEUEABLE-JOB-WITHOUT-DEPTH).

Description:

To avoid exceeding the daily async Apex limit, limit the retry attempts for queued jobs without maximum depth to prevent the launch of recursive jobs.

• Avoid using Tab Characters Check

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-TAB-CHARACTER).

Description:

This best practice targets the impact of reduced code readability when using tab characters. The remediation involves replacing tab characters with spaces for improved code clarity.

• Set minimum queueable delay for chained queueable jobs

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-QUEUEABLE-JOB-WITHOUT-DELAY).

Description:

The impact of reaching the maximum simultaneous chained jobs limit can be addressed by defining a minimum queueable delay in recursive jobs using the AsyncOptions object.

• Avoid multiple unary operators

New rule for Salesforce (SF-AVOID-LOSING-EXCEPTION-INFO).

Description:

Using multiple unary operators may be confusing. Verify the intended usage or simplify the expression to ensure clarity.

Bug fixes #

• Clarifying the ‘Age’ Column in Debt Manager: Resolving Ambiguity in Time Units.

Bug explanation:

The ‘Age’ column in the closed (fixed) tab in Debt Manager was confusing, leaving users uncertain about whether the displayed values represented days, minutes, or another time metric. 

Solution:

Now, the time unit ‘Days’ has been added within the ‘Age’ column, ensuring accurate interpretation of the data.

• The time unit in the ‘Age’ column of the Debt Manager XLS report has been clarified to represent days.

Bug explanation:

The bug was identified in the Age column when downloading an XLS export file, which lacked a specified time unit (e.g., days), causing ambiguity in interpretation.

Solution:

This has been rectified by renaming the column to ‘Age (Days),’ providing clarity and resolving the issue.

• Changing expiration date  to ‘never’ showed invalid data in the ‘write-off’ expiration date grid.

Bug explanation:
When removing an expiration date from the Debt Manager view the message showed in the Write-off expiration date was ‘Invalid date’.

Solution:
Now the Write-Off expiration date is properly shown after changing or removing a previous expiration date.

• Issue ID filter in Debt Manager now allows individual content deletion.

Bug explanation:

Previously, there was an issue erasing text within the ‘open boxes’; the only option was to clear all filters.

Solution:

Users can now erase content from individual fields without clearing all the filters to execute this change. 

• Column ordering in Debt Manager.

Bug explanation:
The column ordering was not working in Debt Manager after changing the dates on the view.

Solution:The change of dates in the Debt Manager is now working properly.

• Date filter in CLOSED (FIXED) tab in the Debt manager.
  
  Bug explanation:
  The ‘Date’ filter was not filtering by Close date in CLOSED (FIXED) tab in the Debt manager.
  
  Solution:

Changing the date range in the Debt Manager is working properly.

• The order and naming of columns in Debt Manager export files have been reviewed.

Bug explanation:

In the Debt Manager view, the exported XLS file, had some columns with outdated information and confusing order. 

Solution:

Now, the columns in the exported XLS file are display in the same order as the grid (Debt Manager view) and have a proper naming.

• Sorting in Peer Review was not working properly.

Bug explanation:

There was an issue in the Peer Review view when users tried to sort issues by severity, the grid attempted to arrange them but then it went back to the way it was. 

Solution:

Now, the sorting works smoothly without reverting to the original state.

• Peer review’s permissions in the Peer Review workflow.
  
  Bug explanation:

Previously, the Peer Reviews that had been approved by an approver went back to the “to do” column when a user was no longer allowed to do Peer Reviews. 
Solution:
Now only peer reviews in the “in progress” state are transitioned to “to do,” while those marked as “done” remain unchanged.

• Enhancements to Cross-Org License Filters.

Bug explanation:
Cross-Org licensing was not showing filters.  
Solution:
Filters are now properly shown.

• Platform tabs showing when creating and editing instances.

Bug explanation:

When creating or editing an instance in the account tab, in the Quality Clouds admin portal, the other two platforms were visible, even if a specific platform was selected to create the instance.

Solution:

Now, other platform tabs are not visible in the instance that is being created or edited.

• Live Check View Now Displays JavaScript Issues After Feature Branch Scan.

Bug explanation:

In the Live Check view, after launching a Feature branch scan, the Java Script elements were not shown because no issues were matching with the CE elements.

Solution:

Now, the Live Check views shows the list of issues with Java Script elements. 

• Full Scan enhanced robustness against unexpected ServiceNow REST API failures.

Bug explanation:

In some cases, the ServiceNow REST API will return an empty response to one of the requests made to extract the code of a given configuration element type. These occurrences are very infrequent, but previously they were causing the full scan to miss all elements of the affected type, which had undesired effects in the results of the scan. 

Solution:

After this release, these situations are detected, and the call is re-tried up to three times. If after three times the call does not succeed, the scan is set to failed.

• Performance improvements in the list of issues.

Bug explanation:

There was an opportunity to improve the speed of loading issues on views within the Quality Clouds platform.

Solution:

Now, the list of issues loads quickly, contributing to an enhanced user experience.

• Optimising Loading Time for ‘Functionality Added Over Time’ Chart in Time Machine Widget.

Bug explanation:

There was a delay when loading  the “Functionality added over time” chart in the Profiling view. 

Solution:

The loading time has been significantly optimised, ensuring an efficient display of the chart.

• Salesforce rules documentation link redirection to an existing page.

Bug explanation:

In the Admin portal, there were 3 Salesforce rules that had a broken link to the documentation page. These rules were:

• Rule SF-0101 
• Rule SF-0103
• Rule SF-0142

Solution:

 Clicking on these links in the ‘Rulesets’ section now leads users to the correct documentation page.

• Performance Enhancement in Debt Manager View

Bug explanation:

In the Debt Manager view bulk unwrite-off requests, especially with a high number of issues, were not functioning correctly.

Solution:

Enhancing performance has significantly reduced processing time for bulk unwrite-off actions.

• Filters in the ruleset correctly show all Quality Clouds.

Bug explanation:

Users in a Salesforce instance were unable to view some rules created by Quality Clouds in the Admin portal, in the rulesets section.

Solution:

The filters in the ruleset now correctly display all Quality Clouds rules.