SDC Release Highlights Journal

Upgraded JREs/JDKs

Upgrades have been made across the board:

• The SDC Hub now runs on a 64-bit OpenJDK 8
• The Admin Console now runs on OpenJDK 11
• Installers on Windows and macOS will bundle OpenJDK 11

On Linux, a JRE cannot be bundled, but you can use the -forcejredownload flag when running the installer to have one downloaded from the SDC hub. Note that the access policy must have the Download dynamically if needed flag specified.

Support for macOS Big Sur

The macOS signing agent can now optionally notarize apps—you will need to fill in additional details when enabling signing. Please see our documentation for details.

Workspace Sharing

With SDC, we are always looking for ways to make the setup of IDE environments as simple as possible. This release brings a feature based on Oomph, for any Eclipse 4.6.2 or later. It will help to configure preferences, repositories, projects, working sets and perspectives either by a simple click selection or while importing resources from git. In the case of preferences, they can be configured by modifying them or accessing a preferences page. It will be fun to set up IDE environments.

Workspace Sharing is built on top of Oomph. While SDC doesn’t support all Oomph features (e.g., Eclipse package provisioning or software install), you can use most of the workspace configuration features, and you’ll find our editor very easy to use for these cases. Other than that, you can drop .setup files inside your Admin Console and promote your package to get your end users to benefit from this feature.

Import from Marketplace

Sometimes it is difficult to find the URL to use when importing third-party software, now you can import a third-party library from Eclipse Marketplace. You can search for any software that is exposed through Eclipse Marketplace, similar to how you look for software inside Eclipse. You can search for software by name or filter by categories. Importing software this way will also bring some of the branding of the Marketplace software to your Admin Console.

Checking for Updates to Third-Party Libraries

The Admin Console now has the ability to automatically check for updates to your third-party libraries.  You can disable the library update check per library or globally. You also have the ability to configure proxy for the library update check.

SDC Gets More IDEs!

We are pleased to announce that SDC now allows secure delivery of the Darkest Dark and Webclipse plugins, as well as Angular IDE from the delivery hub. Add Webclipse to your existing Eclipse packages to provide numerous improvements for your teams!

Better Java Runtime Management

• Improvements on Java Runtime configuration for uninstallers and installed packages — SDC 2017 SR 1 has significant improvements for Java runtime detection and configuration. In particular, with Neon’s requirement on Java 1.8, the installer flows are improved to ensure correct configuration and execution of the IDE. If you have an issue with an older release the installer repair flow is your friend.
• Now you can specify if a JRE can get downloaded if the system does not have one to run the installer, supported on Linux and Windows.

In-Product Fixes

• Added a Preference Recorder, you can select this setting inside the Environmental Policy.
• Improvements over the “Update from base components” setting inside the Advanced Tab of the security policy, better behavior while trying to perform a bundled software.
• Fixes an issue on how the Dependency graph is calculated to allow upgrade of base components, making this feature less error prone.
• In-product fixes to support https proxies, from Helios to Neon.
• All the SDC artifacts are now signed with SHA1 to maintain compatibility with older JREs.

Modern Web Portal

The web portal has been updated with a modern look and feel and now includes basic package editing capabilities along with a handy text search that supports wildcards. There are also a number of usage metrics you can view as a system administrator or a user with portal access rights and you can optionally allow public access to package metrics. See Administering Packages from the Web Portal for more information.

Note: If you prefer not to use the new portal, we allow you to switch to the old portal. See Switching to the Legacy Portal for more information.

Flat Design for Admin Console and Installers

The Admin Console has a new and improved flat design. You can also choose to use this new flat design for your installers by updating the branding for an access policy. See Configuring an Access Policy for more information on customizing the appearance of your installer.

Permission Prompt for Invalid SSL Certificates

If you attempt to access a third party or proxy with an invalid SSL certificate, a window displays listing the invalid certificates and giving you the option to continue.

Select Operating System Filters for Software in Packages

You can now select the operating system for the software included in your package definition inside the admin console. Select the software from the Selected Extra Software section and click   to select the supported operating systems for the software.  By default, all operating systems are selected.  

MyEclipse 2016 CI-0 Support

MyEclipse released a major upgrade based on Mars and this release of SDC includes the required changes to support MyEclipse 2016. Before upgrading an existing MyEclipse 2015 package to MyEclipse 2016 be sure that all team members upgrade to SDC SR4. To do this, promote your MyEclipse packages before upgrading them to MyEclipse 2016 and have your team apply this update before you roll out an upgrade to MyEclipse 2016.

Advanced Update Site Import Features

You can now group ALL of the features you import from an update site under one Software so that it’s easy to use a large number of features from a site in your package.

Additionally, extension locations can now be imported via the Import Third-Party Update Site wizard.  Simply give a file:// URL to the directory and SDC will do the rest.

Deliver JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA or WebStorm

Install an IntelliJ IDEA or WebStorm pack, and create packages tailored with add-on software, workspace tasks, and access policy settings. The private beta program allows you to promote IntelliJ IDEA or WebStorm packs to deliver to end users.

Note that some configurations used for Eclipse packages do not apply to JetBrains IDE packages. See the JetBrains delivery documentation for more details.

Certified JetBrains Popular Pack

For adding software to your JetBrains IDE packages, install the Certified JetBrains Popular Pack. The pack gives you access to add-on software specific to IntelliJ IDEA and WebStorm IDEs.

Switch to 64-bit Notification

Once the SDC 2015 delivery hub is installed, your updated package installers are able to detect when a user has a 32-bit Eclipse installed and will provide an option to migrate to 64-bit automatically. SDC will also detect if a user’s system is missing a required version of the JVM. These helpful features will ease your transition to Yosemite.

Advanced Team Delegation

Advanced Team Delegation offers a balance between enforced IDE standardization and team package flexibility. Central admins can keep standards in place by maintaining a common parent package with critical configurations. From there, customizable child packages are created for teams. Updates to parent packages flow down to the associated child packages without jeopardizing team customizations. Team customization can be maintained by team leads who are designated as Group Admins.

Because of this new flow, packages are now designated as either Standalone, Principal, or Secondary packages.

Standalone package – A standalone package is not used for team delegation purposes. A standalone package is equivalent to what has simply been known as a package up to this point.

Principal package – A principal package is a basic package created for team delegation purposes. The central administrator creates a package with critical security policies, common software, and other overarching settings and designates it as a principal package. A principal package is the basis of secondary packages.

Secondary package – Secondary packages are based on and linked to a principal package. They are customized and managed by team leads or admins.

Delegation Policies

A Delegation policy is associated with a Principal package and indicates the level of control allowed to team leads (group admins) when customizing secondary packages.

Global Settings

Group Administrators Settings on the Global Settings tab give group admins access to broader tasks that are system wide. These include access to third-party library installation, the ability to create standalone and secondary packages, and access to managing user assistance requests.

Ready for Eclipse Luna Delivery

Eclipse 4.4, the Luna release, landed on June 25th. SDC was ready for Luna delivery on day zero! Get Eclipse Luna and learn about Luna features athttps://www.genuitec.com/luna/.

User Assistance Feature for Better End-User Support

To better respond to help requests, you can enable the User Assistance feature in the security policy for packages.

With this option enabled, end users can submit an assistance request from the Help menu if they experience issues with installing software, workspace updates, or other package-related issues. The user enters an email address and a description of the problem, and a request bundle is submitted to the SDC delivery hub.

When an assistance request is submitted, a notification appears in the Admin Console, and admins can manage requests on the new User Assistance page. From the User Assistance page, admins can:

• View request details
• Download a request bundle
• Add admin comments
• Close and delete requests

New Succeed with SDC Program

Whether you’re evaluating Secure Delivery Center or you’ve already recognized how SDC can meet your software delivery needs, we want you to have a successful experience. Genuitec offers the Succeed with SDC program that provides you with help to get up and going with SDC.

By joining the Succeed with SDC opt-in program, you receive a credit for a Success Consultation during evaluation and a second credit on purchase.* Each Success Consultation credit entitles you to a 60-minute phone call with a consultation expert who will help you get the most from SDC.

In return for Success Consultation credits, we ask for a tiny bit of anonymous data about how you use SDC. This will help us provide you with great support and make SDC even better! We would receive information in an XML file such as:

• Overall total SDC usage
• Admin Console usage (last 30 days)
• Number of packages installed and used (last 30 days)
• Number of package commits and promotes (last 30 days)
• Number of support tickets submitted and closed (last 30 days)

*Customers purchasing SDC after May 11, 2014 will receive Success Consultation credits based on the size of license purchased. Existing customers can opt in to receive a free Success Consultation credit.

Provide a Custom EULA for Installers

You can now include custom copyright and End-User License Agreement information. The copyright and EULA information will appear in installers for packages that use the access policies in which the information is provided.

Specify the Scope for Notification Delivery

When setting the visibility of notifications to end users, some notifications might be needed only once, and others might need to be seen for each workspace in which a user works. You can now specify if the notification should display once per workspace or only once per install.

Multi-Select Tool Removes Multiple Add-Ons

If you need to clean up add-on software included in a package or an Environmental policy, you now have an option to select multiple and remove all at once. The Selected Extra Software area includes a Remove Multiple icon , which opens a window that allows you to select multiple add-ons to remove.

Getting Software Packs from the Admin Console

Getting updated software packs is now much more streamlined – no more downloading and running installer files manually! You can easily access and install packs from the Admin Console. Use either the installing packs link on the dashboard, or the Get Packs button found on any Secure Packages or Software Collections page.

Either access method opens the Get Packs window so you can add more software to your SDC deployment. With this mechanism, you aren’t required to have administrator access to your SDC delivery hub machine to install new software packs. Simply click to install directly into the SDC delivery hub!

Click the Install button to install a new software pack. Items already installed are indicated with a disabled Installed button. If you don’t already have a license for a pack, you are automatically given a trial of the product.

Support for Architecture-Specific Environmental Policy Arguments

You can now include architecture-specific arguments in Environmental policies. Adding an argument prefix of (x86) or (x86_64) allows you to target installations on 32-bit or 64-bit architectures, respectively.