We are proud to announce Stages release 26.1. It is the successor version of Stages 7.12. Subsequent versions will be numbered accordingly with the year and sequential number of its release.
Please note, that Stages 26.1 is not yet a Long Term Support (LTS) release, but will become LTS later this year. Until then, Stages 7.11 will continue to be the LTS version.
The main feature of Stages 26.1 is its completely new backend platform. End users should not notice any differences, but modelers will benefit from its improved handling of process interfaces and faster data transfers, e.g. during process module updates. Also, the new technology platform allows us to release future product innovations quicker and perform upgrades easier than before.
We also announce the availability of the Stages MCP Server as part of a beta program. This MCP Server allows you to include process data managed in Stages to be used in other AI systems like company chatbots, AI search, and other AI-based applications.
Release 26.1 is currently only available for Stages Managed Service instances. On-premise usage will be made available later this year.
When process modules are integrated into other workspaces or whole processes or single elements are copied into new workspaces, the creation of process interfaces is now solely controlled through workspace collections. Only processes in any workspace collection of the current workspace are being searched for potential process interface target elements. If a target is found in multiple workspaces, multiple interfaces are being created. If a workspace is updated that is not contained in any workspace collection, no process interfaces will be created.
The group and common elements workspace settings do not have any influence on the process interface creation anymore.
As a result, process interface creation should be much more consistent, transparent, and easier to control.
See here for more info on how to transition to the new mechanisms.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) has established itself as the universal way to connect LLMs (Large Language Models) and other AI systems with data sources. It's a common way to integrate Stages into your enterprise chatbots, so that your development processes are taken into consideration in those systems.
Through our new MCP Server, AI systems can access process data managed in Stages for various purposes and use cases. You can therefore adjust the MCP configuration to control the amount of information revealed via the MCP interface.
See here for more info on MCP with Stages.
Multiple SAML IdPs can now be configured. Upon login, the users have to select the respective authentication provider.
This improves the support for organizational mergers and large multi-domain organizations.
To speed up page access, user permissions are now cached. As a consequence, permission changes do not affect current user sessions anymore, so users need to log in again to see the effects.
Custom attributes that were never set and have no default value in the meta model will now return null in the facade API. Previously, an empty String was returned. The user interface will continue to not show attributes without values in the viewing mode. Those are displayed only in edit mode.
Dates are now shown consistently with four-digit years throughout the whole application.
Config property “operation.list.filter.types” has been renamed to “operation.list.exclude.types”.
Most configuration changes are now recognized automatically and do not require a service restart anymore. The only exception are license changes, which still require a restart.
The database.properties file is not needed anymore for setting up database connections. The database connection parameters are now configured in config.properties and secret.properties.
Java SDK has been upgraded to the latest LTS version 25.
The ability to export a process description for translation through external tools is not yet supported with this release. The feature will be supported in a future release upon customer request.
In the meantime, the AI-assisted translation is available for automated translations.
The “transferMappings” script that copies compliance mappings from an older reference model version to a newer one is not available yet, but will be in a future release.
Scripting changes (e.g. in reports, admin jobs, visualizations, etc.):
asCurrentUser, currentMetric, currentCollector, currentFolder were removed, because they are not needed anymore.org.apache.commons.collections.map.MultiKeyMap is not supported anymore and should be replaced by the default Javascript Map.User authentication:
ZIP import support:
Database support:
Stages V6 features:
Article, Category, Ypuser, Orgunit, Resource) and associations of these elements will be deleted from the database during upgrade.Due to changes in PTC partner agreements, the integrations with Windchill RV&S (ex Integrity) and Codebeamer are not yet included in this release.
They are planned to be included in a future release.
Sharepoint 2019 support for document management has been retired, because of Microsoft's declared End of Life for this software, and should be replaced with Sharepoint 365 (Online).
The process feedback integration with Redmine has also been retired.
The new Process Area element subtype provides an additional way to structure workflows. Similar to the existing Topic element, multiple workflows can be grouped into a single unit.
Unlike Topic, a Process Area contains automatic visualization of the workflows it contains, improving transparency and overview for complex process landscapes.
With this release, we share adjustments to our standard metamodel strategy. We strive to support new modeling requirements more quickly while minimizing the number of delivered standard metamodel variants.
Read here for details of the new strategy.
We also made new reference models available to manage compliance.
Please reach out, if you are interested to use one or more of the following standards in Stages.
See here for the full list of available reference models.
Please let us know if you have additional compliance requirements. Our teams are ready to implement them for you.
Version 26.1 is currently only available on Stages Managed Service instances. On-premise usage will be made available later this year.
Please contact our customer care team to request an upgrade of your Stages Managed Service instance.
Note: all process release automations have to be finished before an upgrade can be performed.
For topics marked with *: please contact your product consultant for more info on how to integrate those enhancements into your configuration.