Future of STAF/STAX

2017-07-14T12:57:16.066000Z

As of today, IBM is no longer sponsoring the STAF project. This means that it is now up to the STAF/STAX community to perform further development as needed. What is changing is that IBM will not be providing any more changes to STAF or STAX and will not be providing any more releases. What's remaining the same is that since the STAF project is open source, you can continue to download its source code and releases via the STAF homepage on SourceForge at http://staf.sourceforge.net/ and you can continue to post questions to the STAF Help and Open Discussion forums or to the staf-users mailing list and I, or other members of the STAF/STAX community, will answer them as we have time.

Many thanks to IBM for sponsoring the STAF project for over 15 years. There have been over 900,000 downloads from the STAF SourceForge website, with over 50,000 downloads in the past year. The fact that STAF has remained a popular open source project for such a long time is a testament to the efforts of all of us working together to constantly improve the code. I want to thank each and every one of you that has helped with suggestions, bug fixes, or provided support to fellow users over the years. And special thanks to the other original developers of STAF/STAX: David Bender, Charles Rankin, and Don Randall.

STAF V3.4.26 is available

2017-01-01T04:53:00.481000Z

STAF V3.4.26 is now available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/.

STAF V3.4.26 includes:

1) Reliability Improvements:
-- Fixed a core dump issue when starting STAFProc on some AIX systems.
-- Fixed a problem where STAFProc may fail to start if a STAF Java service's registration takes a long time (via the service configuration statement in the STAF.cfg file). Also, to aid in debugging, logged a message in the JVM Log with the number of times STAFProc attempted to connect to the JVM before it succeeded or failed.

2) Installation Improvements:
-- Upgraded the STAF InstallAnywhere (IA) installers to use Public Hotfix A for InstallAnywhere 2015 Premier Edition Service Pack 1.
-- Upgraded the STAF InstallAnywhere (IA) installers to use InstallAnywhere Public Hotfix for Windows Launcher (Dec 2016) which contains security fixes.

3) Usability Improvements:
-- Updated the help text for RC 51 (Directory Copy Error) with a note about how to get more details about why a specific file could not be copied by submitting a FS COPY FILE request for the file.

STAF V3.4.25 and STAX V3.5.17 are available

2016-06-28T19:22:47.500000Z

STAF V3.4.25 and STAX V3.5.17 are now available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/.

STAF V3.4.25 includes:

1) Security Improvements:
-- Changed the "ssl" network interface to use the TLS V1.2 protocol (which required building STAF using OpenSSL 1.0.2g instead of 0.9.8e) and disabled the SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1, and TLSv1.1 protocols to fix TCP/IP vulnerability "TLS V1.2 Protocol Detection".
-- Reissued the default certificate for the "ssl" network interface with a stronger hashing algorithm (SHA-256) to fix TCP/IP vulnerability "SSL Certificate Signed Using Weak Hashing Algorithm".

Note: Communication between STAF V3.4.25+ and earlier STAF versions via the "ssl" interface" will fail with RC 16 and error message "STAFConnectionProviderConnect: Error in client SSL handshake" because the "ssl" interface now uses a different protocol and SSL certificate. Communication between STAF V3.4.25+ and earlier STAF versions via the "tcp" network interface will continue to work.

2) Installation Improvements:
-- Upgraded the STAF InstallAnywhere (IA) installers to use InstallAnywhere 2015 Premier Edition Service Pack 1 (SP1) with IBM Hotfix A.
-- Upgraded the STAF InstallAnywhere (IA) installers to use IBM HotFix B for InstallAnywhere 2015 SP1 which contains a fix for a Solaris installer bug.

3) Build Improvements:
-- Changed to use Windows Server 2008 R2 x86_64 for the STAF 32-bit and 64-bit Windows build system.
-- Fixed many compiler warnings seen when building STAF on Mac OS X 10.10 and some other operating systems.
-- Fixed some compiler warnings seen when building STAF on Windows x86_64 and some other 64-bit operating systems.
-- Changed the automated "Build STAF" job to ensure that whenever a STAF build fails for an operating system, it sends a detailed message to an administrator, logs a testcase failure, and doesn't try to install/test the bad build.

4) Documentation Improvements:
-- Updated the help text for RC 21 and the STAF FAQ with a note about when STAFProc is run as an Administrator on Windows with UAC enabled, RC 21 is returned if a STAF service request is not also run as an Administrator.
-- Fixed a typo in the description of the DIRECTORY option for the ZIP service's ADD request in the STAF User's Guide.

STAX V3.5.17 includes:

Documentation Improvements:
-- Fixed a typo in the STAX DTD (Document Type Definition) in the description of the process element's "disabledauth" sub-element,
-- Fixed various typos in the STAX User's Guide.

STAF V3.4.24 and STAX V3.5.16 are available

2015-12-16T21:48:47.789000Z

STAF V3.4.24 and STAX V3.5.16 are now available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contains bug fixes and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.24 includes:

1) Security Improvements:
-- Reissued the default certificate for the SSL network interface with a longer RSA key length (2048 bits instead of 1024) to fix TCP/IP vulnerability scan failures caused by a weak RSA key. All STAF systems that communicate using the ssl interface with the default certificate should be upgraded to V3.4.24 or later so that they use the same certificate in order to avoid RC 16 with error message "STAFConnectionProviderConnect: Error in client SSL handshake".

2) Documentation Improvements:
-- Updated section "4.4.2 JSTAF service proxy library" in the STAF User's Guide to state that STAF Java support on Mac OS X requires Java 8.0 or newer.
-- Updated links and fixed typos in STAF Service Developer's Guide.

STAX V3.5.16 includes:

1) Usability Improvements:
-- Changed the STAX HOLD request to not be able to hold a child block that has a parent block which is already held as this is documented as not allowed.

2) Internal Changes:
-- Removed redefinition of static variables for service error codes in STAXBlockActionFactory.java since already defined in STAX.java.

3) Documentation Improvements:
-- Added descriptions of error codes 4004 and 4005 to "Appendix B: STAX Service Error Code Reference" in the STAX User's Guide.

STAF V3.4.23 and STAX V3.5.15 are available

2015-09-30T17:38:29.953000Z

STAF V3.4.23 and STAX V3.5.15 are now available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contains new features, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.23 includes:

1) Installation Improvements:
-- Upgraded the STAF installers to use InstallAnywhere Premier Edition 2015 (instead of IA 2013) which supports the latest operating systems, including Windows 10.

2) Operating System Updates:
-- Added support for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
-- Added support for Windows 10.
-- Upgraded the STAF Mac OS X build machine from Mac OS X 10.6 to Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) which means that STAF is only supported now on Mac OS X 10.10 and later.

3) Perl Support Updates:
-- Added support for Perl 5.16 and 5.18 (with 5.18 as the default) on Mac OS X.
-- Removed support for Perl 5.8 and 5.10 on Mac OS X since Mac OS X 10.10 only provides support for Perl 5.16 and later.

4) Java Support Updates:
-- Changed STAF Java support on Mac OS X to require Java 8 or later instead of Java 6.

5) Build Improvements:
-- Fixed a compiler error at STAFRWSemCommon.cpp:136 when building STAF on Mac OS X 10.10 after upgrading to Xcode 6.4.

6) Documentation Improvements:
-- Updated the "Java Support" column on the "Download STAF" web page to indicate the minimum Java version required if using STAF Java support.

STAX V3.5.15 includes:

1) Documentation Improvements:
-- Fixed typos in "Sample STAX Job 2" in Appendix A" of the STAX User Guide.
-- Updated section "Starting the STAX Monitor", sub-section "On Windows with UAC Enabled and STAFProc Run as an Administrator", in the STAX User's Guide in regards to STAF now supporting Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows 10.

STAF V3.4.22 and STAX V3.5.14 are available

2015-06-26T19:43:45.132000Z

STAF V3.4.22, STAX V3.5.14 and Email V3.3.9 are available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contain new features, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.22 includes:

1) Operating System Updates:
-- Changed to use RHEL 6.6 for the linux 32-bit STAF build system instead of RHEL 5.11
-- Changed to use Windows 7 for the winamd64 STAF codepage build and test system instead of Windows Server 2008
-- Added OpenSSL support for STAF on Linux PPC64 LE (Little Endian)

2) Language Support Enhancements:
-- Added support for Perl 5.18 on Linux 32-bit and AMD64
-- Fixed error "Constant name HASH has invalid characters" when using STAF Perl support with Perl 5.6

3) Performance Improvement:
-- Improved the performance of the LOG service when querying or purging a large number of log records from the end of the log file

4) Usability Improvement:
-- Improved STAF configuration file error messages by adding the line number of the invalid line

5) Documentation Update:
-- Added a STAF FAQ entry to explain why on Windows some commands like "reg query" that are run via the PROCESS service may return different output than if run via the command line (without using STAF) if you installed a Windows 32-bit version of STAF on a Windows 64-bit system

STAX V3.5.14 includes:

1) Stability Improvement:
-- Fixed a problem where a STAX job could hang when it calls a function with a "local" scope due to a thread-safety issue cloning Python variables

Email V3.3.9 includes:

1) Usability Improvement:
-- Removed the leading comma from the To:, Cc:, and Bcc: values that are written to the SMTP message headers

STAF V3.4.21 and STAX V3.5.13 are available

2015-03-31T21:25:28.242000Z

STAF V3.4.21 and STAX V3.5.13 are available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contain new features, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.21 includes:

1) Operating System Updates:
-- Added support for STAF on Linux PPC64 LE (Little Endian)
-- Upgraded the Mac OS X STAF build system from Snow Leopard (10.6) to Yosemite (10.10)

2) Language Support Updates:
-- Added support for Python Versions 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 on Windows 32-bit and AMD64, Linux 32-bit and AMD64, and FreeBSD
-- Fixed some problems using the USE_PYTHON_SYSTEM_PATH option when installing STAF

3) Build Improvements:
-- Fixed a problem in the STAF automated build when creating the docs tar file on linux-amd64.

STAX V3.5.13 includes:

1) STAX Common Utility Function Updates:
-- Added support for upgrading STAF on Linux PPC64 LE (Little Endian) machines to the STAFUpgradeUtil.xml STAX library file

STAF V3.4.20 and STAX V3.5.12 are available

2014-12-10T20:48:56.195000Z

STAF V3.4.20 and STAX V3.5.12 are available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contain new features, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.20 includes:

1) SSL Certificate Updates:
-- Provided a new default certificate for the STAF ssl network interface as the default SSL certificate expired on Oct 17 2014. If you use the ssl interface and the default SSL certificate, upgrade to STAF V3.4.20 to avoid return code 16 (No path to endpoint) with error message "STAFConnectionProviderConnect: Error in client SSL handshake".

2) Operating System Updates:
-- Changed the zLinux 32-bit STAF build system from SLES 10 to RHEL 5.4 because SLES 10 is no longer supported.
-- Changed the zLinux 64-bit STAF build system from SLES 10 to RHEL 5.4 because SLES 10 is no longer supported.

3) Documentation Improvements:
-- Added an entry to the STAF FAQ explaining how to resolve a problem where STAFProc fails to start because it cannot determine the TCP/IP host name.

STAX V3.5.12 includes:

1) Reliability Improvements:
-- Fixed a thread-safety issue which was causing STAX jobs to hang when calling a function with "local" scope or when starting a new STAX-Thread, especially when many jobs are running concurrently.

2) Debugging Improvements:
-- Added the ability to enable/disable debugging for processes running in STAX jobs via a new service parameter named DEBUGPROCESS.
-- Added the ability to enable/disable debugging for xml parsing of STAX jobs via a new service parameter named DEBUGXMLPARSE.

STAF V3.4.19 and STAX V3.5.11 are now available

2014-09-25T04:16:58.913000Z

STAF V3.4.19 and STAX V3.5.11 are now available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contain new features, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.19 includes:

1) Installation Improvements:
-- Upgraded the STAF installers to use Flexera Public Hotfix C for InstallAnywhere 2013 Premier.

2) Operating System Updates:
-- Upgraded the STAF Linux i386 and Linux AMD64 (x86_64) build machines from RHEL 5.10 to RHEL 5.11.
-- Upgraded the STAF Linux PPC64 build machine from SLES 10.4 to SLES 11.2 because SLES 10.4 is no longer supported.

3) Reliability / Error Handling Improvements:
-- Improved how the STAF Log service handles corrupt log record formats so that QUERY and PURGE requests return RC 4007 (Invalid file format) with an error message indicating the Record# of the first corrupt log record.

4) Documentation Improvements:
-- Updated SourceForge project links in STAF web pages and documentation to use SourceForge's new url format to fix some "404 - NOTE FOUND" link errors.
-- Added a note to the STAF User's Guide that a STAF SHUTDOWN request returns before STAFProc completes shutting down and added a SHUTDOWN request example.

STAX V3.5.11 includes:

1) Debugging and Logging Improvements:
-- Improved formatting of messages logged in the STAX JVM Log by adding timestamps, logging level, and job information.
-- Added the ability to enable/disable debugging of the STAX CloneGlobals Python function.
-- Added the ability to enable/disable STAX thread debugging.

2) Documentation Improvements:
-- Updated an example in the STAX User's Guide for how to set a breakpoint within a STAX job using the breakpoint element.

STAF V3.4.18 and STAX V3.5.10 are now available

2014-07-01T13:05:56.621000Z

STAF V3.4.18 and STAX V3.5.10 are now available. You can find more information and download the binaries from the official STAF (Software Test Automation Framework) web site at http://staf.sourceforge.net/. These releases contain new features, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

STAF V3.4.18 includes:

1) Installation Improvements:
-- Upgraded the STAF installers to use InstallAnywhere 2013 Premier (with IBM Hot Fix B) instead of InstallAnywhere 2012 SP 1 (with IBM Hot Fix H). InstallAnywhere 2013 supports the latest operating systems.

2) Operating System / Java Support Updates:
-- Upgraded the STAF Windows 32-bit build system and InstallAnywhere build system from Windows XP to Windows Server 2008 (x86) because WinXP is no longer supported by Microsoft.
-- Updated STAF Java support on z/OS 32-bit and 64-bit to require Java 6.0 instead of Java 1.4.2 because Java 1.4.x and 5.0 are no longer supported by Oracle.

3) Build Improvements:
-- Fixed undefined reference errors building STAF on Ubuntu Linux (which uses a different gcc version) by updating the STAF gcc and master makefiles so that the g++ commands put the object files and libraries being linked in the order that they depend on each other.
-- Fixed a problem in the "Build STAF" STAX job where it would incorrectly terminate if a project's build failed as this would cause all the STAF builds to be terminated.

4) Reliability / Error Handling Improvements:
-- Fixed a problem where querying a corrupted log file via the LOG service on a Windows 64-bit system would cause STAFProc to crash.

5) Documentation Improvements:
-- Fixed some formatting errors and updated some examples in the STAF Java User's Guide.
-- Updated and added some links in the STAF Perl, Python, and Tcl User Guides.
-- Changed references in error messages and documentation from Sun to Oracle Java and removed references in documentation to obsolete platforms.

STAX V3.5.10 includes:

1) Documentation Improvements:
-- Updated STAX User Guide and the Getting Started with STAX V3 document to reference Oracle Java instead of Sun Java.

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