November 2015 Summaries

Semaphore has introduced Semaphore Insights, a new feature designed to provide actionable feedback on continuous integration processes by identifying bottlenecks in test suites that can slow down build times. The main feature is a report highlighting the slowest test files, specifically those taking over a minute to run, which can help developers optimize their test code for faster feedback loops and enable parallel execution in CI environments. This feature is currently available for RSpec 3 and Cucumber, and it is activated through a simple process on the project's settings page. Semaphore Insights is being gradually rolled out to users, and developers are encouraged to provide feedback and suggest additional testing frameworks for support.

Scheduled for release on November 24, 2015, the platform update includes a variety of software updates and new additions, such as Chromedriver 2.20 supporting Chrome versions 43-48, Git 2.6.3, and updates to Java (7u85 and 8u66), PHP 5.6.15, RethinkDB 2.2.0, and RubyGems 2.5.0. New features include Elixir 1.1.1, which requires a setup command for activation, and Firefox 38.4.0esr with a tool for switching versions. Node.js 5.0.0 and Python 3.5 are now part of the platform, with a release candidate available for testing by selecting Ubuntu 14.04 LTS v1511 in the Project Settings. Feedback is encouraged to address issues before the final release, which will see changes such as RethinkDB updated to 2.2.1 and RubyGems rolled back to version 2.4.8 due to compatibility issues, with a full list of changes available in the platform changelog. Users are invited to discuss the article further on Discord.