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Plastic SCM 1.5 introduces a number of new features and enhancements over the previous version 1.0. The new release is a step ahead in the product evolution and these are some of its most outstanding new features.

Query System

The new Plastic SCM release introduces the new query system. The query system is the mechanism provided by Plastic to search data inside the different repositories in a customizable way. Using the query system it is possible to track which changes have been made on a given time frame, who is the owner, which branches are involved and even which labels.

The Plastic SCM query system allows users to create advanced reports to highlight system usage, project statistics, detect usage patterns or simply monitor changes. All through a simplified and familiar SQL-like interface, and XML resultsets.

Improved Security System

The Plastic SCM security system has been present since the first official release, and the new 1.5 version introduces new enhancements to ease the enforcement of development policies. The new capabilities allow the definition of customized access rights to directory trees (and still being able to customize the repository and branch hierarchy) greatly simplifying the security management. A new type of special user is introduced, the owner, allowing administrators and SCM managers to set special permissions to the objects�� creators. Now defining multi-group strategies will be much easier, being able to define whether belonging to several groups should turn out into a less or more restricted behaviour. Setting up the SCM security both to prevent unwanted access or to enforced policies, is just a click away with Plastic SCM.

Branch explorer

The branch explorer is one of the most anticipated features in the new Plastic SCM release. Now developers will be able to visualize the whole project evolution using this new capability, which is a new step ahead, together with the 3D version tree, in SCM data representation. The branch explorer opens a new world of possibilities for the upcoming Plastic SCM releases and will be tuned and extended taking into account customers�� feedback. The branch explorer will play a key role in the near Plastic SCM future, providing a simplified and powerful interface to control the whole development process.

Merge system improvements

The merge system has been greatly improved for release 1.5. The Plastic SCM merge support was already one of the most powerful merge system available, implementing features like merge tracking, true rename (required for refactoring support) and an optimized contributor calculation. During the last months the development team has worked in merge performance and implementing an even better renaming support.

SQL Server support

Plastic SCM is a new generation system and hence uses a RDBMS as data backend, which can be configured by the user. The first Plastic SCM official release only implemented Firebird (http://www.firebirdsql.org) as data backend, which is a strong and fast open source database. Plastic SCM will continue including Firebird as recommended database but SQL Server (2005 and higher) support has been introduced to adapt to customers�� current IT options.

PowerBuilder integration

Plastic SCM implements a SCC compatible plugin which provides full Visual Studio integration. A number of IDE are compatible with SCC and the 1.5 release has been specifically tuned to include PowerBuilder as one of the supported platforms.

CruiseControl support

Build tools like CruiseControl are a perfect companion for version control systems like Plastic. The release 1.5 is integrated with CruiseControl 2.7, allowing users to automate build and release tasks both with .NET and Java.

JDeveloper plugin

The Plastic 1.5 release introduces the new JDeveloper plugin. Now both JDeveloper and Eclipse developers can benefit from a full featured integration which will boost their productivity working together with Plastic.