Redmine 6 is out: Is it worth updating?

Table of contents

Redmine upgrade and technical enhancements
What will Redmine community appreciate about Redmine 6
Rails 7.2 impact Redmine's performance
Is Redmine upgrade worth it?
Tired of keeping up?
The necessity of Redmine updates

Redmine upgrade and technical enhancements

The latest version of Redmine introduces technical updates including Rails 7.2 support, the removal of Markdown in favour of CommonMark, and new SVG icons. While these changes modernise the platform, they might require significant technical adjustments from users.

What will Redmine community appreciate about Redmine 6

Redmine 6.0.0, released on November 10, 2024, introduces several significant enhancements that the community is likely to appreciate:

1. Migration to Rails 7.2: Ruby 3.3 is now supported and Redmine 6 has been upgraded to Rails 7.2. This upgrade ensures enhanced performance, security, and access to the latest features of the Rails framework.
2. Asset pipeline integration with Propshaft: The integration of Propshaft streamlines asset management, enhancing the efficiency of handling CSS, JavaScript, and image files.
3. User interface optimisation: Updates include a refined header design with a gradient background, improved tooltip positioning for thumbnails, and enhanced table readability with added row borders.
4. Enhanced issue tracking: New features such as the ability to view watchers on the issue list and the addition of an "Estimated time remaining" column in issue queries provide users with more detailed tracking capabilities.
5. Improved email notifications: The default notification option for users has been changed to "Only for things I watch or I am assigned to," reducing unnecessary emails and focusing on relevant updates.

Redmine: free and open-source web-based project management

Rails 7.2 impact Redmine's performance

The upgrade of Redmine to Rails 7.2 is expected to have a positive impact on its performance, leveraging several enhancements introduced in the latest version of the Rails framework. To be more concrete, here is a list of improvements:

• Optimised code execution: Rails 7.2 includes various performance optimizations that streamline how code is executed. This can lead to faster response times for requests, especially under load, which is crucial for project management applications like Redmine that handle multiple simultaneous users.
• Enhanced Asset management: In this context, Assets are meant as the part of the application visible to users. The integration of Propshaft helps to speed up the load times of pages within the application.
  
• Refined database interactions: Rails 7.2 introduces enhancements in Active Record, which can optimize database queries and reduce the time taken for data retrieval operations. This is particularly beneficial for Redmine, which relies heavily on database interactions for project tracking and management.
• Support for modern Ruby versions: By upgrading to Ruby 3.3 alongside Rails 7.2, Redmine benefits from the latest performance improvements in the Ruby language itself, including better memory management and execution speed, which can enhance overall application performance.
• Better concurrency handling: The upgrade may also enhance how Redmine handles concurrent requests, making it more responsive when multiple users are accessing or updating information at the same time.

Is Redmine upgrade worth it?

While asking yourself about Redmine update, the answer is plain and simple—yes. Yes, it is! Keeping your applications up-to-date is fundamental for healthy software management. It allows for:

• Adoption of innovations
• Defect fixing
• Reducing security risks
• Performance improvement

Does it mean you have to upgrade right away? Not at all. Business applications serve business processes, including critical ones. This calls for a certain level of caution.

To mitigate risks to your business linked to software upgrades, there are proven methods:

• Phased rollout: Start with a test environment, and gradually involve more stakeholders until you reach production.
  
• Thorough testing: You are aware of your critical business processes, simulate them on the test environment to verify their smooth flow.
  
• Backups and recovery: Prepare for the unexpected, back your current system up, and define a rollback process for any unforeseeable fatal issues with the upgrade.
• Inform your users: If the version looks different, show some screenshots; if key functionality changes, write up a before/after scenario. Don't forget to remind people in a clear message of the necessity to stay updated.

Especially in bigger companies, the aforementioned points may seem exhausting and time-consuming, as a result, the upgrade may be postponed until "there is more time". In such cases, it helps to set a deadline for the production upgrade, as it creates a sense of necessity (which it really is).

Tired of keeping up?

If your position doesn't strictly include software maintenance (and even if it does), you may feel overwhelmed by the neverending updates cycle. One of the answers is to switch to Easy Redmine cloud, where this agenda is fully outsourced, and the latest versions are guaranteed.

In cases your company disallows cloud services altogether, you may at least make your life easier by using Dockerized Easy Redmine application. This makes installing upgrades (even the major ones) as simple as one command.

The necessity of Redmine updates

While updates and upgrades may seem an overhead, annoyance, or even scary, they are objectively necessary. Benefits do exceed the costs. And when the maintenance costs of an on-premises solution become too high, the cloud has got your back.