Red Hat Developer Hub release notes
Release notes for Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7
Abstract
- 1. New features
- 1.1. Improved plugin configuration merging for include files
- 1.2. Dynamic plugin dependency management
- 1.3. Added Orchestrator plugins with dependencies to RHDH profile.
- 1.4. Updated RHDH theme
- 1.5. Improved Role-based access control (RBAC) usability and consistency
- 1.6. Introducing plugin management by using Extensions
- 1.7. Dynamic plugins now fully supported and a new command-line tool released.
- 1.8. Quick start for platform engineers
- 1.9. Improved global header UX
- 1.10. Improved look and feel of Developer Hub
- 1.11. Versioning for software templates
- 1.12. Support for high availability in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
- 1.13. Adoption Insights in Red Hat Developer Hub
- 1.14. Developer Hub community plugins updated to Backstage 1.39
- 1.15. Improved robustness of dynamic plugin installation
- 2. Breaking changes
- 3. Deprecated functionalities
- 4. Technology Preview
- 5. Developer Preview
- 6. Fixed issues
- 7. Fixed security issues
- 8. Known issues
Red Hat Developer Hub (Developer Hub) 1.7 is now generally available. Developer Hub is a fully supported, enterprise-grade productized version of upstream Backstage v1.39.1. You can access and download the Red Hat Developer Hub application from the Red Hat Customer Portal or from the Ecosystem Catalog.
1. New features
This section highlights new features in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
1.1. Improved plugin configuration merging for include files
Previously, include plugin configuration files would overwrite existing files. With this update, Red Hat Developer Hub will merge configurations from existing include files, only overwriting specific keys while preserving keys defined in existing include files, mirroring the behavior for the plugins key.
1.2. Dynamic plugin dependency management
Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7 adds dynamic plugin dependency management, so that the Operator can manage Kubernetes resources required by plugins.
For more information, see Dynamic plugin dependency management
1.3. Added Orchestrator plugins with dependencies to RHDH profile.
With this update, Orchestrator plugins with dependencies are added to the RHDH profile. The Orchestrator plugin is disabled by default. When you enable the Orchestrator plugin, it will deploy dependencies and work out of the box on RHDH.
1.4. Updated RHDH theme
With this update, the @redhat-developer/red-hat-developer-hub-theme package is replaced with the plugin version from the rhdh-plugins repository to improve theme integration and visual consistency. Minor UI enhancements include updated border radius on cards.
1.5. Improved Role-based access control (RBAC) usability and consistency
This release includes several enhancements to improve the usability and consistency of the RBAC experience:
- Aligned the table height behavior in the "Users and Groups" step with the "Permissions" step.
- Standardized icon colors for edit and delete actions in tables.
- Simplified Overview page titles for users, groups, and permissions.
- Improved layout and labeling in the Conditional Access sidebar.
- Preserved typed input in search fields when selecting users, groups, or plugins.
These changes aim to create a more intuitive and seamless role management workflow.
1.6. Introducing plugin management by using Extensions
In this release, Developer Hub administrators can configure dynamic plugins directly within the Extensions UI. Administrators can now enable, disable, install, or edit the configuration of dynamic plugins on the Extensions Details Page.
This is an opt-in feature that must be enabled by configuration, and it is intended for testing and development environments only; it is not recommended for production use.
This release requires a single replica deployment and uses a persistent volume claim (PVC) for the dynamic plugin configuration file. The Developer Hub backend does not automatically restart when you save configuration changes. You must restart the Developer Hub application for any dynamic plugin configuration updates to take effect.
1.7. Dynamic plugins now fully supported and a new command-line tool released.
Backend dynamic plugins have reached General Availability (GA). A new command-line tool, @red-hat-developer-hub/cli (rhdh-cli), has been released for building and packaging these plugins. As a result, the @janus-idp/cli is now officially deprecated. All users should migrate their build processes to @red-hat-developer-hub/cli to maintain support and receive future updates.
1.8. Quick start for platform engineers
RHDH 1.7 introduces the new Administrator Quick Start guide, a feature designed to streamline the initial setup and configuration process for platform engineers. This guided, interactive experience appears automatically on an administrator's first login, providing clear, step-by-step instructions for essential platform tasks. The goal is to significantly reduce onboarding time and help you configure your RHDH instance with confidence.
Quick start tracks your progress, offers context-aware help that follows you across configuration pages, and can be dismissed and reopened from the header at any time. This guide ensures a confident, efficient, and structured onboarding experience. Note that when permissions are enabled, this feature is currently available for administrators only, with support for other roles planned for future versions.
1.9. Improved global header UX
With this release, you can display a user avatar in the profile dropdown in the global header.
1.10. Improved look and feel of Developer Hub
With this update, the look and feel of Developer Hub has been updated to better match the visual style of PatternFly 6 and improve alignment with the {company} product portfolio.
1.11. Versioning for software templates
RHDH has been enhanced to provide crucial traceability, allowing users to easily identify the template version used to create a specific component. This enhancement helps determine if an older entity needs updating or if a bug is linked to a particular template version.
Scaffolder templates can now be versioned using the backstage.io/template-version annotation and the catalog:template:version action. When used with the catalog:template:version action, the annotation of the template is applied to the generated catalog entity.
1.12. Support for high availability in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
Red Hat Developer Hub now supports high availability setups in Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). This enhancement allows the deployment to scale beyond a single replica, ensuring the application remains operational and accessible even in the event of failures or disruptions.
For more information, see Configuring high availability in Red Hat Developer Hub.
1.13. Adoption Insights in Red Hat Developer Hub
In this release, the Adoption Insights plugin is fully supported and enabled by default. The Adoption Insights plugin provides key metrics and trends to help you understand Developer Hub usage.
If you have an existing Adoption Insights plugin custom configuration with GitHub Container registry images already set up, you can upgrade to the latest version to omit configurations using GitHub Container registry images. For more information, see Configuring the Adoption Insights in Red Hat Developer Hub.
1.14. Developer Hub community plugins updated to Backstage 1.39
The Developer Hub community plugins have been updated to Backstage version 1.39.
1.15. Improved robustness of dynamic plugin installation
Previously, the Red Hat Developer Hub would fail to start if a specified include file in dynamic plugins configuration did not exist. This update addresses the issue by logging a warning and skipping the file if it is not found.
2. Breaking changes
This section lists breaking changes in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
None.
3. Deprecated functionalities
This section lists deprecated functionalities in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
3.1. Backstage CR versions v1alpha1 and v1alpha2
Backstage CR versions v1alpha1 and v1alpha2 are deprecated in 1.7 and will be removed in 1.9
Additional resources
3.2. Deprecation of Bundled Plugin Wrappers
To enhance performance, decrease image size, and reduce maintenance, the method of including "wrapped" dynamic plugins within the main Red Hat Developer Hub container image is being deprecated as of release 1.7.0. We are transitioning to a model where all dynamic plugins will be distributed as independent OCI artifacts.
For the 1.7.0 release, this is a deprecation notice only; there are no breaking changes, and all previously bundled plugins will continue to be bundled. However, we encourage customers to prepare for the removal of wrappers in a future release by beginning to use the new OCI artifacts in 1.8.0. Documentation will be updated to guide this migration.
For more information, see Loading a plugin packaged as an OCI image.
Additional resources
4. Technology Preview
This section lists Technology Preview features in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
Technology Preview features provide early access to upcoming product innovations, enabling you to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process. However, these features are not fully supported under Red Hat Subscription Level Agreements, may not be functionally complete, and are not intended for production use. As Red Hat considers making future iterations of Technology Preview features generally available, we will attempt to resolve any issues that customers experience when using these features. See: Technology Preview support scope.
None.
5. Developer Preview
This section lists Developer Preview features in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
Developer Preview features are not supported by Red Hat in any way and are not functionally complete or production-ready. Do not use Developer Preview features for production or business-critical workloads. Developer Preview features provide early access to functionality in advance of possible inclusion in a Red Hat product offering. Customers can use these features to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process. Developer Preview features might not have any documentation, are subject to change or removal at any time, and have received limited testing. Red Hat might provide ways to submit feedback on Developer Preview features without an associated SLA.
For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Developer Preview features, see Developer Preview Support Scope.
5.1. Red Hat Developer Lightspeed for Red Hat Developer Hub
Red Hat Developer Lightspeed for Red Hat Developer Hub is available as a Developer Preview feature in Red Hat Developer Hub, as a virtual assistant powered by generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) designed for RHDH. The assistant offers in-depth insights into RHDH, including its wide range of capabilities. You can interact with this assistant to explore and learn more about RHDH in greater detail. For more information, see Red Hat Developer Lightspeed for Red Hat Developer Hub.
6. Fixed issues
This section lists issues fixed in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
6.1. Fixed issues in 1.7.0
6.1.1. Improved keyboard accessibility
In this release, various fixes and improvements have been made to improve the keyboard accessibility in Red Hat Developer Hub.
Additional resources
6.1.2. Fixed techdocs-module-addons-contrib plugin not displayed as preinstalled plugin
Previously, the techdocs-module-addons-contrib plugin was not displayed as preinstalled in Extensions. With this update, the plugin is displayed as preinstalled.
Additional resources
6.1.3. Excessive queries to the relations database table from the rbac-backend plugin
Before this update, excessive queries from the rbac-backend plugin to the relations database table caused performance issues. As a consequence, users experienced slow performance. With this release, the RBAC backend plugin has been optimized to improve performance by preventing excessive queries to the 'relations' database table.
Additional resources
6.1.4. The Operator reverts the number of replicas set automatically by a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA)
Previously the RHDH Operator enforced replicas: 1 from its default deployment config, which overrode scaling decisions.
With this update, replicas: 1 is removed from the default deployment profile and the DB-statefulset manifest.
This update allows HPA to control scaling as expected, so that RHDH instances can now scale dynamically with HPA without being reset by the operator.
Additional resources
6.1.5. Improved error messaging for bulk imports
Before this update, when users selected 100 or more repositories simultaneously, the create pull request action could fail with a generic error message. In this release, we provide a more informative error message when creating pull requests for multiple repositories. This bug fix helps users to understand the issue by providing more information about what caused the error.
Additional resources
6.1.6. Excessive authorize requests generated by the RBAC backend API
Before this update, excessive authorize requests in the REST API for creating/editing roles, permissions, and conditions in rbac-backend led to performance issues. With this release, the excessive authorization requests in the REST API have been fixed by reducing permissions to only 'user' credentials.
Additional resources
6.1.7. Custom title not persisting on refresh of visited cards
Previously, the custom title set via app.title in the Top Visited and Recently Visited cards did not persist after a page refresh, instead it defaulted back to Red Hat Developer Hub.
With this update, after each refresh, the cards correctly display the custom title defined in the app.title configuration.
Additional resources
6.1.8. Fixed role name updates via API to correctly propagate to permissions, metadata, and conditions
Previously, when a role name was updated using the RBAC API, existing permissions, conditions, and metadata were not updated and remained mapped to the old role name. With this update, role name changes are now correctly updated.
Additional resources
6.1.9. Fixed role actions tooltip delay issue
Previously, tooltips on action icons in the Role list table of the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) page were slow to appear on hover.
This issue has been fixed, ensuring that tooltips now appear immediately when hovering over action icons in the RBAC page.
Additional resources
6.1.10. The Extensions catalog does not show an error when the backend plugin is not installed
Previously, if the backend Extensions was not installed, RHDH showed the skeleton "forever" instead of an error message.
With this update, the UI shows an empty state with a message to enable the backend plugin.
Additional resources
6.1.11. Fixed Profile dropdown showing Guest instead of user's name with OIDC authentication
Previously, the Profile dropdown in the Global Header showed Guest instead of the logged-in user’s display name when logging in using the OIDC authentication.
With this update, the Profile dropdown now correctly displays the user's name by first checking spec.profile.displayName, then metadata.title, and finally falls back to the name shown on the Profile card in the Settings page if neither is available.
Additional resources
6.1.12. Excessive filter arguments generated by the RBAC backend enforcerDelegate.getFilteredPolicy
Before this update, RHDH performance was affected by the duplication of filter arguments in enforcerDelegate.getFilteredPolicy. With this release, the duplication of filter arguments in enforcerDelegate.ts is avoided.
Additional resources
6.1.13. Fixed Jenkins permissions not being displayed in RBAC UI
Previously, Jenkins permissions were not exposed by Jenkins at /api/jenkins/.well-known/backstage/permissions/metadata with the change to JenkinsBuilder. As a result, RBAC UI did not display the permissions. In this release, users can configure Jenkins permissions by using the RBAC UI.
Additional resources
7. Fixed security issues
You can view the security issues fixed in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7 at Red Hat Security Updates.
8. Known issues
This section lists known issues in Red Hat Developer Hub 1.7.
8.1. Latest Orchestrator feature set is unavailable
This release includes the Orchestrator plugin version from 1.6. As a result, the latest feature set is not yet available. The Orchestrator plugin will be updated to the latest feature set in a future release.
Additional resources