Releases

A release freezes the work that is done. When you create one, all finished tasks are collected under a name and a number, and from then on they are a record of what was delivered. For every release you can download a report.

Creating a release

A release takes everything in the Done column of the board at once; you cannot pick single cards. Move a task to Done first if it should be part of the release.

The dialog Release the Done column. It says that 1 item in Done will be released and asks for a release name, with the buttons Release and Cancel. — The release dialog on a board with one task in Done.

Open the Board tab and move the finished cards into Done.
Click Release at the top right. The button is greyed out while Done is empty.
The dialog Release the Done column tells you how many items will be released. Type a Release name of 1 to 100 characters, for example Sprint 1.
Click Release. Click Cancel instead if you changed your mind.

The board confirms with a message such as “Released “Sprint 1” (2 items).” and the Done column is empty again. Releases are numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on in the order you create them.

What happens to released tasks

They leave the board and appear on the Releases tab.
They can no longer be changed: their details show Released: <name> and the note “This item is released. Only comments can be added or edited.”
In the tree, a released task is marked with the name of its release.

The release list

The Releases tab lists all releases of the project, newest first. Each line shows the number, the name, the date and the number of items.

The Releases tab of Orbit Launch. Release number 1, Design freeze, lists its three tasks with epic, category and assignee, and has a download button for the report. — The Releases tab with one release opened.

Click the Releases tab.
Click a release line to show its tasks, with their epic, category and assignee. Click it again to hide them.
Click a task to open its details at the right; they are read-only.

A released task opened from the Releases tab. The detail view shows the badge Released: Design freeze and the note that only comments can be added or edited; the fields are greyed out. — A released task: its fields are greyed out, only comments can be added.

The release report

The release report is a PDF document for one release that you can keep, print or send on. It contains:

the project name, the release number and name (for example Release #1 – Design freeze) and the date of the release;
one section for every task: its name, its epic, its story points, its category, its formatted description and its acceptance criteria;
a page number at the foot of every page, such as Page 1 / 2.

The report is written in the language you chose in your user settings: the headings and the date format follow that language. The text of your tasks stays as you wrote it. A release without tasks produces a report that says so.

Exporting the release report

You download the report from the Releases tab. Mabato builds the PDF in your browser and starts the download, so nothing is stored on the server.

The right end of a release line: the item count and the Download Report button.

Click the Releases tab.
Click the download button (an arrow pointing into a tray) at the right end of the release line. Its tooltip is Download Report.
Wait for the download. The button is disabled while the report is being created.
Open the file from your browser’s downloads. It is named after the project, the release number and the release name, for example Orbit-Launch-release-1-Design-freeze.pdf.

To print the report, open the PDF in your PDF viewer and print it from there. If the report cannot be created, a message says Couldn’t create the report. next to a Retry button.