docs/release-notes/15/15-4-0/README.md
Release date: 2025-03-19
We released OpenProject 15.4.0. The release contains several bug fixes, and we recommend updating to the newest version. In these Release Notes, we will give an overview of important feature changes. At the end, you will find a complete list of all changes and bug fixes.
Take a look at our release video showing the most important features introduced in OpenProject 15.4.0:
Starting with OpenProject 15.4, users will be able to choose whether they want to manually schedule their work packages or enable automatic scheduling. This highly requested feature of automatic scheduling, based on predecessor and child relations, simplifies managing complex project setups.
[!NOTE] The new feature will not overwrite existing dates for any existing work packages. However, it can change the scheduling mode. By default, manual scheduling is enabled. Existing work packages with children will be in automatic mode – with dates derived from their children.
Manual mode is the default scheduling mode for new work packages. Users can freely select dates and can set timelines based on specific needs, deadlines or external factors. Manually scheduled work packages behave as they did before 15.4.
In the new automatic mode, manually setting a start date is not possible. Instead, when a task is scheduled, the date picker automatically determines the start date based on the closest predecessor and optionally the specified lag to determine the minimum number of days between two work packages. Please also note that administrators can specify which days are considered working days, and only these are taken into account when scheduling based on a lag.
In other words: In automatic mode, the work package starts as soon as possible, considering related work packages.
However, you can still define a duration, which adjusts the finish date accordingly. This ensures a reliable sequence of automatically scheduled work packages that adapt dynamically to planning changes.
See the difference between manual scheduling and automatic scheduling in Gantt view:
[!NOTE] With the updates of the scheduling mode in this release, an automatic entry will be added to the Activity of the work package: "Scheduling mode set to: [..]". If you are using the updated at information of work packages, for example, by including this information in work package lists, be aware that the most recent activity in the work packages will be updated accordingly.
To learn more about how this change might help you manage your projects, please read this blog article on the new automatic scheduling mode that we published some weeks ago. See our documentation to get detailed information about how to use the automatic scheduling mode.
The date picker now supports single date mode, making it easier to set deadlines without needing a start date. Previously, all work packages (except milestones) had both a start and finish date field, even when only one was needed. Now, by default, new work packages have only a finish date, simplifying workflows for teams that don't need a date range.
If you need both dates, simply click + Start date or set a duration to switch back to range mode. Of course, if you want single date mode with just a Start date instead of a Finish date, this is possible too.
In February 2025, we already published a milestone for our Meetings module: Recurring meetings. With OpenProject 15.4, we released another great new feature that will help users better manage their meeting outcomes. They can now note relevant decisions, questions and follow-up actions for each agenda item. This way, all participants as well as users that could not attend the meeting will have a documentation of the relevant meeting outcome(s), displayed on each agenda item.
If you add an outcome to a work package in a meeting, this will also be displayed on the work package, if you navigate to the Meetings tab.
Additionally, you can now move an agenda item to the next meeting, if it is part of a meeting series.
[!NOTE] In our classic Meetings module (which we plan to remove with OpenProject 16.0), users can write "minutes", which are notes taken during the meeting. This was a feature much requested also for our recurring and one-time meetings. Now, in recurring or one-time meetings, users can still add notes to an agenda item and edit them during the meeting, but now they can also use the outcome feature to make it more clear.
The updated Meetings module now allows you to set a meeting status:
Once the status is "in progress", you can add outcomes to every agenda item. If it is a recurring meeting, you can also move the agenda item to the next meeting:
[!NOTE] In the following months, we will continue working on the Meetings module. For example, when a recurring meeting is closed, it shall be possible to move all agenda items without outcomes to the next meeting (see this feature). Also, a meeting agenda items backlog for recurring meetings is planned (see this feature).
With OpenProject 15.4, you can now generate nicely styled PDF files from a work package description. This is particularly helpful if you want to create contracts or other formal documents.
If you click the "More" menu in a work package, you previously had the "Download PDF" option which created a document that shows all important work package information, including attributes like assignee and the work package description. Now, this option is renamed to Generate PDF and includes many more possibilities. Clicking "Generate PDF" opens an interface where you can customize your PDF, e.g. by choosing if you want hyphenation and by entering a footer text.
Most important, you can now choose between two templates: One is Attributes and description, which creates a document like you were used to before 15.4. The other is Contract, which generates a PDF in the style of a German contract and includes only the work package description:
Read this blog article to learn more about how this feature for automatically creating PDFs from the work package description can be a great help for organizations: Beyond MS Word: Automatically generate beautifully styled pdf files for contracts, approval notices and project orders.
See our documentation for information on how to use this feature.
Improving project portfolio management is one of our focus goals for 2025. With OpenProject 15.4, users who manage many projects and project attributes will benefit from feature updates regarding autocompleters in project lists:
This feature seems small, but can have a big impact: When a user quotes another user in the work package activity tab, the quoted user now automatically gets @mentioned and therefore notified. This way, users won't miss information again that is clearly relevant for them.
With OpenProject 15.4, we restructured some parts in the administration, so that admins can find the settings for work package priorities and document categories in the existing settings for the modules – all in one place. Therefore, the enumerations page in the administration has been removed. Instead, you can now find...
document categories under Administration → Files → Categories.
[!NOTE]
With 17.0 release Document categories were renamed to Document types and were moved to Administration -> Documents Read more in our system admin guide.
We have been offering docker builds for the following architectures:
We have put in considerable effort trying to keep ppc64le running, but it keeps causing disproportionate maintenance effort. So without a native runner, it is unfortunately not practical to keep supporting this. Please reach out to us if you'd like to provide support to maintain a ppc64 architecture.
For more information, see this code maintenance work package on our Community instance.
<!--more-->A very special thank you goes to City of Cologne, Deutsche Bahn and ZenDiS for sponsoring released or upcoming features. Your support, alongside the efforts of our amazing Community, helps drive these innovations. We also thank the City of Chemnitz for providing us with a lot of helpful input regarding the automatic scheduling mode.
Also, a big thanks to our Community members for reporting bugs and helping us identify and provide fixes. Special thanks for reporting and finding bugs go to René Schodder, Abhiyan Paudyal, Gunter Ohrner and Markus K..
Last but not least, we are very grateful for our very engaged translation contributors on Crowdin, who translated quite a few OpenProject strings! This release we would like to particularly thank user greench, for an outstanding number of translations into Turkish.
Would you like to help out with translations yourself? Then take a look at our translation guide and find out exactly how you can contribute. It is very much appreciated!