With the release of Test Accelerator for Z 2.4 last week, we have rounded out the year with exciting releases. Join us with a look and then a look back to 2025.
First, the release from last week...
IBM Test Accelerator for Z 2.4.0 release
Just last month, we brought out a dual version release day (IBM Test Accelerator for Z versions 2.3.0 and 1.0.4 both appeared today.) bringing a new stock image for On-Demand Environments, Early Development Testing on VS Code test failure to Test point occurrence linkage, Functional Testing integration, and IBM Enterprise Edition for Galasa in Maven Central.
Early Development Testing
Early Development Testing on VS Code
Early Development Testing on VS Code in the Test Accelerator for Z 2.4.0 release adds:
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- Additional serviceability was a focus in this release, including:
- More, varied, and improved messages have been added for better user experiences.
- The View > Problems panel will now show invalid properties in .ztest files.
- Non-editable cells in the Test Data Editor are now disabled, with an icon and hover information.
- The editor now opens in read-only mode with an inline info notification explaining that no data is available to display when a test points have neither mocks nor assertions.
- Validation for the semantics in the .ztest file now support programIndex, occurrence, and dataID, which ensure logical consistency and detect invalid references.
- Parameters in the Test Data Editor are aligned with the source order.
- In mocks, users can now view QSAM file status codes in the Test Data Editor.
- Check that the Z Open Debug profile connection is to a Test Accelerator for Z enabled system, via license validation, before using host features like recording or running tests. ( the Functional Test license check capabilities are now also in Early Development Testing for VS Code too! )
- I would very highly recommend reading the specific Test Accelerator for Z Early Development Testing for VS Code Unit Test 2.4 blog by Kristina for much more exciting details!
Early Development Testing on Eclipse
Early Development Testing on Eclipse capabilities improvements in the Test Accelerator for Z 2.4.0 release includes:
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- Unit Testing and Component Testing both now support interpreting SYSTSIN DD content from either sequential data sets or partitioned data sets, in addition to in-stream data.
- Unit Testing now supports variables declared with COBOL's EXTERNAL clause.
On Demand Environments
On Demand Environments in the Test Accelerator for Z 2.4.0 release has:
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- While on a source environment, the SSH certificate now persists across all of the component creation processes. SSH certificates can be used when connecting to the storage server.
- API was added to get all target environment images, and delete a target environment image.
- Note: This release modified how users are defined for an instance.
- All users that will be running instances must now be declared as part of target environment creation.
- Image deployment will pick a random name, and instance provisioning (from a tooling image) will prompt for one of the values.
...and now, the 2025 year in review.
2025 Year in Review
We started off with Test Accelerator 1.0 taking big steps and releasing twice in March with Have some IBM Test Accelerator for Z 1.0.2 for Pi Day and March forth with the release of TAZ 1.0.2.1, where we brought a host of capabilities in Functional Testing and Early Development Testing, concentration on IMS support across the board as well as adding Early development Test capabilities like Entry and alternate workflow patterns. We then we had a graduation party One Dot Zero dot Three, Test Accelerator for Z! with lots of foundational work, and updates, with On Demand Environment Image updates all the while.
These set the stage to the amazing new capabilities from the Test Accelerator for Z 2.x releases with the initial 2.0 release in August bring new names and components in Early Development Testing on VS Code and IBM Enterprise Edition for Galasa. Then capabilities released each month in a continuous delivery cadence from September for 2.1 and then October Test Accelerator for Z 2.2 adding Functional Testing Agentic AI capabilities with WXA4Z 3.0. Later in November, Test Accelerator for Z 2.3 advanced the tooling for a more integrated Functional Testing and a better overall Early Development Testing VS Code experience. Now in December, we again have advanced the core capabilities in Early Development Testing and provided more On Demand Environment usability.
As we showcase the abilities to work with z/OS from VS Code, from the addition of Galasa test runs in Functional Testing to the release of Early Development Testing on VS Code, I would also like to point that over this same year there have been some remarkable achievements that are going to be of great interest to test Accelerator for Z users, including:
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- New capabilities in IBM Developer for z/OS and Z Open Editor, to include the ADFz IDzEE packages bundled in Microsoft Visual Studio Code Marketplace, and the new IDz Select offering.
- IBM Problem Determination (PD) Tools for z/OS where Application Performance Analyzer (APA) now joins Fault Analyzer (FA) and File Manager (FM) in the Microsoft Visual Studio Code Marketplace.
As we look over 2025, it has been a great year, and I can't wait to share the absolutely amazing things coming to IBM Test Accelerator for Z in 2026!
Happy New Year!
Don't forget to Vote Now in the DevOps Dozen 2025! Voting is up until December 31st.
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