Release Notes

October 28, 2021

Updated Slack Integration for Notebooks

The updated Slack integration for Abstract Notebooks automatically shares notifications for notebook reviews to one or more of your Slack channels of choice, and unfurls Notebook links pasted into Slack.

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February 17, 2021

Abstract Notebooks, now available in limited preview

We have built a major new product: Notebooks, with built in data and insights on the work, and integrations into other design and development tools. This release is a public preview, and we are rolling out to waitlisted users over the next several weeks.

Notebooks is a new designer-specific platform where cross-functional teams can gather requirements, review designs, and continuously measure what works, all in one thoughtfully-built space.

What’s included in today’s release:

A beautiful, rich text editor to capture context around any design effort. Fully supports Markdown syntax, emojis, and GIFs.
A new Figma plugin, which integrates directly with Notebooks.
~Add and arrange designs directly from Figma into beautiful presentations that display your work and the context behind it. Any design elements can be added: individual components, frames, or entire pages.
~Access all your Notebooks from within Figma, and publish any frames or components you’ve worked on in one click.
~Update all your work in Notebooks in a single click, without leaving Figma or having to rearrange or recreate presentations of your work for review.

Drag and drop image support for most image file formats and GIFs
Rich comment threads for both text and images help you capture feedback on specific elements within a Notebook.
Invite important stakeholders to review your work, and get structured feedback in the form of approvals and change requests.
~Create unlimited review requests per Notebook, which is helpful for designs that need multiple rounds of review, or different feedback from different audiences.
~Close a review once you’ve gotten all the feedback needed to get back to work.
~Use the built-in notification system to automate the review process so that you don’t have to remind reviewers for their feedback.

Set a range of statuses for a Notebook, which helps your collaborators know where you are in the design process across a project.
A new, bi-directional GitHub integration connects design and development work together in a Notebook.
~See the status and other relevant information about GitHub Issues and Pull Requests in a related Notebook.
~Notebook links unfurl to show the Notebook name and project over in GitHub.

Insights surfaces actions taking place across Notebooks; helping you keep track of the work your teams are doing. It includes:

~An attention block that tells you which Notebooks might need a review decision, a nudge, or are being reworked.
~Top-level counts that display Notebooks and reviews being opened and closed over the past 7 days.
~An overview of the spread of activity across busy Notebooks and contributors, helping you understand what’s working well and where there might be blocks.
~A deeper look at the range of contributions your team is making, from creating and updating content to feedback and reviews

Organize your Notebooks into unlimited projects, which represent major work streams or products in your organization.
New users will see a brief onboarding experience when viewing Notebooks for the first time, to learn about how Notebooks work for design teams and their peers in engineering and product management.

October 23, 2024

98.4.2

This version contains various updates to ensure better app performance and stability

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July 26, 2021

We have shipped a new major version of our Branches desktop app (v98) with a number of performance and usability improvements including:

Performance Improvements:

Stability and performance of Branches Sketch plugin while opening and saving Sketch documents
Branches Sketch plugin (Reduced in size by about 1MB)

Usability Improvements:

When a file is uploaded to Sketch Workspace, closed, then reopened, Branches users have to upload the file to Sketch Workspace as a new file instead of being able to update the already existing instance. This workflow is not ideal so we have updated our Sketch plugin to reallocate with the appropriate Sketch file.
Correct timing dependent commit condition that resulted in the loss of recent commits.
Remove the Open Quick Commit button from Branches app as it opens an old commit, Quick Commit happens over in the Sketch plugin.

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April 6, 2021

97.2

Enhancements

Contributors can now leave multi-line commit messages!

Fixes

Some odd interactions between the Sketch editing file and the .abstractBackup file that may have prevented committing work on a branch have been resolved.
Resolved an uncommon bug that caused Sketch to crash when committing.
Abstract and the Gallery Sketch plugin are more compatible now.
When using Safari, on hover in preview and Collections layers, the overlay controls no longer remain visible after hovering.
Projects once again correctly sort by with the “recently updated” option.
Organizations owners are now able to leave the organization when other org admins exist via the Personal Settings menu.
The notifications window should now close as expected after clicking on a notification.

March 2, 2021

97.1

This release of the Abstract Versions desktop app contains a few bug fixes and improvements.

Enhancements

Updated the name of our Sketch plugin to Abstract Versions, to make way for our upcoming Notebooks plugin.
Added support for XD version 36 and beyond.

Fixes

Resolved issues causing some artboards and changes to be lost after committing.
Re-enabled the keyboard shortcut cmd + enter for submitting the quick commit form.
Updated broken Help Center links in the XD plugin.
Fixed an issue causing an alert dialog to appear when saving a tracked file in Sketch.
Resolved an issue where the Sketch commit bar did not show the project name for certain libraries after opening from Sketch.

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January 26, 2021

New Features

We've added Apple Silicon architecture support for Abstract CLI and Sketch plugin
We improved how you move around the app with a unified global navigation and theme

Enhancements

Contributors are now able to open a file untracked while the same file has already been opened tracked

Fixes

Fixed a bug where the commit window would appear on the wrong screen when using an external display

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November 24, 2020

96.2

Enhancements

Abstract now supports XD 35.

Fixes

Abstract will now share a more helpful error message if an action fails because it requires a local Sketch installation.
Fixed an issue where Inspect would show an incorrect background fill color on a symbol instance after an override was removed from the master symbol.

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November 4, 2020

96.1.1

🌊 We’ve added Big Sur support! This includes a new application icon as well as speed enhancements to the Quick Commit window via a new, native Sketch plugin.
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Bug Fixes

Added support for Adobe XD v34
Fixed a bug where components from Abstract libraries couldn’t be used in the insert window
We no longer force cleanup untracked libraries that are still being used
Fixed a bug where Sketch Cloud links were breaking after committing and re-opening the same file
Fixed a rare issue where Sketch would crash after upgrading a file’s version
When using Big Sur the Quick Commit window will now return focus to Sketch
Resolve diverged branch button will now always displays as it should without restart
Project context menus now match throughout the app
Fixed a bug where an update from master would remove artboards without the conflict resolution flow

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September 22, 2020

96.0.1

Experience better app stability with the bug fixes and behind the scenes improvements we're shipping this release.

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Enhancements

Enabled Abstract support for Sketch v69.
Enabled Abstract support for XD v33
Added support for adding, editing, and removing Sketch color variables in the commit history, and linking color variables through libraries.
Added support for ignored assistants in Sketch.
We made some tweaks to improve performance when generating assets.
Adding new colleagues to Abstract? They’ll now see an onboarding tutorial.

Bug Fixes

Resolved a handful of sync issues that would occur when attempting to pull project data.
Fixed a bug where progress toasts remained visible on uncommitted changes errors until the app was refreshed.
Fixed a bug that would prevent the commit footer from appearing despite having changes to commit.
Fixed a bug where users were able to add removed layers to a collection.
Fixed a bug that would prevent fullscreen collection presentation to cover the entire window.
Fixed a rare race condition that would cause comments to instead display an error.

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September 22, 2020

96.1.2

Fixes

Fixed a bug that would occasionally ask users to update a file’s Sketch version to the same version when Updating from Master; the app will now suggest updating your Sketch version.
Fixed a bug where linked library symbols wouldn’t appear in the Insert menu.
Fixed broken links that point to our Help Center.

August 31, 2020

We’ve made some big performance improvements to commit speed. And, over the next few weeks, we’ll continue rolling out updates to opening, renaming, deleting, and merging files. With Reporting, we’re also surfacing data that gives Admins the ability to see the status of work across the team.

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Features

Reporting: Enterprise admins can now see team activity on projects, branches, and commits, both at the organization and contributor levels (viewable on the web only).

Enhancements

We’ve been rolling out changes over the last few weeks to make opening files, interacting with files, and creating commits much faster.
Abstract now fully supports Adobe XD v32.

Fixes

Fixed an error when updating Adobe XD files based on an invalid version number.
Prevents an error that occur on projects where files had been opened untracked.
Fixed “Project could not be unsynced” error.

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August 11, 2020

95.0.1

Bug Fixes

Fixed sync error on High Sierra.
Opening a file untracked will no longer fail to sync master branch.

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