Merge branch '97-add-changelog-information-for-releases-1-7-0-and-1-7-1' into 'master'

Resolve "Add changelog information for releases 1.7.0 and 1.7.1"

Closes #97

See merge request !53

docs/release-notes/1.7.0.md

+# 1.7.0
+
+## General
+
+[nmaas 1.7.0](https://gitlab.software.geant.org/nmaas/nmaas-platform/-/releases/v1.7.0) is a milestone release containing some long-awaited features including support for OIDC IdP login and introduction of user access tokens.
+
+Apart from the major changes detailed below the following updates were made.
+
+- Upgrade of Java to version 17 along with upgrading to Spring Boot 3.4.
+- Added bulk deployment status and progress information on the bulk details view and summary information about all ongoing deployments.
+- Implemented data caching mechanism to speed up application catalog view load time.
+
+### Integration with OIDC-compliant IdP
+
+Moved away from the custom SAML-based IdP integration in favor of adding OIDC support. Support for an OIDC-compliant Identity Provider can be enabled using a new set of parameters.
+
+Such IdP is used for federated account login and the user account data and role assignment is still maintained in the nmaas database. 
+
+### User access token management
+
+Added possibility for users to generate personal access tokens to be used for interaction with the API bypassing the Portal and standard JWT-based mechanism.
+
+The newly available authentication mechanism will be applied to existing or new REST endpoints as part of subsequent software releases, e.g. to enable new application version publishing.
+
+<figure markdown>
+  ![View Logs Dropdown](img/05-user-token-management.png)
+  <figcaption>User token management view</figcaption>
+</figure>
\ No newline at end of file

docs/release-notes/1.7.1.md

+# 1.7.1
+
+## General
+
+[nmaas 1.7.1](https://gitlab.software.geant.org/nmaas/nmaas-platform/-/releases/v1.7.1) is a minor release containing 
+mainly enhancements to the JWT creation mechanism and improvements in user roles handling.
+
+- The size of the issued Json Web Tokens was reduced by not including user role entries per domain. Currently, JWT carries information only about user role names and role to domain mapping is retrieved by calling a dedicated REST API endpoint.
+- Removal of group manager role is now correctly processed and triggers removal of related group domain admin roles in particular domains.
+- Some obsolete API calls triggered by the Portal were removed.