diff --git a/Jenkinsfile b/Jenkinsfile
index 0cc8bae..f53149e 100644
--- a/Jenkinsfile
+++ b/Jenkinsfile
@@ -131,10 +131,20 @@ pipeline {
 
           "PloneSaaS": {
             node(label: 'docker') {
-              sh '''docker pull eeacms/plonesaas-devel;docker run -i --rm --name="$BUILD_TAG-plonesaas" -e GIT_NAME="$GIT_NAME" -e GIT_BRANCH="$BRANCH_NAME" -e GIT_CHANGE_ID="$CHANGE_ID" eeacms/plonesaas-devel /debug.sh bin/test --test-path /plone/instance/src/$GIT_NAME -v -vv -s $GIT_NAME'''
+              script {
+               try {
+                  sh '''docker pull eeacms/plonesaas-devel; docker run -i --name="$BUILD_TAG-plonesaas" -e GIT_NAME="$GIT_NAME" -e GIT_BRANCH="$BRANCH_NAME" -e GIT_CHANGE_ID="$CHANGE_ID" eeacms/plonesaas-devel /debug.sh coverage'''
+                  sh '''mkdir -p xunit-reports; docker cp $BUILD_TAG-plonesaas:/plone/instance/parts/xmltestreport/testreports/. xunit-reports/'''
+                  stash name: "xunit-reports", includes: "xunit-reports/*.xml"
+                  sh '''docker cp $BUILD_TAG-plonesaas:/plone/instance/src/$GIT_NAME/coverage.xml coverage.xml'''
+                  stash name: "coverage.xml", includes: "coverage.xml"
+                } finally {
+                  sh '''docker rm -v $BUILD_TAG-plonesaas'''
+                }
+                junit 'xunit-reports/*.xml'
+              }
             }
-          }
-
+          },
         )
       }
     }
@@ -157,7 +167,7 @@ pipeline {
             def nodeJS = tool 'NodeJS11';
             withSonarQubeEnv('Sonarqube') {
                 sh '''sed -i "s|/plone/instance/src/$GIT_NAME|$(pwd)|g" coverage.xml'''
-                sh "export PATH=$PATH:${scannerHome}/bin:${nodeJS}/bin; sonar-scanner -Dsonar.python.xunit.skipDetails=true -Dsonar.python.xunit.reportPath=xunit-reports/*.xml -Dsonar.python.coverage.reportPath=coverage.xml -Dsonar.sources=. -Dsonar.projectKey=$GIT_NAME-$BRANCH_NAME -Dsonar.projectVersion=$BRANCH_NAME-$BUILD_NUMBER"
+                sh "export PATH=$PATH:${scannerHome}/bin:${nodeJS}/bin; sonar-scanner -Dsonar.python.xunit.skipDetails=true -Dsonar.python.xunit.reportPath=xunit-reports/*.xml -Dsonar.python.coverage.reportPaths=coverage.xml -Dsonar.sources=./sparql-client  -Dsonar.projectKey=$GIT_NAME-$BRANCH_NAME -Dsonar.projectVersion=$BRANCH_NAME-$BUILD_NUMBER"
                 sh '''try=2; while [ \$try -gt 0 ]; do curl -s -XPOST -u "${SONAR_AUTH_TOKEN}:" "${SONAR_HOST_URL}api/project_tags/set?project=${GIT_NAME}-${BRANCH_NAME}&tags=${SONARQUBE_TAGS},${BRANCH_NAME}" > set_tags_result; if [ \$(grep -ic error set_tags_result ) -eq 0 ]; then try=0; else cat set_tags_result; echo "... Will retry"; sleep 60; try=\$(( \$try - 1 )); fi; done'''
             }
           }
diff --git a/docs/HISTORY.txt b/docs/HISTORY.txt
index 9523f26..e38725d 100644
--- a/docs/HISTORY.txt
+++ b/docs/HISTORY.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,13 @@
 Changelog
 =========
 
+3.9-dev0 - (unreleased)
+---------------------------
+* fix import error on older python versions
+  [valipod refs #140578]
+* Bug fix: replace encodestring by encodebytes for py3.9 compatibility
+  [valipod refs #140578]
+
 3.8 - (2020-06-17)
 ---------------------------
 * Bug fix: fixed Python3 query execution
diff --git a/sparql.py b/sparql.py
index 1ec2807..5fa63cb 100755
--- a/sparql.py
+++ b/sparql.py
@@ -47,7 +47,10 @@
 Otherwise, the query is read from standard input.
 """
 
-from base64 import encodestring
+try:
+    from base64 import encodestring
+except ImportError:
+    from base64 import encodebytes as encodestring
 from six.moves import input, map
 from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlencode
 from xml.dom import pulldom
@@ -502,7 +505,7 @@ def _build_request(self, query):
                 separator = '&'
             else:
                 separator = '?'
-            uri = self.endpoint.strip() + separator + query
+            uri = self.endpoint.strip() + str(separator) + str(query)
             return ev_request.Request(uri)
         else:
             # uri = self.endpoint.strip().encode('ASCII')
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
index cc1923a..e5db3c6 100644
--- a/version.txt
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-3.8
+3.9-dev0