4.0.0 Changelog

v4.0.0

Overview

Added

Alarm banner feature
Gauge GUI objects
Numeric Text GUI object
Direct addressing in Canvas (assign an address instead of a tag)
PDF viewer (file.openPdf script function)
Screenshots (system.screenshot script function)
String Table feature
Remote page control feature (control pages with a PLC tag)
Text auto-resizing when resizing objects
Custom touch sounds for project
Video playback
Application Update feature (upgrade Xpanel within the same major version, from Canvas or using a USB/SD Card)
Project Library (store image/video/sound/pdf files directly in the project)
Ability to import tags from CICON project (.csv or .VAR)
Ability to import tags from Allen-Bradley .L5X file
Recovery email if project password is lost
Server Protocols
- EtherNet/IP Server
- Sparkplug Edge Node
Client Protocols
- Allen-Bradley DF-1
- Hallim loader protocol

Changed

System tags are now a separate device type, and are easier to create
Updated the frame monitor and improved performance
Improved performance of tag loading based on page usage
Xpanel recovery mode now looks for a file named xpupdate.swu in the storage root instead of using a user-specified file

Removed

"Switch to Control Center" button in the runtime three-touch menu

Designer

Added

Added Numeric Text object
Added a recovery email option to projects
Added a System device to the list of tag device options
Added a warning if the simulator files cannot be found
Added ability to import tags from a .L5X file
Added ability to import tags from CICON/MapleLogic (using a .csv file)
Added ability to import tags from CICON/MapleLogic (using a .VAR file)
Added ability to resize the font size of text objects when resizing an object
Added ability to choose the tag group in the Edit Tag window
Added ability to sort the Tag Editor by name
Added alarm banner
Added Allen-Bradley DF-1 device protocol
Added auto focus property for text/numeric input object
Added auto font resizing to Numeric Text objects
Added behavior to populate the Property Editor with the project properties when clicking the Home Tab
Added copy/paste of alarms to/from external programs
Added enable property for buttons
Added EtherNet/IP Server
Added expand/collapse all buttons to the Select Tag windows
Added Gauge objects
Added GUI commands for audio files
Added ODVA EtherNet/IP support to the Address Editor
Added PDF Viewer
Added Project Library
Added remote page control
Added script to take screenshots at runtime
Added Sparkplug Publisher Server device
Added String Tables
Added support for tag-based expression binding
Added system tags for USB/SD availability
Added tag-based scaling to script keypad
Added the Hallim loader serial protocol
Added the page index and page type to the page name in the Project Tree
Added Transmission Delay and Read Block Tolerance serial device properties
Added Touch Sound property to Project Settings
Added update functionality to the Connection Setup Window
Added Video Playback

Changed

Changed the name of the initial value property for remote tags in the Tag Editor
Combined the schema and product versions
Reorganized the I/O Device general properties
Updated alarms to not allow runtime only tags from being assigned to them
Updated invalid username warning for IAM
Updated Project Tree to sort by page type and index
Updated switch/lamp icons
Updated switch/lamp objects to display initial value state
Updated the Alarm Labels UI
Updated the Alarm Summary object style
Updated the alignment label and context menu spacing
Updated the behavior of the previous and next buttons in the Edit Tag window
Updated the Cross Reference button style
Updated the color for the undefined primitive in the script editor
Updated the "Convert Project Size File" menu label to include "..."
Updated the default images used for action buttons
Updated the default tag types in various locations
Updated the font used in the warning windows
Updated the GUI command list to be in alphabetical order
Updated the layout of the About Window
Updated the layout of the Project Properties window
Updated the layout of the Script Properties window
Updated the meaning for the swapString property
Updated the MQTT JSON Publisher Edit Tag window placeholders
Updated the naming restrictions throughout the designer
Updated the New Project Window design/style
Updated the numeric format preview to be consistent throughout the designer
Updated the OPC UA Server Security Policy options
Updated the order of tag properties when copying and pasting (swapped tag name and group path)
Updated the page indices so that each page type has its own set of indices
Updated the performance for opening/populating Tag Lists
Updated the Schedule Editor layout
Updated the style for the MenuBar and top toolbars
Updated the style for the switch/lamp state delete icon
Updated the System Tag UI
Updated the tag icons for tags in the Data Log Editor tag list
Updated the visible/disabled tag properties in the Edit Tag window
Updated trends to not allow runtime only tags from being assigned to them

Removed

Removed iNP519 screen size from project conversion feature
Removed the advanced properties from system tags
Removed the ODBC option from the Audit Log setting
Removed the option to create a new local tag for OPC UA server devices
Removed the scaling option from local and bit access tags

Runtime

Added

Script to play video files
Script to open PDF files
Frame monitor
String table
Screenshot script
Alarm banner
Remote page control
System tag to determine if a USB or SD card is inserted (Xpanel only)
System tag device
Dynamic page registration
Keypad max and min can scale
Text input and numeric input can automatically get focus on page open
Web server detects when disconnected from the host server

Removed

"Switch to Control Center" button

Changed

About dialog shows product version
All dialogs open as a subwindow rather than a native window
Empty language font names will be treated as if they're not set
Invalid tags now show warning overlay
No longer able to reopen the current page
Base pages and popup pages have their own index sets
Enlarged corner buttons from 32x32 to 40x40

Gateway

Added

New remote I/O drivers:
- EtherNet/IP Server
- Sparkplug 3.0 Edge Node (MQTT publisher)
- Hallim Loader Protocol Serial Master
- Allen-Bradley DF-1 Serial Master
General:
- Dynamic Tag Registration:
  - This feature allows for increased performance by only loading the tags relevant to the currently open page(s)/script(s)
  - Tags which are included in alarms, datalogger models, trends, recipes, and expressions will always stay registered, however gateway may not publish their values directly
- The application naming/branding can now be configured at build-time
- Gateway will now perform a check for valid Cimon hardware on Xpanel
Remote IO driver:
- A transmission delay can now be specified for some client/master drivers
  - This should allow for better compatibility for lower-performance devices
- A "block tolerance" can now be specified for some client/master drivers
  - This represents the number of addresses which are allowed when considering if two tags have "continuous addresses"
  - The previous behavior would always have a tolerance of 0

Changed

General:
- The "core" library is now built as a dynamic/shared library
  - The main benefit users will see from this change is reduced binary sizes
- The "request manager" system was split into multiple stages, to better handle passing the requests to their respective worker threads
  - This should result in "stutters" being less common when a sudden influx of requests occurs (typically from scripts)
- CSV creation will now check that at least 1GB of space on the filesystem is available when destination is local/ftp
  - This is to help prevent cases where automatic CSV creation used all of the space on the filesystem, often leading to a crash
- Updated the return code upon exit to reflect the cause/trigger of the exit
  - This is to assist in detecting whether gateway exited cleanly, which is used to determine whether the daemon should restart gateway on exit
- Dependency management has been overhauled, which will allow more frequent upgrades in future versions
- Updated the SD card path on Xpanel to match the location in more recent Xpanel images
Virtual drivers:
- Simulator virtual drivers:
  - Now given their own thread, which allows for them to behave more consistently with the remote I/O drivers
- Shared tag driver:
  - Renamed from "shared" to " shared", to better match the other gateway core driver/manager naming
- System tag driver:
  - Split from the shared driver, will now use device name " system"
Remote I/O drivers:
- Cimon UA Bus Master:
  - Lowered maximum block sizes to correct values, was using the larger UA Net values previously
- Modbus TCP Client/Modbus RTU Master
  - The "swapString" property's behavior has now been inverted to match the server
- Modbus TCP Server/Modbus RTU Slave
  - Server tags using a string data type will now update all mapped addresses, regardless of the size of the tag's current string value
    - This will resolve previous issues where "leftover" data would sometimes be cached by the server/slave, resulting in inconsistent behavior
- Modbus RTU Master:
  - Lowered maximum block size from 128 to 125
- Modbus TCP Server:
  - On Xpanel, the default port of 502 will be remapped to 8502
    - The OS on the Xpanel will forward traffic from port 502 to 8502, so Modbus TCP clients should still connect to the server using port 502
- ODVA EtherNet/IP Client:
  - The run mode will now be set upon connection to the device
  - More detailed error messages have been added
  - Updated how communication timeouts are detected/handled

Removed

Remote I/O drivers:
- CIMON UA Net Client/Cimon UA Bus Master:
  - Boolean/bit data is no longer supported on the S device
- EtherNet/IP Server:
  - The "useAllTags" property is no longer supported

Platform

Added

Added OS version display in Settings app About page
Audio hardware support (pending)
Application Update page in the settings app
SSH toggle option in the settings app
Device architecture in the settings app About Xpanel page
Reintroduced touch calibration after holding for 30 seconds
- device now beeps once 30 seconds has been reached
Added misc. Korean translations in the settings app
Checksum checking for SWU files
OS-level network manager - improves performance of network connection and disconnection (internal)

Removed

VNC server support
WebSSH support
Cursor enable/disable option in the settings app
Clock from the Xpanel desktop
Removed shutdown screen while rebooting
Chromium (was previously used by the frame monitor)

Changed

Cursor is auto-enabled when a mouse is plugged in. The cursor can no longer be used without a mouse.
Recovery mode now looks for a file named xpupdate.swu in the storage root instead of using a user-specified file
Recovery partition now uses a loading bar instead of a terminal
Server config in the settings app now uses on/off toggles instead of "Autorun on Startup"
Updated the window manager
- Updated the popup window border UI
- Updated the touch calibration app
- Updated the loading bar UI in the settings app
Updated the startup splash screen image and loading bar
Settings app collapse button now only appears in portrait mode

Installer

Added

Support for the variable_output (CICON tag import) feature
Support for the hmi_update (Application Update) feature

Changed

Visual C++ is now only installed by default if an existing installation is not found
Updated Visual C++ redistributable to 2015-2022
Misc. code refactors
structure of version.json to include new features
Made required features hidden on the feature selection screen

Fixed

Issues with reinstalling the Visual C++ redistributable

Removed

Support for Mac builds
Unused scripts and other resource files
Unused portal configuration in configure.vbs
Working directory property from desktop and Start menu shortcuts
Schema version property from version.json