Release notes of items completed between 2021 R2 and 2022 R1
Alpana Server and Alpana Designer have been upgraded from 3.4.1.19 to 3.5.0.18
Alpana Update File Dependency has been upgraded from 1.2.0.1 to 1.2.1.3
Introduction
Version 2022R1 is a major release and includes new features and improvements and bugfixes.
The application is updated to the latest web technologies (.NET 6), with the latest security features and patches.
To operate Alpana server you will need to install .NET 6 Hosting Bundle and .NET Desktop Runtime. Please check Prerequisites chapter for more information.
Upgrade Instructions
To upgrade your installation, please see the generic upgrading chapter.
Don’t forget to instruct all your users to clear their browser cache or do a hard refresh.
Alpana Server
Installer
The installer will check prerequisites before installing Alpana, but you need to install .net core runtime 6 before starting it.
License upgrade
Important: This is a new major version, so it requires a valid support contract to upgrade, and you must ask for a new license Activation to your support.
Main Features
New widget: Switch Panel
A new widget is coming to this release: The switch Panel can be used to show different widget depending on context. From a value of a parameter, the display widget will show a specific widget configured at the design time.
New Feature Circular gauge multicolor zones
A major improvement has been applied to the Gauge widget: It is now possible to configure up to 10 colors zone. It’s possible to bind the zone to parameters.
New Feature: Export Data Source values
In the Designer data management, users will be able to export Data Source values as csv or json file. It allows to create POC faster since the original data source doesn’t need to be connected since you can import the newly created file in a dashboard as a standalone data source. Otherwise, you can use the data as source file for other tools.
New Feature: Dynamic parameter default value
Instead of using a hard coded default value, Alpana can use default value from a Data Source field. By configuring the Parameter with the Data source information, it will get a default value that can change depending on the Data source values. (i.e., Last produced batch, highest priority alarm, etc.)
New Feature: Dashboard Alias
Aliases are used to create a unique name to navigate through dashboards with the link feature. Instead of using the dashboard url, the alias will allow to create a link that won’t change even if you change the target dashboard.
New Feature: Changing dashboard layout
From the top menu of the displayed dashboard user will be able to navigate through all configured layout dynamically.
Improvements: Historian Connector Selecting tags from datasource
It is now possible to configure the Historian connector with a list of tags from a datasource to create dynamic query.
Improvements: Designer stop refresh in design time
By stopping refresh at the design time (widget or dashboard) user can work faster since heavy content won’t be loaded for every change in the dashboard.
Improvements: Designer Link to URL
In order to use the new Alias feature, the Link to URL has been changed to enable the Alias configuration and improving the passing parameter configuration.
Improvements: Combo box wildcard
By using the asterisk character in the combo box, user can search a part of the name of an element with the wildcard:
- Equipment* will list all item that start with Equipment is their name
- *temp* will list all item that contain temp in their name
- *Alarm will list all item that finish with Alarm in their name
Improvements: Excel export
Now date field in excel export will be displayed as date instead of the Unix date format.
Improvements: Managing null value in Chart widget
Using the Plot null configuration it is possible to improve the chart visualization of you data if there are too much null value inside it.
Improvements: Dark mode
Nearly All themes are now available in Dark Mode.
Improvements: Mono tenant simplified interface
Allows to get a faster access to the tenant by auto selecting it in the login page if there is only one tenant enabled on the server.
Improvements: Password management
The password management can be configured to add an expiration date and prevent using the same password.
Known Issues and Incompatibilities
• Filtering not working after hovering the map: After filtering the map, it may appear some problems in the hovering of elements in the widget
• Widget filter First and Last aggregation: By adding multiple First and Last when filtering widget or adding First or last with distinct value may cause error in the way filter should work.
OMI Application
Using OMI and Alpana may require an Undeploy/Deploy and OMI viewer restart if you encounter some trouble in dashboard visualization after version upgrade.
It is also possible to delete manually the OMI deployed application cache folder: C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\ViewApps\[OMI View App Folder]
Dashboard Embeding
Solved Issues
The following are the main bugs that were fixed between Alpana 3.4.1.19 to 3.5.0.18 :
• AL5-I28: Need to display the current month in drop down
• AL5-I29: Usage SELECT ALL Parameter with Custom Query
• AL5-I26: Expression: Division on column with int
• AL5-I25: Designer – Widget Pie -Preview is not updated when changing border thickness
• AL5-I24: Text in top menu with High contrast is not visible
• AL5-I22: Link to URL not working with map
• AL5-I21: Filtering Data with removed parameter doesn’t display any error
• AL5-I19: Chart Drill down level Issue with data time in Axis
• AL5-I18: Combo box – Problem displaying selected element list when combo box is closed at opening
• AL5-I16: problems with a widget regarding hovering over lines in an older version
• AL5-I15: Strip line color transparency not working
• AL5-I9: iOS app – Tenant logo not appearing
In addition, minor corrections have been added to product.
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