TOP Server Release Notes (5.18.673.0) August 17, 2015

Client Interfaces

• 
  Fixed an issue where synchronous and asynchronous reads did not always return provided device timestamps.
  

• 
  No longer incorrectly report an error in Publish responses.
  

Plug-Ins

• 
  Added support for bulk enable/disable of tags in the user interface.
  
• 
  Added the ability to undo a CSV import at the project level.
  
• 
  Quality is now set to bad with a configuration error when one or more of the tags the Advanced Tag references is invalid.
  
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  Quality is now set to bad with an out of service message when the user disables the referenced tag or one of its parent groups
  
• 
  Added support for reading Advanced Tags even when they are inactive. This allows an OPC client to add the Advanced Tag as inactive, perform a read, and get the most recent value.
  
• 
  Added a new quality keyword for Derived Tags. This allows derived expressions to use the tag quality as well as the tag value.
  
• 
  Enhanced the Link Tag to support a Link While True trigger mode. While in this mode, all changes to the input tag are written to the output tag at the given link rate.
  

• 
  Removed the ability to pick a data type for log items. The type was not used.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where enabling a DataLogger log group after reinitializing the server did not correctly start the log group.
  

• 
  Corrected an issue where incorrect values were written to the Flowcal V5 and V7 file's termination record when there were no events, alarms, or batch reports in the upload.
  
• 
  Added support for demand polling a single meter via the meter “_Poll” system tag and supporting diagnostic System tags. Added meter-level System tags for “_Polling” and “_ErrorOnLastPoll”.
  
• 
  Fixed issues when deleting an actively polling poll group.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where the enable/disable meter options were not working properly after disabling a meter.
  
• 
  Enhanced the plug-in to gather historical data from gas chromatograph devices.
  

• 
  Corrected an issue with logging invalid timestamps.
  

• 
  Added support for a new Switch On Trigger Mode, where the switchover from the primary to the secondary can be based on a tag value, quality, or time of inactivity.
  

• 
  Fixed instability in the configuration when double-clicking an empty Detail View.
  

• 
  Added support for tags referenced via the Alias Map.
  
• 
  Writes to the “_Poll” tag that do not result in a demand poll now correctly fail if the schedule is disabled or already polling.
  
• 
  Added support for adding and editing a single tag for a device.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where reading static tags with a Default data type resulted in an initial bad-quality read.
  
• 
  Added support for prioritization of reads across virtual networks by setting the channel-level Network mode to Priority mode.
  
• 
  If a client reads a scheduled tag before the schedule has requested the data from the device, the Scheduler returns an initialized time set to the current system time.
  
• 
  Fixed potential instability issues when deleting schedules actively polling.
  
• 
  If a tag referenced by a schedule is deleted, bad quality is reported for the tag.
  
• 
  Added support for 64-bit integers.
  
• 
  Added a Daylight Saving Time Transition Behavior setting so schedules can respect the schedule interval or respect the absolute time.
  
• 
  Added support for specifying the data type for Dynamic tags using the @type syntax.
  
• 
  Disabling a schedule now disables references to tags in the schedule. This allows edits to devices and servers without deleting the schedule.
  
• 
  Schedules that contain channels with unscheduled devices are indicated with a warning to indicate there is a mix of scheduled and unscheduled devices in a channel.
  
• 
  Devices added to a schedule are automatically placed in “Do Not Scan, Demand Poll Only” mode when a tag from the device is added to a schedule. The device reverts to the previous scan mode when all its tags are removed from the schedule.
  
• 
  Added a “_SecondsInOverride” System tag to show how long a device has been in Override mode.
  
• 
  Changing a schedule's priority posts an Event Log message.
  
• 
  Added device icons to show when a device is in override, disabled, etc.
  
• 
  Added validation to CSV import to handle invalid files more gracefully.
  
• 
  Added support for a channel level statistics tag “_NextReadPriority” to show the priority of the next read. This improves troubleshooting when using priority-based Virtual Networks for drivers that support Communication Serialization.
  
• 
  Fixed instability in the configuration when double-clicking an empty Detail View..
  

Drivers

• 
  For all drivers that support communication serialization, added a global setting called Network Mode. The default Network Mode is Load Balanced. Priority Mode was added for use with the Scheduler Plug-in. Changes to this mode affect all channels and the Network Mode is only applicable when the channel is assigned to a virtual network.
  
• 
  Added support for a channel-level statistics tag “_NextReadPriority” to show the priority of the next read. This improves troubleshooting when using priority-based virtual networks.
  
• 
  Added support for reporting socket errors for all serial drivers that support Ethernet encapsulation.
  
• 
  From the Timing tab of Device Properties, increased the maximum value for the Request Timeout from 99,999 to 9,999,999 milliseconds.
  

• 
  Enhanced the driver to support Trend File uploads. The new Trend File feature supports:
  
  • 
    Publishing trend data to a CSV file
    
  • 
    The ability to limit uploads based on time parameters
    
  • 
    Optimized data uploads in limited-bandwidth scenarios (via segmented requests)
    
  • 
    Scheduling uploads with the Scheduler Plug-in
    
• 
  Enhanced the driver to support Advanced Statistics tags, including “_CommFailures” and “_ErrorResponses”.
  

• 
  Enhanced the driver to support liquid EFM for model 6000 XSeriesG4
  
• 
  Support Gen4 devices for liquid using the DB2 protocol.
  
• 
  Support for hourly history, daily history, batch, liquid product, alarms, and events.
  
• 
  Support for a single Totalflow device with both liquid and gas meters.
  

• 
  No longer perform a time synchronization operation on startup when the Time Sync Method is Absolute.
  

• 
  Fixed an issue where the driver was not immediately resetting the session ID if the device reset the TCP/IP socket when the driver was not prepared to receive data.
  

• 
  Added support for reporting socket errors in the Event Log when connecting, sending, and receiving data.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where the first read from a device that had been in an error state returned bad quality. The read now returns good quality if the device is available
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where the thread count increased when changing the device ID via a System Tag.
  

• 
  Extended address range support to octal 77777.
  

• 
  Added string array support to the server interface for the XLTable format type.
  

• 
  The driver no longer attempts communication with the device if a client is only referencing System (internal) tags, which do not require device communication.
  
• 
  Added the ability to disable time synchronization messages.
  
• 
  Corrected an issue where a disabled device on a virtual network could block other devices from communicating.
  

• 
  The driver no longer attempts communication with the device if a client is only referencing System (internal) tags, which do not require device communication.
  
• 
  Added the ability to disable time synchronization messages.
  
• 
  Corrected an issue where a disabled device on a virtual network could block other devices from communicating.
  
• 
  Fixed a host name resolution issue when using a host name in Ethernet Encapsulation mode. The host name was not resolved correctly leading to bad quality communications.
  

• 
  Enhanced the driver to gather historical data from gas chromatograph devices.
  
• 
  Added support for configuring the historical and event date formats to be compatible with ABB and Daniels gas chromatographs.
  

• 
  New Ethernet driver. Supports multiple ROC devices per channel, with each device having its own IP address.
  
• 
  Added support for reading and writing to user tables using Opcodes 10 and 11.
  
• 
  Added the ability to ignore extra bytes received on the wire that are not part of the ROC communications. These bytes are sometimes added by radio modems and other networked equipment.
  
• 
  Enhanced the drivers to support Opcode 180. Enabled per device, this allows the driver to read multiple TLP and UDPs per read request.
  

• 
  New Ethernet driver. Supports multiple ROC Plus devices per channel, with each device having its own IP address.
  
• 
  Added support for reading and writing to user tables using Opcodes 10 and 11.
  
• 
  Added the ability to ignore extra bytes received on the wire that are not part of the ROC communications. These bytes are sometimes added by radio modems and other networked equipment.
  
• 
  Enhanced the drivers to support Opcode 180. Enabled per device, this allows the driver to read multiple TLP and UDPs per read request.
  

• 
  The driver no longer performs a time synchronization operation on startup when the Time Sync Method is Absolute.
  
• 
  Added support for reading and writing to user tables using Opcodes 10 and 11.
  
• 
  Added the ability to ignore extra bytes received on the wire that are not part of the ROC communications. These bytes are sometimes added by radio modems and other networked equipment.
  
• 
  Enhanced the drivers to support Opcode 180. Enabled per device, this allows the driver to read multiple TLP and UDPs per read request.
  

• 
  The driver no longer performs a time synchronization operation on startup when the Time Sync Method is Absolute.
  
• 
  Added support for reading and writing to user tables using Opcodes 10 and 11.
  
• 
  Added the ability to ignore extra bytes received on the wire that are not part of the ROC communications. These bytes are sometimes added by radio modems and other networked equipment.
  
• 
  Enhanced the drivers to support Opcode 180. Enabled per device, this allows the driver to read multiple TLP and UDPs per read request.
  

• 
  The driver now supports millisecond resolution on timestamps provided from the device.
  

• 
  Fixed an issue where write-only strings failed to write when "Perform block read on strings" was enabled.
  

• 
  Enhanced the driver to support Advanced Statistics tags, including “_CommFailures” and “_ErrorResponses”.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue where switching models did not update controls availability.
  

• 
  The driver now reports an error when receiving a message length in the Modbus header that is less than the actual message length.
  
• 
  Added support for “Double Precision Unsigned Long” encoding of Ints and UInts.
  

• 
  Enhanced error detection to support remote network errors to place the device in error state. This more accurate reporting supports redundancy failover.
  

• 
  The driver no longer creates subscriptions and monitored items for inactive tags. This allows the driver to act in a cold redundancy mode when used with the Media Level Redundancy plug-in.
  
• 
  Increased time for UA clients to disconnect when shutting down to allow for proper shutdowns.
  
• 
  Changed the driver to request both the server and source timestamps from the UA server. The driver uses the source timestamp supplied by the UA server if it is available. If it is not available, the driver uses the UA server timestamp. If that is not available, the driver sets the timestamp to the current system time.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue to allow importing a tag branch containing a tag with an unsupported data type.
  

• 
  Fixed an issue where CTI 2500 controllers did not support the CAMP protocol to access DCP address types. The CAMP+Packed Task Code protocol option fixes this issue.
  

• 
  Added support for string arrays, date arrays, and Boolean arrays.
  

• 
  Fixed an issue where strings with a null value were truncated at the first null.
  

• 
  Added support for FL-net Multi-Layer Link Communications.
  
• 
  Fixed an issue when writing to bit-within-word tags before the word was read from the device.
  

• 
  Added a new custom checksum: sum all bytes, invert all bits, truncate result to one byte, and add 1. The checksum is applicable to Emerald devices, from Industrial Indexing Systems.